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Post by sf on May 5, 2018 22:15:54 GMT
Saw it this afternoon. It's wonderful - great songs, excellent book, superb production with a wonderful ensemble cast, and the curtain call more or less blew the roof off the theatre.
Someone is missing a trick, though. There's a long-out-of-print cast album from the original Dundee Rep production; this afternoon's audience loved the show, and if the CD had been on sale in the theatre afterwards there'd have been a line of takers, me included.
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Post by showgirl on May 6, 2018 4:48:35 GMT
Another aspect of this production which surprised and impressed me was that at the end, the actor playing Davy stepped forward to invite the audience to meet the cast a few minutes later. I've never known this to happen before though obviously some theatres do Q & A sessions before or after certain performances and at smaller venues you might see cast members in the bar afterwards. In this case, however, the company seemed positively to encourage and welcome audience involvement - though this may have been just for the relaxed performance. I'd have loved to stay but my sister clearly wasn't expecting to linger once the show was over so that was that. I hope a reasonable number did stay as many stood up to leave when we did. Those who have seen this show, is this a regular feature, please?
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1,907 posts
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Post by sf on May 6, 2018 13:45:10 GMT
Another aspect of this production which surprised and impressed me was that at the end, the actor playing Davy stepped forward to invite the audience to meet the cast a few minutes later. I've never known this to happen before though obviously some theatres do Q & A sessions before or after certain performances and at smaller venues you might see cast members in the bar afterwards. In this case, however, the company seemed positively to encourage and welcome audience involvement - though this may have been just for the relaxed performance. I'd have loved to stay but my sister clearly wasn't expecting to linger once the show was over so that was that. I hope a reasonable number did stay as many stood up to leave when we did. Those who have seen this show, is this a regular feature, please? That might just be for the relaxed performances. It didn't happen at yesterday's matinee.
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Post by TallPaul on May 8, 2018 13:07:50 GMT
Having changed my original booking, I too was there on Saturday afternoon. And I too was sitting on row C.
Apart from the excellence of the singing and musicianship, I think what struck me most was how the ensemble has already become a really tight company, no doubt helped by one or two nights out around Leeds on the pish. I know they are actors (and/or musicians) but I don't think you can fake that kind of chemistry.
It wasn't the reason I booked, but the Saturday matinee was a signed performance. Watching the interpreter, who was standing just to my left, under her very own spotlight, was absolutely fascinating. She was arguably the hardest working member of the cast. Not only did she sign all the dialogue, and the words to the songs, but she also signed the musical instrument(s) being played, the tempo and the applause. On one or two occasions, she also nearly went flying!
And there was a really sweet moment during 500 Miles (at least I thought so). The teenage girl sitting directly in front of me started doing something 'unusual' with her arms, which must have caught the eye of one of the cast, cos he looked straight at her and started doing exactly the same.
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Post by lichtie on May 15, 2018 8:51:53 GMT
Don't normally go to musicals much as I tend to find them irritating, but decided to give this a bash last week as it's got songs by the Proclaimers, it's my local theatre and the last major production in the Quarry before the refurbishment kicks in over the summer. So with low expectations I have to say it was great. One or two wandering accents, and a plot so skimpy it almost vanished, but simple good fun.
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Post by n1david on May 19, 2018 22:10:34 GMT
Loved, loved, loved this tonight. Understudy Euan Bennett on for Ally but you’d never have guessed. Not the most profound piece of theatre I’ve seen this year but definitely one of the most enjoyable.
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Post by duncan on May 23, 2018 21:07:14 GMT
18 - Sunshine on Leith - Kings Edinburgh
Returning from war overseas, servicemen Davy and Ally return home to Edinburgh. Ally wants to settle down and marry Davys sister Liz whilst Davy becomes involved with an English nurse called Yvonne. With their prospects not looking much further than a call centre position can they find love, a future and will we discover exactly how far would they walk….
This is amiable enough old toot but it could be so much better than this production allows. Based around the songs of The Proclaimers with a book written by Stephen "River City" Greenhorn this show never catches fire until the last track. That's when the show really gets going but by then as its the last song its far too late to save this from the general air of ennui that covers the show.
The staging is banal - continual sightings of backstage members coming on stage in the middle of numbers to turn the set, a door that wouldn't shut for the first act to the hilarity of the audience and a fight at the end of the first act that has all of the passion and emotion of Noddy.
Some of the more famous songs are thrown away on poor orchestrations or given to characters who don't have the voice to carry off the tune.
The book strikes me as unbalanced - the first half is mainly the Ally and Davy show but after the break one of them is relegated to about 10th banana whilst we have to sit through the turgid aftermath of an adultery from 28 years previously. This leads to the character having to exposition away his final decision in a serious case of where we desperately needed some "show don't tell" in the script.
On the positive side some of the ensemble, especially Tyler Collins, are magnetic and much more interesting than the main characters and as a Jukebox musical its one of the better ones I've seen as it manages to integrate most of the songs seamlessly into the plot but overall I cant help but think that this production is a misfire that needs more work on it to bring it to live.
A sold out but wouldn't really recommend 7/10
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Post by ceebee on Apr 4, 2023 9:45:23 GMT
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2,752 posts
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Post by ceebee on May 21, 2023 10:29:34 GMT
Saw this yesterday - excellent cast with some really impressive performances. Well done to everybody involved.
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