Now is Good - New Tim Firth Musical - Storyhouse

"£10 of the general admission price for this show will be treated as a donation to Storyhouse, in the event of a Covid related cancellation. Bookers will be offered the chance to request a refund."
I think that wording is ambiguous . It can be read that automatic refunds will be made if the show is cancelled excluding the £10 which will only be refunded on request - which is reasonable. Alternatively it can be read that any refund will have to be requested but the £10 won't be returned - which is more contentious. Also what if there isn't a Covid relate cancellation?

Ticket prices are still reasonable with a generous 60+ discount and I've already booked. However if one tries to reject the extra £10 - for which there is a button - a booking cannot be made at all so it's a compulsory donation which is an unusual requirement.

That can't possibly be the artwork, surely you jest...

Looks like the poster for a children's entertainer.

They’ve re-thought the artwork

Has anyone seen this yet? I'm going next week and looking forward to it.

I'm there next Wednesday. Wasn't it first preview last night?

I really wanted to enjoy this new musical, having travelled from Kent to Chester to see today's matinee but I was very disappointed. The cast are great, especially Michelle Dotrice but the material...

The storyline is implausible, feeling like a succession of barely connected scenes shoehorned together with minimal plot progression. It's not dramatic nor engaging and only occasionally amusing - never laugh out loud funny. With a couple of exceptions the musical numbers are half-sung dialogue. The leading man dies between acts one and two, with not even a mention of him feeling unwell leading up to his demise. He was about to move into his new home which is an old bank being converted for him by his health & safety officer son for no obvious reason. Two characters suffer falls through roofs but recover almost instantly, a lady in a mobility scooter can suddenly walk again, and a group of school children appear in scenes including a mock wedding more suited to a pantomime. A hint of romance between their teacher and the son isn't developed at all.

So it's one for and one against at the moment, looking forward to a third opinion !

I saw a preview last week and while it’s not by any means bad, it's not great either unfortunately. I felt the same way about This Is My Family, the only other Tim Firth show I’ve seen.

I quite liked the plot of the disused bank giving isolated people a new lease of life, taking its inspiration from Storyhouse’s own history as an empty Odeon before becoming the theatre/cinema/library/community centre it is now. (Though I’d agree the lady ditching the mobility scooter was an odd way of expressing that.)

I also quite liked the staging. I think I’m right in saying that, apart from The Wizard of Oz a few Christmases ago, all of Storyhouse’s own productions have been in the much smaller two-tier thrust stage configuration, with pretty minimal staging, so it was nice to see a fairly large set for a change.

Ultimately I feel it’s an ambitious misfire. You can add me to the Michelle Dotrice fan club though.

Always nice to see a positive review, especially when the matinee I attended was only about 25% full and lost some of the audience at half time. The finer points of the show as described in that review clearly passed me by.