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Post by tmesis on Apr 23, 2024 15:35:30 GMT
Hamilton and Me:an actor’s journal by Giles Terera. I didn’t enjoy this much myself (and I’m a huge admirer of Giles) but out and out Hamilton fans may love it.
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Post by tmesis on Apr 13, 2024 17:50:14 GMT
I found this quite disappointing. It doesn’t seem to get the tone right, occupying a middle ground between straightforward biog and comic send up. It was going more for the latter and was just not funny enough. It would have benefited by being rewritten by Ben Elton.
The resulting mish-mash dragged and I was looking at my watch frequently.
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Post by tmesis on Apr 12, 2024 21:34:10 GMT
The casting’s not whelming me either.
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Post by tmesis on Apr 8, 2024 15:02:34 GMT
I was looking forward to this but with a run time over 3 hours and listening to that dreary song, drearily performed I'm now not.
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Post by tmesis on Apr 1, 2024 13:03:20 GMT
Apart from a first rate cast - Terera was, as ever, hugely charismatic - the best thing about this was the set.
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Post by tmesis on Mar 30, 2024 21:46:28 GMT
I found this pretty tedious and a waste of an excellent cast. It’s all about the fall out from inviting a white supremacist to talk at a Harvard symposium. Frankly I couldn’t give a toss.
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Post by tmesis on Mar 24, 2024 17:45:15 GMT
Another complete fan of this.
This could have been so twee but it was not - charming, endearing, touching and so deftly played by a top-notch cast.
It all felt like a bit of a delightful one-off at The Nash but I’d love to see more of this type of thing.
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Post by tmesis on Mar 23, 2024 18:52:07 GMT
I was very impressed with this. All three performances were top notch - I found them all charismatic in different ways. The audience reaction was very strong at today’s matinee.
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Post by tmesis on Mar 11, 2024 23:56:25 GMT
Absolutely loved this. The production engaged me from the off set and didn’t let go. Very strong cast and a superb Astrov in Andrew Richardson. Having seen him in Guys and Dolls I’ll now book anything he’s in. So fluidly directed by Sir Trev, with one of the best uses of the Orange Tree space I’ve seen.
This really does deserve a wider life elsewhere.
The OTT is on a real roll at the moment.
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Post by tmesis on Mar 11, 2024 8:58:34 GMT
James was really interesting on Desert Island Discs (r4) yesterday. Recommended.
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Post by tmesis on Mar 9, 2024 13:19:33 GMT
Surprised no one has mentioned Charring Cross Theatre. The words ‘flea’ and ‘pit’ come to mind.
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Post by tmesis on Feb 26, 2024 7:30:38 GMT
Giles Terera now confirmed for this.
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Post by tmesis on Feb 18, 2024 15:59:13 GMT
I went to yesterday's matinee on a last minute, excellent rush todaytix (absolute bargain at £15.) It's absolutely ridiculous camp froth and I loved every minute. Great cast with Hamilton-Barritt just sensational (whenever is she anything else?)
Some great singing and an excellent band with fab sax player.
Oh and the production was so inventive and really made that old flea-pit of an auditorium sparkle.
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Post by tmesis on Feb 18, 2024 15:43:49 GMT
I keep meaning to go back to Queens Hornchurch. I've only been once 2 years ago to see an excellent play by one of my favourite writers Tom Wells called Kitchen Sink. They do seem to have a consistently interesting and enterprising programme of events given that there can't be much money sloshing around. The place has a nice welcoming feel too.
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Post by tmesis on Feb 11, 2024 21:15:31 GMT
I didn’t like it either. It’s trying much too hard to be clever and funny and wasn’t either.
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Post by tmesis on Feb 10, 2024 13:31:34 GMT
I loved it.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 21, 2023 18:30:35 GMT
Bernadette in fantastic form at today’s matinee.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 18, 2023 10:58:04 GMT
At Saturday’s matinee I was in row F stalls and didn’t even think about the smoking. I could barely smell any cigarette smoke let alone be troubled by it.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 17, 2023 11:27:41 GMT
I thought this was wonderful.
Everything worked for me. I loved the pacing, the fluid direction, the ‘distressed’ look of the design, (The Almeida has such great atmosphere for any production.)
Musically it was very evocative - the mixture of Polish folk and Elvis works like a dream.
A really talented cast with great chemistry between Anya Chalotra and Luke Thallon. Luke is such a special actor - he appears to underplay Wiktor but then artfully sucks you into his undemonstrative orbit so you’re hanging on his every word.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 17, 2023 11:04:07 GMT
Didn’t enjoy this quite so much at last night’s revival as previously. At least the witch was not played in drag this time.
It’s a reasonably family-friendly production and I was pleased to see a fair number of young children in the audience who seemed to be enjoying it but I feel they could ramp up the spectacle a bit more to broaden its appeal.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 3, 2023 23:56:22 GMT
Don’t do it very often. The most recent was Marvellous @sohoplace. Toe-curlingly awful.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 3, 2023 23:46:43 GMT
Really enjoyed this yesterday. It’s a classy production and one of the best uses of traverse at MCF. The sound balance between vocals and instrumentals was exceptional (it’s so rare to have it this good.)
Also it was so well sung.
Like so much Sondheim the vocal lines are not easy. There’s not much lyrical music in the score, the exception being Pretty Lady. Most of the songs are relatively rapid motivic phrases of 4 or 5 notes. Because of that performances resort to a kind of sprechgesang - and that includes the original, and excellent, Broadway recording - but yesterday it was refreshing to hear most of the notes actually sung.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 3, 2023 23:22:11 GMT
It’s OK - not as good as The Flick but way better than John and The Antipodes (which was dire.) The numerous scenes in near darkness are unnecessary and tiresome and the huge pauses in the final scene between the bloke and the younger woman stretched credulity (I realise that ‘awkwardness’ is here shtick but maybe I’ve just had too much of it.)
Can’t fault the tip top performances though.
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Post by tmesis on Nov 21, 2023 0:00:49 GMT
I found this a bit turgid tonight. The cast is generally solid and Freddie Fox is fantastic - easily the best thing in the production. Greta Scacchi was miscast as Mrs. Hardcastle. I liked the updating and it was all stylishly done but it all felt like it was trying too hard.
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Post by tmesis on Nov 10, 2023 15:02:26 GMT
...nice venue though.
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Post by tmesis on Oct 29, 2023 13:00:25 GMT
I was disappointed and irritated by this. Both Love and Faith Hope and Charity were much better conceived and more powerfully effective than this. I just didn’t care about Alice - the other characters that she interacts with were amusing but stereotyped and cardboard.
It was a long 2 hours in the theatre last night.
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Post by tmesis on Oct 28, 2023 17:27:25 GMT
This is a hard one to sum up.
First of all I would have to say it’s terrifically entertaining - for most of the play there’s a laugh on average every 10 seconds - and I’m really pleased I saw it this afternoon but really it doesn’t go anywhere and any depth, which I think Bean was striving for, doesn’t really happen. Most of the laughs are provided by the razor-sharp delivery of the double act between Alun Armstrong and Marion Bailey; also Adrian Hood as Rhubarb Eddie is fabulous. I found Hermione Gulliford and Christopher Fulford as the son and daughter much less convincing.
There is an important plot development at the end but it’s all a bit lame.
Maybe Bean needs the structure of an existing play, as in One Man and Jack Absolute, upon which to hang his sparkling dialogue.
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Post by tmesis on Oct 22, 2023 12:37:59 GMT
I loved this.
I didn’t see the original play but wanted to and was intrigued by the whole idea so when I saw it was to be performed by two of my favourite dancers it was a no brainer. Hayward and Campbell have always had such chemistry together but last night they took it to a whole new level. It’s a very demanding 70 minutes for them. They are the only performers, never off stage, and have a very large amount of dialogue to deliver along with the completely beguiling dance moves. Oh and they even do a little bit of (quite impressive) singing.
I found them magnificent on every level, including their acting ability which was really impressive - the whole thing would have flopped without this.
Very attractive music too performed by a classical piano trio with percussion; in style a kind of mash up of Brahms, Debussy and more contemporary influences.
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Post by tmesis on Oct 7, 2023 15:11:53 GMT
Charing Cross? Kiss of death.
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Post by tmesis on Sept 23, 2023 18:03:32 GMT
I absolutely loved this. What an amazing, funny, touching, fabulously well acted play this is. The cast are so talented. Superb atmosphere at today’s matinee. The audience were hanging on every word and lapping it up. You could actually feel the love for the characters.
Total standing ovation at the end and, for once, completely deserved.
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