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Post by crabtree on Jan 28, 2017 23:27:35 GMT
Just back from the final performance of this brilliant, inventive and very moving production. I had seen it three weeks ago and it has grown, and flowed and was so full of detail. There was some set missing tonight, thanks to faulty flying and hydraulics, but that mattered not one iota....a brilliant, sexy cast being simply wonderful.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 27, 2017 13:39:28 GMT
yes, Josephine Barstow, oh joy. That will be a masterclass of delivering a song.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 27, 2017 8:36:23 GMT
What is it about dear Alice that she has to have all manner of terrible conceits thrown at her...the original narrative has been strong enough to keep our interest for decades. There's a twisted logic and narrative drive already there, and if directors were to delve into the material itself instead of using Alice as a Maguffin to drive the director's irrelevant fantasies we would, certainly Alice would, be all much better off.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 22, 2017 10:40:55 GMT
Absolutely loved the final performance of this last night, and even got taken up on stage to dance with the ladies. It's beautifully staged, and flows, with a handsome, sexy cast. Very slick, and just the right side of caricature. The ending is distinctly rushed though, and not the climatic moment it should be. But a total joy. Let's hope when the show comes back from Canada that there is room for it in London.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 15, 2017 11:11:33 GMT
caught Billy last night, and this really does not seem a provincial tour at all. Yes there are fewer cast, and the set is modified but it looks epic on the Palace stage. And I still marvel that a boy can hold the stage for three hours, singing, dancing, and acting - with the added complication of an accent. truly amazing. 'Solidarity' has to be one of the best staged numbers in musical theatre. Dancing policeman and miners should not work, but heck it's brilliant. As I watched happily from the front row, part of me was wondering about backstage - so little wing space and all those children and the army of chaperones. It must be so well stage managed on stage and off - on stage it just flows. actually flows better than it did when I saw it in London. Billy's bedroom was not playing ball and left a huge hole in front of the rampaging ballet girls. fortunately the stage manager was on stage as quick as a flash to stop the herd of tulle disappearing into the darkness. But do catch this tour - it is an amazing piece of work, and the fact that it is touring is even more remarkable. Well done to all.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 14, 2017 23:56:45 GMT
thankfully, it's an antidote to rob marshall's frenetic musical film making
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Post by crabtree on Jan 14, 2017 20:45:05 GMT
yes please to Titanic - I can imagine it at the Royal Exchange. But definitely yes to betty blue Eyes, but with a better Betty. I gather that pig came from Australia - there are plenty of puppet folk in the UK who could find a more mobile way to bring her to life. And I know Cameron likes to soften things (Follies?) but did it really make sense in the context of the plot, and with the Macbeth subtext, to have Betty survive? It may not have been so uplifting and the gimmick of Kylie would have gone, but it would have been truer to the material.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 14, 2017 20:18:02 GMT
It's a clever title as La La Land obviously refers to a gentle fantasy world, and LA, but to all the 'wispy' style of singing.....at some points it really does seem as if they are just gently muttering la-la-la half heartedly. Not always a bad thing.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 11, 2017 0:02:21 GMT
I wonder how long before this delicate charming colourful chamber piece of a musical heads to the stage.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 10, 2017 22:41:57 GMT
How long was the show delayed tonight with the One Show performance?
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Post by crabtree on Jan 9, 2017 22:06:19 GMT
yes the old chrome box office looks a little lost now, with only a rather token small coffee bar keeping it company in that large space.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 8, 2017 23:46:36 GMT
it's very much a chamber musical, as it is quite restrained really, and never lets go a la MGM musicals.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 8, 2017 23:34:07 GMT
oh thank you, gents, thank you. I will pursue that.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 8, 2017 22:08:39 GMT
and the colours and art direction have well earnt Oscar all over them.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 8, 2017 22:06:43 GMT
Ok, for those of a certain vintage and whose memory still works, does anyone remember seeing this landmark production in stratford in 1964. I was 8 and on a barging holiday and we moored for two days whilst this was going on, and I have a distinct memory of a huge 30 foot sword continually on fire, planted in the gardens down past the Dirty Duck. My mind is want to fabricate things but usually based on a grain of truth. I was at stratford yesterday and asked some of the staff, but they are all so young and were not around then. Anyone else remember this sword? There was also talk of a ghost that had been seen then. Strange the things a child remembers, children will listen after all, but it whetted my appetite to see what was going on in that wonderful building. I do like the new building but there are some dead spaces - the whole of the old front and the box office area is not utilised at all. It feels very sad.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 8, 2017 16:26:30 GMT
I'm afraid I loved this and saw it before The Rover....I think I was still so touched by seven Acts that the Rover was like a party happening next door, I didn't feel involved. Perhaps I should have seen The rover first. But Seven acts was tremendous, and powerful, and erotic and thoughtful, and so moving. And Patrick O'Kane is sensational
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Post by crabtree on Jan 7, 2017 23:40:43 GMT
Just back from a double bill of this and Seven acts of Mercy. sadly, this suffered for me as I was on the front row for Mercy and was truly overwhelmed by its' power and emotion and having so much to think about. For Rover I was up in a hideously uncomfortable seat in the front of the second gallery and didn't feel part of the party, but I did sit there applauding how inventive and kinetic they all were, and yes joseph Millson is pretty special. Patrick O'Kane in seven acts is even more than pretty special. Wow what a dark but satisfying play. Truth to tell I was still pondering seven acts during Rover, so maybe there's a lesson. Perhaps I should have seen them in the reverse order.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 1, 2017 11:18:28 GMT
Yep, as someone pointed out above, Noises Off, on film, was one of the most pointless and desperately unfunny experiences. Some things just have to be enjoyed live.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 1, 2017 1:03:24 GMT
I'm hoping the live show is tremendous, but this just did not work on TV. Without the clever set up/other layer of Noises Off and Black Comedy, or the brilliant subtle observations of Acorn Antiques, this just seemed rather obvious but slick slapstick.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 30, 2016 17:50:38 GMT
Victor/Victoria - but oh the score is very limp. Thankfully the Pirate Queen never made it....terrible.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 23, 2016 1:35:26 GMT
Absolutely loved The tempest tonight - gorgeously lit, but the famed motion capture characters added nothing and were clumsy next to the real actors. Totally unnecessary but the floor lighting exquisite. Nothing however matched the final two minutes of Prospero, stood in a cold circle of light, having dismissed a confused Ariel, and turning to the audience for that great last speech. No frills, no gimmick, just great acting and Shakespeare and theatre. So moving, especially just having watched Ariel almost making a sudden plea not to be released. Cut the gimmicky, clumsy motion capture and the bad animation, and there's a very special show there. The practical and old, old trick of disappearing food from the banquet got morer response than the awkward motion capture.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 16, 2016 21:33:55 GMT
I would say that that last comment was based on simple observation rather than any cattiness.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 15, 2016 22:55:49 GMT
I do love G&S but never warmed to D'Oyly Carte. The best production of recent years was Sasha Regan's all male Pinafore, which was surprisingly one of the most honest and truthful productions, the most tender, and the most joyous....and the most inventive. The satire came across loud and clear and it was beautifully sung by the men.
And the worst, by any standard, was ENO's recent Pirates. Simply dull and lifeless and flat. How could that happen with their track record with inventive hits like Patience and Mikado.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 14, 2016 23:59:21 GMT
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 14, 2016 23:02:48 GMT
and probably looked a little exposed on that vast Lowry stage
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Post by crabtree on Dec 14, 2016 22:02:15 GMT
here's a thing.....do you think Gilbert and Sullivan would have survived through to today without D'Oyly Carte. I find it hard to believe that they had the same regimented productions and business for decades. I can't help feeling Gilbert, such an innovator in theatrical terms, would have wanted his productions re-invented alongside theatrical developments. Towards the end it was as if looking at museum pieces, but then Les Miserables and Phantom have been going over three decades with the same, admittedly bigger and flashier, production. Without D'Oyly Carte we might not have had G&S today but then without the company the operas might have had a better reputation.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 12, 2016 22:29:02 GMT
and how sad that they messed around with Being Alive by throwing in Chitty at the same time.....ghastly
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Post by crabtree on Dec 12, 2016 18:54:29 GMT
yep this is clearly the ballet everything has been leading up to. I usually his ballets many times, but Sleeping Beauty left me cold. I've loved Dorian Grey, Swan Lake, Play Without Words, Car Man, Highland Fling and Lord of the Flies particularly. I wish they would stage his TV ballet, Late Flowering lust.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 11, 2016 17:02:20 GMT
the staging and design of the Link/Tracey prison seen was one of the most clumsy pieces of television I've ever seen. So brightly lit, and they just could not get a decent shot of the faces, and what a flimsy excuse for the escape. What was their thinking for not having the other protesters in prison? Tawdry and amateur.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 10, 2016 22:27:11 GMT
Funny short play.
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