Diana In Concert - Eventim Apollo

As do I. There were an elderly couple behind me who were utterly bemused by the whole thing (and had no idea who was meant to be Diana for the first 20 minutes). They were very sweet, quiet and smartly dressed and were surrounded (as was I) by the shrieks and whooping of the tanked up Loose Women Hun fanbase. 

Anyway, still composing my thoughts. It was an emotionally complex affair for me. Ultimately the audience were very much not responding to it as per the intentions of the writers. Shall leave a proper review at some point! 

Yes there were huge swathes of the theatre people you describe, but there were also huge swathes of those I described. And in the area I sat in, they dominated! (Whether you agree or not, that was my experience. I had huns beside me, in-front of me, and next to the elderly couple behind me. The ones next to me definitely thought they were at the X-Factor arena audition round the amount of noise they were making). 

Re the latter point - yes I do, yes most of the people on this forum do. I think an awful lot of the public don't though IDK.

Not really, no. There was nothing in the promo material to suggest what they were going to do with it, so why would Mr and Mrs Normal sat behind BVM be doing any more research than what was presented to them? 

I have to say, I don't think they intended to make this production funny. There was nothing deliberate in the design or direction that was trying to make it panto-like - nobody was winking at the audience or anything like that. The writing/material, the frankly bad acting (from some not all cast members) and the Noises Off style tech did that job. I'm afraid this show is cursed, and I don't think it would be possible to do a version that would be taken seriously.

I think some of the screaming was also related to Kerry Ellis herself - it was definitely reminiscent of the early Wicked fandom days.

OK. Thoughts composed. I think.

Episode 5 of series 4 of Absolutely Fabulous is called "Small Opening" and Saffy has written a play about her own life. It's put on in a small theatre with a set depicting the famous kitchen and actors playing the characters in her life. Eddy and Patsy end up coming (of course). Saffy has written it as a straight play. Lights go down. And after the first few lines, the audience (including Eddie and Patsy) move from a stunned "what am I watching" to increasing laugher and merriment. Lill Roughly is playing Edina. A few mins in, based in the audience response, she loudly whispers to the other actors "I KNEW it was a comedy! GO FOR IT KIDS!"

Well, it was a bit like that. There were two factors in this concert. The concert itself. And the audience. I knew it was gonna be lively. But it was absolute pantomime (or Rocky Horror style) audience participation. Ooh-ing, ahh-ing, laughing (at literally anything), loud booing and hissing for the "baddies" Charles and Camilla. Never ending mid song whooping and cheering and clapping. It was the atmosphere of the Drag Race tours or the X Factor arena auditions. But like Saffy's play - the energy rose through the first 20 mins until it became fever pitch.

As expected (and as alluded to above) lots of theatre types, lots of the gay fan boy mafia in which I include myself, lots of people who knew the show and it's history. But also huge swatches of the general public, and certainly where I was, lots of huns who were there for Denise Welch. And they basically cottoned on to the fact that what they were seeing was the comedy of the century and became more and more excited. God knows how it was directed but clearly the cast quickly fed off the energy in the room and it became one of those show and audience as one experiences.

So you may think nothing terrible about what I've said so far (and in fairness it wasn't the bad behaviour of the type you see on the bad behaviour thread - no phones, no talking about things not related to the show, no fighting a la ATG). This audience were having FUN! Indeed - nothing wrong with that. In fact it's what we go out for.

Except. I don't thing this show IS an all out comedy. Certainly that's not what the writers intended. Yes it's funny, yes it's camp, yes it's kitsch, yes parts of it are utterly bonkers, yes parts of it are "what on earth is this." I am also not gonna argue for a second that it's some kind of musical masterpiece. But I do think it has a heart, I do think it tries to look at character, I do think there is a lot of decent material there. I do think somewhere in there is a genuinely decent musical. Also as your standard gay, clearly I am team Diana all the way. But Charles and Camilla I don't think are bad people, and to pantomime villain them just sells the thing short. But more important than all of this - there are some truly great melodies in this. I love the CD! So yeah, I wanna hear Dame Ellis belt them out (or indeed Queen Fearn) without them having to compete with the screaming and hissing from my neighbour.

Disclaimer - I used to usually be several wines in at musicals and now see everything sober. Had I been well lubricated my experience could have been quite different I suppose. And I don't wanna sound miserable. I like a loud and appreciative audience. I love the energy in the room you get at last nights, cast changes etc etc. But, for me, this was too disruptive. (And further disclaimer - it does feed in to my current obsession that people can't just sit down and watch something so there is some hyper vigilance on my part!)

As for the production itself. Cast I thought were uniformly excellent. Kerry Ellis just has such a stunning voice she could sing the phonebook. Alice Fearn similarly is an absolute pro. Andy Coxon I had never seen before but thought was sensational as Charles. Lovely voice. Played it well. Easy on the eye. Very pleasantly surprised by Denise Welch. Clearly not the world's best vocalist but sang well enough for this I thought and I was pretty sold on her characterisation. She's a person I like in general so really pleased she came through. Disagree with the pseudo-scientific stuff she comes out with but she's used her platform sensationally for awareness of mental health and recovery in addiction and is such an open likeable person I think.

The band were great. I think sound design was clearly sloppy going by what others have said, but I think I sat in a decent spot for it. It was near the front and was loud and clear for me. Costumes were cheap. Set non existent. SO many mixed mic cues. Lighting design not only bad but also full of missed cues. Very poor value for money in this regard (it was more expensive and plagued with considerably more problems than Evita which recently came under fire for being a rip off)

No flubbed lines or similar and I thought cast did brilliantly in what was possibly a short rehearsal time.

Reflecting on the above, I guess the direction of travel was inevitable. Something can't really be a mix of good/bad/subtle/in your face - everything polarises to a collective feeling and this became pantomime.

I'd like to think there could be some kind of future life for it. After this, I have no idea how they would pitch it though! But it's a good score, and ultimately a great real life story!

A bizarre evening.
5 stars for the vocals and cast
4 for the orchestration and MD
1 for the production vales.
God knows for the audience.
Errrr, 3 overall? It was certainly an evening I won't forget!

I really enjoyed the concert. Being in the front half of the stalls, it seemed like all the 'audience participation' was coming from upstairs. I went in expecting there to be loud reactions to certain lines, so it didn't come as a surprise when it did.

The idea of splitting Diana into old and young was a complete disaster. It made no sense for them both to be in the same scene. Kerry was given some very random lines here and there and it just didn't work. I'm guessing because they had the older Diana looking back, they couldn't then have her dying in the final song, like it did on Broadway.

Andy Coxton was great as Charles, even if he was copying what was on the CD. I was gutted they took the line 'And Just Like That...' away from him.
In fact i thought they were all good, apart from young Diana, who was weak vocally (apart from when she was belting) I was pleasently surprised by Denise Welch. I was expecting far worse.

Interesting that they cut any mention of Paul Burrell - do we think he threatened to sue them?
A few cuts in certain songs, but nothing major. I love the score and I do think there is great show in there, but it needs some lyric tweaks and it needs to decide on what tone they are going for.

It was surprising that the biggest cheer of the night, was for the appearance of the F. U. Dress!

Totally agree.