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Post by dramallama on Jun 5, 2018 7:37:39 GMT
I never get people who go to plays, operas or ballet who are snobby about musicals but on the flipside, some people I know who like musicals won't watch a play. I sort of understand people not wanting to go to the opera or the ballet but not a play! I wouldn't say I'm snobby about musicals but I just don't enjoy them (that can be my unpopular opinion) - I see their appeal and it's totally legit that people like them, it's just not for me. Plays are absolutely my thing and I would pay to see an opera or a ballet; there is only very few musicals I would pay to see (and another dozen or so I'd see for free should the opportunity arise). Maybe I am secretly snobby but am just in deep denial about that.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2018 7:51:37 GMT
My particular snobbery is jukebox musicals, and even that's more of a tactical thing. There's way more shows out there than I could ever hope to see, so if I'm going to see a West End musical, I'll want to support original musical writing and thus I'll pick a Jamie over a Mamma Mia every time. Even so, I still saw An Officer and a Gentleman recently, and I have a confused fondness for Bat Out of Hell. Good theatre is good theatre, and I'd hate to miss out on an iconic work just because I've pigeonholed myself as, say, a plays fan, and this newly iconic work is the ballet to end all ballets.
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Post by glossie on Jun 5, 2018 17:50:34 GMT
I can't abide 'Peter and the Wolf'. Hated it at school, still hate it.
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Post by TallPaul on Jun 5, 2018 18:11:32 GMT
I can't abide 'Peter and the Wolf'. Hated it at school, still hate it. Or The Carnival of the Animals.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2018 18:30:22 GMT
I can't abide 'Peter and the Wolf'. Hated it at school, still hate it. Or The Carnival of the Animals. Yes, hate both of them... And Noye's Sodding Fludde.
This is bringing back awful memories of 'Score Following'. Did anyone else have to do that in their school?
Music teacher hands out these really dog-eared old booklets of music. Something just like any of the above or Swan Bloody Lake. Staves, treble clefs, crotchets, the lot... Then she puts on a really scratched old LP of what you've got in front of you and you are expected to follow the music with your finger (!) while she paces aorund the classroom, looking over your shoulder to check that you can follow it.
Not a bloody clue most of us. All eyes surreptitiously on the swotty girl who learned the clarinet who (fortunately) sat down the front. When she turned over, we all turned over.
Such a doss for the teacher that one...
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Post by lynette on Jun 5, 2018 18:42:47 GMT
Yes we had that. Silly waste of time. We weren’t taught anything about music either academically or culturally. Luckily I was in the choir so I did learn a bit about how music 'worked'. Then the Beatles arrived... so sorted. 😂
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Post by Tibidabo on Jun 5, 2018 19:00:24 GMT
All eyes surreptitiously on the swotty girl who learned the clarinet That was me 😛, except it was the violin 🎻. I loved all that. (Unpopular opinion, obvs.)
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Post by The Matthew on Jun 5, 2018 19:24:28 GMT
Ugh. School music. I had the misfortune to be in the school choir for three years — I have no idea why, as I couldn't hit a note if you strapped it to a chair and armed me with a baseball bat — and the music teacher had a habit of just handing out sheet music and expecting us to be able to sing it even though at no point did he ever teach anyone to read musical notation. I forget how we managed, but I suspect "not terribly well" is probably accurate.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2018 19:29:08 GMT
All eyes surreptitiously on the swotty girl who learned the clarinet That was me 😛, except it was the violin 🎻. I loved all that. (Unpopular opinion, obvs.) Oh that was you, was it?!?! I always wondered what became of you... Christ, we must have all been really, really crap at music thinking your violin was a clarinet! (You should have seen what we used to do behind your back... )
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2018 20:13:30 GMT
All eyes surreptitiously on the swotty girl who learned the clarinet That was me 😛, except it was the violin 🎻. I loved all that. (Unpopular opinion, obvs.) And me! (piano)
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Post by glossie on Jun 5, 2018 20:18:35 GMT
Blimey, you lot had all the fun!! All we got was some rubbish schools music programme on the radio which all I remember was P & the W, Bobby Shafto and Cherry Ripe. No school choir, no reading music. It's a miracle that I enjoy any music. That's probably down to many happy hours playing 78s on Grandad's old wind-up gramophone! I always wanted to learn the violin and was picked as one of the select few to have tuition with the Music Prof of the teacher training college our Junior School was attached to...but my parents couldn't afford the fees so I had to turn it down. I still haven't recovered...
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Post by Jon on Jun 5, 2018 22:20:07 GMT
I don't get people being sad over a show closing especially ones that have run more than a year. Surely it's the nature of the West End that shows will eventually close and be replaced with new shows.
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Post by poster J on Jun 5, 2018 22:44:05 GMT
All eyes surreptitiously on the swotty girl who learned the clarinet That was me 😛, except it was the violin 🎻. I loved all that. (Unpopular opinion, obvs.) Also a violinist here!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 0:33:51 GMT
I don't get people being sad over a show closing especially ones that have run more than a year. Surely it's the nature of the West End that shows will eventually close and be replaced with new shows. I know this is the unpopular opinions thread but I'm gonna respectfully reply to this one, cause you told me the exact same thing in the Dreamgirls thread when I said I was sad about it closing, so I feel this is kinda directed at me. I get what you are saying: a show closes, then the posibility to get a new show is exciting, cause as theatre fans we need new stuff. Now, let's say, Hamilton is announced to close. I'm assuming you are a big fan cause it's on your avatar. In case I'm wrong just think of a show you love, one of your faves. Wouldn't you feel a little bit sad about it? What if you never get the chance to see it again? So yeah, mixed emotions. Sad it's closing, excited about what could come next. Not trying to change your mind, not trying to start an argument. It's your opinion and I respect that. Just getting my point across.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 6:53:05 GMT
^ I get this completely...
When a production closes in a theatre where it’s resided for years and years, it’s not just a show that leaves: it’s a bit of your life that’s gone forever. It’s something you can't return to, ever again. All the time it’s been on, you’ve almost taken it for granted that it’s there, sometimes in the background, and you mightn’t visit it sometimes for a good long while, but it is still there.
When Superstar closed at the Palace in 1980 I felt like I’d lost a limb. I’d seen it so many times during my impressionable teenage years... And it wasn’t just the show, it was the actual theatre looking as it did, all kind of knocked about a bit inside, with that smell of dry ice that lingered long after each performance came down. An atmosphere. Sometimes I’d just go and stand outside it for a bit, hoping the Superstar ghosts would heal me... The fact that Oklahoma opened there afterwards hurt a bit too, as it was so, so different from the show I’d grown to love.
So when Les Mis took up its residency there after the Barbican run, I felt like I was returning home again (I’d been ‘home’ a fair few times in the interim- Song and Dance, On Your Toes, some others I’ve forgotten- but it wasn’t the same) and all was well for a good long while. And behind that barricade, Colm Wilkinson wasn’t singing for Michael Ball alone...
I was pleased when the Palace was given a spruce up. It looked like... well, a palace again, but it’s never been quite the same.
And then Les Mis left, and with it its heart, because something can’t play in a theatre for years and years without leaving something behind. I felt that sadness again.
But I’m pleased that the first West End theatre I ever visited looks like it’ll be standing for quite some time with Mr Potter’s fans guaranteeing to keep it afloat on its little island, although I won't be visiting it for a bit. I dare say there’ll be many a Harry Potter fan who will come to see the Palace Theatre as their own, with an association of a show that’s dear to their heart too.
Yes, we should welcome the new, of course we should, but we can’t help shedding a tear once the posters have been torn down, the lorry has been filled with bits of set, and the actors take their suitcases to another hall...
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 8:06:16 GMT
I might be a bit 'tired and emotional' but that made me well up a bit.
On one hand yes, I'm all for the 'keep the West End/Broadway changing' mantra- it is good for business and good for theatre in reality. But who wants reality in the theatre right?
When you really love a show, you have a connection to it, and when it's a reasonably long runner (say a year or so not a few months) well we also 'become accustomed to her face' and it's hard to think of it not being there. More to the point those shows that come along once in a while, we leave a piece of us behind with us. Yes it's dramatic but also true.
I'm fascinated by the connections we forge with the buildings too- a part of my research that I still love is the importance of the theatrical buildings to audiences particularly when they have a connection to performances in them as you've described above. For me I've not gone back to the Nederlander since Rent closed (by default not design) and I wonder how I'll feel when I do, as I know many fans struggled because the physical space became so tied up in the show.
So yes, it's the beauty of theatre that's it's ephemeral, but also for the shows you love that's the hardest part too. (I kind of feel like there's a whole thread in this 'shows we loved and lost')
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Post by Jon on Jun 6, 2018 8:55:13 GMT
^I think because I rarely revisit a show, I have no sentimentally or attachment towards a particular show so a closure to me isn’t a sad occasion
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 9:12:09 GMT
I won't lie, I get sad about brilliant shows closing. And seeing as it is rumoured some of my favourite shows will soon bow out (Kinky Boots and 42nd Street), as well as Dreamgirls confirmed, Spring 2019 will be dark times for me. 😂😂
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 10:03:09 GMT
I'm fascinated by the connections we forge with the buildings too- a part of my research that I still love is the importance of the theatrical buildings to audiences particularly when they have a connection to performances in them as you've described above. For me I've not gone back to the Nederlander since Rent closed (by default not design) and I wonder how I'll feel when I do, as I know many fans struggled because the physical space became so tied up in the show.
So yes, it's the beauty of theatre that's it's ephemeral, but also for the shows you love that's the hardest part too. (I kind of feel like there's a whole thread in this 'shows we loved and lost') [/quote]
I totally get the loss when long runners close and the connection to the theatre.
For me it was Cats at New London and Starlight Express at Apollo Victoria. My favourite musicals and I felt the original productions were perfect in these theatres. Even now when I visit either theatre I imagine the Cats/Starlight set in there and I feel sad they’ve gone forever. The fact that they were not proscenium arch shows makes it all the more intense.
Les Mis was also a great “fit” at the Palace and for me lost something when it moved....
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Post by kathryn on Jun 6, 2018 11:10:15 GMT
I think I have the opposite reaction to long-runners closing compared to most of you - I kinda assume that everyone who wanted to see it had the chance to (multiple times in some cases), so they don't make me sad. All good things....
It's when brilliant new shows close before people have had a chance to see them because they just didn't find their audience that I feel sad. Groundhog Day closing on Broadway when the Bill-Murray-goes-2-nights-in-a-row stunt had *just* made a lot of people aware of it was a kicker. I've seen so many people online say 'why didn't I know about that?!'
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Post by Jon on Jun 6, 2018 12:37:59 GMT
I might be a bit 'tired and emotional' but that made me well up a bit. On one hand yes, I'm all for the 'keep the West End/Broadway changing' mantra- it is good for business and good for theatre in reality. But who wants reality in the theatre right? When you really love a show, you have a connection to it, and when it's a reasonably long runner (say a year or so not a few months) well we also 'become accustomed to her face' and it's hard to think of it not being there. More to the point those shows that come along once in a while, we leave a piece of us behind with us. Yes it's dramatic but also true. I'm fascinated by the connections we forge with the buildings too- a part of my research that I still love is the importance of the theatrical buildings to audiences particularly when they have a connection to performances in them as you've described above. For me I've not gone back to the Nederlander since Rent closed (by default not design) and I wonder how I'll feel when I do, as I know many fans struggled because the physical space became so tied up in the show. So yes, it's the beauty of theatre that's it's ephemeral, but also for the shows you love that's the hardest part too. (I kind of feel like there's a whole thread in this 'shows we loved and lost') I’m the opposite, I’m more excited when the theatre which has had a long Runner becomes free and has a new show because it mean I can visit it for the first time in a long time. This was especially true for The Phoenix when I saw Goodnight Mr Tom and Once after Blood Brothers had closed and also Book of Mormon at the Prince of Wales
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 12:41:43 GMT
Can't it be both? I miss the Novello and I hope to be able to visit it again some day without having to see Mamma Mia!, but I'll definitely mourn the show and the times I spent there and the things it has meant to me when Wicked finally shuts up shop. Turnover is very natural and healthy, but it's worth bearing in mind that theatre doesn't last forever (unless you're a serious Mousetrap stan or something) and when it's gone, you'll never have the opportunity to see that show again. Just because babies are nice doesn't mean you don't mourn your grandparents.
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Post by Jon on Jun 6, 2018 12:43:51 GMT
I get the feeling no one will mourn Thriller when it finally closes
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 12:56:14 GMT
I don't get people being sad over a show closing especially ones that have run more than a year. Surely it's the nature of the West End that shows will eventually close and be replaced with new shows. Try telling that to Agatha Christie!
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Post by Jon on Jun 6, 2018 12:58:46 GMT
I don't get people being sad over a show closing especially ones that have run more than a year. Surely it's the nature of the West End that shows will eventually close and be replaced with new shows. Try telling that to Agatha Christie! The only thing that’ll close that show is the Apocalypse or WWIII
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 13:02:21 GMT
Try telling that to Agatha Christie! The only thing that’ll close that show is the Apocalypse or WWIII I like that. I don't ever want The Mousetrap to close, there's something wonderfully comforting about its lengthy existence. It'll be like the ravens in the Tower of London, if The Mousetrap closes, the whole of London's glitzy West End will collapse.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 13:04:13 GMT
The only thing that’ll close that show is the Apocalypse or WWIII I like that. I don't ever want The Mousetrap to close, there's something wonderfully comforting about its lengthy existence. It'll be like the ravens in the Tower of London, if The Mousetrap closes, the whole of London's glitzy West End will collapse. I agree. Even though I am yet to see it, I like that it is there. It's almost like a landmark in London, it'd be a shame to see it close.
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Post by TallPaul on Jun 6, 2018 13:28:05 GMT
Although The Mousetrap is perfectly able to get by on relatively small houses, what if all the building work next door causes so much disruption that they fall to uneconomic levels, especially as the production now has a new, perhaps more ruthless, less sentimental Producer?
I think we need to petition the Culture Secretary!
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Post by The Matthew on Jun 6, 2018 14:04:08 GMT
Five billion years from now when the sun has swollen up and Earth is a scorched cinder there'll still be The Mousetrap, "Now in our 5,000,000,066th year!"
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 14:38:29 GMT
I get the feeling no one will mourn Thriller when it finally closes There should be a Theatre Board party to celebrate.
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