3,478 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jul 3, 2017 17:01:11 GMT
Thank you all, @baemax, danb and purple12 for the helpful booking info.
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2,150 posts
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Post by richey on Jul 4, 2017 11:14:36 GMT
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2,150 posts
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Post by richey on Jul 6, 2017 5:50:52 GMT
Just noticed that several enormous posters for this have appeared this morning on Manchester Picadilly station. Seems a bit strange advertising to a market who had ample opportunity to see it here.
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614 posts
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Post by jamb0r on Jul 6, 2017 7:49:39 GMT
Was initially reluctant to see this due to the ticket prices. Last night I had originally booked a cheap £15 seat right up the back of the balcony on the side. At 7:10pm I asked the box office if they had any day seats left, and they did - so they let me upgrade my terrible seat to a seat right in the middle of the stalls for an extra £10! The view was amazing 😀 I might have just been lucky getting one that late in the day as they've only started doing day seats, but might be worth asking if you can upgrade if anyone has a cheap seat booked like I did.
Loved the show too!
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3,478 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jul 6, 2017 21:27:22 GMT
I saw the matinee today and while I had high hopes due to the rave reviews and all the positive comments here, I was a little afraid that I wouldn't like it as I knew only one of the songs and would have hated it had it been that awful, raucous, repetitive tuneless rock in the style of School Of Rock. (OH had offered to play the CD for me but I declined.)
Fears unfounded: I thought it was brilliant and I was amazed to find most of the score so melodic and appealing - though maybe that partly explains the album's popularity and longevity? As I had when seeing the matinee of 42nd Street recently, I thought how encouraging it was to see such a large venue so full for a weekday matinee in term-time.
Great deal on the ticket, too: I went to the TKTS booth rather than buying a day seat from the theatre itself, as though the booth price was a little higher, the seat location was given as "stalls", whereas I wasn't sure what, if anything, the theatre would offer.
Ben Purkiss was on as the alternate Strat, so he must be doing Thursday matinees, too, or was this week.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2017 21:39:19 GMT
Am seeing this on Saturday at the matinee and was wondering on the running time as I saw it was 3 hours and was wondering if this was correct. Seeing 42nd st on the night. 3 hours? That's only enough time for 2 Steinman songs.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2017 21:42:12 GMT
Does anyone have a list of songs in the order they appeared in the show? I know there's a list in alphabetical order somewhere back in the thread, but I'm making a playlist and don't trust my memory to get the order right. Someone created the playlist on Spotify The fact that the show doesn't contain Steinman's "Bad for Good", "Dance in My Pants" or "Original Sin" from Pandora's Box I find to be a huge disappointment.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2017 21:45:21 GMT
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3,478 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jul 7, 2017 4:53:34 GMT
The matinee actually finished about 5.15 pm yesterday, i.e. more like 2 hours 45.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2017 12:15:01 GMT
I've only seen Bat, but I think it's probably getting a pass for its sheer audacity.
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3,478 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jul 7, 2017 12:43:10 GMT
I've also seen Bat only; the source material of the other is anathema to me so it wouldn't occur to me to book. Wonder now if it'd be worth it for the music alone?
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2,763 posts
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Post by daniel on Jul 7, 2017 12:55:57 GMT
I've seen both - Bat's story line is terrible but it's by far the better show. I don't know a great deal of Meatloaf's music but I enjoyed it more than Willows' bland score. There's been a lot of positivity about their set design too, but Bat just blows it out of the water. I've never seen a theatrical set design of such scale - there was SO much going on and made it a total visual feast.
I think the biggest difference for me is that where Willows is a bit of a damp squib, Bat really packs a punch and blows your socks right off (I still haven't found mine)
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3,478 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jul 7, 2017 14:06:27 GMT
Well thank you for that, theatremonkey & co; struggling to fit things in as it is.
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642 posts
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Post by Stasia on Jul 7, 2017 20:12:27 GMT
I've seen both of them, @theatremonkey, and liked both. Bat for me was "it is so silly but I like it, go see if you like the songs but the plot and acting and choreo made me cringe", and Willows got my "omg so cute and I like it go see if you like family musicals".
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Post by infofreako on Jul 7, 2017 20:37:34 GMT
Bat appeals far more than Willows to me and the brief bit of Willows I saw at west end live didn't change that feeling.
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18,842 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 7, 2017 21:11:29 GMT
I really liked the Dead Ringer choreo. Chees-o-Rama! And those blue suits.
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Post by danb on Jul 7, 2017 21:15:31 GMT
I realise now that 'unfashionable' is the right word for the choreography. It transcends critical opinion.
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3,478 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jul 8, 2017 4:49:34 GMT
Talk of choreography makes me realise I don't even notice this and wouldn't know how to critique it if I did; what matters to me is primarily the musical style (so a big tick for this show), followed by whether the plot engages me emotionally (therefore less so here but it didn't leave me totally cold either).
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642 posts
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Post by Stasia on Jul 9, 2017 9:19:58 GMT
and Willows got my "omg so cute and I like it go see if you like family musicals". Did it sort of appeal to both your inner child and anglophile leanings, then Stasia? Definitely!
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1,037 posts
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Post by jgblunners on Jul 11, 2017 16:16:34 GMT
Really looking forward to the cast recording of this, especially since I was hoping to make a second visit to see Andrew Polec (I got the wonderful and very attractive Ben Purkiss at the show I saw) but now don't think I'll be able to before it closes. Fingers crossed for a West End transfer after Toronto! It certainly seems to be selling very well, and bringing in Meatloaf and Steinman fans for repeat visits, so should survive even in one of the large theatres that it would undoubtedly need to fit that set in!
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1,330 posts
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Post by CG on the loose on Jul 13, 2017 17:28:43 GMT
Absolutely LOVED it... was always going to be an easy sell for me as the original album holds so many memories, the music takes me straight back to a time when I was young and full of hope and a place where I met some of my dearest friends. Anyway, sentiment aside.... great voices on stage and a front row perch that removed me from the hearing zone of all but one of the sing-a-longers and I was a happy camper. As a regular theatre-goer, I was very much in the minority, with everyone I spoke to asking how many times I'd seen Meatloaf live... um, that would be none! But it was the same music that drew us all there, and I was just one of many smiling faces inching up the aisle after the show.
I'd quite like to go again, but can't justify that ticket price more than once and don't think I'd want to see it from anywhere else now I've seen it from there!
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Post by alison on Jul 13, 2017 21:27:40 GMT
Absolutely LOVED it... was always going to be an easy sell for me as the original album holds so many memories, the music takes me straight back to a time when I was young and full of hope and a place where I met some of my dearest friends. Anyway, sentiment aside.... great voices on stage and a front row perch that removed me from the hearing zone of all but one of the sing-a-longers and I was a happy camper. As a regular theatre-goer, I was very much in the minority, with everyone I spoke to asking how many times I'd seen Meatloaf live... um, that would be none! But it was the same music that drew us all there, and I was just one of many smiling faces inching up the aisle after the show. I'd quite like to go again, but can't justify that ticket price more than once and don't think I'd want to see it from anywhere else now I've seen it from there! If you'd be willing to sit slightly further back in the stalls, they do £25 day seats Mon-Thurs. I got row G stalls on Monday night at 6:00, and the view was great.
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1,330 posts
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Post by CG on the loose on Jul 13, 2017 22:18:26 GMT
^ I'll bear that in mind, thanks alison
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Post by herculesmulligan on Jul 14, 2017 21:58:39 GMT
I found myself enjoying this when I really thought I wouldn't. Great staging. However the whole tink character and story line was just the worse. Like bad GCSE drama. Cut that character and find another concete to get into the songs.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2017 10:46:30 GMT
Anyone heard anything about a release date for the CD? I asked the official Twitter but to no avail.
Like The Girls, was recorded with social media fanfare but has now gone very quiet.
Such is the life of a UK MT fan. On Broadway everything seems to get recorded and released pretty quickly!
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193 posts
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Post by groupbooker on Jul 16, 2017 17:27:47 GMT
Saw this on the Thursday matinee. Pretty full in the stalls and the dress looked also. Set was big and very spectacular, lots of things going all over the place. The said link to Peter Pan as a sort of basis in the story (for what it was worth), when Tink was killed, I was waiting for the "everyone clap and say they like fairies, then he will live"! How did the boys get frozen, who did it - what happened in the end? Dunk the villain in water and her is changed? All go away together?? The story as everyone said was rubbish. I didn't feel much for the two young people but thought that Falco and Sloane were really excellent, as were Zahara, Jagwire, Ledoux and Blake. Ben Flowler as Falco has done some excellent shows in Germany. Thought the so called choreography was very much like watching a keep fit practice. But a great afternoon at the theatre and enjoyed the music after all these years. You may be able to tell me but, with him saying so much against the "older people in coaches" - how did Honoured Guest feel about the audience for this show??? They were mainly late 40's up to 70's and talking to some they had actually come along in a coach - "shock horror". Finished it off with a return to "Willows" in the evening. Only half full which is a pity but the audience loved it, the kids were really into it shouting poop! poop! through it. All the little changes coming together after the start at Plymouth. I still feel it has some excellent music in it, takes a couple of times to get into it but no where near as bad as the reviews. It is a good family musical and probably do well on a UK tour plus I will probably get shot down for it but if we all like the same you would all say things are boring.
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Post by scotty8692 on Jul 21, 2017 11:44:36 GMT
FINALLY got my free "thanks for doing our survey" poster into a frame and onto the wall in the theatremonkey office. Best freebie this year so far, I think .
Where did you do the survey to get your hands on it TM? Wouldn't mind one myself.
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11 posts
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Post by scotty8692 on Jul 21, 2017 12:30:32 GMT
At the theatre. At some performances they hand out surveys during the interval. They ask you to fill them in and return them to the box office area after the show, in return for a free poster. If you do that, there is a team taking the forms and swapping them for posters. A very nice exchange, I think . Doesn't happen at all performances, though, but keep an eye out for ushers at the doors during the interval in case yours is a lucky one. Cheers, figured it was at the theatre but wanted to ask. I'm seeing the show this week.
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4,967 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Jul 21, 2017 12:57:32 GMT
I'm still in shock that @theatremonkey has an office. Aren't there laws about that type of thing?
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18,842 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 21, 2017 16:29:33 GMT
I'm still in shock that @theatremonkey has an office. Aren't there laws about that type of thing? He calls it an office, it's really an empty banana crate with a plug for his radiopager. Ssshhhh!
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