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Post by Dawnstar on Feb 1, 2024 22:20:02 GMT
Different start times are a pain. Should be a law; evening 7.30, afternoon 2.30. That would mean evening performances of several Wagner operas wouldn't end until after midnight!
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Post by Dawnstar on Feb 1, 2024 21:33:29 GMT
No. Apparently acting isn't about pretending according to someone quoted in that: "But this idea that acting is about pretending is not the case, I would argue. Acting, theatre, is about authenticity; it’s about believability. It’s the same for Black and ethnic characters: it’s about an authentic voice.” So it seems the Globe are doubly wrong for also casting a woman in the role - a bit odd for the Guardian to promote that line but there you are. If no pretending is permitted in acting then no-one could play Richard III, or any other characters in the play, because there are no actors alive now who were also alive in the 15th century!
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Post by Dawnstar on Feb 1, 2024 18:20:14 GMT
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 30, 2024 20:58:13 GMT
They used the same phrase in their review, ceebee was just repeating their wording in a sarcastic way Thank you for explaining that it was intended to be sarcastic. I did not understand that, hence I could not make sense of it.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 30, 2024 20:50:23 GMT
I'm sorry but I still don't understand. Why is telling someone they didn't give a show a fair chance humorous? Did you read the person's post who ceebee was replying to? Yes. They saw & strongly disliked the show. That's why I don't understand why they were then told to give the show a fair chance & why that is supposed to be amusing.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 30, 2024 20:40:28 GMT
Looks like toomasj got the humour even if you didn't. I'm sorry but I still don't understand. Why is telling someone they didn't give a show a fair chance humorous?
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 29, 2024 21:59:38 GMT
I don't think you got this. Just give it a fair chance. I'm confused by this comment. Surely toomasj gave the show a fair chance by going to see it once? Expecting someone to sit through a show they dislike on first viewing more than once on the off-chance they suddenly like it on a subsequent viewing seems unreasonable.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 26, 2024 21:36:38 GMT
I'm glad to find I'm not the only person to have found Peter Lockyer an unmemorable Valjean. I know I saw him because I keep a list but I have no recollection of what his performance was like. Peter Joback on the other hand I do remember seeing as the Phantom, but I don't remember being that impressed by his performance.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 21, 2024 22:04:22 GMT
James Hume, Rohan Tickell, Richard Woodford, Olivia Brereton, Celia Graham (https://halle.co.uk/event/three-phantoms/)- how I wish I could've seen Olivia and Celia's Christines live! I wish there was some way I could transfer a Phantom show to you because I ended up seeing Olivia Brereton 3 times & I wasn't that keen on her Christine! Celia Graham I only saw in LND, not in the proper Phantom.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 20, 2024 13:19:51 GMT
Managed to access the video of She Stoops to Conquer but frankly the audio quality lets this down. Sounds too distant. And being in a small in the round theatre using only two or three cameras going between zoomed out and zoomed in with passable editing it isn't NT Live quality. Missed reactions that I could tell were getting laughs. It was fine for Meetings but for a comedy like She Stoops to Conquer it didn't work I suppose this makes me feel a bit less disappointed at not being able to see it. I would have liked to see what Freddie Fox made of Marlowe though. I still haven't had a reply from them on Twitter. Maybe they don't check their social media at weekends.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 19, 2024 22:49:27 GMT
I tried tweeting them but no reply. I guess they won't see it until tomorrow, by which time it'll be too late.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 19, 2024 18:01:37 GMT
I was hoping to watch it this evening but the booking page says "This event is not on general sale" even though it's supposed to be available for another 6 hours. Very annoying.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 17, 2024 20:53:54 GMT
I'm glad to see I0'm by no means the only person who read the casting announcement & went "Adrian Dunbar? What?". He seems very unsuited to the role. I'd expect the role to be cast with someone in his 40s or early 50s with an operatic or near-operatic voice, not a 65 year old with minimal musicals experience. I think I'll be sticking to my memories of the Broadway transfer in 2002, the Old Vic in 2012 & ON/WNO 2015-18, all of which had far more suitable leading men. I suppose it's possible he's a much better singer now than he was twenty-five years ago, but it isn't very likely. Since even most opera singers' voices are likely to be deteriorating in their mid-60s, I'd be amazed if Dunbar's voice could be better now at 65 than when he was in his 30s or 40s.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 7, 2024 19:24:02 GMT
Biggest problem is that the auditorium is excessively hot - intolerable even sitting in a T-shirt. Front desk response was that AC is activated before and after the show, but not during because it's too loud. If it's intolerably hot in January, what will it be like in summer? (But then the auditorium is four storeys down so it's doubtful the ambient temperature has much impact) Thanks for the warning. As far as I recall I never went to the previous theatre & after reading this I will certainly never be going to the new one!
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 7, 2024 19:22:43 GMT
As someone who lives outside London, I must say that it hacks me off that the tube strikes keep on getting called off at the last minute while all the train strikes in the last 18 months have gone ahead. Why are the unions prepared to cancel their tube strikes but never their train ones? It feels like London's transport is considered more important than that for the rest of the country.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 31, 2023 16:22:34 GMT
I'm far more likely to see a production I enjoy multiple times, often to see different casts/cast members, than to see lots of different productions. If I do see something new then I read as much about it beforehand as I can - synopses, reviews, etc. - to try to ensure I don't get any nasty surprises. I don't like too much novelty in theatre, or in anything else for that matter.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 30, 2023 13:12:11 GMT
While it's true that operas or dance productions are going to make the Top 5, part of the reason I enjoy doing this is that it's nice to see the variety of everyone's favourites - particularly some of the fringe productions that won't get to the top either because they had smaller audiences. So I'd encourage you still to mention things that you enjoyed, because I (and others) like to see what people enjoyed this year! (But don't, of course, feel obliged to do so...) Okay, including ballet & opera then my top 5 would be: Swan Lake ENB (particularly with the Iana Salenko/Francesco Gabriele Frola cast) Cinderella RB Operation Mincemeat The Sound Of Music Chichester Il Viaggio a Reims ETO I've still restricted myself to productions that are new to me, thus excluding a number of RB & ROH revivals that made up a fairly substantial proportion of my year's theatregoing.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 30, 2023 13:00:31 GMT
I haven't had any problems walking from Kings Cross to the Royal Opera House on a couple of Saturdays when there have been marches happening, in fact apart from seeing a handful of people carrying signs post-matinee I wouldn't have even know there were marches on if I hadn't known beforehand. So I suppose it depends on which station you're coming into & which theatre you're going to.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 29, 2023 15:42:07 GMT
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 29, 2023 15:38:44 GMT
Someone in a tree I thought there wasn't any point because so few people will have voted for any operas or ballets in comparison with musicals & plays that my vote wouldn't get anywhere. Also I'd be voting as more for particular casts rather than for productions as a whole, whereas this poll is more about productions.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 29, 2023 15:36:29 GMT
I'm still going to London but I'm very rarely going further afield. In the past I've done theatre trips as far afield as Cardiff & Newcastle but the trains are so unreliable & expensive recently that I don't feel I can risk it. The only somewhat longer-distance trip I've done this year was to Chichester & I got a £15 theatre ticket so I wouldn't lose too much money if I wasn't able to make it. As it was, I was very lucky that the performance I booked for ended up being the day before a 2-day train strike so I just made it.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 29, 2023 15:23:08 GMT
There used to be a website that had all the past Les Mis casts, along with more limited cast information for various other West End shows, but unfortunately it vanished several years ago.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 29, 2023 13:40:56 GMT
I saw 61 performances in the last year but most of those were ballet, opera, improv or repeat viewing shows I'd already seen in previous years so I only actually saw 9 musical or play productions that were new to me. While I enjoyed them all to varying extents, the only ones that I think merit inclusion in this voting are:
Operation Mincemeat The Sound of Music (Chichester) Crazy For You
Now if we had voting for ballet & opera productions my list would be rather longer!
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 28, 2023 16:11:43 GMT
Many reduce the number of daughters to three which was not something I was willing to countenance. I'm guessing Mary & Kitty are the ones who are cut? It feels like it would significantly reduce Mrs Bennet's desperation if she only had three daughters to offload rather than five!
I did see a stage adaptation of P&P about 15 years ago but I can't say I found it memorable. I believe it had the requisite number of daughters but the only cast member I can actually recall was Susan Hampshire as Mrs Bennet.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 27, 2023 21:04:43 GMT
theatremiss Very sorry for you. The trains in the last few months have been a nightmare. If it's not strikes it's engineering and if it's not engineering it's lines down/broken rails/points failures/trees down/bodies on the line, etc. etc. It's got to the stage where it feels like a miracle if one's trains are actually running on time.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 23, 2023 21:33:44 GMT
I’ve got 2 things on my list. First is to go to some different theatres in London. On my list to try and visit next year - Sadler’s Wells Soho Theatre Orange Tree Theatre Secondly, I’ve never been to an opera or a ballet before so I’d like to give them a watch as well. While Sadler's Wells is mostly contemporary dance, BRB are doing Sleeping Beauty there in April so you could tick off Sadler's Wells and ballet in one go!
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 22, 2023 18:53:22 GMT
2. See a show at the Royal Opera House. I've always wanted to go and tempted by Swan Lake next year. 3. Find more ways to get cheaper tickets. I looked at my Excel sheet today showing how much I paid for tickets in 2023 and had a mini heart attack. Really need to find better ways of securing cheaper seats and being more willing to sit outside the stalls.
You'll find these two points are mutually exclusive: Swan Lake has most expensive tickets of any Royal Ballet production this season!
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 9, 2023 18:22:46 GMT
I've recently got second row and third row for £55 through Official London Theatre, the advance sales not the TKTS ones. They're not available for every date going forward but might be worth checking out? Less scandalous than £100-125 anyway! Friends also grabbed a deal through seatplan for row C for £35 this week. Though I think they may have just gotten lucky on that one as I haven't been able to find anything similar with them. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a look at those website. Also thanks to all those who suggested rush tickets but as I don't live in London I don't really want to try to get a ticket on the day as it's stressful not knowing in advance whether or not I'll have to head down to London on only a few hours' notice.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 8, 2023 21:24:15 GMT
Today Tix have a good deal on this until the end of today only, I believe. Just had a look. All I can say is if those are the offer prices then I don't want to know what the non-offer prices are. For the performance I looked at, everything forward of row M stalls is over £100. I can't afford that & there's no point in my going if I have to sit at the back as I'm too short sighted. Since there's now only a couple of dates when I could potentially see this, it looks like I won't be seeing it unless the offers get one heck of a lot better than they are at the moment.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 7, 2023 18:46:57 GMT
D'oyly Carte, well G&S went out of fashion. Brum pulled their funding, they went to Wolverhampton for a season but funding wasnt secure. Then its main backer (the cheif exec of an airline loved G&S) got bored of bank rolling them and so stopped funding them also. I did see a handful of their productions and they served as a great introduction to opera for me, back in the day i loved Mikado, Fledermaus and Pinafore. The latter had a young Alfie Boe in, i wonder what happened to him ...
Was that the New D'Oyly Carte rather than the original one? Otherwise, given the original company closed in 1982, Alfie Boe is a lot older than I thought he was!
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