Even if things have still been severely limited by world events in 2021 I hope those of us who like nothing more than live entertainment have managed to attend at least a few events. Checking my calendar I’ve got a heady 13 under my belt this year, which break down into 6 gigs, 2 one-day music festivals, 1 opera, 2 musicals, and 2 comedy shows.
I can’t think of any real disappointments, though I can’t remember much about La Boheme at the ROH (possibly because we had seen the same production a couple of years earlier), and some of the festival acts were pretty much going through the motions, which is standard.
This is comparing apples and oranges, but top pick of the year would either be Richard Thompson at the Palladium, or Frankie Boyle at the Leicester Square Theatre. Let’s give the top mark to Richard, as Frankie’s was a short work-in-progress show and in the afternoon to boot, even if the 30 or 40 minutes he performed left my ribs aching.