Category Archives: Dance

Coming Soon – Richard Alston Dance Company 2015 Tour

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Hello gentle reader! Just wanted to take a quick opportunity to give you the heads up that the wonderful Richard Alston Dance Company are heading our way – they’re at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton this Tuesday and Wednesday, the 20th and 21st October. We go to see them every year and it’s always an annual highlight of our cultural year. There’s something about the understanding between dancers and choreographer, and between the dancers themselves, that creates dance magic on stage. For this programme they’re performing three dances, Stronghold, Mazur and Nomadic, all of which are new to me; and even the titles themselves are fascinating and arouse your curiosity as to what they might be about.

Stronghold is a new piece choreographed by Martin Lawrance, which actually only opened last week at Brighton, so it’s the dance equivalent of hot off the press. It’s set to music by Julia Wolfe, scored to 8 double basses – which I guess will sound and feel overwhelmingly enveloping, a great mix of velvety relaxation and harsh stabbing strings. The piece features all ten dancers of the company, so I expect we’ll get a wonderful range of attitudes and styles, a clever juxtaposition of group work and individual characterisation. There’s actually a promotional video which gives you a hint of what it will look and sound like on stage – and I confess, I’m hooked! Really looking forward to it.

Mazur, the second piece, is choreographed by Richard Alston; the unusual name refers to the Polish mazurka music which accompanies it, composed by Chopin and played live on stage by Jason Ridgway. It’s about two friends who express what they love and what they have lost – just as in the 19th century Chopin loved Poland, a country to which he could not return. But it’s not just about a lost homeland, it’s also about personal love and loss. Richard Alston created it together with Liam Riddick, one of the country’s finest dancers, and Jonathan Goddard, whose work with the company and with Rambert I have admired for many years. The performance will be by Mr Riddick and the excellent Nicholas Bodych and I reckon this is going to be cracking!

The final piece, Nomadic, has been co-choreographed by Richard Alston and Ajani Johnson-Goffe, bringing some hip-hop influence to the world of contemporary dance. The piece is described as a combination of “Asian-influenced, traditional Romani singing with the toughness of an urban beat”. Its vision is to create a dance that reflects both the nomadism of the Roma and of desert tribes – sounds intriguing!

If you’ve seen Richard Alston Dance Company before you’ll know that they never miss a trick to entrance, entertain or challenge you. But if you’re new to the world of contemporary dance, this would be a great place to start. Why not come along to the Royal and Derngate this Tuesday or Wednesday to see for yourself? There are also some other dates still to come on their tour: Edinburgh on 24th October, Truro on 3rd November, Yeovil on 5th November, Shrewsbury on 10th November and Richmond on 19th November. Can’t wait!

Review – Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, aka The Trocks, Programme 2, Peacock Theatre, 26th September 2015

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You can’t have enough of the Trocks, so hot on the pointe heels of last week’s show, we returned on Saturday to see their second programme, much of which will form their touring show which lasts from 6th October till 11th November. Unusually for the great traditions of Russian ballet, there was only one chyange to the yadvyertised pryogryamme, with Miss Nadia Doumiafeyva performing the role of Mystery Woman drinking at a table in Don Quixote. As usual Miss Natasha Notgoodenoff was winging her way on a mission of mercy, this time to support the ailing ballerinas at Les Grands Ballets de Croydon; and all of the ballerinas were, once again, in a very good mood that afternoon.

We started off with Les Sylphides, with our prima ballerinas in fine form, strutting their wonderful stuff, occasionally kicking each other over, bumping into each other, running to get into position, and being breathtakingly graceful whilst dealing with their avoirdupois. They were also having to negotiate their way around Sergey Legupski (Giovanni Goffredo) who had clearly taken a mixture of co-codamol and Sovietski Champagnski and was more than a danger to shipping. It’s a very funny piece, but actually what really stood out for me was the extraordinary pointe work throughout – it’s flawless, elegant and amazingly powerful. That’s the Trocks in a nutshell: outrageously hilarious, rivetingly technically brilliant.

After the first interval comes Patterns in Space, and it’s the first time we’ve seen this piece since we first started coming to see the Trocks sometime back in the last century. In a fantastically woven mickey-take of Merce Cunningham, three splendidly earnest Trocks cavort, spin, exercise, leap and do everything else in between, in a totally random and meaningless dance sequence. Meanwhile, two on-stage po-faced musicians provide the backing accompaniment, by, inter alia, popping bubble wrap, rustling paper bags, and playing the National Anthem on the kazoo. Stupid and hilarious, you spend the entire time watching the antics of the demure Miss Lariska Dumbchenko (Raffaele Morra) and the wretched Mr Yuri Smirnov (Robert Carter) cack-handedly creating sounds out of nothing, whilst you totally ignore the brilliant dancing. One to file under The Most Wicked Parodies Ever.

Next comes another real favourite, Go For Barocco. To the urgent, driving rhythms of the Brandenburg Concertos, six stalwart Trocks in sensible black dresses bump and grind their way around the stage in an athletic and funny routine that really fits the music perfectly. At times the music gets so fast that all they can do to keep up is to power-walk across the stage, which always cracks me up. It shows off all their incredible dancing skills whilst constantly injecting it with off-the-wall movements, creating a really rewarding comic ballet.

As always at the Trocks, for a special treat, one of the ballerinas will graciously consent to execute the Dying Swan for us. This time it was the vivacious and outgoing Miss Maria Paranova (Carlos Renedo), who brought out all the frantic concerns and bodily dysfunctions of a watery fowl on her last legs. She milked it for all it was worth, if that’s not too much of a mixed metaphor for you. People who clearly hadn’t seen it before were in tears of laughter. Wonderful stuff.

The programme ends with the (relatively) grandly staged Don Quixote, which we have actually seen performed by the Moscow City Ballet and it’s a perfect piece for the Trocks to lampoon. The stage is filled with an assortment of odd-bods, all of whom display their little Trockisms from time to time, just in case you’d actually forgotten you weren’t at a proper Russian ballet. As the performance develops you end up completely entranced by the pas de deux of Kitri – Miss Yakatarina Verbosovich (Chase Johnsey) and Basil – Vyacheslav Legupski (Paolo Cervellera). Their solos are simply outstanding and left the Peacock theatre audience enraptured for more.

Perfect if you like ballet; perfect if you like to laugh; if you like to combine the two, they can’t be beaten. Their UK tour continues to Newcastle, Southampton, Canterbury, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Inverness, Bradford, Nottingham, Brighton, Salford and Birmingham. What are you waiting for!

Review – Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo aka The Trocks, Programme 1, Peacock Theatre, 20th September 2015

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It’s always a pleasure to welcome the Trocks back to the UK, and this is the first time we’ve seen them in two-and-a-half years, which is way too long. For this UK tour they’re starting at the Peacock Theatre in London with two one-week programmes, then taking in the rest of the country with a touring programme that combines the best of both London shows.

When you anticipate a Trocks performance, it’s the hilarious antics that you really look forward to, but you can never lose sight of the extraordinary dance talent within the company. There were some truly amazing performances in this show, at their best you won’t see better on the stage of the Bolshoi or at Covent Garden. Over the years one acquires an accumulated fondness for one’s favourite Trocks and two of my all-time favourites graced the stage at yesterday’s show; but every new tour gives you an opportunity to look out for new names, and there are plenty whom I can imagine will become firm favourites of the future.

After the usual introduction, and the relief of knowing that all of their ballerinas are in a very good mood this afternoon, we started with their perfect staging of Swan Lake Act II. I have been spoilt by having seen the redoubtable M. Velour Pillaux (the brilliant Paul Ghiselin) take the role of von Rothbart many times, and no one quite captures ludicrous camp scariness and the sense of physical exhaustion all that running around induces quite like him. However, I really enjoyed Vladimir Legupski (Duane Gosa) as von Rothbart, deftly controlling the wayward Odette, victoriously blowing on his sharp-shooter. We’ve seen some great Trock Odettes too, but this was the first time we’d seen Miss Nadia Doumiafeyva (Philip Martin-Nielson) and she isextraordinarily graceful and feminine, whilst remaining ruthless with the inept Benno, a fantastically funny performance by Pepe Dufka (Raffaele Morra). Our Prince was the brilliantly dour Sergey Legupski (Giovanni Goffredo) who had me in stitches from his first “mime conversation” with Odette. He did a brilliant slow walk across the stage routine. Our team of naughty cygnets also gave us a great allegro moderato, and, whilst it’s sometimes hard to identify individual Trocks in a group, I think it was Miss Maria Paranova (Carlos Renedo) who gave a particularly disobedient and impish performance. It’s always great to see how various dancers perform different parts of the dance in different ways, and I think you could watch this dozens of times and still get more out of it. Simply one of the funniest thirty minutes on any stage, anywhere.

Our Pas de Deux was Les Corsaires, and is one of those Trocks pieces where the sheer joy and artistry of the ballet completely eclipses the humour. The two dancers were absolutely brilliant – the immense strength of Araf Legupski (Laszlo Major), and the elegant grace of Miss Alla Snizova (Carlos Hopuy) – make for an amazing coupling, overflowing with pizazz and chutzpah. The Pas de Six, Esmeralda, that followed, doesn’t have a terribly interesting narrative thread – it’s just one miserable woman being unsuccessfully cheered up by four girls and a wet bloke – but, as you would expect,they do it with pure Trocks style. On the face of it, all Nina Immobilashvili (Alberto Pretto) has to do as Esmerelda is to look constantly heartbroken – which she does very well – but her pointe work is out of this world. There is also a cute running gag with supporting artiste Helen Highwaters’ (Duane Gosa) offstage fruit basket. We end the second session with the execution of the Dying Swan – this time it was Miss Eugenia Repelskii who did the deed, with refinement, a delectable sense of loss and tragedy, and severe penniferous alopecia.

Our final treat is the grand staging of Paquita, an elaborate swirling and twirling ballet by Petipa with rousing tunes by Minkus. Our wonderful ballerina was the attitudinal but pinpoint accurate Yakaterina Verbosovich (Chase Johnsey) supported by the magnificently lugubrious and almost embalmed Vyacheslav Legupski (Paolo Cervellera), who nevertheless pays sexual attention to the hairy-chested Lariska Dumbchenko (Rafaella Morra on fine form) whilst La Verbosovich isn’t looking. Embellished with a sequence of immaculately performed variations by six of the ballerinas, it’s a splendid combination of great dancing and wonderfully stupid comedy. The afternoon was wrapped up with the splendidly incongruous Lord of the Dance curtain call, with more smoke on stage than in Nigel Farage’s fantasy pub.

Brilliant fun and amazing dancing. We’ll be back for Programme 2!

The Edinburgh Fringe One-Weeker 2015 – The Illicit Thrill

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Our final show tonight promises to be burlesque in the raw. We love the regular Burlesque Shows that come to the Royal and Derngate in Northampton every year, but really didn’t get on well with The Best of Burlesque at last year’s Fringe, as it was coarse and witless. So The Illicit Thrill is the only Burlesque-related show we’re seeing in Edinburgh this year. Here’s the promo blurb: “After teaching Edinburgh to perv responsibly, The Illicit Thrill is again open for business with house-mistress Gypsy Charms taking audiences to the next level. With a sinsational soundtrack of the devil’s music supplied by Black Cat Bone, stripteasers and entertainers entice, tease and titillate audiences with a blend of dark eroticism and a touch of Illicit Thrill humour. Savannah ‘best butt in the business’ Duvall will be in the house, as will the divine JC – so Edinburgh, brace yourselves! ‘Burlesque goes to the dark side with uncompromising and challenging eroticism’ **** (List 2014).”

It’s either going to be brilliant or tasteless or somewhere between the two. It’s a bit of a late-nighter, starting at 00:20 at the Voodoo Rooms Ballroom, so maybe I won’t put up our reactions until tomorrow morning, and also our preview blog for the first show of Saturday will be around then too. Thanks for following today!

Update:

We have let you down, gentle reader. This is the second production we’re not going to make, after all. To be fair, Mrs Chrisparkle has been virussy today, with a sore throat and snuffly nose. So we decided to call it a day at the tender hour of 11:50pm. Hopefully we will be refreshed for the morrow!

The Edinburgh Fringe One-Weeker 2015 – Da-Da-Darling

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Seeing as how we’ve been with friends all day and took in a lot of shows earlier on, we devoted a little longer than usual to the experience of Evening Dining Out During the Fringe tonight; but hopefully we’ll all be refreshed and ready to go for our penultimate show of the day – Impermanence Dance Theatre’s Da-Da-Darling. This is what the promotional blurb says: “Seven virtuoso performers combine in a thrilling surrealist piece of dance. A spellbinding and titillating look at Max Ernst’s unnerving collage-novel, A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, from the glamorous new force in dance-theatre, Impermanence. Created collaboratively by the performers, Da-Da-Darling is dreamlike entertainment full of love, sex and disorientation… Visions of broken milk teeth, fluttering dragonflies, writhing flesh, and a band of leech-charmers appear, as the performers’ bodies, clothed in timeless attire, oscillate between a story of innocence and sin… ‘Poetic, energetic, racy, vintage, stylish … their connection with the audience was electric’ (Simon Casson, Duckie).

Sounds like a challenging piece of dance to me. I’ve seen a brief trailer and it looks rather disturbing, slightly grotesque, but very flowing and expressive as well. The words “tragedy, glamour, violence, spectacle” appear at the end of the video – just like an evening at home, then. Max Ernst was at the forefront of surrealism and Dadaism (hence the title of the dance) – so I expect this will be thoroughly surreal too. There’s only one way to find out! It’s on at 22:15 at the Zoo – Sanctuary, so check back again around 11.30 to see how we got on. And to bid goodnight to Mr and Mrs Flag who by then will have done sterling Fringe service. Mrs Chrisparkle and I have got one more show to see though – so do look at the next preview blog to find out what it is.

Update:

Everything you wanted to know about Dada but were afraid to dance. Technically I thought they were brilliant, bringing a host of emotions and textures to their performance. As for its meaning, well make of it what you will. Certainly there was a lot of sexual exploitation going on, but I felt they were victims to all forces of nature. Complex and confusing, but very good stuff.

The Edinburgh Fringe One-Weeker 2015 – Trygve Wakenshaw: Kraken

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I’m hoping that after the seriousness of the previous play Trygve Wakenshaw’s one-man Kraken performance will jolt us back into a good mood! Here’s what the blurb says about it: “Last year’s multi award-winning, critically acclaimed total sell-out returns. From award-winning Gaulier trained clown comes Trygve Wakenshaw’s physical comedy, KRAKEN. Beautifully strange stream of consciousness idiocy. Best Comedy: Adelaide Fringe 2015. Best Comedy: Perth Fringe 2015. Time Out Top 10 Shows 2014. Edinburgh Underbelly Award 2014 ‘Delirious and surreal’ ***** (Age). ‘Blissfully funny’ ***** (Time Out ).”

There’s not a huge amount to go on there, and even though I’ve also seen the video trailer I’m still left a little in the dark. Mr Wakenshaw looks like a young Terry-Thomas (well, a bit) and it looks as though he keeps us entertained with physical comedy and mime. This is an interesting sentence from his website: “Trygve takes the audience from fun with unicorns, to sword-swallowing, to snake charming, weight-lifting, beatboxing, self-boxing, and the birth of a baby elephant.” That’s some feat of engineering. OK I’m ready for some boxing. The show starts at 18:00 at the Underbelly Cowgate (Belly Button) and if I haven’t been head-butted by a unicorn, I’ll be back with my instant reaction shortly after 7pm. Check back to find out what our next show is too!

Update:

I’m not sure I’ve ever spent an hour in the company of a mime before but Trygve’s show is heaps of fun! I loved how he jumped from tangent to tangent, and the inventiveness of his interaction with the audience was brilliant. Tip: get in the queue early (unlike us) as the venue isn’t great for this type of performance – the rake is quite shallow and you need a clear view to appreciate everything he gets up to! Really enjoyable!

The Edinburgh Fringe One-Weeker 2015 – Liberation

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One of the criteria for choosing shows to see in Edinburgh is to select productions that are highly unlikely, for whatever reason, to make it to our hometown of Northampton. I could stake good money that Liberation wouldn’t be seen in the hallowed portals of the Royal and Derngate. For one thing, they’d never get the paint stains off. Confused? Perhaps the blurb will help: “Paint is thrown onto the naked body, as art and theatre combine in an explosion of colour and movement. Liberation is a theatrical dissection of modern life, an exploration into what it means to be liberated. We’re born into a system that always has us preparing for something that’s going to happen and conditions us to be in desperate need of a future. This thought provoking piece examines ‘the life that never gets there’ through dance, theatrical clowning, live music, choral singing and exquisite imagery. A vivid and visceral experience. Sometimes violent, sometimes beautiful, always messy.”

We celebrated Holi in India a couple of years ago but it was nothing like this. The Alchemist Theatre Company have put together a piece that I think will be riotous in its abandon, appealing to the playful child in us all, and a great leveller; but spare a thought for the poor ASM who’s got to clean it all up afterwards. It’s on at 18:00 at Zoo Southside – Main House. Does coloured paint make a naked body sexier or funnier? Or both? Come back after it’s finished, around 7.00pm and I’ll let you know what we thought. And you can see what we’ve got next in store this evening.

Update:

If you were a great dancer, and had no qualms about getting your kit off, I think you’d have enormous fun performing in Liberation. This is full of wit and humour, and is a colourful spectacle of dance and innocent nudity. If it has one message, it’s don’t stop playing. It’s very well choreographed and the music is terrific too. I liked the surprise contribution of the musicians! Really enjoyable – and yes, definitely not the kind of thing you’re likely to see back home!

The Edinburgh Fringe One-Weeker 2015 – Close Up

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And so to the first show of our Edinburgh week to come under the category of “Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus” – Close Up, performed by Australian circus troupe Circa at 20:00 at the Underbelly, George Square. Here’s the blurb: “How close do you want to be? Four extraordinary circus artists. Acrobatic mastery at its most extreme. Circa, the company behind five-star productions Beyond and multi award-winning Wunderkammer, challenge everything you’ve thought about circus as they wrench back the curtain and bring you the glorious, chaotic abstraction Close Up. See. Hear. Feel. Everything. Nothing’s off-limits in their most intimate show. Interactive video and powerful music set the scene for moments of raw beauty, unbearable tension and savage physical intensity. Discover why ‘watching Circa has become my new favourite Fringe pastime’ ***** (Scotsman). Close Up? You’ve never been closer.”

There’s a very interesting piece in the Guardian about this production which tells you everything you need to know about it. So it appears that four circus performers will do acrobatics at very close quarters to the audience – I can’t quite imagine how that will work. I hope we don’t get thumped a lot by stray limbs; but I’m sure they’ve thought this through. “Raw beauty, unbearable tension and savage physical intensity” – what’s not to like?

Check back shortly after 9.00 to see how close up we got to the action. Although there isn’t a lot of time between this show finishing and the next one starting, so please bear with me if you have to wait a little longer for our reactions. You’ll see the details of the next show by then too.

Update:

Very exciting show with four very strong and entertaining acrobats doing some amazing things! Not quite sure how “close up” it was in all honesty but it was a sure crowd pleaser! Watch out for the Chinese pole and the guy who bends his feet backwards!

The Edinburgh Fringe One-Weeker 2015 – Follow The Faun

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The third of our one-man shows this evening, but I’m expecting this to be a little more free-form. It’s Follow The Faun at the Spotlites Studio theatre, show starting at 21:40. “Think the pied piper… on acid… in heels… A multi-dimensional light-being on a mission of love and pleasure – would like to take you higher than the mortal man can measure. On a seething, soaring, flying, flipping, magic road ahead: He’ll take you on a journey if you’re happy to be led. Fusing mythical storytelling, immersive theatre and ecstatic dance. Follow The Faun on a shamagical journey to another dimension! Guaranteed to move your body, blow your mind, open your heart and tickle your fancy! ‘Ludicrous, giddy and strangely intoxicating’ (Matt Trueman, WhatsOnStage.com).”

“Warnings: The production involves movement and audience participation”. I reckon this is going to be a hippytastic communing-in with Mother Earth which will either be simply extraordinary or fall flat on its face. Let’s hope it’s the former. My guess is that its success could well rely on how well or otherwise the audience play along and let their inhibitions go. I can be (reasonably) uninhibited in the theatre, so I’ll give it my best shot! I don’t know to what extent it’s scripted, but I’m fascinated to find out.

I’ve also discovered this description online: “Each 45-minute performance integrates the spiritual, visceral, theatrical and comical and includes high energy disco, musical theatre ballads, and rousing anthems for a Love Revolution. The audience become the cast as they are taken on an interactive magical dance adventure with The Faun as their guide, narrator and choreographer. Each will experience a joy ride of emotions as they dance their way through a fairytale kingdom of delights. This is choral theatre, meets dance workshop, meets shamanic journey, meets stand-up comedy.” Doesn’t that sound too good to miss?

The Faun himself seems to be the creation of actor/dancer Andy Black, so I’m slightly disappointed to discover he’s not a real faun. But I’m willing to suspend disbelief! Check back sometime after 10.30pm to see if Mrs Chrisparkle and I have been whisked off to pixieland. And the preview blog for our last show tonight should be up and running by then too.

Update:

That is the sweatiest I’ve ever come out of a show! Part work-out part mystical experience, everything you’d expect from a night on LSD but much healthier! Great fun.

Review of the year 2014 – The Fifth Annual Chrisparkle Awards

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Once again our esteemed panel of one has met to consider all the wonderful shows we’ve seen in the previous year so that we can distribute plaudits to the arts world in Northampton, Sheffield, Leicester and beyond! Actors, directors and producers, musicians, dancers and entertainers have all striven to make it to the 2014 Chrisparkle Awards short list, which this year relates to shows I have seen and blogged between 17th January 2014 and 11th January 2015. There’s lots to get through, so let’s start!

As always, the first award is for Best Dance Production (Contemporary and Classical).

I saw six dance productions last year, all of which I remember with much admiration and affection, from which I have struggled to whittle down to a shortlist of four. And here are the top three:

In 3rd place, the powerful and hard-hitting dance version by Matthew Bourne of Lord of the Flies, which we saw in May at the Birmingham Hippodrome.

In 2nd place, the marvellously inventive, comic and moving modern dance drama, Drunk, by Drew McOnie’s McOnie Company, which I saw at the Leicester Curve in January and again at the Bridewell Theatre in February.

In 1st place, a company absolutely at the peak of its powers, the stunning programme by Richard Alston Dance Company that we saw at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, in September.

Classical Music Concert of the Year.

Of the five concerts we saw in 2014, these are the top three:

In 3rd place, the Night with the Stars gala concert, by the Worthing Symphony Orchestra aka the Malcolm Arnold Festival Orchestra, with soloists Julian Bliss and Martin James Bartlett at the Derngate, in October.

In 2nd place, John Williams plays Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto, plus Stephen Goss’ Guitar Concerto and Gershwin’s An American in Paris, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Derngate in June.

In 1st place, Mozart’s Requiem, together with Alexandra Dariescu’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 21, with the RPO at the Derngate in February.

Best Entertainment Show of the Year.

This is the all-purpose, everything else category that includes pantos, circuses, reviews and anything else hard to classify.

In 3rd place, The Burlesque Show at the Royal Theatre, Northampton, in January 2014.

In 2nd place, the amazingly entertaining and funny two hours of magic in Pete Firman’s Trickster show, at the Royal, Northampton, in November.

In 1st place, and I think I have categorised this correctly because you can’t call it either a play or a musical, but it is devastatingly funny, Forbidden Broadway, at the Menier Chocolate Factory in July.

Best Star Standup of the Year.

It was a very good year for seeing big star name stand-up comedians this year – we saw fifteen of them! Only a couple disappointed, so it’s been very hard to whittle down to a final five; but here goes:

In 5th place, Russell Brand in his Messiah Complex tour, at the Derngate in April.

In 4th place, John Bishop’s Work in Progress show at the Royal, in June.

In 3rd place, Paul Chowdhry’s PC’s World at the Royal, in October.

In 2nd place, Trevor Noah in his “The Racist” tour, also at the Royal, in January.

In 1st place, Russell Kane in his Smallness tour show at the Warwick Arts Centre in February.

Best Stand-up at the Screaming Blue Murder nights in Northampton.

Always a hotly contested award; Of the thirty-three comics that we’ve seen at Screaming Blue Murder last year thirteen made the shortlist, and the top five are:

In 5th place, the Plusnet man on the adverts, who cornered Mrs Chrisparkle and I into telling the entire audience how we met, Craig Murray (12th September)

In 4th place, a comedian whose made-up character of Troy Hawke reminded us of a filthy Clark Gable, Milo McCabe (26th September)

In 3rd place, the commanding, intelligent and ludicrous material of Brendan Dempsey (10th October)

In 2nd place, local lad the razor sharp Andrew Bird (16th May)

In 1st place, someone who took control of a baying audience in the funniest and most inventive way Russell Hicks (11th April).

Best Musical.

Like last year, this is a combination of new musicals and revivals, and we had fifteen to choose from. It was very tough indeed to pick between the top three, but somehow I did it. Here goes:

In 5th place, the ebullient and thoroughly enjoyable Guys and Dolls at the Chichester Festival Theatre in September.

In 4th place, the lively and inventive story of The Kinks in Sunny Afternoon at the Harold Pinter Theatre in December.

In 3rd place, the daring and emotional The Scottsboro Boys at the Garrick in December.

In 2nd place, the stylish and hilarious Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy in September.

In 1st place, the stunning revival of Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre in October.

Best New Play.

As always, this is my definition of a new play – so it might have been around before but on its first UK tour, or a new adaptation of a work originally in another format. An extremely difficult decision here as it involves comparing uproarious comedy with searing drama; but somehow I chose a final five from the nine contenders:

In 5th place, Alan Ayckbourn’s thought-provoking and very funny Arrivals and Departures, at the Oxford Playhouse in February.

In 4th place, the sombre and intense Taken at Midnight at the Minerva Theatre Chichester in October.

In 3rd place, the moving and beautiful Regeneration, at the Royal in September.

In 2nd place, the laugh-until-your-trousers-are-wet Play That Goes Wrong at the Royal in May.

In 1st place, the claustrophobic, immaculately staged and haunting The Body of an American Underground at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, in March.

Best Revival of a Play.

Thirteen made the shortlist, easy to sort out a top nine, but really hard to sort out the top five:

In 5th place, the delightful Relative Values at the Harold Pinter in June.

In 4th place, the star-vehicle for Angela Lansbury but a strong production too of Blithe Spirit at the Gielgud in April.

In 3rd place, the atmospheric and brutal Dealer’s Choice at the Royal in June.

In 2nd place, the powerful yet funny Translations at the Sheffield Crucible in March.

In 1st place, the stunning, all-encompassing Amadeus at the Chichester Festival Theatre in August.

Brief pause to consider the turkey of the year – there were plenty of candidates this year, but in the end I plumped for the tedium-fest that was Wonderful Tennessee at the Lyceum Theatre Sheffield in March.

Best play – Edinburgh

In the first of three new awards, this category is for the best play we saw at the Edinburgh Fringe. It could be a comedy or a serious play, new or revival, grand scale or all perched on a couch. There were five serious contenders, and very tight at the top between two plays, but in the end I am awarding this new Chrisparkle award to Trainspotting performed by In Your Face Theatre at the Hill Street Drama Lodge.

Best entertainment – Edinburgh

The second new award is for the best show in Edinburgh that wasn’t a play – so it could be a musical, a review, comedy stand-up, magic, dance, you name it. And the winner is Margaret Thatcher, Queen of Soho at the Assembly George Square Gardens.

Best film

The last of the three new awards is for the best film I’ve seen all year, no matter what its subject matter. Twelve Years a Slave and The Imitation Game came close, but I’m giving it to Pride.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical.

Ten contenders in the shortlist, but the top four were very easy to identify:

In 4th place, Jodie Prenger’s’s spirited Jane in Calamity Jane at the Milton Keynes Theatre in March.

In 3rd place, the amazingly versatile and surely soon to be a star Debbie Kurup in Anything Goes at the Sheffield Crucible in January 2015.

In 2nd place, the wonderfully funny and sad performance by Sophie Thompson as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls at the Chichester Festival Theatre in September.

In 1st place, probably the strongest central performance by any performer in a musical ever, the extraordinary Imelda Staunton in Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre in October.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical.

Again ten fine performances in the shortlist, but here’s my top five:

In 5th place, for his sheer joie de vivre, the dynamic George McGuire for his role as Dave Davies in Sunny Afternoon at the Harold Pinter in December.

In 4th place, Alexander Hanson’s strangely vulnerable title character in Stephen Ward at the Aldwych Theatre in February.

In 3rd place, Paul Michael Glaser’s funny, realistic and sincere Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof at the Derngate in April.

In 2nd place, Robert Lindsay for his sheer style and panache in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy in September.

In 1st place, Brandon Victor Dixon’s stunning performance as the principled, tragic Haywood Patterson in The Scottsboro Boys at the Garrick in December.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Play.

Twelve in the shortlist, but a relatively easy final three:

In 3rd place a wonderful comic tour de force from Sara Crowe in Fallen Angels at the Royal in February.

In 2nd place, the emotional but still very funny performance by Caroline Quentin in Relative Values at the Harold Pinter in June.

In 1st place, the strong, dignified performance by Penelope Wilton in Taken at Midnight at the Minerva Theatre Chichester in October.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Play.

Twenty-two contenders in my shortlist, and I whittled it down to this:

In 5th place, Aaron Neil for his hilarious portrayal of the useless police commissioner in Great Britain at the Lyttelton, National Theatre in July.

In 4th place, Rupert Everett still on amazing form as Salieri in Amadeus at the Chichester Festival Theatre in August.

In 3rd place, Kim Wall for his brilliant performance as the kindly Barry in Arrivals and Departures at the Oxford Playhouse in February.

In 2nd place (or maybe 1st), William Gaminara as Paul in The Body of an American Underground at the Royal and Derngate in March.

In 1st place (or maybe 2nd), Damien Molony as Dan also in The Body of an American Underground at the Royal and Derngate in March.

Theatre of the Year.

A new winner this year. For a remarkably strong programme, comfortable welcoming theatres, and a fantastically improved dining experience, this year’s Theatre of the Year award goes to the Festival Theatre/Minerva Theatre, Chichester, with the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, and the Menier Chocolate Factory, close behind.

It’s been a great year – and thanks to you gentle reader for accompanying me on the trip. I hope we have another fantastic year of theatre to enjoy together in 2015!