377 posts
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Post by Nelly on Jul 7, 2023 15:26:04 GMT
Love Never Dies at the Adelphi, loved Phantom, hated this.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jul 7, 2023 15:26:17 GMT
Yes. I found it tedious both the production and musically. I LOVE Cosi but the others leave me cold and bored. Mozart was not a good dramatist, in my book I seem to remember rather enjoying it, though I from what I recall there was only one really good aria in it. I like most of Mozart's major operas, if done in decent productions with casts who can act as well as sing, and Nozze is among my favourite half a dozen operas.
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jul 7, 2023 15:30:30 GMT
Hobsons Choice with Martin Shaw. But this was more due to my mood as it was the day before my Dads funeral and I wasn't in the mood for theatre. Just shouldn't have gone.
And what was that play with Suranne Jones at Haymarket theatre. Really like Jason Watkins and Nina Sosanya but couldn't take to the subject matter and Suranne Jones wailing
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377 posts
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Post by Nelly on Jul 7, 2023 15:35:57 GMT
I was also very close to leaving at the interval of War of the Worlds at the Dominion, the majority of the cast especially Jimmy Nail were not good.
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Post by matty on Jul 7, 2023 18:11:39 GMT
Loads of times, especially if it is mid-week and I've been in work all day. Life's far too short to sit through something I'm not enjoying- unless it was an expensive ticket, in which case I will sit it out.
I remember once when watching Falsettos at TOP, I'd had an awful day in work, had a banging headache and I was sat on the front row and kept dropping off, so felt it was polite to leave at the interval so the cast didn't think it was them making me fall asleep.
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851 posts
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Post by longinthetooth on Jul 7, 2023 18:31:27 GMT
I've been tempted a few times, but always think, well, I've paid a lot of money for this, so I'm determined to stick it out.
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Post by theatrelover123 on Jul 7, 2023 19:16:02 GMT
The Third Man at the Menier. No brainer
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Post by Jan on Jul 7, 2023 19:19:06 GMT
I have only ever done this once in my life. It was a production of Uncle Vanya at The Criterion with Anna Friel and the young lady from Downton Abbey who plays Lady Edith. I had comp ticket and were sitting at the back, so could take in the whole stage. The whole thing looked really cramped and there seemed to be no real interaction between the characters- they were just actors on stage saying lines. It was bad. My sister and I left and took in the Christmas lights in Covent Garden. Much more enjoyable! That was the one where Peter Hall was in the audience and, suffering from dementia, thought he was directing a rehearsal and mid-performance started telling them what they were doing wrong. I don’t approve of leaving at the interval but I did it once for a Terry Hands RSC production of a Feydeau farce which had been “adapted” by Peter Barnes. It was not only bad but offensive too so I and dozens more left at the interval in solidarity with Feydeau.
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Post by stitcher on Jul 7, 2023 19:20:23 GMT
I've left a number of times - sometimes the shows have been really shockingly bad (Peer Gynt at the National and Paradise Found at Menier stand out), sometimes I've just not been feeling it (Amadeus at NT a few years ago- some admirable aspects about it, but I didn't care for some of the performances). The one I regret leaving the most was Rosenkavalier at ENO - it was a stunning production but I'd worked an all-nighter the night before and couldn't keep awake so left at the end of the 1st act. The older I get the less I worry about it - after all the production has your money and it's your evening!
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Post by kit66 on Jul 7, 2023 19:42:42 GMT
Years ago I remember seeing Reg Livermore - a Australian MT star - who had come over to do his solo show at the Phoenix and the performance wasn't going down particularly well to say the least.At one point an audience member shouted out "When are you going to say something funny?" and Reg shouted back "If you don't like it you can f*** off" and half the dress circle got up and left with a lot of seat banging.
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Post by ceebee on Jul 7, 2023 22:00:25 GMT
Wicked. God awful tedious show.
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Post by sfsusan on Jul 7, 2023 22:10:14 GMT
Cats. Absolutely hideous. I wish I'd left at the interval but I was with my parents and my mother loved it. Another time (in San Francisco), I was a hotel concierge and had been given comp tickets and seated in the front row in a theater that was so small the stage was about 12 inches off the floor and about the same distance from the front row. It was so awful that my husband wanted to walk out during the show, but we'd have had to cross in front of the stage to do so. I persuaded him to wait for the interval, when he went to a bar and I had to return for the second act. (Needless to say, I never recommended it to a guest...)
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Post by Stephen on Jul 7, 2023 22:26:04 GMT
Newsies at Wembley Park. The only time I've ever left a show at the interval. I know I'm in the minority for this one and I wasn't in the best place at the time either but the show really didn't tick any boxes for me. Much preferred the Disney Disney version on Broadway/Disney +!
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jul 7, 2023 22:34:27 GMT
I think the one I enjoyed the most by leaving at the interval was the tour of Tonight's the Night.
I could tell the cast were embarrassed to be performing such dross.
When a show gives you a sailor hat to wear, you know you are in for a bad night.
I wish I had walked out of many others but hard when you have to write about the whole show ...
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1,010 posts
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Post by David J on Jul 7, 2023 23:05:04 GMT
In recent years I have left a few shows where I just felt I could cut my losses and havdd we an early nights sleep than watch more of a mediocre show
The Adjoa Andoh Richard Ii at the Sam Wanamaker Last years paradise now at the bush theatre The suspicions of mr Whicher at the watermill theatre
Not that they weren’t awful but neither did they excel
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Post by alessia on Jul 8, 2023 13:19:04 GMT
I have never left but feel I should have for a few things - Marvellous at @soho place, and The boy with 2 hearts at the National. Terrible both of them, should have gone home. Also a few years ago a very strange play at the Almeida with Elliot Cowan turning up all painted in gold about half way through. forgotten what it was, but it was bad.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 8, 2023 13:56:37 GMT
If Six had an interval I’d have been legging it home to take a headache tablet.
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Post by NorthernAlien on Jul 8, 2023 14:00:22 GMT
Happy Days, starring Maxine Peake, at the Royal Exchange, back in 2018.
The whole thing was utterly tedious - there was 5 minutes of plot, which then just got repeated ad infinitum for the rest of the first half. I suppose that's probably the point, but I couldn't stand any more of sitting there, watching the stage revolve slowly, as lights followed it around, meaning you got your retinas blasted into blindness about once every 90 seconds. Headache-inducing.
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Post by TallPaul on Jul 8, 2023 16:09:46 GMT
And what was that play with Suranne Jones at Haymarket theatre. Really like Jason Watkins and Nina Sosanya but couldn't take to the subject matter and Suranne Jones wailing Frozen, wasn't it, before the other one opened at Drury Lane?
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Post by lynette on Jul 8, 2023 16:38:11 GMT
Happy Days, starring Maxine Peake, at the Royal Exchange, back in 2018. The whole thing was utterly tedious - there was 5 minutes of plot, which then just got repeated ad infinitum for the rest of the first half. I suppose that's probably the point, but I couldn't stand any more of sitting there, watching the stage revolve slowly, as lights followed it around, meaning you got your retinas blasted into blindness about once every 90 seconds. Headache-inducing. Funnily, I’ve walked out of this play because although I had seen it more than once before, it was unbearable. Must have hit a nerve.
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Post by Musicality21 on Jul 8, 2023 18:18:19 GMT
I've only ever done this once and it was Titanic when it was touring at The Lowry a couple of years ago. We absolutely hated it. I did feel a little guilty for some reason for leaving though!
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18,840 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 8, 2023 18:21:36 GMT
I felt guilty for staying!
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Post by Ade on Jul 8, 2023 20:31:25 GMT
I've only ever done this once and it was Titanic when it was touring at The Lowry a couple of years ago. We absolutely hated it. I did feel a little guilty for some reason for leaving though! Twice for me. Titanic was one of mine too, as well as Evita at Open Air (sorry, I know lots of people loved it).
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Post by mkb on Jul 8, 2023 20:51:36 GMT
I am very much of the mindset that you can't judge any show until you've seen the whole thing, and plenty of shows have improved in the second act to make my point.
However, when I used to pay the Belgrade Coventry £925/year (minus Gift Aid rebate) for their excellent, but now defunct, membership scheme that permitted two free tickets to up to 50 shows, I got to see some real stinkers, all of which were in the small B2 auditorium. I don't know how some of these touring one-star productions managed to secure funding, but a few tested my patience to the point that I had had enough by the interval.
I've seen the term "experimental theatre" used, but the experiment often seems to be in how much money they can part from arts councils and unsuspecting punters.
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Post by richey on Jul 8, 2023 21:20:10 GMT
I've only ever done this once and it was Titanic when it was touring at The Lowry a couple of years ago. We absolutely hated it. I did feel a little guilty for some reason for leaving though! Saw Titanic at The Lowry this week and considered leaving at the interval but this time persevered and found the second act marginally better. Far too much earnest staring off into the middle distance and singing over each other.
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Post by theatreian on Jul 8, 2023 21:33:17 GMT
Sylvia , the first run at the Old Vic...despite loving Beverley in other things thought this was awful. Beggars Opera at Birmingham Rep Does this count? Fantasia at the cinema when I was a child!
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Post by justafan on Jul 8, 2023 22:22:19 GMT
Only the once in 50years of theatregoing. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘Allegro’ at Southwark - I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on - like others have mentioned took advantage of being able to get an earlier train home
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jul 9, 2023 7:01:18 GMT
Happy Days, starring Maxine Peake, at the Royal Exchange, back in 2018. The whole thing was utterly tedious - there was 5 minutes of plot, which then just got repeated ad infinitum for the rest of the first half. I suppose that's probably the point, but I couldn't stand any more of sitting there, watching the stage revolve slowly, as lights followed it around, meaning you got your retinas blasted into blindness about once every 90 seconds. Headache-inducing. Funnily, I’ve walked out of this play because although I had seen it more than once before, it was unbearable. Must have hit a nerve. I saw the Juliet Stevenson version at the Young Vic. Couple behind me talking before the show about how they loved the Fonz, great Saturday evening tv. They, unsurprisingly, never made the second half
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214 posts
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Post by Jane Parfitt on Jul 9, 2023 9:01:50 GMT
Avenue Q. Hated it.
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Post by WireHangers on Jul 9, 2023 10:56:16 GMT
The first tour of The Commitments when it got to Edinburgh. The cast were over the show and were giving the most phoned in performances I’ve ever seen.
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