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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 29, 2017 15:31:47 GMT
I saw this first in Plymouth when it started the short tour. It is and was a very good family show and received very good reviews. The sets built by the Theatre Royal were a great reflection of the riverbank and homes. IF they had copied something like the Nationals depiction of the homes in their version of Willows, you all would have said "oh cant come up with something original". Once you have heard the music a couple of times there are some good songs there. I was also there on Wednesday and thought Chris did a great job as toad and was far better the Mr Hound, especially as he had not run through the show before. There were quite a few changes in most scenes from Plymouth - I did feel a bit of over kill on the weasels and stoats with what seemed longer musical scenes with them. The part where (asmdsmsandm) says girls came to the front of the stage and sang a song - they were supposed to be "air-hostesses" - swallows flying back for summer. Also the hedgehog song is good and something a bit different to bring them into the story with a bit of humour - also a lot of the animals sang their own bits during the show. This board is all about discussion about shows and is very interesting to read, but remember not everyone goes to shows many times a week or month as people who can get into London easily can. Further afield from London it is a night out for most a couple of times a year - so please remember a lot go to sit and be entertained for an evening without thinking of the deeper places of the story. Yes they would say "that wasn't very good" or "a bit slow", but most would go and tell friends "I really enjoyed that". I expect to be slapped down for this and I also don't like some shows I have seen but I feel a tour of this would do well in the sticks more than London. I just say what I feel. I don't go looking to rip a show to shreds and have often enjoyed "unpopular" shows. But if I don't enjoy a show I'm not one to hold back. I am glad you enjoyed it and personally wish I had done so too. Each to their own - and on to the next one
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 18:37:03 GMT
The notes are there, but not necessarily in the right order for sure. Oh dear. I couldn't even make it to the end of that clip. Poor bloke. I do suggest his (confessed) over-indulgence of various "substances" in his younger days perhaps has played a part in his current condition... and all that running around, throwing himself on the ground and putting on a show every night can't have been good on those limbs...
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 18:18:56 GMT
He's had a double hip replacement I believe and when I saw him, spent the entire thing leaning on a table set up at the back of the stage, panting and sweating. But his singing was really embarrassing:
The ten longest minutes of my life...
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 18:13:17 GMT
^Older stars can go through "dips" I think. I remember seeing Debbie Harry live in the early 90s, and she both sounded and looked awful. These days, she's a 100% better. So maybe hope for Meatloaf yet. Old Loaf had certainly gone through his dips - ketchup, BBQ - with a family sized box of chicken nuggets or two, by the looks of it.
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Chess
Jun 28, 2017 17:02:00 GMT
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 17:02:00 GMT
In an English language recording where actors are pretending to be from Switzerland, Britain, America and Russia, it's grating for everyone to be all "hurdy gurdy, bork bork bork". I know. It's the same as when Tommy Körberg tries that awful Russian accent during 'Anthem' and fails miserably. And don't get me started on Josh Groban and Kerry Ellis with their attempts at sounding like they're from downtown St Petersburg in the Albert Hall show. Norm Lewis's accent is also hilarious. I get off on this stuff! Ha!
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Chess
Jun 28, 2017 17:00:44 GMT
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 17:00:44 GMT
It sounds pedantic but the accents are really annoying on that recording, particularly the chap playing Freddie. They all sound sooo Scandinavian, with very thick accents, and it's rather distracting. Coupled with some not-great vocals, I don't often get that dusty old CD out! Freddie is played on that recording by Zubin Varla, who is British. Really?! Wow, now that I did not realise! I really like Zubin Varla on the Jesus Christ Superstar recording with Steve Balsamo. I wonder why his accent is so bizarre in Chess?
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Chess
Jun 28, 2017 14:20:19 GMT
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 14:20:19 GMT
Scandinavian accents in Scandinavia ? Shocking In an English language recording where actors are pretending to be from Switzerland, Britain, America and Russia, it's grating for everyone to be all "hurdy gurdy, bork bork bork".
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 14:00:12 GMT
I hope the show does make back its investment as a minimum. It's a quality production and their ambition should be rewarded.
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 13:52:06 GMT
may see this as the closest they will get to seeing Meatloaf live (he is still alive but his voice isn't what it was) I don't want to go too O/T and derail the discussion, but you're so right. I like Meatlof and "Bat Out of Hell" is one of my favourite albums. But I had the misfortune of seeing the Last at the Bat tour a few years ago and it was really embarrassing. The guy could barely stand up.
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 13:48:02 GMT
Drury Lane has always been a **** of a venue in summer. I remember seeing My Fair Lady during a heatwave in 2003 and they were giving out branded My Fair Lady hand fans in the upper circle (it was stifling)
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Chess
Jun 28, 2017 13:43:38 GMT
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 13:43:38 GMT
I had a CD a.few years ago which someone gave to me which I loved. It is sung in English but I am fairly sure it is from the Danish tour (Wikipedia suggests 2001ish). Florence's vocals are great so worth trying to get hold of. I was trying to remember if I had the Swedish version starring Helen Sjöholm but it seems that was sung in Swedish but there are clips of her singing in English on YouTube which may be what I am thinking of. Yes. I'm a huge fan of Chess's music and own every cast recording. You're referring to the 2001 Scandinavian Tour recording starring Stig Rossen (London Valjean, 1998) I must confess I don't care much for that recording, though. Rossen sounds far too much like Tommy Körberg (unsurprising considering Rossen himself is a big fan and said in interviews he is trying to emulate him in the role), but he's easily the best on the recording. It sounds pedantic but the accents are really annoying on that recording, particularly the chap playing Freddie. They all sound sooo Scandinavian, with very thick accents, and it's rather distracting. Coupled with some not-great vocals, I don't often get that dusty old CD out!
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 9:49:23 GMT
Outright villain booing in pantomime/musicals is fine by me. Even I booed the Childcatcher in the original Chitty run! What annoys me most is booing of Javert in Les Miserables, something I never once encountered before Earl Carpenter took the role. Must've been something about his performance that played more into straight villain than how the character is normally read by audiences.
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Chess
Jun 28, 2017 8:50:08 GMT
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 8:50:08 GMT
Fans of Chess MUST check the 1992 production starring Jodi "Ariel from The Little Mermaid" Benson as Florence. The whole show is on YouTube and she is absolutely phenomenal, what a voice. Also love Julia Murney in the charity concert (also starring Raul Esparza and Adam Pascal). The only thing about the Benson cast is the horribly 80's styles and fashions which are quite funny
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 8:46:37 GMT
Love both the original Fritz Lang movie and the weird anime "remake", two completely different yet awesome movies. Have the cast recording of this too, going to give it a listen today. Will definitely end up seeing this!!!
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 28, 2017 8:44:44 GMT
Have yet to see him be good in anything.
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 27, 2017 19:18:47 GMT
Carrie! Love this show!
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 27, 2017 18:56:37 GMT
CONTAINS SPOILERS AND HATRED
Saw today's matinee.
Ticket price: £19 (row W, TodayTix app, bought this morning) - upgraded at box office when collecting ticket to centre of Row G (press row with three reviewers dotted around). Around half full in stalls, mostly elderly people and school groups, the latter making up the majority).
To paraphrase the great Roger Ebert: "I hated this show. I hate, hate hate HATED this stupid show". Now, my humble opinion is far less critically sound (and - indeed - respected) than Ebert's, but I will do my best.
It's a dog of a show. A real hot mess of semi-meta Pantomime fourth-wall breaking, "family comedy" (if your family consists entirely of imbecilic under 10's) and lazy storytelling.
The show begins with - actually, scratch that. It doesn't begin. Or end. It "starts" and "stops". The show STARTS with some of the clunkiest exposition imaginable; with brutal dialogue;
"Oh, so you're a rat then? I'm a mole! Do you want to be friends, Ratty? Great! Let's sing a song! I'm a mole, you know".
The writers clearly didn't have a lot of confidence in the "show don't tell" method on this one. Literally everything is explained; except the stuff we NEED TO KNOW. Mole and Rat sing a song about how they love being on a boat together. While they're on a boat together. That is the entire song. And it's brought back later too (a running theme, forgive the pun). It is meant to demonstrate that they are new friends who immediately shared a bond, but it just comes off plain weird.
One unexplained question is why Toad is so well liked by his peers and a "great friend" (they do a whole song about this, reprised at least twice, I lost track/stopped caring) when he is such a complete and utter cockwomble. As a character, he has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He's an irresponsible, elitist, self-serving bully who committed grand theft auto, broke out of prison by manipulating a seemingly mentally ill person, then became a fugitive posing as a woman. At his trial, upon being urged to plead guilty by his friends (on charges he admitted in open court), he acted with utter shock when he was sentenced to prison. Then while on the run, he commits a hijacking/kidnapping of the same victim as before, a completely innocent bystander, then CRASHES the car with the victim still inside, endangering his own life and that of his victim. Then, to compound it all, the show lampshades his "journey" at the end of the play with Rat outright calling him out on not having learnt a lesson. He handwaves this with a pandering few sentences about how he's a "true friend". And we're meant to root for this guy!!! He's an absolute tosspot!!!
It is meant to be a comedy - there are some half-arsed sub-Stooges slapstick, which fulfilled the comedy criteria, I presume, for legal purposes. But there aren't any actual jokes. And the lines on the script that are played as jokes aren't funny. Or original. Or jokes.
The songs are ho-hum; the "friend" song kept coming back, like a particularly nasty venereal rash that simply won't disappear for good. Talking about diseased genitalia, at least there are no romantic subplots about inter-bestial relationships. No love stories at all - which was nice. The "Spring" song which opens the show reminded me of "Lammastide" from The Woman in White or "Spring is Busting Out All Over" from Carousel. It comes out of absolutely nowhere and serves no purpose apart from yelling at the audience that it's spring (which, to be fair, it achieves). At least "We Need a Little Christmas" from Mame, another incoherently random seasonal song, was catchy. There is a weird song early in the first Act by four girls (I think), and it is performed downstage so I think it was solely there to cover a scene change. I don't know who those girls were now, or even if they were part of the show.
The songs generally don't advance the plot, which in the first Act is at a snails pace. The painfully long first half was a chore to get through, I don't remember ever being so bored in a theatre. There is a random song about hedgehogs trying to cross a road. Utterly pointless and needs to be cut.
The production values and general expense on this production just feels downplayed. Everything is a little bit muted. The cast is smallish, the set is smallish for such an enormous stage, even the pre-show lighting state (obnoxious green LEDs pointed down on the audience) feels like an afterthought.
Someone thought it would be a great idea for all the animals to have different British regional dialects. This reminded me of "The Lord of the Rings", which featured what I described at the time as "a bewildering array of bizarre fake accents". The same very much applies here. Mole is given a poor attempt at a West Country bumpkin accent ala the Hobbits; Geordies, Brummies, Cockneys and Scousers are represented. I strongly suspect that the director asked in rehearsals "what accents can you all do?", then promptly ignored their answers and forced them into these shocking attempts. WHY??
There is a horrible, desperation gimmick finale too with a flying effect (Toad on Wires - actually that'd be a good name for a band) and even confetti! Yay! Bound to send the kiddies home happy. Except they weren't. Nobody was. A very tepid curtain call, bored/annoyed looking people around me.
Oh and the cast? What to say... not a lot. They're nowhere near good enough to save the show. No eye candy in it (unless you want to get freaky with a water vole or grind on a middle-aged badger, in which case a) this is the show for you and b) you need serious help)
Rufus Hound is loving terrible. He gurns, jiggles around annoyingly and has a face you just want to punch. His singing is okay (for a non singer), his acting is just about okay (for a non actor), but he didn't get a laugh all night (which is okay because he's not a comed... oh).
Craig Mather did Marius for ages in Les Mis and was okay. He's out of his depth here. Funnily enough the only one I liked is that seasoned old pro, that salty old seadog, ol' Johnny fella me-lad Gary Wilmot, who is actually mildly interesting as Badger. Even if he does keep singing the same song whenever he rocks up on stage.
The final nail in the coffin for me is that I LOVE bad theatre. Exposure: The Musical? That was a bloody masterpiece. I nearly wet myself at the ridiculous, campy terribleness of it. As I did with Too Close to the Sun and several other "so bad it's good" shockers.
This, however, is just plain bad. A polished turd. No laughs, no fun, nothing. Just things that happen - and largely don't - then it stops.
Joyless, weak plot, pointless.
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jun 5, 2017 13:01:48 GMT
Peter Purvis as The Phantom please, Anthea Turner as Christine With Valerie Singleton as Madame Giry Now you're being ridiculous. I don't think you're taking this seriously at all.
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Evita
May 26, 2017 6:58:11 GMT
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 26, 2017 6:58:11 GMT
Forgot to mention some quite wobbly spotlight work on Wednesday night. Likely a dep, new to the show, possibly a student, probably trying their best. I've only f/spotted a few shows and I absolutely hate it.
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 24, 2017 22:24:50 GMT
I see my last (admittedly rather incendiary) post was deleted. Probably just as well...
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 24, 2017 22:20:35 GMT
Btw something I noticed yesterday. Have they added new orchestrations in Joseph Smith American Moses or is it just me? Between dysentery and f*cking scene. No changes.
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 23, 2017 7:04:24 GMT
She seems like a right miserable cow
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 22, 2017 20:36:46 GMT
At the Prince of Wales right now! This is like my, idk, 11th, 12th time? I love this show so f*cking much! What do you think of the current cast?
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 22, 2017 20:36:08 GMT
****hia who?
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 22, 2017 20:35:13 GMT
Every time I see the name Matt Blaker I can't help but think of (formally Blue Peter, now The One Show's) Matt Baker. Now that would be interesting to see! Peter Purvis as The Phantom please, Anthea Turner as Christine
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 19, 2017 22:10:31 GMT
No please no. Someone completely NEW please. Potentially foreign, I don't care. As long as they're someone who has never played the role over here before. No former understudies, no returning Earl Carpenter for the 63rd time. Please please give us someone original who is actually OLD enough and GOOD enough.
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 9, 2017 23:05:39 GMT
Wow, someone who hated the show more than me.
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 3, 2017 22:01:54 GMT
Just out of "Carousel". The production is an ENO semi-staged affair; I think a definition needs to be created once and for all as to what this really means. Much like "Sunset Boulevard", this is to all intents and purposes "fully staged" with full sets and, this time, a revolve. I can't help but feel the semi-staged disclaimer is a gentle reminder to not expect full blown opera theatrics, given to season ticket holders and top paying sorts as a kind of pre-show waver. I didn't enjoy the design, but as with Sunset, I can't see how anyone could feel short changed. There is, however some dissonance between the enormous venue and the modest sized cast, which would leave opera buffs bemused - along with people in the Gods like myself tonight, who couldn't help but notice the large gaps in the stage.
To call the first act ropey is an injustice to hemp. My only other previous experience of Carousel was seeing a national tour starring Sam Kane - I'm not familiar with the movie although I know the songs and story - but the first act felt like it was in a coma. The songs come out of nowhere, with little provocation, slowing the plot into a standstill.
Here, I should comment on Katherine Jenkins, who I think comes out of this train wreck okay - strangely, particularly with her acting! Her singing is entirely disconnected from her acting, as is so often with opera singers. But is Ms. Jenkins even a legitimate opera singer? Her vocals were gravelly and less than stellar. The same can't be said for Alfie Boe who is note perfect, but is terribly miscast as Billy. I found myself shutting my eyes and enjoying the huge orchestra and Boe's voice rather than looking at the boring visuals. With eyes shut, this production could pass for a good one.
The "pirate song", as I've just christened it, features some laughably dreadful camp choreography. Also, like much of the first act, it was completely unnecessary, out of place and gave me at least a little entertainment.
It was only the prospect of Rodney which kept me for the second Act, and in truth I'm happy I stayed. The pace and energy of the show improved tenfold. I actually really enjoyed the final forty minutes or so, where the plot comes together (or takes a ridiculous twist, depending on your perspective)
There's no doubting something is rotten, even Kismet rotten, at the core of this production. The first Act is unforgivable and some of the staging is atrocious, hurt by a dated book where people really do burst into song for no reason, but nothing is done to address of obvious drop of energy when a random song starts. An improvement in the second Act is tied in closely to an improvement in the source material. Some nice staging emerges too; the creation of the carousel by the dancers was a genuinely impressive moment.
But no, don't see this. It's dated, the staging is naff and the performances forgettable.
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 3, 2017 21:24:18 GMT
Oh come on, it really is not THAT bad. Have you seen it? The first Act was just about the poorest I can recall seeing since The Far Pavilions. Absolutely joyless gulch. The second Act was thankfully hugely improved and the show seemed to find some heart. Overall a very poorly realised piece of theatre.
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Post by SageStageMgr on May 3, 2017 20:13:58 GMT
Oh my God this is awful. Interval. Does it get better or should I go home? The second half is shorter and has the guy from Only Fools and Horses in it Sold. This is f***ing dire.
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