Post by Dr Tom on May 1, 2019 10:38:51 GMT
I think we decided we could cover theatre school productions in the main forums now, so thought I'd include a few thoughts. This runs until Saturday with two casts swapping between lead and ensemble roles. I saw cast 2.
My first time ever seeing Our House, based around the music of Madness. I'm not really a Madness fan, but the music fits into the score well here.
This is performed by the graduating class of actor-musician students, so the musicians are on stage all the time.
Greenwich Theatre is a nice venue, just a few minutes walk from the Cutty Sark. A fine place to be on a pleasant evening. I sat on the front row, very close to the stage. The rest of the audience (many of whom seemed to be other Mountview students) spread out around the raked seating.
The cast had a lot of fun with this production. The course seemed to have ended up female dominated in the final year and that came across on the stage, but they'd done well to make this musical work. I did find the vocals very quiet compared to the band, but the sound may be optimised towards people sitting further back. I also didn't find this as tight as other Mountview productions (or perhaps this needed a couple more weeks of preparation), but that fits in with the laddish style of the show.
The show tells the story of parallel lives of Joe Casey, starting off as a 1980s teenager, with lots of shell suits on stage. What would have happened if he had made different choices in his life? As such, two actors play Joe, one male, one female, which is an interesting choice, as you watch the different choices unfold. There are some dramatic moments and I'm not sure the young cast quite have the range to pull them all off, but the overall positive mood of the show comes across.
The lads in the cast weren't taking this one too seriously, with a bit of horseplay of the non-scripted variety (unless they turned out to be much more subtle actors than I've given them credit for). Most notably with Keir Barradell craftily hitting Albert Graver between the legs in a way that wouldn't be noticed beyond the first few rows, just before three actors ended up laid across each other on the floor after a drunk scene. The game was rather given away by the quiet actor to actor "you got my b*******" and Keir laid across Albert unable to stop giggling for the next few minutes. At least they were having fun!
Running time is a snappy two hours (including an extended 25 minute interval on the day I saw this).
Will be interesting to see where this batch of graduates end up next.
This is worth a detour if you want a fun (and relatively cheap) night out and a chance to see up-and-coming talent.
My first time ever seeing Our House, based around the music of Madness. I'm not really a Madness fan, but the music fits into the score well here.
This is performed by the graduating class of actor-musician students, so the musicians are on stage all the time.
Greenwich Theatre is a nice venue, just a few minutes walk from the Cutty Sark. A fine place to be on a pleasant evening. I sat on the front row, very close to the stage. The rest of the audience (many of whom seemed to be other Mountview students) spread out around the raked seating.
The cast had a lot of fun with this production. The course seemed to have ended up female dominated in the final year and that came across on the stage, but they'd done well to make this musical work. I did find the vocals very quiet compared to the band, but the sound may be optimised towards people sitting further back. I also didn't find this as tight as other Mountview productions (or perhaps this needed a couple more weeks of preparation), but that fits in with the laddish style of the show.
The show tells the story of parallel lives of Joe Casey, starting off as a 1980s teenager, with lots of shell suits on stage. What would have happened if he had made different choices in his life? As such, two actors play Joe, one male, one female, which is an interesting choice, as you watch the different choices unfold. There are some dramatic moments and I'm not sure the young cast quite have the range to pull them all off, but the overall positive mood of the show comes across.
The lads in the cast weren't taking this one too seriously, with a bit of horseplay of the non-scripted variety (unless they turned out to be much more subtle actors than I've given them credit for). Most notably with Keir Barradell craftily hitting Albert Graver between the legs in a way that wouldn't be noticed beyond the first few rows, just before three actors ended up laid across each other on the floor after a drunk scene. The game was rather given away by the quiet actor to actor "you got my b*******" and Keir laid across Albert unable to stop giggling for the next few minutes. At least they were having fun!
Running time is a snappy two hours (including an extended 25 minute interval on the day I saw this).
Will be interesting to see where this batch of graduates end up next.
This is worth a detour if you want a fun (and relatively cheap) night out and a chance to see up-and-coming talent.
