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Post by anthony on Jan 30, 2018 17:52:30 GMT
Bought some tickets yesterday for early March. £57.50 each for D33 and D32 in Upper Circle. View looks OK;
Looking forward to it because of how much hype surrounds it. I've listened to the soundtrack a few times and I just cannot stand it at all. It all just sounds rubbish to me... I guess I'll see - maybe it'll click on stage. I was in a similar position with Kinky Boots. Hated the CD, but it all just clicked when seeing it live and I thought it was great.
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Post by anthony on Jan 10, 2018 16:56:18 GMT
For anyone interested, they had a 'full house' sign out last night when I walked past about 17:30.
Is it really selling this well? or are they just closing off one of the circles and upgrading people? I've listened to some of the songs and I just don't get it.
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Post by anthony on Jan 10, 2018 8:50:09 GMT
Saw this tonight. So, I thought I was going to love it. It's not my type of theatre at all, really, but Aladdin is my favourite Disney movie, Jafar my favourite Disney character (odd, I know), I love Eurovision (like, I even watch all the National Finals from around Europe) so I was extremely excited to see Jade Ewan and I'm a Disney addict (even have a Disneyland Paris annual pass to prove it!). I hated it. So, Jade Ewan. I feel awful for saying this, actually, but it was genuinely one of the worst vocal performances I've ever seen in my entire life. These Palace Walls was honestly a car crash. during the note at the end, I was cringing and you could hear murmurings in the rows behind me. There was even a delay in the applauses after the song. I thought, maybe, she couldn't hear herself. I was close enough that I could see that her eyes were darting around the stage like crazy and she honestly looked panicked. Sets are great. Genie was great (had the u/s). Carpet was amazing. The writing, however, is just so off. I got the impression that the writers knew it was pretty bad, so it's been propped up by great sets and cheap jokes to get laughs. Great sets???!!!!! Obviously when I say great sets I'm referring pretty much exclusively to The Cave of Wonders (which to be fair, is pretty spectacular).
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Jan 9, 2018 23:25:58 GMT
Saw this tonight. So, I thought I was going to love it. It's not my type of theatre at all, really, but Aladdin is my favourite Disney movie, Jafar my favourite Disney character (odd, I know), I love Eurovision (like, I even watch all the National Finals from around Europe) so I was extremely excited to see Jade Ewan and I'm a Disney addict (even have a Disneyland Paris annual pass to prove it!). I hated it.
So, Jade Ewan. I feel awful for saying this, actually, but it was genuinely one of the worst vocal performances I've ever seen in my entire life. These Palace Walls was honestly a car crash. during the note at the end, I was cringing and you could hear murmurings in the rows behind me. There was even a delay in the applauses after the song. I thought, maybe, she couldn't hear herself. I was close enough that I could see that her eyes were darting around the stage like crazy and she honestly looked panicked.
Sets are great. Genie was great (had the u/s). Carpet was amazing. The writing, however, is just so off. I got the impression that the writers knew it was pretty bad, so it's been propped up by great sets and cheap jokes to get laughs.
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Dec 11, 2017 3:28:15 GMT
Saw Woman in White matinee yesterday and was blown away. Focussing the action back on the actors rather than the gimmicks of projection and fat suits was absolutely the right move. My friend described it as the best singing she had ever seen on stage and I would have to agree. Only issues I had was the lack of focus from Chris Peluso's Sir Percival Glyde. It felt more like he was charming himself rather than his targets: his aggressive outbursts seemed out of place and forced as a result. Castilligios's (Fosco) italian accent inexplicably slipped from time to time but the intent of his two big numbers complimented the story so much better and his 'Get Away With Anything' was a genuine showstopper (no mice in sight). The trio of ladies were completely in sync and the relationship between Laura and Marion was convincing and moving. I was disappointed by O'Byrne's Christine Daae in Love Never Dies. As Laura, however, she is just outstanding. See it before it's gone. Given that Greg was born in Italy and was brought up in Milan, I'm not sure that it was an accent?
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Post by anthony on Dec 5, 2017 10:21:35 GMT
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Post by anthony on Dec 4, 2017 12:27:48 GMT
Also forgot -- they double booked our seats and we were moved closer (to the row that divides the two halfs of the auditorium, so a perfect view and unlimited leg room! I believe row K?).
Rush tickets now available via TodayTix. Will 100% be picking up tickets again in the near future.
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Dec 3, 2017 19:54:01 GMT
Saw the matinee yesterday and loved it. Glad others have mentioned Love Never Dies and Stephen Ward... some bits are identical. Only downside is I thought the entire theatre smelled of urine The auditorium was so cold that people were sitting around me in scarves and hat. They turned the heating up during the interval.
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Post by anthony on Dec 3, 2017 13:17:53 GMT
I saw it last night and thought it was OK. The set looks brilliant, especially right at the beginning of the play. I assume this is because you haven't had a chance to get used to the dark yet, so you don't see the stage hands/actors getting into position for the next scene, which you could clearly see a few minutes later. I also found the entire theatre was so atmospheric, they do a great job of building it up.
I found the interval to be in such a stupid position. The interval should have been after Regan kills Burke and not after Regan uses the crucifix as a phallus. It just seemed like such odd placing and very abrupt. After Burke just seemed like the natural place to put it, if they are going to have one.
I thought that both Jenny Seagrove and Clare Louise Connolly were brilliant.
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Post by anthony on Dec 1, 2017 9:11:23 GMT
They took some lights off from the front of the chandelier and all seemed fine again. Anyway, theatremonkey, for your website: I arrived at the theatre at approx 9:30 and there were 4 other people in the queue. We got C16 and C17, which were great. We walked past the theatre at around 12:30 on the way to a restaurant and a couple were leaving saying that they were surprised to get tickets for the matinee, so it seemed that tickets were still available at that point also.
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 30, 2017 15:53:19 GMT
Managed to get day tickets which I’ll post about later!
Interval now and they’re having chandelier issues. Fell a few seconds late, then they couldn’t get it back up. They got it half way and had to drop it again. Now there are tech guys with pliers!
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 29, 2017 13:43:27 GMT
What's everyone's experience with day/student tickets for Lion King?
I saw it a few years ago and hated it... found it so boring, but the other half really wants to see it. Tomorrow we're trying for Phantom matinee tickets and then I've agreed we can go over to the Lyceum to try and get tickets for the evening performance.
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 27, 2017 10:24:06 GMT
Picked up a ticket for the Saturday Matinee from TodayTix (and then evening seats for The Exorcist!).
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 24, 2017 11:47:08 GMT
Got them. Eventually. That was a stress.
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 24, 2017 11:22:17 GMT
Now I'm getting unable to contact ticket provider. Ahhhh!
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 24, 2017 10:56:49 GMT
All I want is Aladdin! Just can't get anywhere. The rest of the tickets I want can wait, because I think they'll be available for a few weeks still, but Aladdin I think will sell quickly.
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 24, 2017 10:40:18 GMT
I get told that the event is unavailable when I try to check out. Can't get it to work on PC, but I can get to that point on my phone.
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 24, 2017 10:16:28 GMT
Same here
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 24, 2017 9:17:44 GMT
BOGOF for Bristol at the moment with a black Friday deal. Don’t mind if I do! 👍 Where is this Black Friday deal? Can't find anything
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 23, 2017 12:45:14 GMT
I got day seats last month an hour before curtain up. They were decent enough for £25.
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Post by anthony on Nov 14, 2017 8:54:04 GMT
Just claify, this is a different Anthony to me This is a lie. We are the same person.
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 13, 2017 22:49:06 GMT
Just hit me... for anyone interested, it's "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change'. Song in question was 'Marriage Tango'. I can't believe I forgot all about it. It was literally driving me nuts that I couldn't remember it Feel free to delete
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 13, 2017 22:37:27 GMT
Hi there,
sorry for being so vague here... I need help IDing a musical. So, I used to listen to it on Spotify a lot about 2 years ago and really loved one of the songs in particular. Stupidly, I can't remember anything about the musical and very little about the song. I found the musical on a Spotify playlist, but when I moved over to Apple music I've lost it. I redownloaded Spotify, but it seems the playlist in question has since been deleted.
So I believe it was a Broadway cast album, but I can't be 100% sure and the song, I believe, centred around a married couple having a night in after putting their kids to bed (although the kids kept waking up and they ended up not being able to do much!).
Please help - it's literally driving me nuts!!
Thanks in advance,
Anthony
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501 posts
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Post by anthony on Nov 8, 2017 10:55:21 GMT
So, I saw POTO in Budapest on Sunday evening. Wow! It was amazing -- I loved how they not only got free reign on the set design and staging, but also on the characters also. Csengeri Attila is perhaps my new favourite Phantom ever. He was completely amazing, particularly during AISOY Reprise and the final lair. Sets were all great, and I really liked how Phantom disappeared at the end (my only minor complaint is that I feel that surely nowadays technology is better to allow for the cloak to fall like a normal cloak and not a plastic one... Phantom's facial deformities were great too. Also like his long hair - I thought I'd hate it and the promo pictures always annoyed me, but thought it actually added a lot (as stupid as that sounds), especially towards the end of Act 1 when he is crying. The applause at the end though. What was that?!? the other half and I just looked at each other and burst out laughing. Everyone claps in unison, at the same frequency whilst in total silence. It's actually awkward as there is no music either, so it's literally everyone just clapping at the same time, to the same beat to the same frequency in complete and utter silence, even when the main actors came out. Really, really odd. You just clapped louder (but still in silence and in unison) if you liked the character. I did try to encourage a little bit of 'British clapping' ( ) when Raoul came out, but it didn't catch. Also considered standing up, but didn't know if that was acceptable or not... lol... Go and see it! It's dirt cheap (about £15-20 equivalent in Forint for a top price ticket). I think Phantom is gone now until May next year (the theatre has 2-3 shows running monthly and they take it in turns to perform). I believe Mary Poppins is about to start again on Friday with a musical called 1 x 3 (i think?) with Les Miserables and Anna Karanina starting in early 2017. If you're in Budapest, it's well worth a look. There are English subtitles above the stage also. The Hungarian version of Disney's Hunchback starts tomorrow at another theatre in town too.
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Post by anthony on Nov 1, 2017 15:01:22 GMT
Tube noise surely has to be the worst at the Dominion! Literally constantly.
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Post by anthony on Oct 26, 2017 11:34:07 GMT
Dayseats on Thursday matinees are rather good! £25 They do Thursday day seats for the matinee?!?! I know where I'll be Thursday
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Post by anthony on Oct 25, 2017 12:32:12 GMT
Robert Guillaume, the first ever black actor to play Phantom (contrary to the marketing for Norm Lewis' run!), has passed away
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Post by anthony on Oct 23, 2017 14:19:57 GMT
I so missed "Where Did We Go Wrong" why did they cut that song? Was it in at the beginning of the tour? I don't know why, I just seem to remember the audience not laughing at "She'll be Thursday before we know it!" as much as I thought they would. I saw it when it was at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Or perhaps they kept that line in and moved it else where...
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Post by anthony on Oct 21, 2017 20:12:27 GMT
Agree -- I've got a few bootlegs of the pre-broadway version, the broadway version and the 2 differing US tour versions and the UK tour is by far the worst (I believe this is like version 6 or 7 of the show, if we include some of the international versions -- I believe even the recently opened Paris production is different yet again!).
Although I do appreciate the adding of Secrets (one of the best songs in the show, in my opinion!), I still think the broadway version is the best.
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Post by anthony on Oct 21, 2017 7:04:38 GMT
Last night I decided to go see The Exorcist, but decided that I would drop into the Garrick on the off chance they had student seats left. Arrived at 18:30, an hour before it starts, and they still had seats available. So bought them, sold at slightly restricted due to overhang of the circle. Row S, I believe! Seat was decent enough - a pillar on the left hand side was ever so slightly in the way, but I could see 99% of the stage, but did find my left eye was straining a bit throughout (I assume because it kept on focusing on the pillar?). Either way, for £20 the seat was awesome. They didn't even ask to see the NUS card, oddly enough. Just asked if I had my student card with me, but never actually asked to see it... Show was AMAZING. Everything I was hoping it would be. I've been waiting 10 years for it to come to London, I've always loved the cast album. Some omissions from the show included The Happiest Town in Town, Join the Family Business, Life, Life and Man about Town. Was a bit disappointed, as I love them all. But I did like how where both Life, Life and Man About Town are in the musical, the songs were sort of just there, they were just spoken instead (literally word for word for some bits!). Thought all of the cast was amazing. Not a weak link anywhere. I actually dislike Ross Noble immensely, if he was ever on a panel for anything I'd always switch over, but he was AMAZING and feel a bit guilty now, haha. As mention many times, though. Lesley Joseph steals every scene she's in. She's brilliant. Hadley Fraser is great, a lot better than I was expecting (For me, I couldn't see him in the role... but that may have just been because I'm so used to hearing Roger Bart...). Can't wait to go again Definitely try for day/student seats, though!
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