260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 9, 2016 6:28:31 GMT
Regarding Sophie Okonedo being too old, I saw the Peter Hall/John Barton version on TV in the 60s and the part was played by Dame Peggy Ashcroft when she was 56! (Admittedly those were the days before HD TV) I remember Margaret being more of an ingénue in the early scenes whereas in this version she appears scheming from the start. That could be the way the play(s) have been abridged.
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 8, 2016 18:20:06 GMT
Interesting. I saw an amateur production by Portsmouth University last year and I was told this was the first production in the UK. I'd described it as flawed but with some lovely moments.
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 7, 2016 10:43:03 GMT
Another thumbs down for Pravda from me. I saw it at the NT with Anthony Hopkins and only sat through it for Hopkins' performance. When it was revived at Chichester, although I'm a big fan of Roger Allam, I really couldn't face seeing it again.
On a more positive note, I'd like to see Simon Gray's "Otherwise Engaged" or "Simply Disconnected."
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 4, 2016 13:31:46 GMT
I'm seeing it next Saturday (14th). When I was leaving "Travels With My Aunt" on Saturday, the audience was just coming out from this and there was a very positive buzz from the people I overheard.
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 3, 2016 17:42:30 GMT
Lock Up Your Daughters
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 1, 2016 11:35:12 GMT
Miriam Margolyes at Saturday matinee of Chichester's "Travels With My Aunt".
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 1, 2016 7:57:17 GMT
Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 1, 2016 7:11:50 GMT
Parts of "A Damsel in Distress".
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on May 1, 2016 6:42:24 GMT
I saw this yesterday and I'd describe it as an amiable musical with some zingy one-liners. The audience seemed to enjoy it. The two leads were good but when it moved away from the aunt/nephew relationship, it seemed to wander into cliché land (twirling air hostesses singing about the joys of travel and a song about the amorous inclinations of Italian men). Nothing spectacular but a pleasant and fun afternoon.
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Apr 22, 2016 6:33:12 GMT
Harry Melling was the Fool when I saw it at Chichester. He was very good.
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Mar 11, 2016 9:24:26 GMT
Evita. Three or four great tunes but the plot! Woman comes from the slums to be a film star. Then she marries a Fascist dictator. Then she dies. Am I supposed to care about her?
Its analysis of the politics of the period makes "The Sound Of Music" appear positively sophisticated.
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Feb 26, 2016 11:46:32 GMT
As a child I was taken with my cousins by our grandmother each year to a Panto; usually at Richmond or Wimbledon Theatre. I remember one year we went to the old Westminster theatre to see a play for children by Moral Rearmament; that was because she had left it too late to book tickets for a proper Panto. I don't remember the play being that preachy; it was the sort of thing you got in school drama with the message that we should be nice to one another. I also recall various drama companies doing productions at my primary school.
The first time I was allowed out on my own to see a play was a local am-dram production of "The Winslow Boy, " which I loved. Then as a birthday treat when I was 12 my parents took me and two school friends up to London to see "Oliver!" When I went to a school reunion a few years ago, the friends said how they remembered the experience and what a thrill it was.
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Feb 26, 2016 10:40:04 GMT
My most memorable experience of having a plot describer sat near me was during the infamous Peter O'Toole production of "Macbeth" at Bristol Old Vic some decades ago. The man behind us was explaining every thing that was happening to his female partner. The nadir was when Banquo's ghost turned up at the feast, covered from head to foot in gore in this OTT production, and the women turned to the man and proclaimed: "I thought he said he was dead but he isn't dead after all!"
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Feb 18, 2016 7:49:38 GMT
Full programme now on the website. The Shakespeare is "Loves Labour's Lost" and "Much Ado About Nothing."
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Feb 6, 2016 21:31:43 GMT
I saw both of the plays on TV ages ago and although they were enjoyable enough to watch at home while swigging a glass of wine, there wasn't enough in them to make me want to venture out on a cold, rainy and windy night to see them in the theatre.
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260 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Feb 5, 2016 8:33:48 GMT
I'm surprised at so much negativity. I remember the West Yorkshire Playhouse production getting excellent reviews from the critics and several of them hoped it would transfer to the West End. David Wood has a distinguished record of adaptations (although he has tended to specialise more in children's shows).
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