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Post by paddy72 on Aug 11, 2018 20:53:59 GMT
Caught this in Canterbury this week. (Definitely one of my favourite theatres. So much leg room, big stage, happy audience). Full house, standing ovation, lots of tears all round. I would say audience was 90% women. But we all loved it. Way better than my expectations which were based on some dodgy reviews way back at the start of the tour.
After seeing some seriously dodgy shows this year - Miss Littlewood was an all time low - this has restored my faith in musicals. The whole show is really tight. The cast terrific all round with Emma Williams being sensational. She gave me chills in the second half when she rips the roof off. The songs are all brilliantly chosen and fit the dialogue and story as though they were written for it. I’m no fan of jukebox shows but I make an exception for this one. All the singing is ace and the choral pieces thrilling. Maybe ‘cos nearly every song took me back. By the time the big number and title song comes around I was completely sucked in. Loved it!
PS Why is this show avoiding London? Is it fear that it’s not sophisticated enough? A show and cast with such a big heart would do well right now.
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Post by paddy72 on Aug 4, 2018 20:10:52 GMT
Got a strong feeling Littlewood would have loathed this. For me it was just dull. Like an unfunny ‘Horrible Histories’’ story of a great woman. Terrible asides, nods and winks pepper an unready script and grated on my patience. The lead Littlewood (there are a few of them) was like a head girl. I found myself asking why a massively subsidised corporate like the RSC can take such fascinating subject matter and turn it in to something so tepid. I suspect that in the hands of the subsidy starved Southwark Playhouse Littlewood would have been much better served. She’d also probably be found working in the Elephant garage rather than anywhere near Stratford. Time for some of that Arts Coucil dosh to be wasted elsewhere I suggest.
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Post by paddy72 on Jul 16, 2018 20:51:07 GMT
Loved this tonight. Some of the heart felt bits are a bit over done but it's still worth all the accolades. Particularly good were the child leads who were very believable. It's definitely a show that will stay with me as parts of it touched me deeply. Not sure how it ended up at TYV. I would have thought it was more of an Old Vic kind of show. Either way I'm really glad I saw it.
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Post by paddy72 on Jul 13, 2018 23:37:30 GMT
This play is a masterpiece. I’ve never really gone for his other stuff as I found his wit patronising. However here he uses it to advantage as he suddenly turns on his nicely warmed up audience with a sudden, sickening and very harrowing plot twist. Mr Bennett reveals he has a very, very dark heart after all and is as screwed up as the rest of us. I found myself on the edge of my seat. Really thrilling, moving and momentous. The winding up of all the plot threads towards the end was a bit naff but can be forgiven for he doctors final speech, a magnificent damnation of self serving popular white liberal elitism. Everyone including myself leaves the theatre shame faced or at least they would do had they got that his anger is actually all aboutthem and not simply the characters in this wallop of a play. Go see and please let me know if your interpretation of what you hear is the same as mine. Or have I just misread the whole thing.
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Post by paddy72 on May 2, 2018 20:42:53 GMT
Played hooky from work this afternoon and went to see this again. Got a really great seat for practically nothing then felt guilty for not paying more. Went in feeling fed up and stressed and came out on top of the world. Ready to take on anything. Absolutely brilliant cast (including Lulu) and everyone tapped their butts off. Going to go again and again and again....
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Post by paddy72 on Apr 10, 2018 18:56:54 GMT
Great write up AndyH ! Just been online looking for tickets on the strength of it as I love it when expectations are exceeded. However looks like it’s a sell out as it says call the box office. Damn. Hopefully the tour will extend to somewhere nearer London.
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Post by paddy72 on Apr 1, 2018 8:55:24 GMT
Saw the matinee yesterday and for me it was mesmerising. Perfect in every way. After some of the recent musical revivals elsewhere it was great to have my faith restored in their ability to be transformative. And how wonderful to see proper actors of every age who can really act and sing as one. Can’t praise this show enough. Can’t wait to see it again in November.
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Post by paddy72 on Feb 26, 2018 22:21:58 GMT
OK so I only made it half way through so I know this is unfair and please don’t read on if you liked this show..... For me it was horrible in every sense. Put aside the fact that it’s painfully loud but the performances were just not good. Most of the time I felt tunefully shouted at. Some were sexist and grossly ageist. And why all the cod Welsh, Scots, Broadway accents? Educated young urbanites in the audience laughing at such mockery is like a laugh track on an awful dated tv sit com. Maybe everyone involved thought it would all be hilarious but I felt ashamed. What a muddle. Just as with Hair, the shiny Arts Ed graduate show feeling only serves to make the whole thing more phoney and illustrate that some shows are best left in the past. Even when there are some truly classic tunes lost in there. I hope this is only a blip on SWP otherwise exemplary record.
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Post by paddy72 on Feb 18, 2018 17:40:16 GMT
If this is the same production that was at the Southwark Playhouse I'd say give it a go. I went not expecting much and remember thinking it was really good. Especially the lead girl who's name I can't remember. Sorry. Maybe it was also because it was set locally and so I go all the references to long gone E&C landmarks. Be interesting now to see what everyone out of Newington and Walworth thinks and whether it can travel.
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Post by paddy72 on Feb 2, 2018 18:30:55 GMT
The auditorium was really, really hot last night. The cast were dripping. That said this show is everything that all you who got to see it before us, claimed it to be. Absolutely brilliant. No question. PS The audience we sat with were incredibly posh. Is it like that all the time? We felt really out of place.
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Post by paddy72 on Jan 27, 2018 21:13:12 GMT
Lots of good work in this show. It deserves to succeed if only because at the performance today it felt like it was a show with many fans in the audience all willing it to be great. I felt that maybe some younger hands guiding this great young fresh cast could give it more of a contemporary edge. It reminded me of Forbidden Planet which really was from back in the day. There’s some memorable great tunes in there but the book never rises above delivering the plot in quite a long winded way. I’m sure however that it has a future life.
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Post by paddy72 on Jan 22, 2018 21:32:18 GMT
Just discovered the New York Times gave this a massive rave review - "A wondrous 'pinocchio' with that lion king magic". I guess they see something in it that I think a lot of us haven't. Interesting now to see if it gets a life on Broadway as most Brit shows that get a thumbs up from them seem to do.
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Post by paddy72 on Jan 20, 2018 23:30:10 GMT
Saw a matinee of this today in Canterbury. Sold out House of mostly older folk and grandchildren who loved it and I Get why. You get a lot for your money especially compared to some of the stuff in the West End. It’s a really really lovely production. A young enthusiastic multitalented cast. Great lead in Tom Chambers who works so hard. Beautiful set and costumes. We all came out humming the tunes and feeling genuinely happy. Biggest surprise of all was Claire Sweeney. Always saw her as a tv actress but she is sensational in this. This gets my vote for sleeper hit of the year.... so far.
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Post by paddy72 on Jan 12, 2018 22:08:12 GMT
Finally got to see this last night. Looked like a full house to me. Found it to be really charming in every way. An old fashioned Brit musical complete with stellar over the top performances (in a good way!) dreadful gags (in a lovely way), hammy choreography (wanted to be up there with them) bouncy tunes ( nothing too challenging) and a shakey set. By comparison to that bruise-r broadway blockbuster that beats its audience into submission this is like spending an evening with people you’ve actually never met before but feel like you know really well. So pleased it’s looks to have found an audience and hopefully with time it will be seen as the return of the proper new story book musical and the death of all the jukebox stuff and umpteen classic revivals. Fingers crossed x
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Post by paddy72 on Dec 16, 2017 19:04:53 GMT
Not sure if this belongs under plays or musicals but since it is about 90% sung through I’ll go for the latter. With a new score that has echoes of early kraftwerk this is a stunning production from the amazing kneehigh. Ten minutes in and I realised how much the bigger theatre companies and productions borrow from them. I bow to their brilliance in conjuring up so much magic just with their stage craft. This is a real company production powered by more than few new touches of genius. If you’ve sat through Pinocchio then I beg you to go and see this and watch how puppetry really can come to life. If you don’t know the book or film then you might want to check out a quick synopsis as there is a degree of surrealism going on here. Go with it and you’ll find the second half a real crescendo. A final shout out for the venue, shoreditch town hall. It’s actually a genuine largely intact old municipal music hall with a faded glory that adds incredible atmosphere. I genuinely loved this show and can’t wait now for their return later this year.
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Post by paddy72 on Dec 15, 2017 19:04:38 GMT
The little I saw of this last night I loved. However I gave in at the interval. My stupid mistake was booking seat BB6 which i thought had leg room and was at the end of a row. It was actually half a seat with the proscenium arch set cutting right through the middle of it. So avoid it at any cost. Based on my experience alone I would suggest that the owners of the trafalgar remain true to form with their grab for every last penny they can screw out of us punters. If they only spent time sitting in their own auditorium and expended less energy banging on about 'their new craft beers now available at the bar' they might appreciate that this charming little show and its audience really deserves so much better. Fix the basics ! Be interested to hear from others now about what the second act was like....
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Post by paddy72 on Dec 2, 2017 19:17:41 GMT
Managed to get a £15 tkt for the Saturday matinee and you realise how good the seating is here. It a dull auditorium and this afternoon was appropriately chilly in there but you get loads of leg room and great sight lines and nice staff. Of the show there is little left to say. Yes this plot is much clearer but the songs are still resonate of so many of ALWs other tunes from JCS and Evita to Boys in the photograph and those reworked for the later Love never dies which I would argue is far superior. And yes I agree that in the end it is all rather grey. All these years later it's hard to imagine how our greatest theatre brains could have got so excited by it all as to believe it would be a worthy successor to the blockbusters like Les Mis and fill The Palace eight shows a week for a multi decades run. But the singing is first class and the production runs like clockwork and for this alone I take the shame of paying so little. Our theatre is worth so much more than the cheap prices we are all currently driving the market down to. I fear that as in retail, cheaper prices will ultimately leave us with poorer product.
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Post by paddy72 on Dec 1, 2017 22:58:21 GMT
Just got in after seeing this. The director gave us a nice speech before curtain up warning us this would be only their second complete run through and so there may be stoppages. But none needed. So Congratulations to the really, really hard working cast on making it all the way through. They work so hard. I wonder if the strange atmosphere tonight was simply 'cos they're all knackered. No critique from me other than to say it's very National Theatre with the songs retaining only a tiny vestige of your typical Disney vibe.
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Post by paddy72 on Nov 30, 2017 19:14:54 GMT
3 and 4 stars It’s hardly the hit of the year And unlikely to help the shift tickets at £125 Best to take the forum with a sack of salt sometimes 😂😂😂 Critics are writing to sell newspapers not theatre seats. Give yourself a treat my friend. Go see it and then make your own mind up.
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Post by paddy72 on Nov 23, 2017 22:30:00 GMT
If you are expecting the sort of show like Scrooge or any of the film productions that have been attempted then be warned that this is not what you'll get. This is way out of their league. It's the most moving experience that you'll see this Christmas. Yes there are bells and heart rendering renditions of proper carols and free mince pies. And yes it really does snow. But more than this is a tale you thought you knew but suddenly discover you never did. The story is weirdly truer to the novel despite taking huge liberties with its telling. It really goes hard on the moral and that is probably why it feels so much closer to Dickens original telling. It is also why I felt so emotionally bound up in the whole night. The nearer it gets to the holiday the more wonderful it will be I'm sure. I'm booking to see it again. Beautiful. Wonderful. Unforgettable. Matthew Wharcus is us is a true genius.
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Post by paddy72 on Oct 19, 2017 22:41:20 GMT
The smell of the warm Madeleine's that greets you at interval time is indeed the highlight of the entire evening upstaging what should have been a great play in a new (rather cheap looking) theatre. Disappointing all round but I am sure that with such a lovely front of House team things will get in to their stride. If this venture is going to stand a chance of surviving in frontier land SE1 I'd urge the two Nicks to pop round the corner to Southwark Playhouse and see how thrilling theatre really can be.
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Post by paddy72 on Sept 5, 2017 6:51:46 GMT
I must be growing younger in my old age as I found this a long tiresome night out. A shame as I have fond memories of earlier productions. Maybe it was all down to the huge set which took up all of the centre stage excluding views of half the performances. Or maybe it was the way too many same-y songs. Or maybe it was the idea of such a gay concept - follies - being devoid of a single gay character. Who knows but with a West End full now of similar sorts of revivals I don't get why this theatre company should want to give up yet another one. Where's the new stuff people? Does no one at the National have anything new to say ?
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Post by paddy72 on Jul 25, 2017 22:02:42 GMT
Just come out of a preview of this astonishing production at The Old Vic. I've not experienced a show having so much power over an audience for yonks. It reduced whole rows of people to tears so breathtaking and heart rendering is it and so beautifully crafted. Some people will call it a jukebox musical, others a play with music but it really, really isn't either. Bob Dylan's songs have been rearranged and transformed in to something totally new. They speak volumes. This is a totally new sort of show and I genuinely came away thinking that Musical theatre had just been reinvented. However with a cast and band of around 30 on stage it will be interesting to see who will have the guts to transfer it to the west end. I suspect like Groundhog Day it will head straight to broadway. If you like your theatre to take you out of the everyday and away to some place special then this is for you. Wonderful magical stuff that hasn't been seen in London, at least, for a very long time. I give it 10 stars out of 5
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Post by paddy72 on Jul 20, 2017 21:29:10 GMT
Set at Choco factory was a fraction of the size and just a room which became his bedroom, living room, class room with sofas, beds and other stuff being pulled out from multiple doors. Very clever design.
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Post by paddy72 on Jul 20, 2017 21:24:39 GMT
was the set the same as at curve? So looks like this
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Post by paddy72 on Jul 20, 2017 12:28:25 GMT
Saw this on Tuesday night. Completely fell in love with it inspite of being in a bad mood before going. Completely lifted my week. Urge you all to go see it as wasn't full but word of mouth will undoubtedly fix that. Big shout out to all the kids in the show who are astonishingly talented. They act, sing and dance up a storm but more importantly were all totally believable. Only negative was that physically the show felt cramped and consequently frenetic with all the scene changes. But hey that's the choco factory for you.That aside it is definitely my fav show for 2017. So far....
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Post by paddy72 on Mar 11, 2017 18:39:12 GMT
Got a great seat for £39 centre isle row B this afternoon. Perfect for me as I'm tall. Absolutely loved every moment. A great big Broadway show with a full orchestra in the pit which sounded sensational. Even had two pianos. Definitely the most welcome surprise so far this year. Want to go back and see how it looks from the circle. And the Dominion was looking the best it's ever looked. It may be the ugliest auditorium in the west end but all the work done recently has made it an impressive place to see a show. Best of all no noisy food on sale. Thoroughly recommend the whole thing
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Post by paddy72 on Feb 18, 2017 17:42:29 GMT
Just tried to make it through this. Having a seat with no leg room however, made it not worth hanging around for the second half. Sure, It was like watching a party but that's all that it seemed to be about. All that shrill singing and all dancing on a platform the size of a postage stamp. The producer has done some of the most memorable shows I've ever seen down at the Southwark playhouse not least Side Show. Real shame.
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