Tag Archives: Dara O’Briain

Review of the Year 2025 – The Fifteenth Annual Chrisparkle Awards

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Greetings again, gentle reader, to the glamorous showbiz highlight of the year, the announcement of the annual Chrisparkle Awards for 2025. Slightly fewer shows seen this year – 230, twenty-four down on last year’s 254 productions; I hope that’s not a sign that I’m slowing down! Eligibility for the awards means a) they were performed in the UK and b) I have to have seen the shows and reviewed them in the period 5th January 2025 to 4th January 2026. Are you all sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin!

 

The first award is for Best Dance Production (Contemporary and Classical)

This includes dance seen at the Edinburgh Fringe, which is just as well, as I only saw two dance productions this year, and they are:

In 2nd place, Matthew Bourne’s charming but undemanding The Midnight Bell, at the Royal and Derngate Theatre, Northampton, in July.

In 1st place, Saeed Hani’s challenging and emotional Inlet, performed by Hani Dance at Dance Base, Edinburgh, in August.

 

Classical Music Concert of the Year.

Again we only saw two classical concerts this year, both by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton. The award for the best goes to their Valentine’s Day Gala in February.

 

Best Entertainment Show of the Year.

This means anything that doesn’t fall into any other categories – for example pantos, circuses, revues and anything else hard to classify. Here are the top three:

In 3rd place, our local pantomime, The All New Adventures of Peter Pan at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, in December.

In 2nd place, the spectacular extravaganza that is Sleeping Beauty at the London Palladium in December.

In 1st place, the home of great panto, Aladdin at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, in January 2026.

 

Best Star Standup of the Year.

Only four eligible shows this year, so here are the top three performances by Star Standups in 2025:

In 3rd place, Eshaan Akbar in his I Can’t Get No Satisfakshaan show at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton in February.

In 2nd place, Kae Kurd in his What’s O’Kurd show at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton in October.

In 1st place, Dara O’Briain in his Re: Creation show at the Corn Exchange, Bedford in April.

 

Best Comedy Crate/Screaming Blue Murder Standup of the Year

It just so happens that all the top five were from Comedy Crate shows!

In 5th place, Jordan Gray (at the Charles Bradlaugh in February)

In 4th place, Charlie Baker (Edinburgh Preview Weekender in July)

In 3rd place, Hal Cruttenden (at the Charles Bradlaugh in January and at the Edinburgh Preview Weekender in July)

In 2nd place, Mike Rice (at the Charles Bradlaugh in May)

In 1st place, Thor Stenhaug (Edinburgh Preview Weekender in July)

 

Best Musical

I only saw nine musicals this year, and here’s the top five:

In 5th place, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in May.

In 4th place, The Great Gatsby at the London Coliseum, in April.

In 3rd place, the post-West End touring production of Dear Evan Hansen at Royal and Derngate Theatre, Northampton, in January.

In 2nd place, a curiosity-driven revisit to see Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre, London, in February.

In 1st place, Evita, at the London Palladium, in July.

 

Best New Play

Just to clarify, this is my definition of a new play, which is something that’s new to me and to most of its audience – so it might have been around before but on its first UK tour, or a new adaptation of a work originally in another format. We saw seventeen new plays this year, and I awarded five stars to five of them; it therefore follows that they are the top five!

In 5th place, Mischief Theatre’s The Comedy About Spies, at the Noel Coward Theatre, London, in May.

In 4th place, Tom Wells’ adaptation for the RSC of Roald Dahl’s The BFG, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in December.

In 3rd place, Karim Khan’s inventive and insightful Before the Millennium, at the Old Fire Station, Oxford, in December.

In 2nd place, James Ijames’ delightful reworking of Hamlet, Fat Ham for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in August.

In 1st place, James Graham’s outstanding Punch at the Young Vic, London, in April.

 

Best Revival of a Play

I saw twenty-four revivals, with six receiving five stars from me; here are the top five:

In 5th place, the RSC’s two-part production of Galsworthy’s Forsyte Saga, adapted by Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in December.

In 4th place, the RSC’s brave and thrilling production of Marlowe’s Edward II, at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in March.

In 3rd place, Ivo van Hove’s riveting production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, at Wyndham’s Theatre, London, in December.

In 2nd place, the RSC’s superbly imaginative production of Hamlet, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in February.

In 1st place, James Graham’s extraordinary exploration of England – both the team and the country – in Dear England, for the National Theatre at the Olivier Theatre, London, in April.

 

As always, in the post-Christmas season, it’s time to consider the turkey of the year – and it’s a toss-up between the six productions to whom I only gave two stars; but the one I feel failed to deliver when it had the most potential to succeed was Unicorn at the Garrick Theatre, London, in March.

Now we come on to our four categories specifically for the Edinburgh Fringe. The first is:

 

Best play or musical – Edinburgh

We saw 106 productions of plays and musicals in Edinburgh this year, 18 of them got 5* from me, and here are the top 5:

In 5th place, Louisa Marshall’s savage and innovative exploration of weaponised incompetence, Clean Slate (Summerhall)

In 4th place, Dylan Kaueper and Will Grice’s wickedly inventive examination of childhood friendship, Cody and Beau (The Space on the Mile)

In 3rd place, Tony Norman’s beautiful musical about the Van Gogh brothers, Vagabond Skies (Gilded Balloon at the Museum)

In 2nd place, Priyanka Shetty’s shattering reconstruction of the rise of the Alt Right, #CHARLOTTESVILLE (Pleasance Courtyard)

In 1st place, creating satire where you might think it’s beyond satire, Miss Brexit (Underbelly Bristo Square)

 

Best Individual Performance in a Play or Musical – Edinburgh

As always, an impossible choice, and it’s as close as close can be. Nevertheless, here are the top five (and yes I am cheating for 5th place):

In 5th place, Dylan Kaueper and Will Grice for Cody and Beau (The Space on the Mile)

In 4th place, Priyanka Shetty for #CHARLOTTESVILLE (Pleasance Courtyard)

In 3rd place, Louisa Marshall for Clean Slate (Summerhall)

In 2nd place, Quaz Degraft for In The Black (The Space at Surgeons’ Hall)

In 1st place, Christoffer Hvidberg Ronje for The Insider (Pleasance Dome)

 

Best Comedy Performance – Edinburgh

We saw forty-one comedy shows this year, of which eight received 5* from me, and here are my top five:

In 5th place, Matt Forde: Defying Calamity (Pleasance Courtyard)

In 4th place, Sam Lake: You’re Joking, Not Another One! (Monkey Barrel at the Tron)

In 3rd place, Robin Grainger: People Pleaser (The Stand Comedy Club 4)

In 2nd place, Tom Stade: Naughty by Nature (The Stand Comedy Club 1)

In 1st place, Casey Filips as the impossible Tobias Finlay-Fraser in Virtuoso (Assembly George Square)

 

Best of the rest – Edinburgh

From a shortlist of seven, here are my top five:

In 5th place, mixing a real live date with comedy improvisation, Looking for Laughs (Gilded Balloon Patter House)

In 4th place, the irrepressible Accordion Ryan with his Pop Bangers (Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower)

In 3rd place, Broadway’s Laura Benanti in Nobody Cares (Underbelly Bristo Square)

In 2nd place, Chase Brantley’s truly hilarious Don Toberman: Ping Pong Champ (Pleasance Courtyard)

In 1st place, a star is born: Arthur Hull’s FLOP: The Best Songs from the Worst Musicals Ever Written (Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower)

Three shows received a dreaded One Star review from me: and for me the Edinburgh turkey of the year was The Fiascoholics’ 4’s a Crowd, which contained just too much of everything it didn’t need.

 

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Musical

Time to get personal. Here’s the top five:

In 5th place, Alice Fearn as Heidi in Dear Evan Hansen at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton in January.

In 4th place, Lucie Jones as Fantine in Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre, London, in February.

In 3rd place, Sharon Rose as Garage Girl and Kate in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in May.

In 2nd place, Frances Mayli McCann as Daisy in The Great Gatsby at the London Coliseum, in April.

In 1st place, Rachel Zegler as Evita in Evita at the London Palladium in July.

 

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Musical

Here’s the top five:

In 5th place, Corbin Bleu as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby at the London Coliseum, in April.

In 4th place, Luke Kempner as Thenardier in Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre, London, in February.

In 3rd place, Ian McIntosh as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre, London, in February.

In 2nd place, Diego Andres Rodriguez as Che in Evita at the London Palladium, in July.

In 1st place, Jamie Muscato as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby at the London Coliseum, in April.

 

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Play

Nineteen in the longlist, and ten in the shortlist, and here’s the top five:

In 5th place, Freema Ageyman as Beatrice in the RSC’s Much Ado About Nothing, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in April.

In 4th place, Gina McKee as Annie in The Years, at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, in April.

In 3rd place, Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Kate in All My Sons, at Wyndham’s Theatre, London, in December.

In 2nd place, Beverley Knight as Rosetta in Marie and Rosetta, at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in July.

In 1st place, Tuppence Middleton as Annie in The Years, at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, in April.

 

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Play

Twenty-three in the longlist and nine in the shortlist, each of whom could easily deserve the award, However, here is the top five:

In 5th place, Daniel Evans as Edward II in the RSC’s Edward II, at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in March.

In 4th place, Jonathan Bailey as Richard II in Richard II, at the Bridge Theatre, London, in February.

In 3rd place, Olise Odele as Juicy in the RSC’s Fat Ham, at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in August.

In 2nd place, Joseph Millson as Soames in the RSC’s Forsyte Saga, at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in December.

In 1st place, David Shields as Jacob in Punch, at the Young Vic, London, in April.

 

Congratulations to the winners – special mention this year for James Graham whose Punch and Dear England feature so highly – commiserations to the losers and thanks for your company again throughout the year, gentle reader. Here’s to another year full of artistic excellence!

Review – Dara Ó Briain, Re: Creation, Bedford Corn Exchange, 9th April 2025

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A Dara Ó Briain gig is never just a mere show – it’s an event. He’s a giant in more than one way; the most expert storyteller and comic presence, even when he’s in a room with over a thousand people, you still feel that he’s confiding just in you – all these other people around us are a mirage, apart from those brave enough to sit in the front row, from whom Mr Ó B attempts to winkle out comedy nuggets that he will return to again and again throughout the evening.

We were introduced to recently redundant gas pipe replacement fitter James and his wife Kate the cyberfraud expert; Jay the secretive Luton Airport security officer who’s going to make a fortune from letting out rooms near the new Bedford Theme Park, Cambridge Micky and her Californian friend who was enticed into seeing the show in a strange mystic vision, and test driver Josh who admitted to be the youngest in the front couple of rows, at the age of 29. Once Mr Ó Briain gets his teeth into your personal details he doesn’t let go of them over the next two and a half hours, like a benevolent comedy Rottweiler.

During those two and half hours, he has plenty of opportunity to explore some delightful comic avenues, such as younger peoples’ predilection for no pubic hair, memories of Now That’s What I Call Music compilations, Irish school poo (don’t ask), and, my favourite, his experience of attending an online Speed Awareness Course. Having done one myself, Mr Ó Briain absolutely nails every single aspect of that humiliating, almost religiously contrite, couple of hours.

For his previous tour, So Where Were We, he concentrated on the story of searching for his birth parents, as he was adopted. He found his mother, but not his father. In Re: Creation, he continues the search for his father, and that gripping, gasp-inducing, but fortunately also hilarious account takes up the majority of the second half of the evening. No spoilers from me, but, apparently, the Bedford audience gave the most astonishing reaction in his tour so far to one of the revelations in the story; all I can say is, I for one was genuinely astonished, and it must have taken a good half a minute for my jaw dropping to end.

As always, Dara was on unflappable form; his quick-witted memory going into overdrive, and exuding super confidence from every pore whilst always keeping it real and taking all opportunities for a spot of self-deprecation. A great blend of both style and substance. Re: Creation is still in its early days and continues to tour the UK and Ireland over the next twelve months. Highly recommended!

Review – Dara O’Briain, Crowd Tickler, Derngate, Northampton, 28th May 2015

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Three years have passed since Dara O’Briain’s last stand-up tour, Craic Dealer, and he asks what has changed in the meantime. Certainly what hasn’t changed is his amazingly quick wit, his awareness of what’s going on around him, his memory for details about comments or events during the show that he will bounce back at us at a later stage, his ability to talk quickly (boy can he do that!) and his extraordinary rapport with his audience.

From the moment Mr O’Briain walks on stage he demands your attention, but in a very convivial and unassuming way. He’s an awfully big chap, both tall and broad but with a strangely gangly appearance that you would normally expect from someone much slighter. He’s like a child trapped in a civil servant’s body, and when he gets animated his limbs go all over the place. He gives a high energy, top quality performance for two and a quarter hours plus, and you more than feel you got your money’s worth.

If you’re in or near the front row of a Dara O’Briain show, you’re definitely going to be part of the action. At last night’s show we had people who lied about where they came from (Irchester, never been there, is it that bad?) and what they did for a living (cultural critic for the Wellingborough Evening Telegraph – honestly, who’d pretend to be a theatre reviewer?); a photobooth repair man, his wife who’d never been allowed on board ship, and a 16 year old who’d had an MRI on his knee and ear, for whom Mr O’B had wise words of advice much to the poor lad’s hideous embarrassment in front of his family. There’s also a sequence where four people in the front row are asked for random elements to make up the treatment for a new detective show – so we had the delightful prospect of a hang-glider who murders his victims in the washing machine but the case is solved by a horse whisperer with Tourette’s.

Other memorable moments from last night include the extravagant words in a child’s ABC book, how child abduction is all the rage on TV, a hand-to-the-mouth embarrassing story of his wife meeting a famous playwright, and a visual representation of his “dancing above the gay line” during a recording of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. But I particularly loved his sentimental account of how they built the Channel Tunnel, which even has its own hashtag, #poorchuggy.

If you like your stand-up, Dara O’Briain is one of the few absolutely must-sees whenever he tours. Apparently effortless (I bet it’s not), a master communicator, he comes across as a genuinely nice guy with the occasional sting in the tail. Can’t recommend him too highly. His tour continues to November in all parts of the UK and Ireland. Book now!

Review – Dara O’Briain: Craic Dealer, Warwick Arts Centre, 25th April 2012

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We’ve seen Dara O’Briain on TV a few times, doing a little bit of stand-up, but primarily presenting “The Apprentice – You’re Fired”, where he has a very wholesome blend of gentle teasing and intelligent badinage. We’d not seen him live before though. My guess was that as a stand-up he would be very quick of brain and strong of material.

And I was right. What I wasn’t aware was that, as a big man, he can command a large and rather soulless venue like the stage of the Butterworth Hall at the Warwick Arts Centre and treat it as though it were as intimate as his living room. Wednesday night’s gig was part of his Craic Dealer tour, and I think he sold out all three nights within a very short time.

With no support act, and the show lasting for two and a quarter hours, including a twenty minute interval, he needs no props, apart from a gift bag of crisps that he shares out at the end of the show to the people who contributed the most. He’s very funny, as you would expect, and I like his straightforward way of telling a story – no need for stylistic embellishments, he lets his material do the talking – and as it’s very good material, it works.

For someone who is such a good talker, he must also be a really good listener too; as the information he gleans from the punters at the front whom he interrogates in the first half, constantly comes back as references in the second half, when you’re really not expecting them; and not just repetitiously – he sneaks references in when you think he’s going in a completely different direction. Very creatively done.

Amongst last night’s subjects were how to most terrify a burglar in your home, the level of expertise of current Irish construction workers, how not to take a photo when someone gives you their camera and how the singer Plan B might have got his name.

I think he has something of the Frankie Howerd to his style – not Howerd’s camp mannerisms or his oohs and aahs, but in his way of addressing the audience as a whole in a confidential way, making them feel they’re the only one he’s talking to – and also by rounding on the audience when they vocally disapprove of any his dodgier topics.

But what you come away with is a distinct impression of someone with a fairly massive brain (not big headed though), an amazing way of dealing with people and a provider of top quality comic material in a fast and fluid way. A really enjoyable night out!