Every week thou­sands of peo­ple visit this site for reviews and information about the­atre and restaurants in Stratford.

Hay Fever, starring two of The Stratford Festival’s most popular actors, Lucy Peacock and Cynthia Dale, opened June 19th, so I expected it to be the most popular page last week, and it was.

Comments Popular

But to me the most insightful statistic of the week is that more people searched for “comments” about Hay Fever than any other show, indicating a strong interest in reviews from audience members, as opposed to critics.

In fact there was 27% more interest in Hay Fever comments than comments about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which previously held the top spot.

Professional critics’ reviews of Hay Fever were mixed, a shame for a comedy that audiences were rooting for, especially after last season’s critically acclaimed production of Blithe Spirit under the direction of Brian Bedford.

It’s refreshing to see that audiences are searching for reviews from each other, to complement reviews from the professionals. That’s where social media plays an important role in connecting audiences with each other, and the creative team (Director Chris Arbraham replied to a disparaging comment about his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream).

It’s also worth noting that Crazy for You bumped King Lear to take the 3rd most popular show on this site.

Below are the most pop­u­lar pages on the site for the period June 22-28, 2014.
Three most popular show reviews:
#1 – Hay Fever
#2 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
#3 – Crazy For You

Most popular restaurant:
Rundles

Most popular blog post:
Drayton Entertainment’s Les Misérables Cast

The reason for this blog post’s popularity could be due to a popular Stratford Festival actor cast in Les Misérables.

Lee Siegel recovering from broken fibula

Lee Siegel, the actor who was with Stratford’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar that went to Broadway, as well as Tommy and Fiddler on the Roof, is cast in Drayton Entertainment’s production of Les Misérables currently running until Aug. 2nd at the Dunfield Theatre Cambridge.

Unfortunately Lee is not performing these days as he’s been sidelined with a broken fibula. Siegel is unlikely to perform during the run at the Dunfield, but hopes to be onstage during Les Misérables’ run at The Huron Country Playhouse August 7 – 30.

Last week’s most popular shows:
#1 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
#2 – Hay Fever
#3 – King Lear