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Post by andrew on May 25, 2023 10:00:41 GMT
>> I think I prefer his completely insane stuff (looking at you Evita) Interesting, since Aspects, like it or not, is uber-insane: best not to examine its plot too closely ..... LOL I sort of meant the score but even taking Aspects at the plot level, it's just two men having sex with three women in slightly differing combos right? And sometimes that involves someone on the wrong side of the age of consent? I dunno I just didn't find it thrilling.
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Post by andrew on May 25, 2023 9:46:31 GMT
Chalk me up as another hater. I was bored out of my skull, both by the story and the score. There are a couple of good musical moments in there, but the other 2 hours I found dreary and dull. Didn't relate or really believe in the story, why does Bogyo randomly shoot LPP for example and why does everyone just get over it after 5 minutes? I get that it's supposed to be an exploration of the different forms of love, it just would have been nice if any of those were relatable or interesting. I thought I was losing my mind. Couldn't wait for it to end.
The staging and design is fine, I'm not seeing whatever some posters are here about it being highly sophisticated, a projection tracked random wall that slides across every so often showing stock imagery of Paris or wherever whilst you can see stage hands running behind it trying to catch up whilst they hold a chair, and 3 different doors they wheel out to their hearts content. The double revolve was an extravagance they barely used, although when it knocked over a piece of set by accident it did at least create a bit of tension in the scene which the rest of the show lacked.
There's clearly a large contingent of people who are seeing something in this piece of work that I cannot see. I'm quite soft on a lot of ALW musicals, but I think I prefer his completely insane stuff (looking at you Evita) to this sort of mellow soft-operatic style, and something with a bit more plot. Maybe it's the sort of thing where if you've seen the show or know the score well then this is a wonderful experience, and the newcomer is just left cold. Maybe I'm just heartless. Love changes everything, this show does nothing.
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Post by andrew on May 21, 2023 13:05:23 GMT
One of my nitpicks would specifically be {Spoiler - click to view} The emotional high-point of 'Seeing You' is when it swells for the second chorus. In the new revolve-less staging for most of that chorus there's just waiters sort of spinning tables around and then 5 cast members sort of staring at the snow for a while. I want the whole cast on stage singing their guts out and holding hands, confetti falling, all that stuff. It's a weird juxtaposition of staging and music at the absolute climax of the show.
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Post by andrew on May 20, 2023 21:52:16 GMT
I saw GHD tonight courtesy of the £10 previews, and was completely blown away. Later on I’ll look up whatever I said when I saw this the last time it was in London, but what problems I remember there being last time have gone.
I thought it was really excellent, I loved every minute of it, everyone should go see it. I could still nitpick at some of the songs, and some of the moments that killing the revolve have changed are less beautiful and elegant than they were originally, but in the end it’s a fun, witty and surprisingly clever musical that outstrips it’s source material.
Maybe it’s just seeing it again but I picked up a lot more on the philosophical and emotional strands this time around, the whole thing just feels very well evolved and ultimately a complete pleasure to watch. 5 stars.
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Post by andrew on May 10, 2023 16:15:28 GMT
I think if you're posting a rumour it would be good form to either post where it came from or provide a bit more substance from your own involvement with it.
But also I want this so bad, please let it be true.
EDIT: ok I've seen more info now I'm happy, EXTREMELY happy, queen baker returns
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Post by andrew on May 10, 2023 10:52:43 GMT
I can’t imagine Eva continuing with the show, she’s been with it for 6 years, an insanely long time for a young actress to spend on one show. That's insane... I wonder why she stuck with it. Obviously there was Covid uncertainty but you'd have thought she'd be keen to do the next thing?
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Post by andrew on Apr 30, 2023 12:54:27 GMT
For me, it doesn't work.
I loved the book, didn't think it would work well as a play and I feel like I've been proven correct. My main feeling is that whilst I was at times uncomfortable, and felt a great deal of the anguish that characters on stage felt, I was rarely actually affected by what I saw on stage. In drilling this down into a 3 hour something play, all of the love and friendship and hope has been removed. What you're left with is pain, torture and abuse, which is very skilfully laid out, but I sat there quite numb for many hours. Without any of the good, the story of this man who just cannot ever escape the demons of the abuse he suffered as a chid fails to feel anywhere near as tragic as it does when it's slowly laid out on the page. You needed to spend time with the four friends as actual friends, you needed to spend time seeing Willem care passionately for Jude and slowly fall in love with him. Instead they fall out by the tenth minute, and when Jude and Willem decide to be together the focus is on the difficult sexual side of the relationship that then ensues. The rare moment where they dance to music and kiss was beautiful, and for me it's only in these moments where Jude's unending trauma and the love Jude's friends and family show him clash, that the tragedy of the story really lives.
The part of it that I thought did work on this level was the relationship between Jude and Harold, which seemed to have a little bit more time. The scene where Harold adopts Jude was exceptional. Zubin Varla also gives a great monologue at the end, although why bewilderingly he had to step out unlit into the audience (where I'm guessing anyone in the circles was unable to see him) to give it, I cannot say. And to be fair there were many great performances, many great technical moments. The direction of some terrifying scenes is very competent.
That all said, I don't think Ivo Van Hove was the right person to adapt this. I think if you wanted to give this story a go you'd need to split it into 2 parts, 4 acts, let it play out over 5 hours, bring back into it fun and friendship, maybe let the audience laugh a bit more often. I'd also personally cut out Dr Traylor which stretches credulity on stage.
I've written more than I meant to. I liked a lot of things in this, I just don't think it achieves anything by it ruthlessly keeping in every single moment of torture from the book at the exclusion of everything else.
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Post by andrew on Apr 18, 2023 19:46:05 GMT
Gonna risk it and wait until Friday to get the Barbican seats direct. If nothing else it makes me nervous to buy anything on TodayTix who don't really have a helpful returns/exchange policy.
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Post by andrew on Apr 13, 2023 19:12:01 GMT
A look at the seating plan for the next days shows massive availability in a relatively small theatre. If it's really full, it must be shifting a lot of last minute seats and at least some of those probably at a discount. Add the constant offers across the run, I assume it can just about break even. I don't think these numbers are good enough to consider moving to another theatre, especially with so many bigger new shows opening after a long drought. Agreed, it's complete nonsense. I think the Garrick is the end of the run for Bonnie and Clyde in the West End, and that's fine. It's a good-not-great show and it's done very well and now we all move on.
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Post by andrew on Apr 3, 2023 20:21:56 GMT
Only about halfway through watching on catch-up. Just focusing on the show itself
Opening number was awful. It's like someone watched one Tony Awards and thought oh yeah let's do that, you boy, do a song about how great the West End is. The best by far the Tony's have done are where they go absolutely nuts with scale, get cameos from much loved faces and fundamentally have a laugh with the lyrics. For me if you search YouTube for Neil Patrick Harris's openings they're all great examples of what to do with it. A sort of saccharine and under-produced thing with the long running musical costumes walking in is just a bit cringey in my view and fundamentally doesn't do the two things the Oliviers should do: be a celebration for theatre lovers, or be an advertisement for the West End.
Almost every musical performance was a bit rubbish this year. I totally agree with the other comments here about the camerawork and vision mixing, but even worse for me is the sound. It's always a bit on-and-off for musical theatre performances on TV, having 20-odd microphones to deal with plus the orchestra behind them is always difficult. But every single number this year (apart from The Band's Visit because it was so much simpler) you could barely hear the ensemble voices and always had whoever had just sung a solo verse painfully prominent in the mix. It just makes the whole thing very weak, if the lead is a bit flat it's awkward to listen to and fundamentally it means the chorus never builds to the frisson-producing big finish you want.
It doesn't help that a bunch of the shows put up slightly duff numbers. Sylvia got it right, and had a big standing ovation for doing so. Tammy Faye was just nowhere near the best song in that show, Newsies probably just needed that number re-arranged and re-choreographed for the time slot they had rather than trying to cut up what was already in the show. The two half songs from Oklahoma should've just been one properly performed song. Just lot's of bits like that. SASE did alright actually, I just didn't like the score so didn't like the song they performed.
I don't mind Hannah Waddingham as a host (no doubt she benefited from the extremely harsh editing that littered the ITV version) but she should've been given her a comedy writer to just give her a bit more entertainment value.
I'm sure the reason for a lot of this is the fact that nobody has the time or money to put effort into rehearsing this properly. The Tony's benefit from the fact they're extremely important for a shows success, so the show producers will put effort and money into a good performance. The awards are better produced (although not perfect by any means) probably because there's more money floating around. No idea what budget the Oliviers get given they're relegated to a very dead slot in the schedule on ITV.
With regards to the winners, I'm still salty that Newsies got snubbed, every winner was probably deserving. Who cares, only the opinion of TheatreBoard matters, not some crusty SOLT voters.
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Post by andrew on Mar 3, 2023 20:56:01 GMT
Just been listening to the cast recording whilst doing the ironing and I'm afraid the ironing beat the music for interest. Yeah, this is a good show which is hampered by poor music. Almost every song stops it in it's tracks, and doesn't move the story along nor shine light on a characters thoughts nor entertain in some other way. It's such a good story that it over-shines the mediocre soundtrack, with a better songwriter behind this it could've been a spectacular piece of work. I love a play that weaves different timelines together, I loved the scope of this, I loved the subject matter, I just completely meh'd out on 80% of the songs which for a musical is unacceptable.
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Post by andrew on Feb 25, 2023 20:31:38 GMT
Can somebody unveil a bit of stage magic for me. People have remarked on the interruptions to change sets. How many sets would you say were used? I have no insight, but my guess is {Spoiler - click to view} They are using both the side and rear stage to store sets as suggested, based off the fact you can see the ramp mechanism on stage left (the side with the massive store) and behind the glass. The glass piece on the revolve doesn't change, it's the inside of the set which is altered. One specific side of the glass cube has obvious doors and hinges on it, and when blackouts end it's usually facing either the rear or stage left side because that's where it's being facing during the unload/reload. I don't know how many bases they're working with, they could be redressing 1 or 2 bases when not in use or they could have them all pre-set (I suspect not just due to space constrictions). The switches are well done but even from mid stalls I could hear them rolling things on or off, the doors creaking open and closed. It was nowhere near as impressive as Yerma which was similar in concept, where they could roll on or off into the YV Workshop area the base to redress, and had a bunch of crew with night vision goggles moving stuff and actors around in between, all of it a few feet in front of the audiences unseeing eyes, but obviously this is a more complex and versatile setup.
In this the actors are all individually mic'd up, and as discussed earlier hide in different parts of the set when they need to be inside the cube but aren't actually in the scene. It would make an interesting behind the scenes video from the NT as they like to do for their big set pieces, perhaps one will come. I thought this was good not great. Ultimately I didn't find the ending earned, JMcT does her best but I don't think her unravelling was believable or well paced enough. Still enjoyed it.
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Post by andrew on Feb 3, 2023 12:48:21 GMT
This ran for about 3h15min today, if anyone is interested. Some scene changes took forever though, so it will probably be shorter in a few weeks. But is it any good?
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Post by andrew on Dec 27, 2022 10:17:31 GMT
Finally seeing this today at 2pm. Ticket says my entry time is 1pm. Do I really have to be there an hour early? I know there is the “prologue” stuff, but is that compulsory? It's not compulsory, but unlike my usual turning up about 10 minutes before curtain I'd want at least half an hour. I took the full 60 minutes when I was on my own and wasn't bored but if watching lower key music and dance performances isn't your thing then don't bother with that long.
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Post by andrew on Dec 26, 2022 20:10:43 GMT
It’s an exceptional production. And a really good play. Curious about how well it would do over here. Has it ever played on the West End? No
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Post by andrew on Dec 26, 2022 19:27:41 GMT
Always a mince pie for me... My reflection on seeing this last year was how I'd overlooked how important the music is to this play. I wish there was a little cast album of all their really nicely arranged Christmas songs.
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Post by andrew on Dec 23, 2022 11:59:08 GMT
Also, both Balcony and Grand Circle were closed yesterday. I don't know where the rush seats for this are, but my A32 side seat was only 22.50, and I don't think I missed out on anything because 90% of the play was taking place centre stage. Rush seats whenever I've looked have been unsold top non-premium seats, at £30, so more expensive but better views.
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Post by andrew on Dec 23, 2022 8:42:10 GMT
I liked this a lot, more than I thought I would, I would put this very near the top of James Graham plays. It's very in his mould, you could clip out any 5 minutes of this and play it to most Theatre Board members and I think we'd all be able to comfortably say this was a James Graham play. Zachary Quinto is absolutely riveting as Vidal, I've gone back to watch some YouTube clips and it's not exactly a great impression but it is an extremely engaging mixture of writing and acting. I could have done without the in medias res framing, I know it's a technique as old as time but I feel like half of all plays for the last few years begins with the denouement and I'm just tired of it. But JG has managed to make compelling an event very few patrons will be aware of, continuously make it relevant to the present day, and have it be funny and interesting at the same time.
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Post by andrew on Dec 12, 2022 20:31:11 GMT
I would never record one in a million years, but after a show closes if a slime tutorial turns up on Youtube I don't find myself getting that upset about it. I'm glad the cast recording is happening though, that's a much better way of keeping a recording of the show alive.
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Post by andrew on Dec 6, 2022 9:13:22 GMT
It deserved a West End run not a Broadway flop, I'm glad it's coming back to the OV, hopefully improved. Can you believe this was originally here in 2016?!?! Time flies.
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Post by andrew on Dec 1, 2022 16:03:59 GMT
I'm still haunted by how boring Whisper House was, this is supposed to be a lot better right?
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Post by andrew on Nov 25, 2022 11:28:12 GMT
I didn't realise all plays had to have plausible things happen to the characters? I haven't seen the play, I was referring to the book. Considering how badly written it is, I imagine the play can only improve the story, especially if it focuses on the first half. I of course can buy implausibility, just not as much as Yanagihara packs into this book. The book isn't set in a particular time, what happens to any of the characters isn't realistic, I took these to be deliberate choices and let it happen. I'd never read it again but I did find reading it a very cathartic experience. It's not the same, but I'm reminded of Les Miserables (the book more than the show) which is completely littered with coincidences and implausibility, and my understanding as a reader is that there is supposed to be a slightly magical quality to what's happening, it is an artifice of the novel. But I can 100% understand why someone would hate the book and 100% support anyone saying they're not interested in seeing the play. I can't wait!
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Post by andrew on Nov 23, 2022 21:24:34 GMT
I know that gap is not the return of rep, but out of interest have the NT said anything about when/if they will return to rep?
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Post by andrew on Nov 23, 2022 12:31:39 GMT
I liked Omari in Constellations and 'It's A Sin', but I didn't really like him in Cabaret. His character in Cabaret is such a wet lettuce, I feel like I don't want to judge him on it. I think he's a good actor but he's also a bit zeitgeisty right now like all the It's A Sin cast. Looking forward to (if I can afford it) seeing him in this.
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Post by andrew on Nov 23, 2022 11:35:45 GMT
Offensively expensive at the Pinter. Some sub-par seats on for £65 as if thats sort of the budget price.
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Post by andrew on Nov 19, 2022 9:40:36 GMT
Like SRB and KMP, KB seems to have joined that small group of actors known just by their initials. 🙂 Honestly haven't got a clue who KMP is, put me out of my misery! SRB though without question is now 3 letters. I feel JOJ might also fit the bill, and CHF. ALW! EP! I keep thinking of more.
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Post by andrew on Nov 17, 2022 11:15:40 GMT
A name for the Baker would be sensible - he was very weak. To be honest, I would say they only have to keep Alex Young, Audrey Brisson and Julian Bleach, apart from that they could change virtually any other actor for me. Somewhere in LA, James Corden's ears start burning
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Post by andrew on Nov 17, 2022 10:08:45 GMT
Can I ask those who follow such things, was there a particular reason that the Old Vic backtracked on putting this to bed? I was sure we were reading last year that it was the last year they planned on running A Christmas Carol, then it happened all the same. I understand its a real moneymaker, but why was that rumour going around and why did it come back all the same?
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Post by andrew on Nov 16, 2022 19:04:09 GMT
I see live theatre all the time- I mean ALL OF THE TIME- it's actual one of the many (many) reasons that I moved to the London. Whilst I have a personal preference for musicals, I do occasionally enjoy a great play. I saw this show at the Young Vic a couple of years back and (genuinely) not knowing anything about this show cannot remember the last time I was so moved by a piece live theatre. Every person on stage, young and old, were just sensational. I never forgot it. And I'm not even a lesbian! Lol! When it came to Sydney, I told everyone I know to go and see it! Let's see if the West End run carries "I loved it - and I'm not even a lesbian!" on the posters
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Post by andrew on Nov 16, 2022 14:02:42 GMT
I haven't got anything to say that hasn't been said, but I've voted for 4 stars above. I wanted to love it more than I actually did, Katie Brayben was exceptional, there just wasn't enough quality on the music/lyrics end for me to come out feeling like I'd seen something really special. The slightly oddly structured plot and treatment of the subject matter are secondary considerations for me, I can get on board with that, but despite being funny and well-produced with a terrific cast I just feel a lack of standout quality songs stops this from being a great show. We (and I was helping to create it) did clap when individuals were dancing during the last song, but it was muted and stupid. Don't wait for a West End transfer, sort that out now.
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