News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1245: 4 January 2026
Editorial
Happy New Year!
I hope you have all come through the festive season relatively unscathed and aren’t dreading the ‘return to normal’ too much.
Our features section has been busier than usual this week, but most of this is from our reviewers looking back over their 2025 theatregoing.
We have now released our usual group-authored piece for which a number of our contributors have listed their favourites, some just as a list and others embodied in a longer piece with their thoughts on their year’s theatregoing. Do you agree with our lists? Is there anything you think we’ve missed that should be included? Feel free to drop me a line with your own views.
To join Michael Quinn’s article on theatre in Northern Ireland over the year, released last week, we now have Keith Mckenna’s feature on theatre and social change in 2025, Donald C Stewart’s review of the theatrical year in Scotland and my look at what has been happening in North West theatre.
Philip Fisher for his feature article this week has looked at the difference between Broadway and West End theatres in terms of discussing box office receipts, the main difference being that the former release them to the public as a matter of course whereas on this side of the Atlantic, they are kept secret.
The New Year honours list has made some headlines with some of the famous names from our industry that have been awarded gongs by the state—Idris Elba has received a knighthood, Cynthia Erivo an MBE and Warwick Davis an OBE—with perhaps a few mentions for those known mainly to theatre enthusiasts—such as playwright Ishy Din, Ballet Black founder Cassa Pancho and composer Max Richter. It was great to see lighting designer Paule Constable getting an OBE—designers and technicians are too often anonymous and unrecognised compared to actors and even directors and writers.
But I must send my congratulations to Jon Gilchrist MBE, whom I’ve known since he was a young lad at Bolton Octagon before he moved to The Lowry, then the Bush, then back up north to HOME and most recently to run Birmingham Hippodrome. You can hear his voice on the BTG podcast when I spoke to him in late 2020 about how theatre management were responding to the pandemic.
We don’t have many new reviews this week, but amongst them are probably the last show any of our reviewers saw in 2025—a panto watched at a New Year’s Eve matinée at Theatre Royal Plymouth—and the first of 2026—a New Year’s Day concert from Ballet Nights at Cadogan Hall in London.
Altogether over the course of 2025, we have published 1,084 reviews of live theatre productions, recordings and books, 435 news articles, 72 features and 28 podcast episodes.
Stick with us for 2026 and we will bring you lots more news, reviews, interviews and features on British theatre from all around the UK.
Jon Gilchrist, artistic director and chief executive of Birmingham Hippodrome, has been appointed an MBE in the King’s New Year Honours for services to British theatre.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Elliott & Harper Productions and Catherine Schreiber, based on the original Leeds Playhouse production) - The Lowry, Salford, –
Singin' in the Rain (Royal Exchange Theatre) - Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, –
Dick Whittington (Regal Entertainments Ltd) - St Helens Theatre Royal, St Helens, –
Freaky Friday (Paul Taylor-Mills in association with Sean Nyberg and HOME, J Douglas Waterman, Madison Mohn, Storyworks Live, Wallace-Wojta and Willette & Manny Klausner) - HOME Manchester, Manchester, –
FRIENDS! The Musical Parody (Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale and Oskar Eiriksson in association with The Barn Theatre Cirencester) - Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, –
Dick Whittington (Crossroads Pantomimes) - Theatre Royal, Plymouth, –
Antarctica (Little Bulb, presented by Bristol Old Vic) - Bristol Old Vic, Bristol, –
