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Post by stevejohnson678 on Oct 1, 2019 8:19:07 GMT
2020 season announcement in two weeks apparently.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 30, 2019 10:48:20 GMT
A good match for The Other Palace. Will be interesting to see who they case. Any idea how long the run will be? 12th Feb - 3rd May.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 30, 2019 8:37:48 GMT
I wonder how many of the Heathers/Eugenius/TOP staple stock of cheaper actors will be cast in this one Yes it's true that there are regular faces in their productions, but most of whom also happen to be very talented? It's a bit insulting to suggest they only get cast because they are 'cheap'. Well said. Being cast in a couple of shows at The Other Palace doesn't seem to have done Laura Baldwin's career much harm. Does the "staple stock of cheaper actors" include the likes of Laura Pitt Pulford, Natasha Barnes and Daniel Boys who are currently gracing the stage there?
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 29, 2019 17:25:28 GMT
I'm not sure if it'll let me add my own video of the interval song...
I love Rebecca Collingwood as Gwen barking her orders at the audience to return to their seats!
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 28, 2019 9:51:39 GMT
The cast performing on This Morning yesterday!
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 28, 2019 9:35:21 GMT
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 27, 2019 7:13:36 GMT
Malory Towers at HOME in Manchester this evening.
Pavilion, a new comedy, at Theatr Clwyd tomorrow evening.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 27, 2019 7:12:22 GMT
Loving how Emma Rice is treating the audience, Romantics Anonymous style, to an interval song in the foyer.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 26, 2019 19:05:36 GMT
Extra week added at The Lowry including a singalong performance on Friday 10th January. The new set of dates are in the Lyric Theatre.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 26, 2019 14:42:14 GMT
Cast announced.
Julie Atherton (Jo), Harry F Brown (Toby), Georgina Hellier (The Green Fairy), Emma Kinney (Wendy), David Perkins (Daniel) and Emma Whittaker (Young Jo).
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 24, 2019 10:22:10 GMT
Cast details are now on the Union Theatre website.
The cast includes Abigayle Honeywill (Lorelei Lee), Eleanor Lakin (Dorothy Shaw), Freddie King (Henry Spofford), George Lennan (Josephus Gage), Virge Gilchrist (Mrs Spofford), Tom Murphy (Sir Francis Beekman), Aaron Bannister-Davies (Gus Esmond), Maria Mosquera (Lady Phyllis Beekman), Ashlee Young (Gloria Stark).
Ensemble: Liam Dean, Patrick Cook, Lewis Rimmer, Arran Bell, Esme Bacalla-Hayes, Jo Bird, Stephen Loriot, Jasmine Davis, and Florence Beaumont.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 24, 2019 10:03:20 GMT
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 24, 2019 7:42:50 GMT
Transferring to the Trafalgar Studios from 5th December until 29th February.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 19, 2019 8:55:06 GMT
I've been waiting for Premier Inn to release their prices for next year's Fringe and wondering why they were holding them back (with all their Edinburgh hotels and those in surrounding areas unavailable to book for the whole of August 2020, while Premier Inns elsewhere were widely available).
They finally released their prices yesterday and they are astronomical! I paid £450 for a nine-night stay in the Hub by Premier Inn near Haymarket this year and in previous years have stayed at the Premier Inn at Edinburgh Park (around ten minutes from the centre of Edinburgh on the train) for around £750 for the same number of nights (always booking for the following year as soon as one Fringe has come to an end).
The pricing for next year has all Premier Inns, including the one at Edinburgh Park, between £1,550 and £1,750 for nine nights, around £170-£195 a night, while the Hub by Premier Inn has tripled in price from what I paid this year to £1,450, with all of these prices on a pay-now, non-refundable basis. You can book flexibly but it's another £100+ extra to do so.
I'll be looking at alternative accommodation over the next few days but if other hotels and B&Bs are being inflated in price to this extent then it looks like next year might be a Fringe-less one for me. Anyone else struggling to find something even remotely affordable for next year or able to offer recommendations?
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 18, 2019 7:18:25 GMT
"Kimberley Walsh is the saving grace" says the Evening Standard in their two-star review. Another two stars from The Stage.
Three stars from The Times and Broadway World and four stars from WhatsOnStage and London Theatre.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 17, 2019 9:06:03 GMT
How exciting! Could this finally be a big hit heading for the Charing Cross Theatre?! I really hope so.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 13, 2019 17:00:27 GMT
And Juliet in Manchester this evening.
Circa: Humans at The Lowry on Monday.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 13, 2019 14:34:15 GMT
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 9, 2019 20:47:59 GMT
Closing a week earlier than planned on 28th September.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 8, 2019 15:26:30 GMT
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 5, 2019 13:25:38 GMT
If they bought a job lot of parallelograms when they got that one they like to hang above each set, I guess they could be suspended in a kind of Z formation. All this stuff about dancing on the tables, "get-on-your-feet music" and the action spreading from the stage sounds like purgatory!
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 5, 2019 13:21:05 GMT
Are you both opted in to getting mail, and selected your "home theatre"? Yep. I’ve even rung them up to make sure everything is set up properly and it is (apparently). And when I told them I’m not getting the mails I just got vague pacifisms like she didn’t believe me or thought I was a bit daft or something. Sounds like a telephone version of my email conversation with them. No interest at all in looking into it further. In contrast, I stopped receiving priority booking emails from The Lowry for a couple of weeks recently after renewing my membership. I emailed The Lowry box office and the following day received a phone call apologising, saying they had reset the membership on my account and extended it by a month free of charge. Problem solved and great customer service to boot. I guess I'll just keep an eye on this thread for when Pretty Woman goes on priority sale and then login on the ATG site and assume it will be listed on the relevant theatre's page!
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 5, 2019 11:30:20 GMT
Are you both opted in to getting mail, and selected your "home theatre"? Yes, I'd done that in the past and emailed ATG about never receiving emails without success. There doesn't seem to be anywhere on the ATG website under My Account to select your marketing preferences anymore.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Sept 5, 2019 9:21:07 GMT
No ATG email as usual despite being a Theatre Card holder. So frustrating!
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Aug 31, 2019 11:08:10 GMT
Another repeat visitor here. Saw it in Leicester, booked again for Liverpool Playhouse and contemplating a trip to The Other Palace too! Audrey Brisson and Amelie are a match made in heaven and the whole production is just magical.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Aug 30, 2019 18:41:22 GMT
Returning to London next summer apparently. Venue to be announced.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Aug 30, 2019 9:24:39 GMT
Very excited for this. Also slightly annoyed, as my Cupcake membership expires on 3rd September and the tickets go on sale to Cupcake supporters on 4th September!
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Aug 26, 2019 16:08:28 GMT
Ticket sales for the Fringe have topped three million for the first time, recording a 6% increase on the previous high set in 2018.
International Festival sales are up 1% on last year to 425k, however still down on the 2017 record which topped 450,000 for the 70th anniversary celebrations.
Next year's Fringe and international festivals will run from 7th-31st August.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Aug 19, 2019 9:15:50 GMT
I concur with the verdict on this year's festival.
I wonder if it can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, the number of shows must surely be reaching saturation point. With 4,334 shows currently listed on the Edinburgh Fringe website, albeit with some duplication of the same show in different venues and a number of cancellations, that's still probably 4,200 different events as part of the Fringe which just seems way too much from a planning perspective, never mind from the point of view of performers trying to attract a decent sized audience. There seems to be an obsession with every Fringe being the biggest ever.
There's been a lot of coverage of the Fair Fringe campaign this year and while C Venues seem to have borne the brunt of that and played the role of prime scapegoat (losing their flagship venue on Chambers Street in the process), I'm not sure their working practices are that different to a number of other companies. The narrative of staff being hired on minimal or zero pay to work very long hours, sometimes without a day off for the entire festival, seems far more widespread (and almost taken as par for the course with the Fringe) than it should be. Obviously there's a balancing act to be done to prevent venues becoming unsustainable but that shouldn't be at the expense of the welfare or working/living conditions of staff.
There's also then the cost of taking a show to Edinburgh with venue hire fees, Fringe registration and marketing costs, while from an audience perspective the cost of tickets seems to be going up each year. £15 is fast becoming par for the course for anything at Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Underbelly or Pleasance, while some of the circus shows are closer to £20. That's a lot of money for a one hour slot, especially if you find you're in a venue with un-raked seating and sauna-like conditions, and soon adds up if you want to watch several shows a day.
For both audiences and performers, the accommodation costs just seem to get ever more extortionate. I was able to reduce mine this year by switching hotels but that was through a combination of sheer good luck and booking eleven months in advance. With stories in the press of Air B&Bs being listed for as much as £20,000 for the duration of the Fringe, I do feel that the festival is increasingly becoming a luxury few can afford because of the cost of staying in or near Edinburgh in August. I was interested to read an article about this by sketch comedy duo Lazy Susan the other day. Freya and Celeste aren't at the festival this year but had a sell-out show Forgive Me, Mother at Assembly in 2018. It was my highlight of last year's festival - every performance sold out, extra late-night performances were added to meet demand, yet the duo still returned from the Fringe thousands of pounds out of pocket. Okay, it's been a platform for them, they've transferred the show to Soho Theatre, then Leicester Square Theatre, and now have a BBC pilot which aired last night on the back of their success at the Fringe, yet in the interview last week they admitted they were still paying off the cost of performing in Edinburgh last summer. And that's for a show which could hardly have done any better!
None of these issues are particularly new of course and despite the long moan I've still enjoyed my stay in Edinburgh. It just feels like the festival is in danger of becoming the very thing it was founded as an alternative to back in 1947 and I think a combination of misgivings about certain things have made me feel a bit detached from it all this time around. I'd been wondering if it was just me, or the lousy weather in the first week, that affected my perspective on things so it's really interesting to read others have felt something missing this year too. Of course, occasionally you see an absolute gem, like Swipe Right Theatre's Scream Phone or The Durham Revue's Unnatural Disaster, that sprinkle a bit of Fringe magic and remind you why you fell in love with the festival in the first place. The circus productions have been particularly strong this year and the atmosphere on the Royal Mile, even not at its best, is still totally unique and hard to beat. There's also been a tangible sense of performers supporting each other on social media with the stresses of the festival, such as coping with bad reviews and struggling to attract an audience etc, rather than seeing it as a competition. There's definitely plenty of positives to take away from my Fringe experience. I maybe just pine for the days when the number of shows felt a bit more manageable, the whole thing seemed less brazenly commercial, and I was slightly more oblivious to the less appealing facets of it all.
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Post by stevejohnson678 on Aug 18, 2019 13:07:57 GMT
I feared this would be a very hard sell at Charing Cross and sadly that looks to be well founded. The ticket sales look absolutely appalling. Ignoring the handful of seats which are off sale for every performance, each upcoming performance I've checked is barely into double figures in terms of audience numbers, some have even less than that. The evening of Wednesday 21st August currently seems to have 11 tickets sold, with one person having the entire block of seating on one side of the auditorium to themselves. After Amour closed early, it's hard not to wonder how much longer this particular venue can carry on like this.
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