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Post by theatrelover123 on Mar 6, 2017 18:39:31 GMT
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1,186 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Mar 6, 2017 18:41:37 GMT
Looks like quite a good cast but I downloaded the album on Spotify earlier to check it out. Admittedly it is only a concept album version but it's VERY samey and has some terrible quite childishly written lyrics. It's like a cross between Lazarus and American Psycho but not as good as either, and I hated both. May hold out to see how this one goes before booking.
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3,057 posts
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Post by ali973 on Mar 6, 2017 18:53:31 GMT
Duncan Sheikh to me is not one of those composers I care to listen to, but I think he does chug out some great concepts. I didn't enjoy Spring Awakening at all, but I can see how it was fresh when it first came out. Loved American Psycho. I've had tickets for Whisper House for a while now, and I look forward to seeing it in May.
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1,186 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Mar 6, 2017 19:03:49 GMT
Duncan Sheikh to me is not one of those composers I care to listen to, but I think he does chug out some great concepts. I didn't enjoy Spring Awakening at all, but I can see how it was fresh when it first came out. Loved American Psycho. I've had tickets for Whisper House for a while now, and I look forward to seeing it in May. I love Spring Awakening (hated AP) - opposites - and Whisper House sounds like it might be interestingly staged and performed so I am curious but not sure if I want to pay £20/25 tickets just yet.
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7,491 posts
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Post by alece10 on Mar 6, 2017 19:07:28 GMT
Duncan Sheikh to me is not one of those composers I care to listen to, but I think he does chug out some great concepts. I didn't enjoy Spring Awakening at all, but I can see how it was fresh when it first came out. Loved American Psycho. I've had tickets for Whisper House for a while now, and I look forward to seeing it in May. I love Spring Awakening (hated AP) - opposites - and Whisper House sounds like it might be interestingly staged and performed so I am curious but not sure if I want to pay £20/25 tickets just yet. I had an e mail today which said tickets from £10 so you might be able to nab one of those.
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1,186 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Mar 6, 2017 19:10:35 GMT
I love Spring Awakening (hated AP) - opposites - and Whisper House sounds like it might be interestingly staged and performed so I am curious but not sure if I want to pay £20/25 tickets just yet. I had an e mail today which said tickets from £10 so you might be able to nab one of those. Nah they all went super quick ...but thanks
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7,491 posts
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Post by alece10 on Mar 29, 2017 21:25:20 GMT
I have a discount code for Whisper House if anyone fancies a bargain.
Band A tickets for previews. 6th to 17th April. £20 if you use code FB50 at checkout. Book through The Other Palace website.
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4,361 posts
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Post by shady23 on Mar 29, 2017 21:29:12 GMT
There's still some ten pound tickets left. I got one today for mid April. Look to be right at the front though.
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1,510 posts
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Post by anita on Mar 31, 2017 9:42:13 GMT
Todaytix now have tickets for this at £15. Use my code ZDANI & get it for £5.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Mar 31, 2017 9:53:19 GMT
Todaytix now have tickets for this at £15. Use my code ZDANI & get it for £5. The minimum wage increases tomorrow but Hey! let theatre workers starve.
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7,491 posts
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Post by alece10 on Mar 31, 2017 16:21:39 GMT
Simon Lipkin just popped up on Harry Hill with a puppet. Surprise, surprise! He was actually quite funny but then I'm a bit of a Lipkin fan.
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1,119 posts
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Post by martin1965 on Apr 1, 2017 19:42:59 GMT
Simon Lipkin just popped up on Harry Hill with a puppet. Surprise, surprise! He was actually quite funny but then I'm a bit of a Lipkin fan. Saw that, surreal wasnt it?
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330 posts
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Post by charliec on Apr 6, 2017 19:58:34 GMT
I'm at the first performance, started 20 mins late and act 2 will be performed concert style because of tech issues.
The music sounds gorgeous but it's quite messy.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Apr 6, 2017 20:10:11 GMT
House
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3,057 posts
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Post by ali973 on Apr 7, 2017 7:30:26 GMT
I'm at the first performance, started 20 mins late and act 2 will be performed concert style because of tech issues. The music sounds gorgeous but it's quite messy. How very Groundhog Day of them!
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Post by londonmzfitz on Apr 7, 2017 8:26:34 GMT
More info please. I really want to see this, but outweighed by the god-awful seating at St James. A good review may tip the balance.
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4,361 posts
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Post by shady23 on Apr 7, 2017 8:39:04 GMT
I've booked one of the cheap ten quid tickets at the front.
Messy or not it's got to be worth a go at those prices.
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330 posts
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Post by charliec on Apr 7, 2017 9:04:42 GMT
front row is a great place to sit, the stage for this is at knee height when sat on the front row.
It's hard to review it properly as I didn't see the whole show as previously mentioned. The story isn't great and the book is messy and clunky but the music is good, especially if you are a fan of other Sheik stuff. Simon Lipkin is good, Niamh Perry is v watchable.
I wouldn't pay more than the £10 i did for this but as I haven't seen the whole show properly I feel a bit mean saying its not great!
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Post by anita on Apr 7, 2017 9:32:30 GMT
I was there too. I found the music instantly forgettable. Was expecting - a ghost story but it isn't really. Considering the delayed start we were still out by 9:35.
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Post by firefingers on Apr 11, 2017 22:33:46 GMT
Saw this tonight.
Still a bit of a mess. Score is pretty great but book isn't, but it was the first show I have thought is far too short. Must have been out the theatre at 9:15. The staging is cool, band on stage and some very nice projection and lighting. Some dialogue felt heavy handed and needed refinement, and sound balance needs a little work as vocals were getting lost at times but then too present during dialogue so it sounded very much coming from the speakers and so was difficult to tell who was talking at the start. Cast very good, particular the young boy and Simon Bailey.
There is a good show in their but needs a little more work at coaxing it out. 3 out of 5 stars.
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Post by tom on Apr 13, 2017 21:06:02 GMT
Afraid I thought this had a rubbish book and forgettable music but a very good cast, most of which are wasted in non-singing roles. The child we saw was excellent.
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Post by zsazsa on Apr 14, 2017 20:57:32 GMT
Saw this tonight and enjoyed it. It is an interesting piece of musical theatre and is very Tim Burton-esque in style.
The book does not have much in the way of substance/development. It is more of a short story onstage. It would work better in one act, the interval is not necessary and interrupts the flow of the piece.
The score has the same modal folk rock edge of Spring Awakening. Maybe not instantly memorable but interesting none the less.
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Post by jgblunners on Apr 15, 2017 20:47:32 GMT
Saw this tonight from bang in the centre of the front row (Row C for this production) - a wonderful place to be if you ignore the lack of legroom! Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. I was doubtful about the music after not really enjoying the clips they've been uploading online as publicity, but I really loved the folk style and thought the orchestrations made it shine. The cast is brilliant, with some really great voices, but I thought it was a shame that the majority of the singing went to just two characters. The other thing that really impressed me was the design - I didn't care much for the projections but the lighting design perfectly fitted the style of the piece, and I liked the open set design and how movement was used.
Unfortunately, this show falls down on its plot. It's marketed as a ghost story, but the ghost part of it seemed more like a side story. The main plot was poignant, but I didn't feel it was enough to carry the show - Act Two felt particularly flat. I also think the interval was pointless, as it broke up the action in an awkward place and I felt that it destroyed the atmosphere (although it did allow me to have a lovely conversation about theatre with the chap sat next to me!). Even with the interval, the show only runs to 1hr 40mins so they could definitely cut it and present it as a 1hr 25mins one-act show.
In summary - a good show, but with a lot of untapped potential. I'd give it 3 stars.
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Post by shady23 on Apr 16, 2017 6:20:22 GMT
I was there too last night and agree that it would have been nice to hear more from the others singing wise.
It was a bit Murder Ballad for me, Niamh Perry was doing her very best to channel her inner Victoria H-B.
Some of the lyrics were very gcse music paper "we're ghhhhoooooooooosssssstttttssssss" but the songs were nice enough and the band were great.
An enjoyable evening though and a rare treat to not be worrying throughout the second act if I'm going to make my coach!
Ten pound seats in row d (actually the second row) are a bargain.
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1,186 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Apr 18, 2017 21:07:51 GMT
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1,186 posts
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Post by Steve on Apr 18, 2017 23:51:50 GMT
Saw this tonight from bang in the centre of the front row (Row C for this production) In summary - a good show, but with a lot of untapped potential. I'd give it 3 stars. JGBlunners, given where you say you were sitting, I think I was sitting next to you, moaning to you about how much I was missing the musical "I Can't Sing", which also featured the superb Simons Lipkin and Bailey, except unhindered by this monotone moroseness. I was grumbling about the song list in the programme, which showed that the two ghosts (Simon Bailey and Naimh Perry) got almost all the songs, and you were egging me on by pointing out that the one song with the most grimly teenage title, "Better to be Dead," got four reprises. Upon which, I started singing the praises of the marvellous "American Psycho" musical, which led me to buy the ticket to this in the first place via the Duncan Sheik connection, upon which the American lady on my left and I got into a discussion about how much I felt that it was wrong to cut the song "Oh Sri Lanka" from the show for Broadway. I think that must have been you, as my seat was front row, centre adjacent, and I'd agree the view was excellent, and the multi-tiered round lighthouse deck design is quite awesome to behold. Some spoilers follow. . . This show is one for adventurers and completists, who have already seen all the 4 star shows in town, and are looking for something that bit different, even if the things that are different have a tendency to sink the drama. The ghosts are sirens, peripheral to the main action, who seek to convince everyone involved in the show to end themselves. The songs they sing are samey, designed to depress the listener, with one being the exact same song sung five times (mentioned above). The songs sound to me like the bridge to grungy Nirvana numbers, with the proviso that just as you are about to rock out, the song stops, lest you accidentally get excited. Ironically, the one superb rock out song, "Take A Bow" is omitted from the programme and the show, and is performed AFTER the bows, in order to energise the audience to get up and leave, following the downbeat torpor of the main show. Simon Bailey and Niamh Perry perform it superbly, though I'm not surprised, as Bailey was the lynchpin of an awesome final London Jersey Boys line up, and Niamh Perry owned that Ben Elton show "The Beautiful Game" at the Union Theatre! In the main body of the show, Simon Lipkin is an invaluable boon, as his irrepressible vivacity brings humour to the character of the Sheriff, who moves the main plot, by pursuing the US wartime policy of the day, persecuting Japanese residents. Lipkin performs the heck out of his one number, "The Tale of Solomon Snell," a rare song not performed by the Greek chorus of the 2 Ghosts. Poor Nicholas Goh, as said persecuted Japanese resident, gets no songs at all! Beneath the siren songs of misery, two good dramas struggle to surface, one pertaining to Nicholas Goh's Yasuhiro's struggle against institutionalised xenophobia (very topical) and the other concerning the naivety of a judgemental child (which drama recalls the much more engaging "The Go Between" at the Apollo). That the cast make us feel a little something for these underwritten characters, involved in these two dramatic situations, over the wailing of the ghosts, is to the company's credit. Strangely, I don't regret seeing this show, as seeing a show that dares to be different, even when it fails to work dramatically, is always interesting, and with performers like Lipkin, Bailey and Perry to watch, you at least get some blood out of a stingy stone of a musical. 3 stars.
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Post by jgblunners on Apr 19, 2017 6:36:21 GMT
JGBlunners, given where you say you were sitting, I think I was sitting next to you Yes, that was me! I listened to the American Psycho soundtrack and you're right, it's fantastic!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2017 9:39:13 GMT
I think it should have decided to be a ghost story *or* a story of the war affecting this one tiny micro-community, exploring either in a little more depth would have made for a decent evening out, but it didn't really manage to do much by having both aspects. I was looking forward to it but it just didn't do much for me in the end. The cast were all great, but I felt the material was sadly lacking and the interval was just a plain old mistake.
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Post by SamB (was badoerfan) on Apr 19, 2017 21:12:33 GMT
I feel bad for saying it, because I like supporting new musicals and there should be more of them on the London stage, but... this was pretty crap.
As others have said, it doesn't know what it wants to be. The story relating to four people struggling to cope with the situation this war has suddenly thrust them in is really strong, thought-provoking and has something to say. It's then coupled to the most pointless ghost story... And that's the worst thing about it, it's completely pointless. The ghosts have almost nothing to do with the wartime plot (and what to do have could easily be excised), and serve as a distraction every time things threaten to get interesting. Their plot also has no narrative, conclusion or resolution, adding to the 'so-what' nature of it.
The ghost characters also sing the majority of the songs, which are for the most part quite samey and forgettable. The exception is the first song, which I really liked.
I feel bad slating it like this - the performances from the six-person cast are uniformly excellent, and some real thought has gone into the staging here (except - why do they all go into reverse in one number? I couldn't grasp the significance). But it needs the ghost story chopping, another hour of the wartime plot adding, and some melodies wouldn't hurt either.
Also - the sound mixing in there was horrible. Much of the time during the songs the 'chorus' was overwhelmed by the music, meaning you couldn't hear the words - adding to me not knowing what was going on or why, part of the time.
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Post by SamB (was badoerfan) on Apr 20, 2017 11:30:11 GMT
Goodness, I was very negative and grumpy last night. It really isn't *that* bad. 2 stars, in hindsight, and not especially recommended.
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