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Post by crabtree on Oct 16, 2017 17:32:53 GMT
Ibsen short? What have they done to the play?
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Post by crabtree on Oct 15, 2017 22:15:17 GMT
To me, their best work was Betty Blue Eyes, and it is so sad that it didn't have the longest of runs in the West End. I wonder if the fate of the pig, and that it was not the most mobile of creations had anything to do with it. Did CM have something to say about whether Berry survived or not? But oh those clever songs, and what a great production and cast.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 15, 2017 11:59:07 GMT
I've been quite vocal about the Exchange's stripped back approach of late, not really enjoying Persuasion or streetcar, and as we know from many recent productions in London such as View from the Bridge, it can work when done intelligently and it can be beautiful, but I thought Our Town worked so well. This production of Our town worked so well, so many great ideas, but the play must have seemed extraordinary when it was first performed. It is still very bold. I think I mentioned that I was involved with the other Wilder the exchange did 40 years ago, and that production was extraordinarily inventive. The cemetery scene in Our town was beautifully done. Hmm, where is Carousel in the timeline here; before or after?
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Post by crabtree on Oct 15, 2017 10:08:18 GMT
and the shoes, the beautiful removal of the shoes for the dead. I'm not sure if that is Thornton Wilder or not but it was hugely moving. Why should they need shoes, they're not going anywhere.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 14, 2017 22:25:01 GMT
Did anyone see Our Town at the Royal exchange - just finished tonight but oh that play has been waiting all these decades for that space. even more than usual, they blurred the line between cast and audience, and it's meta-theatricality judged so perfectly. Absolutely heartbreaking with the 'dead' beautifully realised. Shame it was the last night as I would take everyone to go and see it again, and say 'please don't think of things in literal terms - theatre is metaphor, and so strong for that.'
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Post by crabtree on Oct 14, 2017 16:05:38 GMT
As I remember the Royal Exchange's stranger was first played by Michael Byrne (with amazing eyes) and then when it transferred to the Roundhouse, Terence stamp. Oh that you could have seen that version, Parsley.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 13, 2017 20:28:44 GMT
I remember the truly glorious, haunting and rather epic production at the Royal Exchange with Vanessa Redgrave - that was from the golden age of the theatre, and I know tastes and styles have changed, but heck that theatre is now producing very rough and rawly stark productions. I guess economics also play a part. I know it shouldn't all be about lush production values, but it should be interesting.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 13, 2017 17:42:08 GMT
The London production also had the indefatigable Myra Sands in the ensemble. Are there any shows Myra has not been in.....she went straight from Charlie, recently, to the tour of Funny Girl, and give 150% every performance. Who has the actor who played the love interest in Baker's wife. I seem to remember being able to understand the physical attraction at least.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 13, 2017 7:33:03 GMT
i have very fond memories of this - the most delicate of musicals, and yes there was a cat, and they filled the auditorium with the smell of fresh bread. I liked the songs for the chorus , as that was what they were, a real chorus commenting on the action. But yes the central female character is not a warm creation.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 7, 2017 21:09:12 GMT
but what about the dragon - is it a stage filling puppet or have they been less obvious?
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Post by crabtree on Oct 6, 2017 12:35:11 GMT
The Tom Hiddleston production was lean, mean and sexy.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 19, 2017 20:12:55 GMT
Certainly not a minor play to me. It's both visceral and heartbreakingly intimate...give me this over the Histories any day. It contains some great speeches and a wonderful female lead.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 12, 2017 22:41:05 GMT
Certainly he has done amazing things, and taken huge quality theatre round the world. Part of me is uncomfortable about seeing exact replicas of his shows. I'd like to see them breathe and change for different audiences and locations and theatres and times, and I'm afraid I cannot forgive him the hideous lapse of taste in allowing Neil Morrissey's Fagin to put in a Bob the builder reference. That's just not on.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 11, 2017 23:12:43 GMT
I'm well aware of the different versions of Follies, but after reading the Sunday Times yesterday I am now aware of the abandoned murder plot thread....that would have so changed the tone of the piece. I'd always assumed, too, that the general feeling was that Follies was a masterpiece - I've never seen it as flawed or whatever. I had seen it, though, before the Cam mac version and remember feeling that this was not as dark and heart breaking as it should be.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 9, 2017 14:30:23 GMT
And this 'button' will be helped usually by subtle tricks like raising the stage lights at the end of the number, or a piece of centre stage choreography that nods back to the audience. Lots of little tricks to get the audience responding.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 7, 2017 21:31:48 GMT
I'll vote for Scottsboro Boys.......
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Post by crabtree on Sept 7, 2017 16:52:34 GMT
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Post by crabtree on Sept 7, 2017 16:40:59 GMT
Thank you for posting the Twiggy clip. I had never seen that, and certainly enjoyed it more than the Liza car crash. What was Twiggy wearing though. I do love the vibrato in her voice. Twiggy sings Sondheim - who knew?
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Post by crabtree on Sept 7, 2017 15:10:54 GMT
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Post by crabtree on Sept 7, 2017 10:58:10 GMT
I would love to write a piece about the life and songs of Stephen Foster - gorgeous powerful songs. And maybe a Scott Joplin piece. and then I have a play about the making of king Kong all ready and raring to go.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 5, 2017 11:23:55 GMT
I love how everyone is enjoying the ghosts, but they've always been part of the show, lurking and watching, and then having their moments - or are they more than usually integrated?
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Post by crabtree on Sept 4, 2017 8:11:02 GMT
Good morning, and is there a name for the genre of musicals, like Follies and Barnum, that use the conventions, techniques and tropes of their subject to tell their story - using circus skills to tell the story of a circus figure? I guess 'metatheatrical' is wrong as that is used when characters have an awareness of being in a musical and such.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 2, 2017 11:04:44 GMT
The Chekhov gun is a great rule of drama - like a superhero having a talent, he has to use somewhere along the way. Or with Dorothy's friend singing about only having a heart, they have to follow that through. In the original Half Sixpence, as I remember, they ignored this rule. Kipps went on about having money to burn and buying a banjo. well he had money to burn, but methinks the banjo was forgotten. Or, linking this idea to this production loosely, in the film boogie nights they witter on about Dirk Diggler's, er, talent. We would have felt cheated if there had been ne'er a glimpse. And a piano on stage has to get played. And as for loinclothgate with Cat, I guess subtle camera angles will be the answer, sadly.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 1, 2017 7:26:38 GMT
It may have been embarrassing, but I suspect it was two dancers big moment.....
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Post by crabtree on Aug 30, 2017 15:20:37 GMT
thanks for all this...it does sound an amazing experience and location. I'd love to know the practical mechanics 'backstage'. They clearly have a circular track under water for things to go round. Opera at the best of times, with the lights switched on, as it were, is pretty absurd - joyous but absurd,but bregenz seems to go even further into totally surreal territory. Do they run in rep....surely they can't change that enormous set every day?
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