Tom’s pick of the best theatre shows of 2017

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR: To visual effects expert Drew Seal, for his technically and artistically inventive hi-tech video backdrops. This year they were once again on show in SODS's production Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. “This is a show where the video backdrops are very definitely a co-star. Provided as usual by Drew Seal, a maestro of the craft, the graphics and animations break new ground in terms of technical sophistication. It also marks the first time that I have seen the amazing potential of stage video used for a slow-burn visual gag – look out for the statue with something embarrassing to hide. Technology aside, Mr Seal also turned in a memorable performance in Betty Blue Eyes, as a creepy meat-inspector.

BEST PRODUCTION OVERALL (AND BEST MUSICAL PRODUCTION): Betty Blue Eyes “A story about a pig, a chiropodist and the 1947 Royal Wedding may not sound like the most promising combination for a box office bombshell. But in the hands of our best-loved living playwright [Alan Bennett] it becomes a thing of enchantment. It is hilarious, of course. It is infused with Bennett's X-ray penetration of human nature. While heartwarming, it packs an unexpectedly powerful punch in its depiction of small town corruption in post World War 2 Britain … It is given the production it deserves by Leigh Operatic.”

THEATRE EVENT OF THE YEAR: L'Occupation (Southend Shakespeare Company. Written and directed by James Finlay. “Appropriately for a production staged by the Southend Shakespeare Company, its approach is Shakespearean. In true Bard-like fashion, it carries you across an enormous span of diverse human experience. In common with Shakespeare's history plays, it tracks momentous historic events by showing how they impact the lives of a cross-section of ordinary people. Above all, Mr Finlay writes great characters.”

BEST PRINCIPAL PERFORMANCE, MALE, IN A STRAIGHT PLAY: Jim Carter in Macbeth (Southend Shakespeare Company). “If James Carter had taken the professional route as an actor, I have no doubt that he would be a knight of the theatre, by now. .. Macbeth's migration from honest soldier to evil tyrant offers plenty of scope for scenery-chewing, for those who choose the histrionic approach. By contrast, this is a Macbeth of restraint. From his first line, you are aware of Macbeth's authority, charisma, and intelligence. This is a general who has no need to raise his voice. It makes Macbeth's final roaring descent into Hell all the more harrowing.”

BEST PRINCIPAL PERFORMANCE, FEMALE, IN A STRAIGHT PLAY: Becka Eden as as the virtual avatar “Iris” in the sci-fi drama The Nether (Full Circle). “Becka Eden does amazing work. You are never quite sure as to whether Iris is the manipulated or the manipulator, but there is no doubt about the sense of unease that Ms Eden manages to conjure up.”

BEST PRINCIPAL PERFORMANCE, MALE, IN A MUSICAL: David Gillett as Freddy in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. “The great discovery of this show, however, is David Gillett as the younger conman, Freddy. He was last seen with SODS eleven years ago, as an ingenue in The Sound of Music. He returns to the company as a fully fledged star. He is so immersed into the part of the crass, aspirational young American conman ( he dreams in song of: “A life of taste and class, With culture and sophistication, Pouring out my ass”) that you wonder whether he will ever get out of it. What nefarious habits will Mr Gillett, a drama teacher away from the stage, now be teaching his charges?

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE, FEMALE, IN A MUSICAL: Alice Fillary [CORR] as Louise (Gypsy Rose) in Gypsy (LTC). “Her journey from browbeaten mouse to international sensation is at every stage an acting tour-de-force, and her explosive emergence in the raunchy reprise of Let Me Entertain You is something to light up everyone's week.”

STAND-OUT COMEDY PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: Andrew Sugden as Truffaldino in The Servant of Two Masters (Southend Shakespeare Company). “Truffaldino [is] an entire two-act farce contained in one man. Andrew Sugden is fantastic in the part, which requires him to be a mix of Machiavellian schemer and fixer, groveller, lover, panicky runt, and compere. Truffaldino constantly manages to dig himself into deep holes, then somehow extricate himself. He provides a running commentary on his predicament, talking both to himself, and the audience as the lot thickens and he scuttles around Venice at every higher and more desperate speed. Demanding, or what? But Mr Sugden never falters, and the rest of the cast work round him with equal aplomb.”

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, MALE, IN A STRAIGHT PLAY: Elliot Bigden as Alfrdd in Home (Southend Shakespeare Company). “Alfred, is much younger than the others. Almost completely inarticulate, he hovers on the periphery of the action, half menacing, half petrified. Using body language more than words, Elliot Bigden does an exceptional job in making Alfred a three-dimensional figure.”

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, FEMALE, IN A STRAIGHT PLAY: Jacquee Storyozynski-Toll [CORR] as the vapid drinks party guest in Rope (Lindisfarne) “injects a welcome touch of humour in an almost silent role as a woman with absolutely nothing to say about anything at all.”

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, MALE, IN A MUSICAL: Sean Hynes as the meek tailor Motel, in Fiddler on the Roof (BasOp)

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE, FEMALE, IN A MUSICAL: Laura Gilbert as Jolene “Oklahoma” Oakes in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (SODS)

BEST DIRECTOR, STRAIGHT PLAY: Steve McCartney, for Caught in the Net (Lindisfarne)

BEST DIRECTOR, MUSICAL: Ian Gilbert for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (SODS)

BEST DANCE SEQUENCE IN A MUSICAL: The raunchy chambermaids in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (SODS)