396 posts
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Post by djp on Apr 3, 2017 1:00:26 GMT
Hi I'm thinking of doing my postgraduate dissertation on celebrity casting in the UK theatre industry and how this can enhance or disrupt a production and the audience experience. I'm just trying to collate some general ideas to start me off and wondered what are some of the best and worst celebrity castings you've experienced. This can be purely based on the celebrity's performance or it could be the theatre experience in general i.e full of screaming fans, audience not interested in the actual performance etc. Thanks Its a very strange thing viewed from outside the profession. You can have lesser TV names who can do things you wouldn't expect really well, but who still don't bring in a crowd on merit or name. And the same shows can also cast utterly awful names with the same audience figures. Chicago being a good example. And there's the wooden in everything names - who seem to get picked for nepotism, or because they have a deaf and blind fanbase. There's also a mystery why so many mediocre people from soaps get cast when theatre tickets cost what they do, and soap audiences have shrunk massively . Its also a mystery to me why pantos cast celebs, last known in the 80s , when only the older grandparents attending will ever have heard of them. The X factor graduates illustrate the problem that where you became known doesn't say anything about your ability. Some like Diana Vickers can act really well, and do 8 shows a week in a big role, some are good for undemanding roles, and some have fully transitioned into Musical Theatre actors. There's a bit too much of the drama school/ luvvie approach to some people get jobs acing or singing without training - many of our current top singers and actors still learn on the job .And while for some people coming from an ALW audition show or other singing shows adds useful publicity nad experience . almost all those shows have produced people who have been underused as they missed out on getting the BA after their name. There's also the problem of the role. Jerry springer couldn't sing , or dance, or remember his lines reliably - but he looked the part as Billy in Chicago - as he had been a lawyer and was convincingly suspect. And there's a general problem with audiences , many of whom don't know who is really good, don't do any research , and tend to go to names they recognise from elsewhere, and shows they know . I am rather perverse, and tend to avoid shows that haven't got anyone I have noted as being really good in them . I keep on finding new people who I think are worth seeing again But if shows turn up with just a lot of TV names I tend to wonder why they are there - and not any of the the people I could imagine playing the role really well. There's an awful lot around at the moment that shouts out don't bother - because its TV name cast. The talent is increasingly elsewhere - on the good tours, the smaller shows, the empty WE shows ,moving from musicla theatre into straight acting, or on Broadway, or elsewhere overseas.
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4,028 posts
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Post by kathryn on Apr 3, 2017 8:01:51 GMT
. Its also a mystery to me why pantos cast celebs, last known in the 80s , when only the older grandparents attending will ever have heard of them. That's easy enough to figure out - it's probably the grandparents paying for the tickets! A lot of it is more to do with awareness and advertising than anything else. You need your intended audience to find out about the show and be motivated to buy a ticket, so you cast names they will hear about and who will pique their interest. Casting would work very differently if people paid on the way out of the theatre!
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332 posts
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Post by adrianics on Apr 5, 2017 9:31:18 GMT
The celebrity casting in Spamalot almost always seemed to be a catastrophe, Phill Jupitus and Alan Dale being particularly low points.
Joe Pasquale as Leo Bloom in The Producers is literally the worst performance I've ever seen on a stage, nothing short of a disgrace that he was cast in that show, particularly opposite the brilliant Corey English.
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642 posts
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Post by Stasia on Apr 6, 2017 8:57:35 GMT
I don't know 3/4 of the names mentioned above, so I may only talk about "proper" celebrities famous far outside the UK, not someone only Brits would know. For me the celebrity casting worked 3-4 times out of 5. Say, I was moved and convinced by Andrew Scott in The Dazzle, Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51 and Dan Radcliffe was very good as Rosencrantz, providing his Guildenstern a perfect chance to outshine him and not trying to be the biggest star on stage.
But sometimes fails so happen. My worst nightmare is Ronan Keating destroying subtlety of Once with his wooden play and playing for laughs and NOT BEING ABLE TO SING THE MAIN SONG PROPERLY. Like, seriously? I still cringe remembering him ruining my favourite show more and more each day, turning it into the panto with his disability of acting and his crazy fans screaming when he took his trousers off and being mental on SD... Urrrgh!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2017 16:49:23 GMT
I guess it also depends on who you class as a celebrity and youre meaning of the word. When i hear celebrity casting i think more of soaps, reality tv etc, someome assumed to be sub par in terms of quality. I would never class Nicole Kidman and the like as celebrity casting, that to me is star casting. Someone who has earnt a reputation through their strong body of work. Would you class Judi Dench or Maggie Smith as celebrity?
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642 posts
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Post by Stasia on Apr 7, 2017 4:34:39 GMT
I guess it also depends on who you class as a celebrity and youre meaning of the word. When i hear celebrity casting i think more of soaps, reality tv etc, someome assumed to be sub par in terms of quality. I would never class Nicole Kidman and the like as celebrity casting, that to me is star casting. Someone who has earnt a reputation through their strong body of work. Would you class Judi Dench or Maggie Smith as celebrity? For me they are both celebrities and stars. And those from soaps I don't know (for me personally as I'm a foreigner) are neither of this.
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