Post by Deleted on May 22, 2017 10:26:28 GMT
The Beggars Opera is 1 of 4 productions produced to celebrate the opening of a new multipurpose venue in Chester. Storyhouse is a library come restaurant come theatre come cinema come bar. Its multipurpose remit is reflected in its opening programme of shows. The Beggars Opera, the only musical in this season, being aimed directly at the 'Adults Only' market is accompanied by Julius Caeser, A Midsummer Nights Dream and the family friendly Alice in Wonderland.
The team behind Storyhouse have been producing theatre in Chester for many years with their annual output at the Grosvenor Open Air Theatre each summer. They have established a strong customer base and this was fairly evident throughout the building, which even on Sunday evening was a hive of activity. The building is unique in that half of it sits inside the former Art Deco Odeon cinema - the Main bulk of the library and bar sits in the old main screen, which makes for an impressive experience to wander round or sit and enjoy, whilst the theatre itself is a new build attached to the side but seamlessly integrated in.
First impressions were tainted as there is no Box Office, per say. Just three self serve machines, akin to the ones that take your order at McDonalds. Whilst ordering the tickets was a relatively easy by impersonal experience, there was a long wait for card authorisation and ticket printing. Hopefully the process can be sped up and I believe that a real box office is pending demand. The biggest issue was the amount of people I encountered unable to find the correct way into the auditorium. Granted the building has only been open a week, but tickets were issue with the wrong door number on and Auditorium doors and directions aren't easy to navigate with signs printed on walls at below waist height, so people stood in the way will easy block directions. There were plenty of staff on hand to help but unfortunately none of them were able to use their intelligence to help direct me to the correct door, as they had all been instructed to be reliant upon their radios for instructions. So I was passed through 3 staff all who had to radio for directions to get into the auditorium. Not ideal.
Anyway, the production. Adapted from John Gay’s 1728 original by Glyn Maxwell, The Beggars Opera is a tale of Mac the Knife, popularly penned as the first ever popular musical. The original was set to popular folk song and these have been replace by new songs by Harry Blake (currently Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer at West Yorkshire Playhouse). Set in 18th century Chester the book is full of local references to appease the locals and some fitting dialogue introducing the Storyhouse, rather appropriately as TBO was the first production to open the theatre.
The entire cast were well suited to their roles. Daniel Goode played a suitably evil Peachum, whislt Charlotte Miranda-Smith took the role of comically innocent Polly Peachum, his daughter for whom he lusts. Baker Mukasa's Filch has some romantic involvement with Polly Peachem and plays a key part in saving the day and the story's resolution. These three actors stood out to me and made for the trio of actors who held the show together.
Whilst advertised as a musical, there were only around 6 and a 1/2 unique songs, the rest of the show was padded out with endless reprises of musical themes and ideas, 1 half of a song being segmented into a reprise to make the finale. The on-stage band consisted of Keys, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Electric & Upright Bass and Drums and the musicians doubled up as actors for some scenes, a concept not unique in itself but made for some interesting moments.
Storyhouse's main Theatre is a flexible space of Thrust theatre for 500 seated or Proscenium theatre for 800. All of the 4 productions make use of the thrust setup and The Beggars Opera really uses the thrust to its full potential. This does however lead to a disadvantage to those sat in the Gallery seating as bit of the action far down stage is missed. There is no mention of these seats being restricted view for Thrust theatre and given that this is a new build, purposefully designed for the Storyhouse group who have been producing theatre in the round for a long time, this is real design flaw.
The Sound Designer, Ben Harrison, known for work on the West End and round the country, decided that the dialogue was not to be amplified and only used mics for the musical numbers. This made for a real shift in the dynamic of the sound and personally, for me, didn't work. The difference in clarity between song and dialogue was too obvious. Especially with a broad range of accents being used: Northern, Manchester, Scouse and South Walian-?-). Another issue I found was during a scene set in a Jail, half way through the scene after a song, reverb was applied to all the speech. The reverb was appropriate for the scene but not sure why it was only used for the second half of the scene, unless this wasn't deliberate. Later in the second act some microphones had issues, pops and clicks throughout a song revealed that the principals didn't have backup mics but this was rectified later on.
There were a couple of other technical issues during the performance, including a Kabuki drop fail of the main cloth hiding the set on the main stage, but for a baby of a show teething issues are to be expected. Some of the scenic elements above the thrust were hand winched and as such required crew up in the gantry. At times, from the gallery, crew movement was audible, but I think part of this production has been finding what does and doesnt work in this new space.
Audience involvement and some other theatrical devices made Shakespeare's influence on the writers in the book fairly obvious and for me it was a shame, given that two other productions in this first season by Storyhouse are Shakespeare plays, it would have been good to see something completely different on offer.
Personally I felt the local references got tedious quickly, but then elsewhere in the auditorium they managed to provoke chuckles of recognition throughout. The audience of about 200 (from a potential 500) responded well and very positively to the entire production. Although the first act at 1hr 20 did produce some fidgiting and phone-out-action, the second act at a better 50mins raced through to its conclusion.
The team behind Storyhouse have been producing theatre in Chester for many years with their annual output at the Grosvenor Open Air Theatre each summer. They have established a strong customer base and this was fairly evident throughout the building, which even on Sunday evening was a hive of activity. The building is unique in that half of it sits inside the former Art Deco Odeon cinema - the Main bulk of the library and bar sits in the old main screen, which makes for an impressive experience to wander round or sit and enjoy, whilst the theatre itself is a new build attached to the side but seamlessly integrated in.
First impressions were tainted as there is no Box Office, per say. Just three self serve machines, akin to the ones that take your order at McDonalds. Whilst ordering the tickets was a relatively easy by impersonal experience, there was a long wait for card authorisation and ticket printing. Hopefully the process can be sped up and I believe that a real box office is pending demand. The biggest issue was the amount of people I encountered unable to find the correct way into the auditorium. Granted the building has only been open a week, but tickets were issue with the wrong door number on and Auditorium doors and directions aren't easy to navigate with signs printed on walls at below waist height, so people stood in the way will easy block directions. There were plenty of staff on hand to help but unfortunately none of them were able to use their intelligence to help direct me to the correct door, as they had all been instructed to be reliant upon their radios for instructions. So I was passed through 3 staff all who had to radio for directions to get into the auditorium. Not ideal.
Anyway, the production. Adapted from John Gay’s 1728 original by Glyn Maxwell, The Beggars Opera is a tale of Mac the Knife, popularly penned as the first ever popular musical. The original was set to popular folk song and these have been replace by new songs by Harry Blake (currently Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer at West Yorkshire Playhouse). Set in 18th century Chester the book is full of local references to appease the locals and some fitting dialogue introducing the Storyhouse, rather appropriately as TBO was the first production to open the theatre.
The entire cast were well suited to their roles. Daniel Goode played a suitably evil Peachum, whislt Charlotte Miranda-Smith took the role of comically innocent Polly Peachum, his daughter for whom he lusts. Baker Mukasa's Filch has some romantic involvement with Polly Peachem and plays a key part in saving the day and the story's resolution. These three actors stood out to me and made for the trio of actors who held the show together.
Whilst advertised as a musical, there were only around 6 and a 1/2 unique songs, the rest of the show was padded out with endless reprises of musical themes and ideas, 1 half of a song being segmented into a reprise to make the finale. The on-stage band consisted of Keys, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Electric & Upright Bass and Drums and the musicians doubled up as actors for some scenes, a concept not unique in itself but made for some interesting moments.
Storyhouse's main Theatre is a flexible space of Thrust theatre for 500 seated or Proscenium theatre for 800. All of the 4 productions make use of the thrust setup and The Beggars Opera really uses the thrust to its full potential. This does however lead to a disadvantage to those sat in the Gallery seating as bit of the action far down stage is missed. There is no mention of these seats being restricted view for Thrust theatre and given that this is a new build, purposefully designed for the Storyhouse group who have been producing theatre in the round for a long time, this is real design flaw.
The Sound Designer, Ben Harrison, known for work on the West End and round the country, decided that the dialogue was not to be amplified and only used mics for the musical numbers. This made for a real shift in the dynamic of the sound and personally, for me, didn't work. The difference in clarity between song and dialogue was too obvious. Especially with a broad range of accents being used: Northern, Manchester, Scouse and South Walian-?-). Another issue I found was during a scene set in a Jail, half way through the scene after a song, reverb was applied to all the speech. The reverb was appropriate for the scene but not sure why it was only used for the second half of the scene, unless this wasn't deliberate. Later in the second act some microphones had issues, pops and clicks throughout a song revealed that the principals didn't have backup mics but this was rectified later on.
There were a couple of other technical issues during the performance, including a Kabuki drop fail of the main cloth hiding the set on the main stage, but for a baby of a show teething issues are to be expected. Some of the scenic elements above the thrust were hand winched and as such required crew up in the gantry. At times, from the gallery, crew movement was audible, but I think part of this production has been finding what does and doesnt work in this new space.
Audience involvement and some other theatrical devices made Shakespeare's influence on the writers in the book fairly obvious and for me it was a shame, given that two other productions in this first season by Storyhouse are Shakespeare plays, it would have been good to see something completely different on offer.
Personally I felt the local references got tedious quickly, but then elsewhere in the auditorium they managed to provoke chuckles of recognition throughout. The audience of about 200 (from a potential 500) responded well and very positively to the entire production. Although the first act at 1hr 20 did produce some fidgiting and phone-out-action, the second act at a better 50mins raced through to its conclusion.
