Best West End Shows Of 2015 As Voted For By YOU!
Posted on 11 January 2016
If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t then you can @shaunycat) or LondonTheatreDirect on Twitter (and if you don’t then you can also do that at @theatre_direct) then you will have seen the polls that I was sharing asking you to answer some questions related to theatre in 2015 and theatre in 2016; I was intrigued to hear of what you thought regarding your favourite shows of the year, shows you wanted to see come to London and other things like that. So today, to thank you all for answering my questions, I thought I’d share with you the kind of responses that you all gave.
The first question I asked was what your favourite new opening of 2015 was: the London transfer of Kinky Boots, or the new musical Bend It Like Beckham. It seems like the majority of you disagreed with my opinion with 74% of the voters saying that they preferred Kinky Boots – though I really enjoyed the show, which you can see if you watch my Kinky Boots review of the show on the LondonTheatreDirect YouTube channel, I did prefer Bend It Like Beckham (so much so that I’m going to see the show again!).
I then asked what musical people were more excited to see come to the West End in 2016: Aladdin at the Prince Edward, or Funny Girl at the Savoy. Once again, the voters totally didn’t see my side of the story with 55% of the vote swaying towards the London transfer of Aladdin! Though I’m excited to see the classic Disney tuner finally land in London, I’m pretty swayed by the first ever major revival of the icon classic Funny Girl – especially with Sheridan Smith at the helm! I also asked what play you were looking forward to seeing in 2016 and out of Hand to God and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Harry Potter got a landslide vote of 100%! Weirdly, despite the fact I am excited to see Cursed Child in August and Hand to God in February, I can’t decide which one I’m looking forward to more!
Next, I asked which show you would all like to see transfer to London from Broadway next: the Gary Barlow-written Finding Neverland or the Broadway smash hit of the year Hamilton. No surprise when I say that 58% of the vote went to Finding Neverland instead of the modern classic Hamilton! Of course I want to see the musical adaptation of the classic film come to London, but I want to be in the Room Where It Happens even more!
I then got you all thinking about your favourite off-West End musical that opened in 2015: In The Heights at the Kings Cross Theatre or American Idiot at the Arts Theatre. Seems like you did agree with me on this one with 67% of the vote going towards the outstanding In The Heights – though I’m glad American Idiot got some loving from its fan base, too!
Finally, I asked which Disney Broadway musical you would like to see have its West End debut and out of Newsies and The Little Mermaid, I was shocked to see that you’d rather see the Disney Princess tuner take over London instead. Though I too would love to see The Little Mermaid in London, I’m so surprised that those who agree with me are in greater numbers than the Fansies!
What answers did you give to these questions, and what should I ask next time I do a poll for you all? Tweet me @shaunycat and @theatre_direct to let me know and your questions may just be used next time!
