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Post by Nelly on Mar 10, 2016 9:20:07 GMT
I do not get the hate for Wicked - it has to be directed toward the show's mega success rather than the show itself which is highly original in its score - Stephen Schwartz's best by far - and has one of the best books ever in a musical. In your opinion. The score or book might not be to peoples taste. It doesn't have to be agenda driven!
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Post by Nelly on Mar 9, 2016 17:04:30 GMT
By contrast I didn't enjoy the London legally blonde recording and I don't think all the cast gave their best performances on it I don't actually think it's the cast on that one. The quality of the recording is super shoddy. Volume levels all over the place. Sounds tinny at many points. Really bad. I'm a big,big fan of live recordings. Billy Elliot is my least favourite studio cast recording as for some unknown reason they decided to add loads of extra backing vocals that never were or have been in the show. I could go on but that's for another thread.
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Post by Nelly on Mar 9, 2016 9:48:51 GMT
If/When you're next at the Dominion, look up at the top back, facing away from the stage when standing at the front of the stalls or dress circle and you'll see the front of what used to be the grand circle at the theatre. Now turned into offices and corporate spaces. Very interesting factoid! Do you happen to know roughly what the capacity was when the grand circle was in use? 2,835! There's lots of hidden stairwells all over the theatre (mainly backstage) that aren't in use anymore and when going up to the dress circle, the stairs for the grand circle are still there obviously.
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Post by Nelly on Mar 8, 2016 13:53:55 GMT
Debbie Kurup as Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act. She was phenomenal. I LOVED Patina Miller but sometimes thought she phoned it in.
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Post by Nelly on Mar 7, 2016 10:38:34 GMT
If/When you're next at the Dominion, look up at the top back, facing away from the stage when standing at the front of the stalls or dress circle and you'll see the front of what used to be the grand circle at the theatre. Now turned into offices and corporate spaces.
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Post by Nelly on Mar 4, 2016 16:20:06 GMT
Did I read somewhere that Poppins was going back into London at the end of the tour or have I imagined that? I think it was more people debating/wishing/gossiping that it could go into the Victoria Palace (now Delfont owned) after the refurb. I'd love to see it back in town, I'm seeing it on tour end of next month!
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Post by Nelly on Mar 1, 2016 12:20:46 GMT
Tickets for the final performance on sale today @ 2pm. Proceeds going to a charity in Easington. Details here: t.co/EYn0getRgr
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Post by Nelly on Feb 19, 2016 9:54:40 GMT
If you pre-ordered from Amazon, they'll always charge you the lowest price it's been before release date. I also suspect this topic will be glued to the cast recording topic in a bit! By the looks of things it just means they've now sold out of the copies they had coming in? Have you not had any dispatch confirmation emails?
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Post by Nelly on Feb 18, 2016 12:44:08 GMT
My own opinion was that everything bar the live orchestra was a let down or missed opportunity which means that overall it wasn't an enjoyable night out. It had nothing to do with me being expecting a dramatic musical theatre piece, from a production value point of view, I thought it sucked! This is the point I'm trying to make, it's all the other elements other than the music which I thought let it down as a whole. They've decided to stage it like this so just saying 'It's a music gig' over and over again doesn't change that in it's current incarnation, it's actually more than just that. This review seems to agree with me haha! www.westendframe.com/2016/02/review-war-of-worlds-at-dominion-theatre.html While this one, by a critic of some experience, strongly disagrees with you! theatrecat.com/2016/02/17/war-of-the-worlds-dominion-w1/These things are subjective of course, and we've all got our own views. I just think you've got to try and judge something on it's own terms, for what it is. Comparing this to other West End musicals as if it wasn't a musical performance first and foremost misses the point quite a bit, I'd say. Haha I'm aware I was being facetious! Yes, this is what I love about theatre (and arts) in general is that it can totally split opinions and different people can get different things out of it. Hey, that's exactly why we're all still here on this new board! It is quite amazing how it's split so many critics though!
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Post by Nelly on Feb 18, 2016 12:03:29 GMT
It's a music gig, a live performance of a famous bestselling album (still one of the biggest selling albums ever in the UK), conducted by the original artist live on stage.
Plenty of people regularly pay a similar amount to see their favourite band on stage, with none of the extra drama and performance aspects this has
. . . their failure in my view is them not making clear enough what exactly the show is.
I agree. Here's a similar example. Kate Bush's "Before the Dawn" at Hammersmith Apollo was advertised as a music gig. The added theatrical bells and whistles, with a storyline progressing the songs from one to the next, resulted in music reviewers giving 5 stars across the board. God forbid if that show had played to theatrical critics at the Dominion, who would have evaluated the story as underproduced thin gruel, with a helicopter effect that had been done 30 years earlier to greater effect by Miss Saigon, or whatnot. And Bush didn't even stump up for an onscreen superstar, Liam Neeson either, she stumped up for an onscreen Kevin Doyle, a Downton Abbey butler. Simply put, this is a music gig with the addition of some astonishing theatrical bells and whistles, not a theatrical story with added music. Expectations and familiarity are everything. My own opinion was that everything bar the live orchestra was a let down or missed opportunity which means that overall it wasn't an enjoyable night out. It had nothing to do with me being expecting a dramatic musical theatre piece, from a production value point of view, I thought it sucked! This is the point I'm trying to make, it's all the other elements other than the music which I thought let it down as a whole. They've decided to stage it like this so just saying 'It's a music gig' over and over again doesn't change that in it's current incarnation, it's actually more than just that. This review seems to agree with me haha! www.westendframe.com/2016/02/review-war-of-worlds-at-dominion-theatre.html
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Post by Nelly on Feb 18, 2016 11:10:29 GMT
The show isn't all that different to the arena tour in all honesty - slightly smaller scale, a bit more theatrics and acting on stage. The main difference, I think, is the audience. Being in a theatre means it has attracted lots of people that would have never gone to the Arena tour - people who don't know much about the show but who like shows and musicals.
Anyone going to this expecting a traditional musical and not a music concert with extras are likely to be disappointed...
That makes sense to me. I agree, it is pretty far removed from what an MT fan may expect. See this is my issue with it, I went in knowing pretty much nothing about it apart from familiar with some of the score. I felt the biggest let down was the casting of it. If it's all about the music and tacky effects then why cast people like they have in it? Apart from the Journalist on video, does anyone else need to be a 'name'?? Perhaps I'm more discerning than their target audience who probably couldn't care who was standing in front of them singing as they're happy to be having a night out in a West End theatre? Though saying all that, I thought the production values of the show were pretty shoddy. Granted I went on the first preview, but having read and spoken to others who've been since, things haven't improved that much since. So I'm still failing to see what you're meant to enjoy, if you've paid a ticket to see it and the only good thing about it is the live orchestra when realistically there's lots more to it that they've thrown at it. That's why I don't really buy the argument about it being the wrong audience. If I'm paying a significant amount of money to see something live, I want to see value for my money. On another note, there's already a few offers around for those that didn't want to pay full whack. Here's one below! www.lovetheatre.com/tickets/4579/The-War-Of-The-Worlds?gclid=CjwKEAiA9JW2BRDxtaq2ruDg22oSJACgtTxckQ36cfr2kDKc2tL5sFI4f0bMm8sdygACOyWuaMJEchoCo-zw_wcB
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Post by Nelly on Feb 17, 2016 17:45:38 GMT
Thanks all very intersting. So just to move the subject on a bit further, what about gun shots in a show, is there different levels of gun shots in loudness? Who are responsible for these? How loud is a gun shot? What's the difference in loudness between a real on stage one and one that is done via the soundboard? Maybe here a weird question to ask, but I am a fella over 6ft and petrified of some gun shots, I cover my ears in Les Mis and Phantom as I know these are coming. It really depends on how it's done. There's a few different ways this can be achieved, a gun onstage with a cap (small bit of gunpowder) in, a sound effect or a totally separate off-stage pyro explosion. Until very,very recently, Les Mis' gunshots were all fired from a pyro room above the dress circle, stage right. So that's why the sound was never the same for them. Some would miss-fire and make an odd or dull noise.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 16, 2016 9:49:13 GMT
Siubhan Harrison continues as Sarah Brown, Samantha Spiro is Miss Adelaide, Richard Kind is Nathan Detroit.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 16, 2016 9:39:11 GMT
Oliver Tompsett has been announced as Sky Masterson when it arrives at the Phoenix Theatre next month. Glad he's back in the West End.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 12, 2016 10:33:00 GMT
When is the official opening night? I'm excited to read what the critics think! Hehe
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Post by Nelly on Feb 11, 2016 16:20:28 GMT
Knowing the producer it won't go to comp city. Shame as I want to see this train wreck, sorry spaceship wreck ! They comped for the first preview (the actual first preview, not the one that was cancelled) I forget if I'm allowed to say that or not.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 11, 2016 10:56:06 GMT
Are they selling a theatre or have they just lost the contract? I know they own a lot of venues, but equally a lot of them are just on long-ish term management contracts from the local council. Not sure if it's this case or not, but I remember reading of one theatre where HQ had simply won the new contract over ATG. This is correct. Sadly the decision isn't made based on who's the best and who will put the best quality programming on, it's down to £££ and not much else. So HQ theatres will say they can run a theatre with a certain budget that ATG wouldn't be prepared to go down to as it would lower their brand standards/type of stuff they can put on.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 10, 2016 16:16:56 GMT
So, was there ever a talk about a full London cast recording of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown? When it first came out the website featured some samples from the show by the lead characters. But there is an actual full official recording of it now somehow, which has gone out without any coverage whatsoever. They actually recorded one in a studio shortly before the run ended. I'm guessing after that they decided there would be no demand for it since the show closed shortly after.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 10, 2016 10:43:26 GMT
I saw this last night. I went in knowing pretty much nothing about it. I thought it was pretty atrocious to be quite honest. I'll mix things up and start with the bit I liked.
The orchestra, however over amplified they were, were brilliant and a joy to listen to.
Right that's the good bit over with. This is a big argument at the moment about casting. I know when the casting was announced for this a lot of my performer friends were extremely pissed off with the direction they'd gone in. I always like to give things the benefit of the doubt and make my mind up so went into this with an open mind casting wise. BOY did they get this wrong. So wrong that I actually found myself having to stifle laughter at how miscast it was.
Daniel Bedingfield should be NOWHERE near a west-end stage in a musical. It makes me feel so despondent about this industry that people sat around a table (or maybe just blindly selected him) and thought that he was up to the job. David Essex simply couldn't handle his role either, he kept coming in on his lines late which didn't really work when every time any of the cast sang they seemed to be duetting with a backing track of themsleves. Jimmy Nail - another one I thought was poor, perhaps he was let down by the poor sound but I didn't think he was great.
Madalena and Heidi came out the best I think but even they got/looked lost in it all.
If you don't want to know about certain elements of the show stop reading now.
The technical side of things was such a huge let down. Usually, when a lighting designer decides to blind the audience, it's to mask something happening on stage (an actor vanishing, a quick set change etc) here it just seemed relentless and pointless. There are SO many ways the lighting for the heat ray could have been done but this was just comical and a missed opportunity! A single moving light rigged on a bit of scaff pipe trying to match the movement of the video interpretation of the heat ray behind it. The sound was all over the place, Liam Neeson's video clips were barely audible and there were several times when parts of his head were cut off because the bit of random fabric or one of the screens hadn't quite hit his mark. There were times when there was nothing at all for the projection to hit so just hit the back wall blurred. I'm also sure I saw mention that there was meant to be a hologram? There certainly wasn't last night.
When it came to the curtain call, I've never heard such a dull reaction from an audience. Just polite clapping and the odd whoop. Not the rapturous reception I'm sure they were hoping for and that the even more amplified music tried to force the audience into.
I'm hoping for the sake of those that have paid money to see this later in the run get a lot more of a slick production, but nothing can shadow how badly cast this was.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 9, 2016 10:35:42 GMT
The Les Mis (or should that be Les Miz, as it sounds like a US cast) video is fascinating. It looks so complicated, I'm amazed there aren't more screw-ups. I've never heard any really bad mistakes, just sometimes mics coming in late so the first word or two of a line is not amplified (and one of the advantages to sitting at the front as much as possible is being able to hear lines even if the mics are late). Might be the pedant in me and coming from a technical background but i'd actually count line drops as a really bad mistake haha!
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Post by Nelly on Feb 8, 2016 18:15:31 GMT
So going back to the actual sound desk, you say they are hired, but are all the same make and model, but the hire company has one spare for each show, would this because although the desk is the same, they are set up specifically for each show, with sound effects and takes along time to 'personalise' a desk, than have one desk and cancel shows, whilst building the spare? The personalisation will be a file that is on a usb stick, referred to as the 'show file'. You can load it onto the replacement desk and hey presto...!
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Post by Nelly on Feb 8, 2016 15:08:17 GMT
I had this pointed in my direction today. This person seems to be crowdfunding her theatre trips (so she can write reviews etc). Clever or just silly? I guess if people are willing to pay then it's more fool them! www.patreon.com/churlishmeg?ty=h
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Post by Nelly on Feb 5, 2016 12:08:45 GMT
Thanks for posting the link - a very interesting piece. like every other production in the West End, will hire it instead. Although I have no doubt you are right, this^ still amazes me. I completely see the sense of something like Gypsy or Bend It Like Beckham hiring everything; however, how can it be financially efficient for long runners like Les Mis or Phantom to do the same? I guess they must have some very competitive deals and presumably it gives a very flat financial profile because the costs are continuous. Now that I'm musing on the subject, I'm curious about how often big elements of the sound systems on such shows are replaced? For example, how often does the sound desk on Les Mis get upgraded to a new one (not a replacement because the other one is faulty or just old, but when do they change the desk for one with new features so that they can use those new features)? Is it every five years, ten? Presumably, despite being hired, everything that a long-running show gets is completely new? Do they run them to the end of life (e.g. for things like mic packs) or do they get swapped out regularly and then the used ones get hired out again to lower budget productions? I can only speak from a lighting standpoint here. No show will ever buy their rig outright at the beginning. If the show is super-duper long running then eventually the hire companies will 'write-off' the equipment on their books and a deal will be agreed to charge a lesser rate but obviously are still contracted should lights malfunction and cant be repaired on site. No the equipment won't be brand new (unless it's specialised and the company either doesn't own it before and can justify purchasing it), some hire companies's equipment is more reliable than others as it's better looked after when back at the warehouses etc. Regarding technology updates, they'll really only get swapped out if there is justification for it and not so they can play with new features. For example, Les Mis had to swap their lighting desk to a totally different manufacturer as the previous desk manufacturer stopped making and supporting the desk. Hope some of this info is informative. I know this was a thread about sound, but there you go! Maybe we can change the subject to Theatre Tech! haha
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Post by Nelly on Feb 4, 2016 9:33:09 GMT
While we're on physicality - anyone else find some of Pierrepoint's barbs at Harry a bit misplaced? Seem to remember he used 'fat' a lot - but Morrissey clearly isn't, and neither do I remember Harry wearing a 'big fat smile' at any point? Yes! He definitely kept referring to him as fat which I also found really odd.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 3, 2016 10:28:03 GMT
I too, when I saw this on Monday thought that the circus line was fluffed. Perhaps it's the way Sally Rogers delivers the line? She corrects herself with such enunciation that it's like she's struggled to get the line out.
I did think the play was brilliant though and very well cast. One thought. Are we meant to find Pierrepoint making people sniff his hair funny? I took it as a show of just how powerful a man he was but the audience was in hysterics at that point on Monday!
I found the curtain call a little odd on Monday too, there was lots of grins and looks to each other amongst the cast and a few mutterings to each other. It was quite odd.
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Post by Nelly on Feb 2, 2016 17:21:57 GMT
(Although viserys did already say in the first post of the thread that he didn't find it particularly suitable for his needs, sooo...) So he did, it didn't stick out in the post as it wasn't a link! My bad!
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Post by Nelly on Feb 2, 2016 16:17:32 GMT
I use this one (not the same as castalbumsdb) : castalbums.org/I've always found it useful, informative and way more complete than the one linked earlier in this thread.
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Post by Nelly on Jan 29, 2016 16:16:22 GMT
I'm going tomorrow, could anyone direct me to where the cast board is, if there is one? As you enter the foyer its on the wall right next to the furthest door to the left, next to the entrance to the grand circle. Enjoy!
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Post by Nelly on Jan 26, 2016 11:55:54 GMT
It was the moment I witnessed two well known members of WOS staff mocking Terri's new venture on twitter that I lost any respect I had left for them. I used to support the Awards in the early years but they got a bit ridiculous in the end.
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Post by Nelly on Jan 26, 2016 10:56:19 GMT
This was filmed this afternoon, and apparently is being filmed all week, for some kind of distribution! Oh good lord I hope that's true!!! Praying for a Blu-ray of this amazing production/cast!
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