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Post by johartuk on Feb 15, 2022 16:53:06 GMT
Elisabeth Sladen, definitely. She was the first DW companion I remember from watching as a child, and I watched SJ adventures years later with my niece and nephew. Also Brian Cant - the voice of so many childrens' TV shows when I was growing up.
I agree on Victoria Wood. Loved her humour - mum and I often used to quote the "One soup..." line to each other.
Stephanie Lawrence - gone way too soon.
Oddly enough, Princess Diana's death didn't make me cry. Probably because of all the hysteria - it felt more surreal and bizarre than anything. Wall to wall media coverage for what felt like weeks and people weeping and wailing in the streets.
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Post by johartuk on Feb 6, 2022 22:01:14 GMT
I was just reminiscing with a pal about El Piano bar in Sitges and the array of MT posters they have (had? I don’t know if the bar has survived Covid). The two posters that always struck me in my drunken fug (it was bear week.. get over it) were the classic Wicked “whisper” poster that we all know and love but also this one.. What was Matador all about? How was Barrowman? Did you see it? Is it connected with the Pedro Almodovar film? Why hasn’t it been revived? It was about a poor boy who became rich and famous due to becoming a successful Matador (and playboy) in the 1950s/60s and was based loosely on the autobiography of a man named El Cordobes (sp?). I saw it and thought it was pretty good. Barrowman was, as I recall, great vocally and decent acting-wise. One thing I recall was that the bull was played by several male Spanish flamenco dancers dressed in black - really effective!
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Post by johartuk on Dec 24, 2021 10:46:02 GMT
What’s the issue with the book? I read the book before seeing the musical, and I remember thinking - how the heck have they made that into a musical? The answer? They got rid of all the rubbish, meandering plotlines and...er...adult material! The musical is a much more streamlined and cohesive version of the story.
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Post by johartuk on Nov 13, 2021 11:50:12 GMT
There was a BTTF performance just now on the Lord Mayor's Show broadcast (BBC1) - 'Marty' (Ollie Dobson) and the DeLorean with 'Marty' singing 'The Power Of Love'.
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Post by johartuk on Oct 18, 2021 10:38:23 GMT
Both Carrie and Ivano more than deserve their leads. They are sublime. Getting second villager on the right to post about audience behaviour is unlikely to reach many people. Getting your leads to do it? Might stand a chance. I do think an issue with giving a lead role to a complete newbie is that they may have the training, but they lack the experience of working professionally and dealing with all the stuff that goes with that (rogue audience members being one obvious thing that no amount of training can really prepare you for). It's something that ALW addressed in the TV casting shows - would the contestants be able to deal with the pressures of being a WE lead...dealing with criticism, dealing with the pressure to perform to high standards, dealing with those times when things go wrong onstage...etc. If I was ALW, I'd be having words with my cast members about posting on social media and reminding them that they should think before posting anything in future, and should certainly avoid personal criticism of audience members.
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Post by johartuk on Oct 6, 2021 22:22:35 GMT
Well, that was...er...interesting! By the end, I was expecting Diana to have single handedly found a cure for Cancer (after also finding a cure for HIV/AIDS), invented the internet, solved the pressing issue of world hunger and brought peace on earth and good will to all men! There was no real attempt to give her any light and shade...just light.
There really wasn't any real effort to do anything original with the story (which was the usual 'Diana as victim' tale), and Diana really didn't come across as particularly interesting or engaging. To the point where, when the Queen utters the line "Diana, stop whining!" I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with her! It didn't help that the Charles/Camilla storyline was far more compelling (and better acted) - I felt invested in that, and thought it would have made for a much more interesting and original take on the whole story to see it through their eyes.
The people of Wales dressed in their best 1940s clothes was amusing, as were the paps, who had also visited the 1940s for their clothes! It's like whoever created the costumes had no idea how British people in the 80s/90s dressed!
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Post by johartuk on Sept 19, 2021 14:44:14 GMT
Having watched a vid of the performance on a certain website (which I think was an official upload), I don't see why she's making such a fuss. I watched it after reading this thread, so I knew there were issues and was watching/listening for them. Otherwise, I doubt I'd have noticed anything beyond her going off-key at one point (then getting back on key pretty quickly) and her diction (she still sounds like she's dropping an f-bomb when she sings "barking mad...").
I totally get her feeling unhappy with her performance, but it does seem a bit OTT to be publicly giving a blow by blow account of exactly what happened (and in so doing, bringing it to the attention of many more people than would otherwise have noticed).
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Post by johartuk on Sept 18, 2021 10:19:43 GMT
Not keen on Jamie's voice - sounds pretty, but nothing distinctive about it.
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Post by johartuk on Aug 22, 2021 12:30:40 GMT
LW Theatres are advertising this on Facebook already and calling Danny Osmond "the greatest entertainer on earth". Some claim. Maybe ALW wrote that blurb?
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Post by johartuk on Aug 9, 2021 9:01:20 GMT
Easy Terms (Blood Brothers)
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Post by johartuk on Jul 31, 2021 10:45:29 GMT
What happens with the Joseph/Jacob reunion ("Jacob came to Egypt...") in this production? I remember it being surprisingly moving in the 2007 WE revival.
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Post by johartuk on Jul 9, 2021 12:52:30 GMT
The cast recording shows that this musical has 5 decent songs and the rest is just awful. So Long, I Am No Longer Me, Unbreakable and Moment of Triump are all TERRIBLE….. with What Were You Thinking the worst of the lot. ALW / what were you thinking!!!! The ballads are pretty decent. Why is there no duet? Not one. Imagine if the Six composers or Pasek and Paul has been commissioned this. The voice singing the 'What Were You Thinking?' bit sounds odd. Not keen on that. The instrumental bit that follows sounds like something from the Harry Potter film soundtrack!
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Post by johartuk on Jun 19, 2021 9:49:57 GMT
Brian Epstein? We've seen glimpses of his life in the biopics and musicals about people like the Beatles and Cilla, but his life surely merits its own biopic or musical.
Joe Meek is another - there is a biopic on him, but a musical could be interesting.
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Post by johartuk on May 23, 2021 15:01:22 GMT
A few weeks late for this but it annoys the hell out of me that most Easter eggs now come with their halves welded together instead of simply falling neatly into two sections so I have to bash them on a table until they shatter and then I'm left with loads of differently-sized fragments that make it nearly impossible to judge how much of it is half an egg and they don't fit back in the packaging in any useful way and you can't wrap them up in the foil without the jagged edges sticking through so I end up eating about three quarters of the egg in one sitting instead of saving half for tomorrow like I intended and then there's only quarter of an egg left and it doesn't seem like it's worth saving that so I finish it off and then I don't have anything left of the egg for the next day so I have to start my next egg a day early and all I want is for eggs to be the eggs I remember from my childhood, dammit. This reminds me of something that really bugged me as a youngster, when I first became aware of Terry's chocolate oranges. The TV advert claimed that all you had to do to separate the segments was to gently tap the wrapped chocolate citrus fruit against the nearest table/chair arm/wall and all the segments would magically separate. They didn't! In reality, chocolate oranges were like rocks - in order to at least try to make a dent in the thing, you had to repeatedly bash it against the nearest table/chair arm/wall! That was when I first learned that TV adverts don't always give an accurate representation of the product!
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Post by johartuk on May 23, 2021 10:07:30 GMT
I really enjoyed last night's Eurovision final - it was great to have so many upbeat songs, and the staging overall was pretty impressive, though I did find myself getting confused with the similar looking female costumes (silvery/glittery/skimpy) - it was like they were bought as a job lot!
I was trying to work out if the Russian lady had a mobility scooter hidden inside her enormous costume at the beginning of the song. That was definitely a song of two halves (bonkers costume and shouty verse, then a surprisingly tuneful chorus).
I thought it was odd to have Russia and Malta back to back, since they both had very similar messages. An odd choice by the producers there.
Germany looked like 'Legz Akimbo Theatre Company does Eurovision'! I found myself thinking that I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when that poor dancer was told (and shown the costume) that she was going to be dressed as a giant hand!
I liked Iceland, San Marino, Malta, Switzerland, Greece and Italy. Also thought France was OK, though she lots it a bit vocally near the end - too busy trying to act overwrought and forgot to concentrate on keeping the vocals on point.
Disappointed for James, but I think the UK need to send someone who is really able to perform a song, and handle being on a big stage. James struggled a bit vocally and was clearly limited in what he could do to sell the song. No choreography or real engagement with the audience. I'd also say that the secret to a strong and memorable song is a decent chorus that will stick in the audience's head long after the performance is over, and a singer who can really sing and own the stage. The past winners in the interval demonstrate that.
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Post by johartuk on Apr 29, 2021 12:03:07 GMT
Cinderella looks like she didn't make the Quiddich team and is taking it out on her broom! Well, that or she wants to be Elphaba!
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Post by johartuk on Apr 27, 2021 13:07:13 GMT
CATS - A group of mangy moggies gather in a scrap yard to compete in a contest to win the once in a lifetime prize of...immediate death!
PHANTOM - Opera loving, hideously deformed stalker obsesses over a beautiful young singer in a distinctly unhealthy way, only to watch her fall for the good looking, wealthy, titled guy!
LND - Opera loving, hideously deformed stalker is back...and this time, it's personal! With added creepy automatons, freaks, pointless plot twists and child abduction!
LES MIS - Released prisoner breaks his parole, takes on a new identity and rescues a child from her abusive foster parents...all whilst being pursued by an obsessive police officer. In an interesting plot twist, pretty much everyone he encounters ends up dead. So, to sum it up - 'The Fugitive' meets 'Final Destination'!
WICKED - Witch with a skin complaint struggles to negotiate University life, befriending Popular Witch and falling for the good looking, wealthy, titled guy!
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Post by johartuk on Apr 26, 2021 10:47:39 GMT
It looks grittier/more realistically shot (i.e.on actual streets/in actual buildings rather than on sets) than the original. I like that. Also, good to see it authentically cast. Having Rita singing in the trailer is a lovely and poignant touch.
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Post by johartuk on Dec 12, 2020 12:43:44 GMT
I liked most of it (except him saying "noo", please let a vocal coach suggest he changes that!) but thought at the end he wasn't powerful enough to balance with the full orchestra, which took over. But then, hopefully if this is one of his big numbers he still has plenty of time to work on it. The thing I noticed was him singing "I yam" instead of "I am".
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Post by johartuk on Dec 10, 2020 20:56:32 GMT
I saw it in 1990 at Wyndhams Theatre in the West End - Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers were the stars and it was excellent. It really needs a couple with chemistry to make it work, otherwise it would be just two people sitting at a table reading letters out loud!
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Post by johartuk on Oct 30, 2020 13:24:54 GMT
I like the chorus - that's a definite earworm that will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day (it sounds Abba-esque). The first verse (melody-wise) reminds me of something from Evita. The F-words seem jarring and it also seems a bit odd to have F-words along with 'forget you' which is obviously a way of dropping an f-bomb without actually doing it.
Incidentally, who wrote the lyrics?
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Post by johartuk on Oct 13, 2020 14:08:28 GMT
I thought the whole thing felt rushed and chopped up - editing the songs to wedge them into the performance slot felt jarring, as did the abrupt change from musical to musical. It might have worked better without Mary Poppins (so, with just Phantom and Les Mis, there would have less editing of songs for length to be done) - MP would have worked better placed at the beginning of the broadcast on its own, with the MP cast joining everyone at the end for the last bit of One Day More. Really? Yes, really! The idea behind it was sound, but the execution (the whole 'chopping about of the songs' thing) wasn't the best.
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Post by johartuk on Oct 12, 2020 7:59:09 GMT
I thought the whole thing felt rushed and chopped up - editing the songs to wedge them into the performance slot felt jarring, as did the abrupt change from musical to musical. It might have worked better without Mary Poppins (so, with just Phantom and Les Mis, there would have less editing of songs for length to be done) - MP would have worked better placed at the beginning of the broadcast on its own, with the MP cast joining everyone at the end for the last bit of One Day More.
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Post by johartuk on Sept 13, 2020 11:25:31 GMT
I like it - pretty (and catchy) melody, which is probably going to be stuck in my head all day. It does sound like it should be in LND, with Christine singing it at Coney Island!
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Post by johartuk on Jun 29, 2020 22:49:24 GMT
It's great - clever visuals and fab vocals. Also, the home instruments! That song is going to be stuck in my head now!
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Post by johartuk on May 26, 2020 14:42:39 GMT
I can't stand all the adult cats who despise Grizabella (the young ones at least want to approach her) for the vaguest of reasons. Sure, it is the flaw of the musical that nothing is explained well but we're talking about the majority of the cats we're following for the whole musical and how am I supposed to relate to them when I don't get why they hate Grizabella. Is it because she left? What does glamour cat mean exactly? Why is that a terrible thing for cats? Does it mean she likes to be glamorous and is proud of it? - says the cats who act high and mighty most of the time If the musical is going to make a song and dance about Grizabella at least explain! Does the film explain? Yes, that one confuses me. I thought maybe it was because all the other cats have humans and homes, even Gus and Skimbleshanks, who live in a theatre and a railway station/line respectively. Grizabella seems to be a stray. Other than that, I have no idea what she's done to offend the other cats.
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Post by johartuk on May 24, 2020 20:28:58 GMT
Can someone clarify for me if I’m going crazy. SoM with Carrie Underwood, normally in the scene where all the children come into the bedroom they sing favourite things (they did in the film and I’m sure in the stage version) but in this version they sang Lonely Goatherd? Favourite things was only sung during the scene in the Abbey (which I know from the stage show). Or did I fall asleep?? The stage version is also Lonely Goatherd for the storm scene. Maybe some productions have had permission to replace it Favourite Things, but it's not happened in the productions I've seen. Some of the stage productions have added the songs from the film but I suspect they have to pay extra. In the 2006 Palladium production, Favourite Things is performed in the storm scene and Lonely Goatherd later on.
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Post by johartuk on May 22, 2020 22:02:36 GMT
A few thoughts after watching SOM:-
1. Audra McDonald - wonderful! Stunning voice and loads of charisma. She also acts the role beautifully.
2. The Nuns' singing at the beginning - sublime! That bit always gives me goosebumps and it was lovely to see them stage it in full.
3. Carrie Underwood lacks the acting chops - most of the humour (e.g. with the dress - "The poor didn't want it!") was lost.
4. Liesel looked 16 going on 17, but Rolf looked more 26 going on 27!
5. On the subject of age, Max looked a bit young.
6. The costumes - not keen on most of them. They seemed a bit lacking, especially Maria's wedding dress. I thought the wedding dress in the film was absolutely stunning. The one in this production looked cheap, and it didn't seem like the kind of dress a catholic bride of that period (especially one who had intended to be a nun at one point) would wear.
7. I missed the Baroness Schrader's waspishness.
8. Brigitta is a liability - she's the kind of person who you don't share anything with unless you're happy for the whole world to know about it!
9. I can see why the songs that didn't make it into the film were dropped.
10. Staging - some effective and some not so. I did like the moment when Maria was leaving the Von Trapp house and a panel opened to reveal the outside of the Abbey. Very effective, especially when the reprise of the nuns' singing started.
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Post by johartuk on May 9, 2020 15:49:30 GMT
It reminded me of the 'Play That Goes Wrong' shows, except TPTGW go all out with the comedy and are far funnier. This felt like it wanted to go down that route, but wasn't quite confident enough to do it. That said, I thought it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours and I did like the music.
I thought Martin Jarvis was good as Jeeves, but I thought the Bertie Wooster could have done with more energy and sharper comic delivery. Jeeves and Wooster are supposed to bounce off each other, but I didn't feel it completely worked here.
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Post by johartuk on May 4, 2020 14:56:40 GMT
'By Jeeves' this week, apparently. Interesting. I look forward to seeing that, being 'new' to it.
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