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By Jack Lovejoy, Web Editor for UKTickets.co.uk

The words ‘credit crunch’ and ‘financial crisis’ are only too common as the media enters its annual period of reflection and looks back and review the year. While the recent knock to the consumer’s confidence has had an impact on London theatre with a number of early closures, in review 2008 is more notable for its successes than its failures in the West End.

Reality Shows Return

The year kicked off on a surreal note with with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber wandering into Channel 4′s Hollyoaks to find a new Maria for The Sound of Music. The bizarre life-reflecting-art-reflecting-life scenario resulted in Summer Strallen stepping into Connie Fisher’s postulant shoes at the London Palladium.

Happily, ALW turned his back on acting and returned to judging the BBC’s talent search for his next project, joining Cameron Mackintosh to cast Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. This series, I’d Do Anything, sought to cast two roles, with Gwion Jones, Harry Stott and Laurence Jeffcoate chosen to alternate as Oliver, and Jodie Prenger being voted the public’s Nancy. However, the live final in May (and, indeed, most of the series) was overshadowed by ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, and the desperate clamour for tickets didn’t quite match that enjoyed by Joseph and The Sound of Music before it.

Celebrity Castings Continue

Incidentally, the winner of Britain’s Got Talent, teeny bopper body popper George Sampson, took a West End leading role himself in Into the Hoods, the first of a number of unusual casting decisions made in 2008. In October, it was announced that TV presenter and model Kelly Brook was to be included in the new cast of Neil LaBute’s comedy Fat Pig, and former pop star Gareth Gates has been drafted in to don the dreamcoat in February, in only his second professional stage role as he appears in Joseph. More interestingly, hairy Bristolian comedian Justin Lee Collins took on the role of Chicago’s Amos Hart for three performances in early December as part of his new documentary to be screened early in 2009.

Most astonishing of all, camp TV presenter Graham Norton has been chosen to take over from the critically acclaimed Douglas Hodge as Zaza in La Cage Aux Folles. Norton will take over in January but the theatre world has been reeling from the news since November. Despite writing in his own autobiography that he can’t sing, Graham Norton certainly won points for effort in his appearance with the La Cage company at this year’s Royal Variety Performance.

Openings & Closings

2008 has been a rollercoaster for West End theatre, a feeling only emphasised by constant media reminders of the shaky economic climate. The public’s unwillingness to risk their money on new shows was blamed for the dismal failures of the musicals Gone With the Wind and Imagine This, and for a spate of early closures this autumn, with Riflemind, Eurobeat, Girl with a Pearl Earring and Never Forget all closing their doors well before their contracts were up. However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for new shows, as 2008′s runaway musical successes Jersey Boys and Zorro will testify.

Triumphant Broadway Transfers

By the end of the year, these tragedies have been outweighed by some breathtaking triumphs, and 2008 is the year the West End has shown Broadway how its done. Wicked’s Kerry Ellis caused a sensation when she transferred to the New York production in June, while her London replacement Alexia Khadime sent UK audiences into a frenzy. Wicked’s neighbour Billy Elliot also made a foray into New York, being the most successful West End transfer there for a decade. Receiving ecstatic reviews, Broadway’s Billy Elliot has already recreated the smash hit status it enjoys in London, despite turbulent financial times causing even long-running New York shows to drop like flies around it.

Mamma Mia the Movie

By far the biggest success story of 2008 was for Mamma Mia!, which has not only branched out beyond London, but beyond its genre. While ecstatic kids rushed to regional theatres to see Disney’s High School Musical on the stage, the grown ups were stampeding the cinema as Mamma Mia! the Movie became the biggest blockbuster of the summer. With a stellar cast including Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, Mamma Mia! has beaten 1998′s Titanic to become the highest grossing film ever to be released in the UK. The Stockholm premiere saw the four members of Abba together in public for the first time in over twenty years and the frantic hype worldwide has driven even more fans into what is already an international stage sensation.

As shows like Billy Elliot, Mamma Mia! and Wicked enter the new year on a gravity-defying high, a thought must be spared for those whose curtains will fall for the last time in 2009, most notably the hugely successful Avenue Q, The Sound of Music and Spamalot. Luckily, 2009 will see the arrival of two bright and ebullient new musicals in Sister Act and Priscilla Queen of the Desert to liven the West End’s spirits, but it’s clear that the Theatre Royal Haymarket already has the hottest ticket of 2009, with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen co-starring in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

So, ever optimistic, the West End’s 2009 looks to be a year of recovery, and more big names hitting the boards as the industry does its best to provide some welcome escapism and ward off the wider economic gloom.