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Post by xanady on May 10, 2019 16:42:52 GMT
Kinda hope this is just a technical issue,rather than no tickets sold! Loved this when I saw it.Low ticket sales everywhere apparently and this suggests a failing tour.Things are getting rather...erm...hairy 🤗
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Post by kirstylovesmusicals on May 10, 2019 17:20:47 GMT
I’ve only just got to Sunderland and seen the email saying tonight has been cancelled! Not amused, I was counting on buying a programme today. Might see if the box office is open, and get my refund in person. Damn!!!
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Post by wickedgrin on May 11, 2019 1:05:46 GMT
Friday night cancelled? That doesn’t sound good. I enjoyed this at The Vaults but always thought it would struggle in large theatres on tour.
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Post by shady23 on May 11, 2019 9:22:16 GMT
Both performances cancelled today.
This does not sound good!
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Post by shady23 on May 11, 2019 9:48:15 GMT
The email that went around yesterday to people who had booked the Friday night was that it was cancelled due to cast sickness.
The line on social media was "due to circumstances beyond our control".
A show like must have adequate cover? Unless a whole lot of them are sick?
I saw it on Tuesday and the audience was sparce and it wasn't the best thing I've ever seen but what a hard working cast! The voices of some of the girls were out of this world!
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Post by Dr Tom on May 11, 2019 10:12:33 GMT
Well, they have a cast of 14, all on stage, with some doubling up as musicians.
I'd say 10 are the main roles and 4 are really on-stage swings. So, in theory, they could go on with up 4 people being absent, so long as they were the right 4.
I remember they had a few problems in London as well with the sparse coverage and sometimes had to cut songs if the wrong people were absent.
But, I guess the producers have decided that it's most cost-effective to have to cancel a few shows than to pay for extra cast who won't be needed most of the time. The run isn't long enough to worry about staggering cast holidays (and there are some weeks off already in the schedule).
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Post by wickedgrin on May 11, 2019 10:40:54 GMT
I would have thought that losing 3 shows revenue in a week would be worse financially than employing an extra couple of swings. Most of the costs are fixed - hire of theatre, wages etc. Unless they are insured in some way or the ticket sales were very poor. In any case it looks very unprofessional. The hosting theatre cannot be happy losing bar sales on Friday/Saturday night.
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Post by Dr Tom on May 11, 2019 11:13:11 GMT
Well, that's the calculated risk with these things. They'll have worked out how many shows, on average, they will have to pull throughout the whole run. I've just mentioned the main acting cast, but they also only have a small band of musicians, I've no idea how they cover those roles when musicians are sick.
Without running through the maths, there will be a number of cancellations where it's profitable to have less cover. Bear in mind that many shows do this, never have to cancel and this ends being a smart business move.
Now, there will always be a threshold number of cancellations (or percentage) where this strategy didn't work. The challenge is where to set that threshold. The producers will set that threshold (for mathematicians, we're basically talking about confidence intervals here).
A high cost West End show might set this very low, say 0.01% (i.e. on average, they it still be cost-effective if they had to cancel 1 in 10,000 shows - in reality, this will practically never happen).
For a bare bones tour like this, where they don't expect to sell out, they could set that much closer to 1%. Obviously I don't know the exact figure. After all, for the odd cancellation they can move customers to another night or even (as other shows do), run a concert version instead.
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Post by shady23 on May 11, 2019 20:28:55 GMT
Looks like they are hoping to get everyone back for next week in Dartford
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Post by xanady on May 11, 2019 20:41:15 GMT
Yaaaay....worried this was about to fold.Am planning a return trip to Wolverhampton later in the tour.
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Post by nick on May 12, 2019 7:51:00 GMT
I remember they had a few problems in London as well with the sparse coverage and sometimes had to cut songs if the wrong people were absent. ). I saw it at theVaults when both the black women were ill. They cut some (White guys/black guys I think) and rejigged some other parts. Bring black or white matters quite a bit in this show. I think some shows were cancelled just after I went. Even more fell ill. Obviously contagious.
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Post by xanady on May 15, 2019 21:23:33 GMT
Holding my breath a bit on this tour.This,Amelie and Little Miss Sunshine are going to limp along a bit imo.Hope the different casts don’t get downhearted playing to sparse audiences.
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Post by horton on May 16, 2019 8:01:29 GMT
It's not a good time in the regions.
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Post by david on May 20, 2019 22:11:39 GMT
Saw this tonight at the Liverpool Empire. I can sum this production up from a group of ladies who were discussing their thoughts on Act 1 in the ladie’s loos during the interval (for clarification, I was NOT present in said location during these discussions, just overhearing their thoughts once they had returned to their seats) - “strange but very good”.
The hippy commune staging was well done, and I didn’t think it looked out if place on the wide Empire stage. Though I did feel you lost some of that intimacy you would of got in a smaller auditorium. I liked the fact that the band was integrated into the set rather than in the traditional orchestral put.
Loved the score and the vocal talent on show. Personally I thought the ladies had the better vocals, though for the blokes the standout for me was Paul Wilkins as Claude. Jake Quickenden as Berger really did surprise me, both vocally and in his acting. I would love to see him in something like Rock of Ages as Stacey Jaxx. Marcus Collins had a tough show tonight. His first song in Act 1 had to be stopped early on due to his microphones cutting out early on causing a show stop by the DSM to sort it out. Though fair play to the guy, he took it in his stride and made light of the problem when the show restarted.
One criticism I would have of this performance is that at times the sound mixing did seem to be off causing the band to drown out the vocals from the cast. Thankfully it wasn’t for every song, but still frustrating when you can’t hear the lyrics.
A fun filled show with plenty of energy despite various issues. A good night out overall.
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Post by Oleanna on May 21, 2019 0:32:15 GMT
Could anybody who has seen both give an indication as to how this revival compares to the last West End one (2010)?
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Post by xanady on May 21, 2019 6:42:01 GMT
^As a very ancient old dinosaur,I have seen many versions of this show over thirty-odd years...this is imo,the best version I have ever seen including the mentioned 2010 version.Pure MT gold!
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Post by marob on May 21, 2019 16:03:04 GMT
Can anyone tell me how the cast interact with people on the front row? I've just looked at the performance I booked for and I'm slightly horrified to see I'm the only one at the very front.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 21, 2019 16:46:03 GMT
Can anyone tell me how the cast interact with people on the front row? I've just looked at the performance I booked for and I'm slightly horrified to see I'm the only one at the very front. What’s your dancing like? 🙂
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Post by marob on May 21, 2019 18:52:44 GMT
Can anyone tell me how the cast interact with people on the front row? I've just looked at the performance I booked for and I'm slightly horrified to see I'm the only one at the very front. What’s your dancing like? 🙂 Oh no! 😱 I don't mind something brief, but I'd be mortified at having to actually get up and do something. I thought I'd be ok with a row full of other people to choose from. Think I need to try to get a different seat.
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Post by xanady on May 21, 2019 18:59:57 GMT
^Spoilers regarding audience involvement.......(sorry don’t know how to do the fancy blue spoilery thing)
At my viewing,Jake serenaded the front row trouser-less at the start of the show(be still my beating heart!).Cast came into audience to give out flyers to the Be-In and then one cast member sits on the knees of a front-row member and then the same person is asked to take a photo of the cast on a prop camera.I was involved and it was good fun.In the finale, cast invited audience in stalls to join them on stage to dance.I loved it, but my dad-dancing was a source of great amusement to the cast members who danced with me.I was told that Strictly will not be holding a place for me this year lol.Btw,the nudity is at the rear of the stage,back-lit and works in terms of an expression of freedom.
This show is as relevant message-wise as CFA and the singing was the strongest I have heard in a MT show for a long time.Glorious.
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Post by xanady on May 22, 2019 12:21:15 GMT
^Thank you,Sir
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Post by steg on May 27, 2019 18:59:30 GMT
Well I saw this for the second time on Friday evening in Liverpool, and this time I knew what was going on. There really is very little coherent story to it, but it is a fantastically fun performance. It's a shame that it's selling so poorly, the Empire stalls were at best half full. I suspect it really would suit smaller theatres better.
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Post by a12la on Jun 9, 2019 10:06:44 GMT
I saw it in Dartford with an understudy on for Berger and it was absolutely fantastic. My one complaint was the addition of the song "Hippie Life" during the curtain call. Let The Sunshine In is an dark and emotional song (despite the popular radio version) and following it with a mindless and fun song kinda kills it's emotional impact. Plus, this might just be because I'm an American, but I thought Daisy Wood Davis (Shelia)'s accent was awful. 90% of the time it sounded like she wasn't even trying to not sound British. Compared to the rest of the cast, it really stood out.
I also thought it was pretty funny how for a show called Hair, there was very little during the nude scene.
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Post by xanady on Jun 9, 2019 13:15:53 GMT
Big fan of this production but ticket sales on the tour are atrocious sadly.
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Post by Dr Tom on Jun 9, 2019 17:06:42 GMT
My one complaint was the addition of the song "Hippie Life" during the curtain call. I've always thought it seemed out of place too. I presume it was added to end the show on a happier note. Anyone know the origin. Wikipedia isn't very helpful here. From that I can work out, it was originally written for the film, but cut. And added to the licensed version of the production sometime in the 1990s (Broadway World says for a European tour in 1995). Always interested to see how much of the original survives. I'm sure this version was advertised as being very true to the original and without many of the cuts that are often made, but it is obviously isn't the original version.
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Post by alexandraastrid79 on Jun 9, 2019 19:36:13 GMT
Hair: I have tickets for my friends and i at oxford. I was suprised the seat sales seam low allready. I hope its ok..Not sure what too expect. Though we are looking forward to this at the end of the month!
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Post by xanady on Jun 9, 2019 21:24:07 GMT
^Yes,DrTom,I think you are correct with ‘Hippie Life’ being added at the end to send the crowd home happy.The audience are also invited to dance on stage at the end for a final feel-good vibe.
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Post by a12la on Jun 13, 2019 15:05:11 GMT
^Yes,DrTom,I think you are correct with ‘Hippie Life’ being added at the end to send the crowd home happy.The audience are also invited to dance on stage at the end for a final feel-good vibe. The problem is that the Let The Sunshine In Reprise already kinda does that (and brings the audience on stage). Hippie Life was just unnecessary.
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Post by xanady on Jun 13, 2019 19:18:33 GMT
Seeing this again in July...Jake in a leather thong...a licence to print money🤪
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jun 28, 2019 7:46:41 GMT
Only spotted that the Oxford run dropped the first two performances. Supposed to run from Monday but opened Wednesday instead.
Has this happened at other venues?
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