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Post by westendgirls on Mar 26, 2024 22:28:08 GMT
I am on my way home from it now. Most of my row either left or moved at the interval
It was ok. Story just seemed to finish and there was so much that could have been done to develop the characters. I mean why was Olivia in hospital in the first place?
I saw most of the usual Twitter theatre reviewers in the foyer at the interval so will be interesting to see what they say about it
I hope that Rachel gets a different costume for her next show… two shows, same costume just a different colour tonight
2.5 stars
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Post by thetruth on Mar 26, 2024 22:30:08 GMT
OMG, who wrote this dross? Biggest steaming pile ever. Left at the interval. Also huge congrats to the lighting and set team - a mirror finish to the floor meant the balcony was blinded by reflected light for half the show.
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Post by thetruth on Mar 26, 2024 22:41:26 GMT
I don’t know why you pseudo critics were being so negative. I saw the show on Monday and thought it was great. I, along with 95% of the audience stood up and cheered at the end. Great singing, good music and a very enjoyable show. I would certainly recommend it if it comes back to the west end.
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Post by Being Alive on Mar 26, 2024 23:31:22 GMT
Standing ovations are not a barometer for whether things are good anymore I'm afraid - we literally stand for any old rubbish.
And in fairness, most people who stood around me were getting their things together and heading for the exit 😂
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Post by alece10 on Mar 26, 2024 23:36:29 GMT
I'm going against the grain here but I quite enjoyed it. Not the best I've seen but certainly not the worst either. Yes the story is a mess and quite confusing but I quite liked the music (I've got the concept album so already knew the music) but the cast made the show for me. Rachel Tucker excellent as always and Jamie Muscato has such a lovely voice. He looked so young in this. Rest of the cast great too and, although I know nothing about Todrick Hall, I thought he was rather funny. Slight niggle for me was the blocking. There was a table and chairs at the front of the stage for part of Act 1 and all of Act 2 which blocked my view from where I sat in the front stalls. So missed some of the performance. Highlight for me was sitting next to Jac Yarrow and Bonnie Langford. Had a little chat with them in the interval when I came over a bit fan boy but they were genuinely friendly and had a nice chat about Pippin and Rachel Tuckers liking for wearing a nightdress on stage.
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Post by lotster on Mar 26, 2024 23:40:31 GMT
I didn't think this was very good but I think it was saved by the cast, particularly Rachel Tucker, Jamie Muscato and Oliver Tompsett. They were the main reasons I booked anyway, and it's always a pleasure to hear people of their calibre sing. A couple of the songs were good, but many were bland and forgettable. This, without a cast this professional and talented would have been unbearable.
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73 posts
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Post by doornumberthree on Mar 26, 2024 23:42:13 GMT
I don’t know why you pseudo critics were being so negative. I saw the show on Monday and thought it was great. I, along with 95% of the audience stood up and cheered at the end. Great singing, good music and a very enjoyable show. I would certainly recommend it if it comes back to the west end. I stood because I wanted to watch the bows and the person in front of me was stood up getting their stuff to leave, barely anyone around us was stood. I certainly wasn’t giving it an ovation. As Being Alive said, it’s hardly a barometer of if something is good or not these days.
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Post by Steve on Mar 26, 2024 23:54:21 GMT
The second half of the show was MUCH more entertaining than the first half. Featuring Jamie Muscato as a new protagonist, his story is told linearly and coherently, and most significantly, passionately and dramatically. Some spoilers follow. . . As intimated above, by other posters, the second half is basically "Carousel," with Rachel Tucker's character in the Billy Bigelow mould seeking to help her child in ghost form. Except, unlike in "Carousel," the focus is not so much on Tucker's Olivia's spiritual redemption (she's not really done anything wrong lol), but is much more about Jamie Muscato's son learning about the mother that his father hid from him (the old intercepted letters later to be discovered plot). In that sense, the structure is actually elegant, with the first half being about Tucker's Olivia seeking her son, and the second half being about the son seeking the mother (prompted by the letters to meet up with the lover characters from the first half). But where the first half was meandering and flat, the second half is taut and dramatic, with Muscato's son seeking his identity, aided, unbeknownst to him by his mother's ghost. Muscato's climactic song, "Dangerous Lines," was a tour de force for me, as he tears his history apart and discovers who he, and everyone around him, is. The second half is also bolstered by a great passionate rejected torch song from Tori Allen-Martin, some comedy bits from Todrick Hall's Starkeeper-type character, which actually worked, including the meta bit where he urged Tucker's Olivia to put some "shoes on" (she'd been wearing her whole "Singing Detective" hospital nightie outfit for too damn long lol), and another great song from Tompsett's character. I felt the second half worked wonderfully, if derivatively, and rated it 4 stars, so I'd give the whole thing 3 stars. This is way more fun than watching this sort of family-made-whole material on telly at Christmas, I felt.
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Post by southstreet on Mar 27, 2024 0:01:56 GMT
I think most people that stood tonight were either standing to leave or to applaud the cast, can’t believe many stood for the show itself.
I am still not over how bad the lyrics for this were. There were literally full of every single cheesy clichee and then felt like someone took a rhyming book to group them together and then repeated them at least 10 times. I and people around me sniggered a lot, I cried with laughter at unintentially funny/bad lyrics twice. And the book was dire, too. If this wants to go anywhere, every single word that has been written for the show needs scrapping and writing from scratch.
Also soooo much unnecessary belting in the score, which leading lady is supposed to sing this 8 times a week in a proper run of the show without effin’ up her vocal chords? (Though I dare say I doubt any leading lady has to worry about this issue any time soon….).
The music was passable but the only upside of the evening really was some of the cast, doing their best with what they were given. I’d give this 2 stars at best.
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Post by lotster on Mar 27, 2024 0:09:44 GMT
I found a few of the acting/scripted scenes rather cringeworthy as well. Not because of the acting. It was actually pretty good, more because at times it took itself too seriously. Yes, there were moments of humour from Todrick Hall (and Tori Allen-Martin) but I just felt at times it was a bit melodramatic. Am always happy to hear Rachel, Oliver and Jamie, they didn't disappoint, so for their perfomances alone, I'm glad I went.
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Post by nash16 on Mar 27, 2024 1:13:28 GMT
I don’t know why you pseudo critics were being so negative. I saw the show on Monday and thought it was great. I, along with 95% of the audience stood up and cheered at the end. Great singing, good music and a very enjoyable show. I would certainly recommend it if it comes back to the west end. Methinks the new member (who has only made two posts, both re this show) doth protest too much… Lovely to have someone involved talking about it though.
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Post by westendgirls on Mar 27, 2024 1:27:59 GMT
Tiny thing but was surprised at the range of merchandise that was available for a two day show. Was expecting programmes only
Would expect to see some of it for sale in the Theatre Cafe shop in the not to distant future
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Post by londonmzfitz on Mar 27, 2024 9:57:34 GMT
I didn't think this was very good but I think it was saved by the cast, particularly Rachel Tucker, Jamie Muscato and Oliver Tompsett. They were the main reasons I booked anyway, and it's always a pleasure to hear people of their calibre sing. A couple of the songs were good, but many were bland and forgettable. This, without a cast this professional and talented would have been unbearable. Absolutely as above, although I'd rate it Jamie Muscato, Oliver Tompsett and Rachel Tucker in that order; Rachel was a bit shouty in the first song for me and I then hit the same vibe throughout afterwards. Without these three, making up half the cast, the show would have been properly grim. Overall, it was just so *GLUM*! There are musical shows that have death and heartbreak at their centre that will (usually) have a little lightness, a little charm, to them. Love Story. Blood Brothers. Love Never Dies. But this was just unending gloom without a super song to hang its hat on.
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Post by londonmzfitz on Mar 27, 2024 10:01:18 GMT
And yes to the staging, that blooming table and chairs! And lots of "floor" action, with the kid picking up the letters - lost if you were front stalls.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 27, 2024 10:06:14 GMT
Poll added.
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Post by winonaforever on Mar 27, 2024 12:04:32 GMT
Dreadful, cringeworthy script and songs. First act was dire, though I really enjoyed seeing Eric McCormack in person. Second act much better entirely due to Jamie Muscato (the reason I was there in the first place) Todrick Hall was annoying and unfunny, hope to never set eyes on him again. I DID stand at the end, but only for Jamie and Eric, NOT for the material!
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