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Post by danielwhit on Feb 15, 2024 21:01:11 GMT
Saw it this afternoon - limps along. Really feels like a money grab, doesn't feel as if there's much energy at all.
Audience applauded plenty at the bows but laughter wasn't exactly frequent from anyone near me in the back of the stalls (one person even left in the pause between Act 2 and 3). It is supposed to be a comedy, I believe..
Running 2hrs 40mins including interval. Longer than I saw promoted. Reckon they could have cut a good 5 minutes of that by not dragging out Act 1's pauses so much.
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Post by danielwhit on Feb 2, 2024 19:10:53 GMT
In UK virtually all sitcoms are entirely written by only one or two writers, I can't think of a single one that wasn't. A couple that immediately come to mind for this are My Family and Two Pints, both long running BBC 2000s comedies. I agree it's rare though.
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 9, 2023 22:16:16 GMT
Bit different when the part he's playing ends up being a maximum of 30 years old and he's now a good 20+ years older than that, so any real believability goes out the window (for me anyway.) I have no problem in actors staying in a role for so long if it works age wise - comparing an actor in the same role for 30 years (when half of that role is them as a child) to someone in an office is...interesting. Have at it though I guess 😂 The number of times I hear 'I only go see Blood Brothers if Sean is in it' does show people go to see him especially, and with the number of positive comments he gets from people who have watched it for the first time, most people do not seem to have a problem with his real age compared to his acting age. But hey, chacun à son goût. In fairness you're probably getting a fair bit of an echo chamber going on with those views. I imagine a lot of people are not fussed who plays who, but I also imagine there's a number of people who find it really difficult to buy into the show with the age relationships as they are. It was the same story when Lyn Paul was still Mrs J way beyond plausibility. I'm fine with whoever I see but I won't pretend that seeing a u/s Mickey last time who was broadly the same age category as the actor playing Linda and distinctly younger than the Mrs J made their relationships easier to process.
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Post by danielwhit on Nov 22, 2023 9:16:48 GMT
I believe that’s easy for someone to fake, it’s just a public playlist with someone’s local files that they have renamed. If you look at the profile of the person they also have a playlist that looks like a Newsies UK cast recording. Perhaps but I saw someone tweet a screenshot of them listening to it last night. Wonder if it was uploaded too soon, like the Sondheim’s Old Friends recording. No. The playlist even says "this is not a cast album".
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 17, 2023 23:01:08 GMT
What happened to the Manchester production?? I don't think there's ever been plans announced for Manchester. I think, having had a quick Google, some sites are (deliberately or through poor researching) conflating the Palace Theatre in Manchester with the one in London. That might be the root cause of it?
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 15, 2023 8:49:25 GMT
I wonder where it could go in London because there's not many theatre available which could house it. It's not that complex in its 2023 version, surely..? Most decent sized houses could take it I'd have thought.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 2, 2023 17:04:46 GMT
Surely this appallingly bad play will not return to the West End. Touring is bad enough. I thought it was pretty decent overall. Not Graham's best work but high enough level to carry through. Didn't think it translated to TV especially well though.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 2, 2023 17:03:16 GMT
Noises Off is always solid, choreograpically at least it has to be, so will never be a bad evening out. This production isn't a shining triumph though.
All good but nothing great.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 2, 2023 17:00:34 GMT
Would this play be worth seeing on one of the days that Joseph Fiennes is not performing (no disrespect to the alternate who doesn’t seem to be listed as yet)? Does his performance make the play, or is the play itself worth viewing without this very well-reviewed performance? (Or perhaps should make more of an effort to try and make one of the regular shows…) Yes, still worth seeing. He is fantastic in this but the show is much bigger than the individual performance.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 2, 2023 16:59:15 GMT
I'm instantly interested. There's a fascinating story behind Band Aid and the Live Aid, plenty of drama along the way. Of course, we all know the outcome.
Glad that the charity is getting 10% of sales.
Curious if only Geldof is getting an impersonation, you'd have thought others (Midge for one) may have too, having been so involved from day one.
Count me in.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 25, 2023 18:59:55 GMT
Single ticket for Wednesday 27th evening on the Donmar site now.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 15, 2023 23:36:10 GMT
Went to see it tonight at the Oxford playhouse, and fell back in love with it…it’s been a few years, and usually I’ve seen the tour at the much larger New Theatre, but it really suited the smaller stage and auditorium. It was much tighter and intimate. And yes, I cried like a baby! Agreed, it sits in the Playhouse much better than in the New Theatre. I enjoyed seeing the "small stage version" too, hadn't seen this before. Definitely didn't deminish anything. The only scene which felt a bit tight in this staging was Light Romance.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 15, 2023 23:33:53 GMT
I found this an issue when I saw it a few years ago, too. I actually found it equally jarring when he was sharing the stage with a young Linda. I most recently saw it last year with his understudy playing Mickey and I found it worked much better when the three character were played by a younger cast who are all closer in age. I don't wish the guy out of a job - especially when he does play Mickey so well - but realistically if this were being cast from scratch today they would either cast an older Eddie/Linda to match or all three would be cast from the same age bracket. I do wonder if they have ever considered moving him into the Narrator role instead... Sean has allegedly been told a few times now Kenwright wants to go in a different direction, they start casting for Mickey, and a couple of days before rehearsal he gets the call asking if he's free... Can't blame him for taking the work. One Eddie from recent years actually went up for Mickey, but got Eddie instead. This is strange if true though as the current u/s has been in the cast for a while now and would be able to take the role on full time. I can only guess with this that whoever is casting director doesn't rate him highly enough?
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 15, 2023 23:29:01 GMT
I've used this a few times and the seats have always been very good value. Stalls for A Strange Loop, Row H stalls for Grease, Row D stalls for Accidental Death of an Anarchist among others. This was all with the standard £25/£30 price point, not the premium options.
For me - this works pretty well as a way to see a variety of things that I may not get around to booking, at a cheap price. Obviously YMMV however if I want an evening's entertainment and I'm not especially fussed by what, this is now the way I tend to go.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 10, 2023 7:57:38 GMT
According to ATG they are doing
Mon - Sat at 19:30 Thu - Sat at 14:30 Sun at 17:00
That just can't be right as there's a performance 7 days a week. I imagine it should be this:
Tue - Sat at 19:30 Thu & Sat at 14:30 Sun at 17:00
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 9, 2023 19:33:48 GMT
They (now? have always?) have an announcement saying that they expect everyone to be treated with respect including front of house and sound teams.
I saw Grease this afternoon. I'll post full thoughts sometime but the summary is the musical needs to be put to bed for a good few years before being old enough to be about "the old days" as there are some very uncomfortable issues with it in 2023.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 2, 2023 16:57:13 GMT
Does anyone know if this your features any set that flys in? I saw it in a small theatre a few weeks ago and there was no additional set apart from a small Kitchen in act 2. I’ve seen videos of, I think previous tours that had a lot more set to it. Just wondering if it was cut due to space issues or if they don’t use the extra set now. yes, there are a couple of backdrops that fly in (background of the Lyons' house for one) as well as fly cues for the back wall and greenery backdrop. I know they do axe some elements in some theatres, which is probably what you encountered.
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 17, 2023 23:18:39 GMT
Yeah, I can understand that for sure. I'll listen to the cast recording at some stage - I imagine I'll appreciate it more from that.
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 17, 2023 21:51:45 GMT
Took myself to a second viewing this afternoon (previously back row in the stalls, this time Row D) and I'm even more of the mind that this is a spectacular revival.
I didn't see this at National however I'm really interested by the fact both Proctor and Abigail were recast for this transfer, as Gleeson and Alcock are the two shining stars for me.
I assume this was recorded at NT and will likely make it's way to NT at Home at some stage.
Es Devlin's reputation is certainly miles higher than it was at her West End debut (I Can't Sing, for anyone who remembers the 40 minute interval!). Simple but very effective stage, delivers the right degree of claustrophobia.
If you're on the fence, go. It's well worth it, even if you've seen The Crucible enough times over the decades.
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 17, 2023 21:43:01 GMT
Visited this evening with virtually no awareness of what the show was before turning up (Theatre Roulette, so I literally didn't book it).
Having gone in cold was an interesting experience. I found myself getting much more into it as the evening progressed. At one point near midway I started mentally comparing the musical to Avenue Q (in that each song seemed to be a stand alone ode to a particular moment in someone's life). The second half lost that and was stronger, felt as it the production found itself. Probably deliberate stylistic shift.
Not sure how award winning this will be here but I'd be shocked if it doesn't win Best Lighting awards.
I'm still trying to process my thoughts. I'm having much the same reaction as I did from Hamilton, recognising it is artistically brilliant but not doing much for me.
Thought provoking, fascinating and will stick in the mind for a long time. Not sure I'd rate it especially highly though.
Will mull my thoughts further...
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 13, 2023 10:51:46 GMT
Marmite.
At the interval I was convinced this was one of the best new plays of the year however by the end I was less convinced. The production is a strange mish-mash. I get the symbolism they're trying to go for with the violins and the ballet dancers, but it doesn't really work with the text in my eyes at all.
There's a very good and meaningful story here that is worth telling. I'd be very interested in how another production stages it in the future.
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 9, 2023 21:11:14 GMT
Good grief.
I've come out of it this evening and am borderline speechless about how bad it is. However I'll put that speechlessness aside and cobble together some thoughts.
Firstly - audience. It's not your traditional West End audience. That is to the production's credit, it's just a shame some of them would have been put off by the quality of what was on stage.
In a bizarre way I'm pleased to see this, for at least now I have confidence that bad theatre is truly still alive. It's been a while since I've seen something that rose to these levels.
I'm amazed to hear this show was running long and, according to comments above, trying desperately to get down to 2hrs running time, mainly because there are so many dead moments on stage that you feel they're trying to pad the thing out! For examples there's a full 30 seconds of Al Murray grunting his way off stage with Mel doing a bizarre finger tapping gesture each time he steps/grunts. I could name several other moments which could only have been saved by literal tumbleweed.
I genuinely felt sorry for the cast. One person has to do a bizarre faked orgasm for no obvious reason except for a slim attempt at comedy. And of course there's the "three blokes in a prison cell, let's have one of them comically urinating into a bucket and turning sideways occasionally" cheapest of all cheap gags.
Audience interaction is the same as described above, although I did see warnings of this either on the ticket or somewhere else prevalent, so it looks like feedback has been taken on board here.
French and Dutch jokes are still in. Al Murray even has been scripted to make half the front row individually say they "hate the Dutch".
Ironically (or at least, I hope) there's a catchphrase for Charles II calling things "so funny". That's probably the best joke in the whole thing, at least it shows a slither of self awareness...
Avoid like the plague (there's a "joke" about that too).
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 3, 2023 19:56:55 GMT
I'm in tonight (first time since its opening week at Trafalgar). Smallest audience I've ever seen at Jersey Boys and it all feels somewhat flat.
If the audience size tonight is anything to go by I wouldn't be surprised if those 6 month contracts are prepping for a closure...
Edit (after show) - second half did pick up. Audience shrunk by a few after the interval. One positive which I've never really experienced before is 98% of the circle audience staying until the end of the orchestra playout before they left.
Does anyone have the current understudy list for this cast? Didn't buy a programme to get full info.
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Post by danielwhit on Jul 22, 2023 21:59:36 GMT
Great revival, surprised it isn't selling especially well.
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Post by danielwhit on Jul 22, 2023 21:58:42 GMT
Saw this today, really nothing fundamentally new I can add to the choir here praising it.
Not surprised given James Graham's history that the politicians had a quick run out.
As others have said, this surely has to have a future life. There's too much potential for this to punch through to audiences the NT (and heck, most theatres) do not normally reach for it to not have that opportunity.
If it wasn't running for just a couple weeks more I'd be tempted to return.
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Post by danielwhit on Jun 25, 2023 19:08:51 GMT
So it turns out I was sat directly behind Dominic Cavendish last night.
Fantastic production and the re-start of their Conqueror Trilogy (all 3 parts staged several years ago in Reading). Or at least I hope it is as Matilda fully deserves a second run..
Well worth a visit.
Just a shame the scripts don't seem to have ever been published.
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Post by danielwhit on May 31, 2023 17:49:21 GMT
At the Palace when did they stop redecorating between the parts? I remember early on loads of panels were replaced, nothing at all different now except for a couple of projections. Was that a post covid change?
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Post by danielwhit on May 9, 2023 22:13:26 GMT
Initial thoughts: 1. stage design works extremely well - very versatile 2. initial concerns about arena appearing small were unfounded, looks fine on screen 3. postcard concept is a triumph Only real query - why did the UK commentary go silent for around half hour? I really don't get the Sweden love this year. It isn't half the song the Euphoria was. True, and yet it somehow feels like exactly the same song.
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 22, 2022 22:35:04 GMT
DISGUSTED cancelled without Amy notice STILLno txt overall NORHING. Only viewed via twitter. Anyone who thinks.build abridge or these things happen clearly we're not in the queue waiting. Chaos. Truly dreadful. When you say without any notice - what happened?
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 22, 2022 19:43:12 GMT
Cancelled tonight (22nd Dec 2022). Notice on Facebook cites cast illness.
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