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Post by danielwhit on Dec 24, 2021 10:09:37 GMT
I absolutely do not believe they are making this into 2 films. People said similar things when I posted about Mamma Mia 2 going into production, weeks before a press release went out. Very different situation as that was 10 years apart from the first one and it isn't like they were trying to rip the original musical into two parts at the same time (which would have been truly horrific for Mamma Mia, but turned out rather well the way they did it). The only way I can see a double Wicked film work is if the first is essentially the stage musical and the second an original 'part 2'. It would be like Love Never Dies all over again...
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 23, 2021 13:14:06 GMT
Whoever it was that suggested Wicked should be done in 2 parts, you are in luck. They are making 2 films and filming them back to back. No idea about the plot or anything else yet. Where are you seeing that? I can't see it, if Les Mis can do a one part 'standard' movie then I'm amazed if Wicked couldn't. As it stands on stage act 1 is 90 minutes (reasonable length for a film) and act 2 is 55 minutes (far too short). 2hrs 25mins isn't too long for a movie, and you often find they get squeezed from a stage production. Unless they add in new plot lines left right and centre I can't see how this could realistically be two parts.. I'm also not convinced financially it'll be beneficial to do two parts. It'll put a fair few people off going to either part, I'd have thought?
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 22, 2021 23:55:17 GMT
John Owen Jones on as Valjean tonight. Lucky audience! I know Philip Griffiths has the record for the longest continuous playing of a role but surely JOJ must have the record for the longest non-continuous playing of a role! When did JOJ first play Valjean? For that point, when did he first play Phantom?
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 6, 2021 14:03:52 GMT
Donny sustained an injury, hopefully he is okay! Ah, that'll be his tap dance routine out of the window...
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 6, 2021 2:12:37 GMT
I was wondering yesterday how they coped with illnesses. What kind of thing did they do in previous years? I'm assuming there's not a full understudy set up going on.
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 4, 2021 20:29:44 GMT
This was the first performance but Donny looked really embarrassed by the turned off thing lol. But yeah, curious if it is in fact staged. Ah I entirely forgot it was the first performance. Thanks for the reminder. The reason I doubt it is staged is as it was Donny is a better actor than I had given him credit for, and the fact the "turned off" gag came later than I would have expected had it been staged.
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 4, 2021 15:48:41 GMT
For those interested, £25 dynamic pricing has kicked in on stalls/dress circle tickets for tonight and next few days. I'm in this afternoon - as much as I'm enjoying it I am somewhat regretting not waiting with the prices collapsing. Quick question which hopefully is masked enough to not be a spoiler - is he always turned off near the end of act one?
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Post by danielwhit on Nov 25, 2021 21:20:47 GMT
Is the tour the original staging that has previously toured or the "squashed" staging that we currently have at Trafalgar?
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Post by danielwhit on Nov 25, 2021 1:03:41 GMT
Thanks for the response, I have never seen the show before but I do know the all the words to the songs so that should be fine. Do you know if it’s possible to change to a different seat without buying a new one? I have emailed the ticket company to ask if I could upgrade and pay the difference but from what I’ve heard it’s unlikely that will work. Yes the percussion on the left side of the stalls (to stage right) does always seem to be louder - not sure why that is, but it’s always been the case in the 15 years I’ve been seeing the show! You’ll be able to hear almost everything though. From memory the kit (and percussion) is on the stage right side of the pit.
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Post by danielwhit on Nov 20, 2021 15:10:19 GMT
Footage has appeared on that well-known video site of the new DG staging in Hamburg. I have to say I'm not impressed at all, it removes all of the power of that moment and just looks daft. London staging can remain as it is, thank you very much 😁 💚 Oh I don't know, it's not a particularly good quality video so difficult to judge. I can't get my bearing on if she's over the audience or not nor how high she is. The set itself for the song seemed tiny, judging from the revolve. Hopefully more clips will appear over time.
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Post by danielwhit on Nov 5, 2021 13:20:35 GMT
I adored the farce segment. That's the one I hope Mischief make a full show of. Everything from Charlie's gurning innuendos to Henry Lewis gleefully mincing about and Bryony's heroic commitment to the gag when her trousers get ripped off, it's the kind of ridiculous, over the top comedy I love. It was also one of my highlights, however I'm not convinced you can make a full show out of that though - the joke of doing iffy farce badly would wear thin pretty sharpish I'd have thought.
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Post by danielwhit on Nov 5, 2021 13:17:52 GMT
Nobody saying they’re too old to be playing high schoolers then? AG is the same age as Ben Platt and Erivo is 35! There is a reasonable difference between the two but I do take the point for sure - however DEH is grounded in a musical version of "our reality", whereas Wicked is, well, not. Plus Glinda starts as a university student, Elphaba starts as older than this - and there's a, I think, 3(?) years gap between Act 1 and Act 2. So they start older than Evan and co too.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 28, 2021 17:20:48 GMT
Have they done rewrites over the pandemic? Some of these character names are different while other characters don’t appear at all? Not 100% sure but it may well be actors who are understudies having their own character name for their "ASM" role.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 27, 2021 8:42:56 GMT
I'm very surprised the official website doesn't even talk about the tour yet. Presumably it will soon enough.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 17, 2021 14:28:02 GMT
I’ve really taken to Lucie since her Eurovision entry so if she does make her debut as Elphaba along side Helen then that would be enough to convince me to see the show again. Likewise. It takes a key bit of casting to get me interested in seeing Wicked again these days. Lucie Jones (wherever this rumour has come from) would definitely tempt me back.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 6, 2021 22:33:29 GMT
Interestingly in contrast to most others here I found Summer Once Again stronger than the other two "regular" episodes. Possibly because I've been in enough rehearsal rooms where if you do something multiple times it can get weirder... The whistle-stop-tour of the rest of the play was good fun, the falling autumn leaves / wheeling the mother past etc. Plus who doesn't enjoy a well timed "nob" gag?
The Cornley Drama Festival had some brilliant moments, from the quick "Kitchen Sink Drama" scene to the equine challenged 70's farce, all good fun. Especially Jonathan's one and only chance to get in a scene properly with his ensemble number! Oh and Sandra's radio drama.. basically all of it was top quality in one way or another.
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Post by danielwhit on Oct 4, 2021 20:49:43 GMT
Wouldnt it be much more practical to film the show from all of the angles they need with an empty house so that no-one’s view is obstructed and they can stop/start as necessary, and then just film reactions from a live audience “after the fact”? That’s how I’d do it anyway. I'm relatively sure now I've seen Hamilton that's the best way to capture performances - a mixture of live performances and other shoots. Allows you to both get intrusive shots for effect but also to capture the full audience reaction and the energy that brings.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 24, 2021 22:05:44 GMT
Considering how badly this has been selling I would not imagine it is on the cards to transfer or be revived. I imagine a recording is more likely than anything else.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 24, 2021 22:02:03 GMT
I imagine the recent discussions around Alice Ripley have left a sour taste around the original production so they might be up for someone reimagining the whole thing I've no idea what this refers to - can you enlighten me please?
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 24, 2021 21:53:15 GMT
Some of Evan's songs definitely sounded live. Words Fail, for sure, and If I Could Tell Her as well. Basically any song that didn't have lots of cuts or movement in it. I still say that Evan's actions aren't deliberately deceitful or malicious. He doesn't set out to hurt anyone. It's a misunderstanding that he should've corrected but it got out of hand too quickly, and then he panicked. Yes he shouldn't have created all of the emails, but again it wasn't done to hurt the Murphys. Then once he felt connected to them, he didn't want to risk losing it all. He's naive and foolish and an idiot, but he's not a bad person. The Murphys were broken, even before Connor's death, and Evan's actions (however ill-advised) did help them to heal. Very true about Evan's actions. He's caught up in a bizarre situation and does what he thinks is best by letting the family believe the letter is what they think it is. And let's be honest about his initial lie, how many of us would actually turn around and say "no, sorry, I just fancy your daughter and your son killed himself with that letter in his pocket"? I suspect very few of us who were in a position to write that letter in the first place would have anything like the confidence required to put them right at that moment in the headteacher's office. After that, everything snowballs. The email writing is the big mess up - but again that's him trying to protect the fact he lied initially (and not reveal the "weird sex letter" as Jared puts it). What I did like in the film was how the "suicide note" release feels much more regretful from all sides - on stage it feels like Evan regrets this predominantly because it's messed up his relationship with Zoe, but on film you see the impact on the family much more and consequently redials what we see as Evan's own feelings. Alana seems much more a balanced and considerate character on film too, you can see her wondering whether to release that image or not, and regretting the impact it has very quickly afterwards. I also think the relationship arc with Zoe makes far more sense here, and removes that predatory angle of Evan. I genuinely have never had an issue with the structure of it on stage - however now seeing the film (and letting myself digest it somewhat) I do think the film has the better final act. Several reasons: there's more effort to put right the mistakes on Evan's side, we learn more about why the truth never came out (which demonstrates the Murphy's are still empathetic to Evan), we see more of how things are at school (including Evan's relationship with Zoe) and Evan doesn't miraculously get forgiven for no other reason than time heals. Time does heal, but not usually as much as the stage version wants us to believe! Some sections of the film are still pretty cringeworthy though, I don't need to see Evan galloping in the woods any more.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 23, 2021 18:23:02 GMT
Definitely got better as it went on. I think it just took me quite a while to "buy into" it. The Murphy unit still feel very solid. I do like the little changes to plot they made, the fact that Alana was much more fleshed out (although at the expense of Jared, it must be said). The final third of the piece is its strongest. Without giving any spoilers away I did feel Evan had more "redemption" here than in the stage play.
How much of this was sung live? Some songs felt live, some felt played in.
The big emotional pivot moments of You Will Be Found and Words Fail hit the spot - Only Us had a very different dynamic here due to the changes, but it works.
Platt I thought did a solid job here - doesn't deserve the slating he's had for the performance (although jury is still out as to whether he should have been, ahem, cast, or not). Stand out for me was Kaitlyn Dever's Zoe - this version gave her much more room to breathe than the stage version does.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 20, 2021 20:38:10 GMT
I'm about a third of the way through the film at the moment. It takes some effort to buy into it, I must say.
"For Forever" was messy and felt jarring when the tiny breaks in reality crept through as they tried to keep it looking 99% like a man sitting at a table talking, so why he stood to point to the window and turn back is beyond me (and those shots of Platt looking like an excitable 5 year old running through the woods have burnt themselves onto my brain). However, on the flip side, I rather enjoyed If I Could Tell Her - probably as you could entirely believe Evan would sit/stand in those locations and think/sing about Zoe like that. I was preemptively cringing for the end of that, seems they struck a slightly different tone. Requiem also struck a decent note for me.
Enjoying the Murphy dynamics, generally.
Will report back when I've mustered up the energy to watch more...
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 15, 2021 22:43:07 GMT
TheatreCafe have posted the opening 2 minutes on their Instagram if anyone wants to watch. I'm all for enthusiasm but it does seem overkill. And such a shame to not hear the 'It's good to see me, isn't it' line. Broadway seemed to hold - here it seems that Sophie blasted on before waiting for audience applause to subside. Now perhaps that's what she was told to do (did cast have last trains to catch?!) - but seems a total waste of that line to have it swallowed under applause. Having listened to some of the audio material already online from tonight (Wicked fans do work swiftly, don't they?) - I'm very glad I didn't decide to try to get in after work tonight. Partially for the audience, who seemed even more randomly OTT than I predicted, but partially as I'm not at all convinced by Laura's vocals at all - seems to put odd emphases all over the place. Also - is filming now well and truly allowed? There's coverage from at least 3 different phones in the one theatre. None of them any good, obviously, but I'm surprised FoH were not all over this like a rash.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 15, 2021 18:58:15 GMT
What time did it go up in the end?
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 11, 2021 21:43:14 GMT
The turning to drink is now pretty standard, explains why she objects to being told not to drink by Claudius at the end. But I must say I've never seen a Claudius who could give less of a toss than this one as to whether his wife killed herself or not...
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 2, 2021 20:19:38 GMT
Oxford is in for a treat - after both shows yesterday were filled in by understudies across many parts, including Paula Tappenden as Mrs J, tonight Tracy Spencer Jones returns to the role of Mrs J after eight years absence. if this is still happening by Saturday (and I have any way of finding out), I may well go and see it.
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Post by danielwhit on Sept 2, 2021 20:18:25 GMT
I can't see this transferring. Partially as it isn't actually very good. It's a confused mess of a show with random set pieces that make no sense, some uncomfortable casting and a sense that everyone has been left to their own devices to work out how they should play their parts.
Also as even with the cast they've got they're not selling out the Theatre Royal at all.
Mind you, according to publicity material its breaking all records at thee box office - so who knows what what means when it isn't selling out.
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 31, 2021 22:15:46 GMT
They put the wrong title up on the screen for Cynthia's song, they called it 'I Couldn't Be Happier' instead of 'Thank Goodness'. She sang it brilliantly, it had more heart than it often does in the show. A highlight for me. Interestingly, and probably linked, one of the only songs which sounded similar to the traditional orchestrations. I think the problem half the time was it was too brass heavy. Definitely sounded off balance - and that's before you look to No Good Deed being ripped to shreds and the melody being guessed at. All the right notes but not necessary in the right order, as the saying almost goes.
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 31, 2021 15:44:24 GMT
I’m on my own Unstoppable Ticket Booking Spree and was at the matinee, there was a slip in the programme saying Donna was played by Caroline Deverill, who is not apparently in the cast. Looking at her Instagram it appears to have been a one-off. Did Mazz Murray do the evening show? Ah I was at the matinee and was wondering who on earth was playing Donna. Were there any other covers on? I did a decent walk around and couldn't see any board (and my programme had no insert).
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Post by danielwhit on Aug 31, 2021 15:39:48 GMT
"Oh dear" is all I have to say.
It all felt very strange overall. Especially with some interpretations of the songs feeling as if the singer (and orchestrator) had no idea what the original song was, No Good Deed being the worst at this.
Some decent moments (Popular), but overall a wasted opportunity to celebrate this score.
Also if someone could get Idina a pair of scissors so we can see her eyes that would be useful.
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