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Post by Jan on Feb 20, 2017 13:42:27 GMT
The Cottesloe production was DIRE. I still get flashbacks. Maybe that's what my friends are thinking of when they say they just don't think it's a very good play to begin with. I think it's a brilliant play, but has been burdened by productions that just don't live up to the writing. Some have come close, but no one production has managed it all yet. Trevor Nunn says it is an impossible play to cast for the theatre. His dismal film version would suggest it's impossible to cast for that too. I've seen it 12 times. The best was the Branagh-directed 1980's one with Richard Briers. I also thought the Grandage/Jacobi one was very good. The least successful Malvolios were Sher's self-admittedly terrible turn as some sort of Greek orthodox priest who was literally insane, and even worse than that Richard Wilson's effort which was one of the worst performances I've ever seen not just in this play.
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Post by lynette on Feb 20, 2017 22:22:36 GMT
Agree Branagh prod with R Briers best TN I've seen. And o have I seen many, many, many.....
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Post by lynette on Feb 20, 2017 22:24:48 GMT
Anyone know when this is running to? I think it is going thru May but not sure.
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 21, 2017 7:39:55 GMT
Anyone know when this is running to? I think it is going thru May but not sure. NT website has last performance as Sat 13th May, and there's a gap between Tues 25th April and Fri 12th May.
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Post by lou105 on Feb 21, 2017 13:28:34 GMT
All this talk of past productions led me to dig out the DVD I bought of the 1980 BBC version with Felicity Kendal. I think I bought it in a fit of nostalgia for my O level days (!)..It's a very straightforward production, and of course looks dated now, but it was fun to see some familiar TV faces (Trevor Peacock from Vicar of Dibley was rather good as Feste, I thought). I am less familiar with those who were presumably better known for their stage work at the time, though i did note that Malvolio is played by the recently deceased Alec McCowen, for those who have been discussing him. It's a bit of a thankless role really, isn't it. I'm looking forward to seeing what the National have done with it, though I think it may have to be cinema this time round.
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Post by zahidf on Feb 21, 2017 13:33:56 GMT
I thought this was excellent, one of the better version's I've seen. Tasmin Greig was a very sympathetic Malvolia, and the comedy was extremely well done.
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Post by theatrefan77 on Feb 21, 2017 13:37:51 GMT
Saw this last and thought it was quite wonderful. Loved it so much that I'm going again next month. Top notch cast, brilliant set with great use of the revolve, love the costumes too. I really can't fault this production at all. I was very entertained and loved every single minute of it. Highly recommended.
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Post by lynette on Feb 21, 2017 22:42:47 GMT
Anyone know when this is running to? I think it is going thru May but not sure. NT website has last performance as Sat 13th May, and there's a gap between Tues 25th April and Fri 12th May. Such a short run. Annoying.
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Post by nick on Feb 22, 2017 10:23:22 GMT
Yay. Thanks everyone. I had a ticket for last night but couldn't go. I looked at your comments this morning which prompted me to hop onto the website and I bagged 2 centre row B seats for £15 each.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 22, 2017 14:05:44 GMT
Such a short run. Annoying. 62 performances over 13 weeks. So not really "such a short run". In the olden days, over thirty years ago, when more productions played in rep at any one time (all cast from the same company of actors), plays were in rep for more weeks than nowadays but the total number of performances was about the same. It would cost the NT much more to run Twelfth Night for five or six months, playing just two or three performances a week, which is what used to happen.
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Post by theatremadness on Feb 22, 2017 15:36:54 GMT
Really gutted I didn't get my EP ticket when tickets first went on sale after reading such great comments on here. Wasn't around this morning for the next set of EP tickets that have of course, now, sold out, but managed to find a £15 ticket near the centre of the 2nd row in the middle of April so went for that! Very, very excited. I really love the play - with Hamlet at the Almeida the week before, too!
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Post by lynette on Feb 22, 2017 16:08:46 GMT
Such a short run. Annoying. 62 performances over 13 weeks. So not really "such a short run". In the olden days, over thirty years ago, when more productions played in rep at any one time (all cast from the same company of actors), plays were in rep for more weeks than nowadays but the total number of performances was about the same. It would cost the NT much more to run Twelfth Night for five or six months, playing just two or three performances a week, which is what used to happen. Will they move it the West End?
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 22, 2017 17:15:57 GMT
Surely not!?
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Post by lynette on Feb 22, 2017 18:59:06 GMT
Just asking, HG , don't get too worked up. It is possible. It sounds like it is v good from what people are saying here and she is a bit of a draw, no?
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 22, 2017 22:19:17 GMT
Just asking, HG , don't get too worked up. It is possible. It sounds like it is v good from what people are saying here and she is a bit of a draw, no? I wonder when the NT last transferred a Shakespeare to the West End. Did the Richard Eyre/Ian McKellen Richard III make it? None of the great NT Shakespeares I can think of did: Hytner/Lester Othello, Eyre/Holm Lear, Nunn/Goodman Merchant, though that transferred from the Cottesloe to the Olivier, I think.
Come to think of it, when was the last time the NT transferred a play to the West End that wasn't a new play? It rarely happens, if at all. The odd musical, I suppose: Carousel, My Fair Lady.
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Post by trapdoor on Feb 23, 2017 13:01:50 GMT
Just asking, HG , don't get too worked up. It is possible. It sounds like it is v good from what people are saying here and she is a bit of a draw, no? I wonder when the NT last transferred a Shakespeare to the West End. Did the Richard Eyre/Ian McKellen Richard III make it? None of the great NT Shakespeares I can think of did: Hytner/Lester Othello, Eyre/Holm Lear, Nunn/Goodman Merchant, though that transferred from the Cottesloe to the Olivier, I think.
Come to think of it, when was the last time the NT transferred a play to the West End that wasn't a new play? It rarely happens, if at all. The odd musical, I suppose: Carousel, My Fair Lady.
War Horse and Curious Incident....?
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 23, 2017 13:32:44 GMT
War Horse and Curious Incident....? No, Shakespeare died before he got round to writing those two. They were both new plays.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2017 14:20:03 GMT
Well, War Horse had been, gone, and come back to the NT before making it to the West End so could have counted as a revival before transferring. Same with This House. The History Boys likewise did the rounds a fair bit before I finally saw it in the West End. Otherwise there's always (ALWAYS) An Inspector Calls...
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 23, 2017 14:24:16 GMT
so could have counted as a revival before transferring A revival of the original production of a new play. An Inspector Calls first transferred twenty or so years ago. Bordeaux was asking whether the NT has transferred any revived play since then. It sometimes happened up to thirty years ago - off the top of my head, I remember The Crucible and Three Men and a Horse.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2017 14:26:42 GMT
Actually I think you'll find Bordeaux was asking Come to think of it, when was the last time the NT transferred a play to the West End that wasn't a new play?
Come on, it's RIGHT THERE on the thread. So, anything more recent than An Inspector Calls (and less tenuous than War Horse/This House/History Boys), anyone? EDIT: oh man, HG changed his post while I was replying to it. Still, good to see he recognised the mistake in his phrasing, I suppose, even if my post now looks a bit weird because of it.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 23, 2017 14:32:50 GMT
There may have been some more recent. I can't be bothered to check. When was Baby Doll? (And I can't remember if the NT co-produced Baby Doll with Birmingham Rep or just presented a Birmingham Rep production at the NT, before the West End transfer).
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Post by vdcni on Feb 23, 2017 14:48:06 GMT
They transferred Noises Off in 2000 didn't they.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2017 14:56:47 GMT
Didn't the phone hacking one (Great Britain) transfer to the Haymarket? 2014/15?
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 23, 2017 14:57:42 GMT
Didn't the phone hacking one (Great Britain) transfer to the Haymarket? 2014/15? That was new, Emi!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2017 14:59:02 GMT
Didn't the phone hacking one (Great Britain) transfer to the Haymarket? 2014/15? That was new, Emi! You know what the pedant brigade made me lose track of what the bloody question was....
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Post by vdcni on Feb 23, 2017 14:59:28 GMT
Jumpers - that went to Broadway, I think it went to the West end first
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 23, 2017 15:05:52 GMT
Jumpers - that went to Broadway, I think it went to the West end first Yes, 2003. From Lyttelton to Piccadilly.
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Post by bellboard27 on Feb 23, 2017 15:12:14 GMT
War Horse and Curious Incident....? No, Shakespeare died before he got round to writing those two. They were both new plays. I think you'll find that he did mean to. So personally I treat them as half canon.
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 23, 2017 17:41:32 GMT
Thanks for replies re transfers. It's interesting to me that so few classic plays get transferred. An Inspector Calls, Jumpers and Noises Off, the latter two by living playwrights, in the past 25 years or so, it appears.
As to numbers, I'm grateful to Daniel Rosenthal's wonderful The National Theatre Story for some facts: 60ish is fairly normal for a classic play with good cast (Hytner's Hamlet was 60, his Timon 61) but occasionally they go above that - the Dominic Cooke Comedy of Errors got 80 performances (Lenny Henry) and the Hytner Othello 100, which is exceptional.
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Post by peggs on Feb 23, 2017 21:14:05 GMT
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