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Post by grannyjx6 on Apr 12, 2018 21:56:12 GMT
As a Northerner, I love it when there is a cinema screening of a West End (or Broadway) show. I will be hopefully seeing 'Jamie' next week but will also go to the screening as although the atmosphere obviously isn't the same, it's great to get up close and personal with the performers.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Apr 10, 2018 22:36:49 GMT
Thank you very much for your advice Dan213. We are in London from Tuesday so yes, we can get to the theatre in the morning. How long before the box office opens would you suggest we get there for?
I tried to get £25 tickets today, at 5.30pm. The box office told me that there is usually a queue outside the venue when they open and that the tickets go then. They did offer me some £35 seats, but they either had restricted legroom or weren’t in great spots. Box office were lovely though. I can’t say what time you should get ther before the box office opens, but it sounds like you might want to be early if you are determined to get £25 ones.
Thanks for the info. We aren't staying too far from the theatre so could have a nice stroll after breakfast, as if the forecast is correct it will be nice and warm. Then I've booked for us to go round the Tower of London so a nice relaxing day. Or maybe not.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Apr 10, 2018 20:19:20 GMT
Thank you very much for your advice Dan213. We are in London from Tuesday so yes, we can get to the theatre in the morning. How long before the box office opens would you suggest we get there for?
I went on a Wednesday matinee which are usually the quietest and I got there about half 12. I would have thought turning up at box office opening would suffice if you were just looking for 1 or 2 tickets. If you're at all worried, just have a check of the seating plan the night before and you should be able to see if there's ample availability. I doubt you'll have any problems though Hope this helps! That has put my mind at rest and thanks again. It will be two tickets for me and my husband. Wouldn't even mind if we weren't together (well we have been married for 43 years ). I keep looking at availability for that day and it seems to be the £65 tickets that at the moment aren't sold so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Apr 10, 2018 20:07:25 GMT
I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can get a reduced price ticket next Friday when we're in London but here aren't many of the cheaper tickets left really. I may have to break the habit of a lifetime and pay £65 a ticket if not. If you're in London in the morning, I think the box office opens at 10/10:30. If you go in and ask for a ticket, they'll give you the the best available seat they have for £25 (They were still doing this last month when I went). Todaytix is also another option for last minute seat discounts
Thank you very much for your advice Dan213. We are in London from Tuesday so yes, we can get to the theatre in the morning. How long before the box office opens would you suggest we get there for?
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Post by grannyjx6 on Apr 9, 2018 23:25:38 GMT
I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can get a reduced price ticket next Friday when we're in London but here aren't many of the cheaper tickets left really. I may have to break the habit of a lifetime and pay £65 a ticket if not.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Apr 9, 2018 17:54:02 GMT
Think I'll give this a miss. ;-)
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Post by grannyjx6 on Apr 8, 2018 19:56:10 GMT
I've only just joined TodayTix as I'm hoping to take advantage in a week or so when we are in London. I got an email saying that the scheme had been discontinued, before I had even booked anything.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Apr 1, 2018 19:50:31 GMT
I've booked our small case into BagBNB for the Saturday when we come home (so we can see a matinee) and it has cost me £5.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 30, 2018 22:12:39 GMT
I've just looked at tickets for a Saturday matinee and they START at £51 so I think I'll give it a miss. Look on TodayTix, they have rush seats for £20, or advance seats from £23 and £42.50. If you use my referral code KGGMS you'll save another £10 off that as well 😁
Thank you Robert.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 30, 2018 21:53:06 GMT
Been to the first preview tonight. Definitely go for those temporary seats. They’re very comfy and have huge amounts of legroom. They’ve reduced the size of the thrust by at least half but even then there’s still s good 8 feet or more between the front of the stage and row AA. The last few rows have been curtained off and it’s still “rattling” a bit in the space so Id go for the front. I was a bit disappointed after Act 1 after all the glowing reviews. All that “Nay don’t fret, ‘ave already put your tea up” and “is kettle on Mother?” Doesn’t work up here because yes, lots of us really speak like that. It was ok but I couldn’t help thinking of the W1 set marvelling at the funny accents. Happier with the intensity of act 2 and really enjoyed it by the end but five stars? Not for me.
I was disappointed yesterday Burly, in fact for about 5 minutes, I thought they had forgotten their words, there were such long pauses. The chap next to me thought it was wonderful (but he wasn't a Sheffielder either, so maybe there is something in what you say). It's a short play, just two hours including the interval but it could have been done in much less time in my opinion as there wasn't really much of a story. Unless you call filling a kettle up to make tea and watching someone with poor table manners scoff their dinner interesting.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 30, 2018 21:42:09 GMT
I've just looked at tickets for a Saturday matinee and they START at £51 so I think I'll give it a miss.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 25, 2018 20:29:37 GMT
Can anyone advise me of the running time please? We're in London for a few days, getting the coach back home at 6.30pm on Saturday and I'm wondering if we will have time to fit this in before we go home. It does say 2 hours 20 minutes, is that accurate? It was done by 9:50pm the other evening, so maximum 2 hours 20 minutes. The ushers are very keen for everyone to leave quickly as well. So, a matinee should finish at 4:50pm and it would be easy to get to Victoria (assuming the coach goes from there) by 5:30pm, so lots of time. The only proviso to think about is luggage. Like most theatres, they have a bag search. This one was quite thorough which explained the large queues going in. I doubt large bags will be allowed in, so you'd have to allocate time to get to and from wherever you store your bags as well (I've used the Luggagehero app recently, which works well and lets you pay a few pounds to store it at local convenience stores).
Thank you for your help. We are storing the cases at a hotel just up the road from Victoria, I used BAGB&B who charge a fiver per case which then leaves us free to spend the rest of the day in London. Could have left them at the hotel but it's at the opposite side of the city. Not heard of Luggagehero but good to know there are other options.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 25, 2018 11:43:34 GMT
Can anyone advise me of the running time please? We're in London for a few days, getting the coach back home at 6.30pm on Saturday and I'm wondering if we will have time to fit this in before we go home. It does say 2 hours 20 minutes, is that accurate?
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 21, 2018 20:54:50 GMT
very little leg/arm/seat room with some obstacles in the way. Go for row A, or the single seat in AA, they are safest.
Just book A6 and A7. :-)
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 21, 2018 20:31:22 GMT
very little leg/arm/seat room with some obstacles in the way. Go for row A, or the single seat in AA, they are safest.
Thank you for your advice.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 20, 2018 23:09:29 GMT
I noticed it had extended and went on the website to book but thought I would check with theatremonkey first. Now I'm not sure as there seems to be very little leg/arm/seat room with some obstacles in the way. Then I looked on tripadvisor and was surprised by many negative reviews, saying it was grotesque in places, starting with the opening scene (which I won't say on here).
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 15, 2018 23:55:00 GMT
I know this is almost par for the course but at Mamma Mia matinee today, 6 women in front of me and my husband were drinking the whole way through the show (small bottles of wine, sneaked in their handbags, loudly singing along and swaying from side to side plus obligatory hand movements. Of course they got up at the end to dance, turning round and telling all us miserable so and so's to get up too. The problem is we were in the balcony with a very steep rake and there were signs up asking us not to stand (health and safety). So I remained seated and had the last ten minutes or so completely obliterated by their backsides.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 15, 2018 23:33:21 GMT
Is it worth seeing? And how does one get the code for priority booking? In my opinion yes. It will help if you like Take That's music of course but it's a play with music in my opinion and a pretty touching story. Not sure about priority booking code. Maybe check the theatre website on Friday?
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 11, 2018 23:41:15 GMT
Sorry to rock the boat but I thought it was awful. It reminded me of when I was a little girl (150 years ago) watching Liberace and wondering what all the fuss was about.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 10, 2018 22:02:45 GMT
See you there, also got row B stalls for tonight this morning! I actually moved to row AA (the famous theatre forum seats). Did the backstage tour yesterday and before I left home I noticed that there were still 4 seats in row AA so when I collected the tour tickets in the afternoon I smiled nicely and asked if any chance of being moved for row AA. Was told that the list from Today Tix don't get passed to them until an hour before show and to ask then but there was no guarantee. By the way loved the tour and really recommend it. Anyway collected ticket at 7pm and same guy on box office and, bless him, he moved me so top marks to the staff as they really didn't need to do it. Show as good as ever, everyone on except understudy for Andy who was great. Staircase nearly had me jumping up and cheering at the end as usual but I forced myself to stay seated. Now a question. A very interesting post. We are going in April but I've booked the cheapest seats up in the gods. I was also thinking of doing the tour beforehand and might chance my hand asking if there is any chance of changing to better seats. We're going on Tuesday so it probably won't be full.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 7, 2018 23:49:00 GMT
I've just been to the Friend's Open Rehearsal of this new production. Frankly I'm still making my mind up about it as it is so different from any other version of Carmen I've seen. First of all there's no spoken dialogue, instead there is a recorded 'narration' done by Carmen herself. These bits are mercifully short but not short enough and by the end you've really had enough. The set is a massive staircase that covers the entire width of the stage. This moves backwards and forwards but never allows for an acting space that is much larger than say The Donmar. Obviously a lot of the action takes place on the steps but this inhibits any true interaction. At the end of 3hrs 30mins you are really ready for a change of scene but that never happens. There's a lot of really excellent dancing and movement in a broadway/street style that strangely works very well. It was also incredibly polished for a rehearsal. Quite a lot of extra music has been added, not always to great effect - the Habanera has a whole extra section. The performances though, were all excellent, the four principals very strong - Francesco Meli a terrific Don Jose (his taxing aria beautifully done) and Anna Goryachova was one of the best Carmens I've seen. The chorus were on stonking form. In the end I enjoyed it more than was irritated by it - Carmen is not one of my favourite operas so I can take a less reverential approach than in some other works. Oh and I almost forgot, Carmen makes her first entrance as a Matador and her second one as King Kong - go figure!
I watched the live cinema screening last night and more or less agree with everything you said, but most of the audience were less than thrilled and some didn't come back after the interval. I'm ashamed to say I laughed when Escamillo tripped up the stairs and again when Don Jose tripped over Carmen's ridiculously long dress/train. I'm such a philistine.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 3, 2018 23:49:23 GMT
It must be doing well! Despite already visiting for a fortnight at the very start of the tour, The Band is returning to Sheffield for a week in October, "following huge demand".
Well it did sell out every night so actually 'huge demand' would be correct in this case. I enjoyed it and will probably see it again if I can.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Mar 3, 2018 15:06:20 GMT
Ruth Madoc was excellent (along with Harry Secombe, Roy Castle, David Cardy etc etc) in the tour of Chichester's Pickwick more than 20 years ago!
I saw that, a wonderful production. Poor Roy Castle had just been diagnosed with cancer and I think it was probably the last thing he did professionally. I can hardly believe it was 25 years ago though.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Feb 27, 2018 23:05:10 GMT
Dale has done a complete performance before? But he did take over mid way last night. I'm debating going, I'd really like to see his take on Charlie but I don't know if I can justify paying over £35 for travel plus the ticket cost on top. times like this I really wish I did live in London
Yes, it's not just the cost of the show if you live 100 miles away is it? I've just had an email from Encore tickets offering discount tickets for KB with a potential saving of over £30 if that's any help?
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Post by grannyjx6 on Feb 23, 2018 22:07:29 GMT
Theatremonkeys a psychic. (Don’t know what the euronillions numbers are do you?) I dunno how I feel about this one. It feels an odd choice. She can still sing, keys can be changed to suit her, and she's playing Dorothy Brock so it doesn't matter that her face hasn't moved since 1997.
The bitch in me laughed at that as she is older than me, but looks young enough to be my daughter.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Feb 22, 2018 18:49:28 GMT
Practically everyone in the rear stalls this afternoon kept their coats on as both the outside doors and inside doors (into the stalls) were wide open until the show started (10 minutes late) and it was FREEZING!
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Post by grannyjx6 on Feb 22, 2018 18:41:41 GMT
You could have made it onto the bad behaviour thread grannyjx6 !!! I enjoyed it. I've never seen the film and I deliberately didn't do any research on the play beforehand, so I mistakenly thought it was going to be just a two-hander. In fact, the cast was as large as any I've ever seen at the Crucible, including a fair few non-speaking extras. Jonathan Hyde is particularly convincing as Nixon, and although Daniel Rigby doesn't physically look like David Frost, he sounds uncannily like him. Being the PDR, there was quite a major technical problem, that will hopefully be resolved by opening night proper, otherwise it will be a major distraction. Ran nearly 10 minutes longer than the very precise advertised time of 1 hour 47 minutes. And there's no interval, so it's probably best not to have too much sauce beforehand!
Thank you for that Paul, I think I will book a ticket halfway through the run and they should have ironed out any problems by then Good job I didn't go straight from my boozy afternoon as I don't think I would have lasted nearly two hours without a toilet break! (Or a snooze )
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Post by grannyjx6 on Feb 22, 2018 18:29:39 GMT
The Guardian didn't give it a very good review. They gave it 4 stars...
Sorry, I got the wrong newspaper, it was The Spectator.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Feb 22, 2018 18:21:42 GMT
The Guardian didn't give it a very good review.
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Post by grannyjx6 on Feb 21, 2018 23:25:31 GMT
This very evening I shall be at the world-famous Crucible Theatre for the public dress rehearsal of Frost/Nixon. I think I'll push the boat out and go to KFC for tea!
I nearly went to that Paul. I popped in to get a ticket for tomorrow's Quartet at the Lyceum and noticed they still had the £5 tickets available for the PDR (also heard staff saying they weren't selling well, but neither was Everybody's Talking About Jamie last year - their words, not mine). Decided not to as I was meeting some friends for a boozy afternoon birthday celebration and thought it might be a bit undignified if I fell asleep during the performance. What did you think to it and how was your vegetarian KFC?
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