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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 11, 2016 20:09:51 GMT
Really enjoying it so far. I don't think Sheridan is the strongest singer, and does a sort of speak singing rather than power of Streisand. Her comic acting is excellent though, and she has brilliant natural charisma. She completely commands the stage when she's on in a way I haven't seen since Imelda.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 11, 2016 18:34:11 GMT
Unsurprisingly house is full tonight. Also the back row of the Stalls is so much better than Row A or B of the upper circle! Very glad I made this choice. I expect from my seat they'll look more like mice rather than ants as from the horrendously high upper circle here This pleases me so to hear this. I've just upgraded our seats for Dreamgirls from the 2nd row of the upper, to row N of the stalls. Initially because of the inevitable 'lean forward' of the front row due to their restricted view of the rail. I'm very please to hear that I've made the right choice. Back to Funny Girl, on the same topic, there are still a considerable amount of tickets left for opening night for this in the UC. When I saw Guys and Dolls from row B of the upper circle it was the first time I felt compelled to rent the plastic binoculars. You definitely made the right choice
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 11, 2016 18:23:27 GMT
I'm not sure how Wicked can overtake any of the ones above as they all seem to be 'everlasting' shows
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 11, 2016 18:22:01 GMT
Unsurprisingly house is full tonight.
Also the back row of the Stalls is so much better than Row A or B of the upper circle! Very glad I made this choice.
I expect from my seat they'll look more like mice rather than ants as from the horrendously high upper circle here
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 11, 2016 12:50:47 GMT
Would anyone be able to point me in the direction of one of the codes please?
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 11, 2016 10:05:20 GMT
Have people been blinded by the mega-success of ALW perhaps? Take him and his monster hits out of the equation and truly successful British Musicals have been a handful perhaps - Blood Brothers has been seen worldwide, Billy Elliot has been a huge success in London and transferred abroad, but what else? Matilda is having a decent run in London, but that's all I can think of. When I look at home-grown British Musicals in the last 10-20 years, I see a bunch of jukebox musicals and a string of lack-lustre movie adaptations. Billy Elliot might have been a little masterpiece with a story that works very well live on stage, a gripping subject and a fairly decent score. But beyond that, it looks to me like producers were skimming the back catalogue of British films and thinking "Hm, which could be stuffed with a string of mediocre musical theatre songs and plonked on stage?" I did enjoy "Made in Dagenham" and I'm still looking forward to "Mrs Henderson" since I like the music, but none of this shouts creativity, originality or simply a work of inspiration by a composer/writer who is really keen on a subject that speaks to him personally. It's a huge difference from shows that come from the heart, whether it's ALW's older stuff like Phantom (written for his then-squeeze Sarah Brightman) or Evita (a subject Tim Rice was keen on) or now Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda put years of work into this) or even Book of Mormon. ALW himself meanwhile still churns out decent tunes but has made terrible choices with his books. There was a good musical lurking in the Stephen Ward-story but not what we saw on stage and the less said about Paint Never Dries, the better. Stop thinking "what movie can be rehashed as a musical?" and really go with subjects that are intrigueing, fresh and inspirational and let the creative juices flow. Good post. What's the real basis for the lack of creativity in the British musical scene? There have been some excellent and highly original recent Broadway musicals, including the west end's best new musicals Kinky Boots and In the heights (it wasn't even a legitimate competition between these two and MHP and Bend it) Instead of focusing on what we're doing wrong, what are they doing right?
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 11, 2016 9:39:01 GMT
Funny Girl tonight
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 10, 2016 23:23:01 GMT
Couple of thoughts from last nights performance. Eva Noblezada was a bit 'meh' all the way through apart from On My Own which she knocked outta the park and got an extended ovation for. Sorry I don't know the names for the rest of this... Alternatives were on for both of the Thenardiers, very good but wow the guy has a weird face on him! He's the one from the chorus who usually plays the toff who Fantine scratches. A slightly camp "ooh missus" take on the inn-keeper but I liked it and not sorry to miss Phil Daniels. Alternative on for Enroljas, big stocky young feller, liked him. Cossette and Marius...... Wimpy. She seemed to be playing 14 years old, and her voice grated "chirp chirp chirp". He looked a right mummy's boy. I expected some woman in a mob cap to come on, spit on a hanky and wipe his face. Romantic lead? Never in a million years. Javert, great but a bit on the shouty side for me. Valjean, excellent. It still looks great, first half seemed to fly by. I know we sometimes joje about the turntable and I really liked the 25 tour staging without it, but the way it's used really is very clever. Still a great show. Thanks for the report. Agreed about the new Cossette and Marius. Way too lightweight and wet fish for such roles. Marius used to be a weighty and powerful role (my place, is here, I'll fight, WITH YOUUUUUUU etc), but the current Marius is a bit rabbit in the headlights.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 10, 2016 23:13:17 GMT
Whenever I hear Matt Henry sing Sex is in the heel I can only hear
'The sex is in the heel fishes you can make it'
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 10, 2016 12:01:02 GMT
Here's the clip for those that CBA to find it
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 9, 2016 22:07:21 GMT
Great publicity for Wicked tonight - Beau Dermott was better than many Elphabas.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 9, 2016 16:14:09 GMT
Why didn't they pick a big theatre like the Palladuim? They could have sold it out.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 8, 2016 15:20:34 GMT
Samantha Barks, Jessie Buckley, Aoife someone who was in Chicago came from one of those let's cast a show shows, either Dorothys or Marias. I think these are a separate category too. The wonderful siobhan dillon also came from one of these shows
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 8, 2016 12:27:47 GMT
Isn't it because they're all generally told by the judges in those shows that they aren't good enough to be pop stars but they could always go into musicals so when the hits dry up or never materialise, that's the route they take. Also, if we're including Matt Henry in that group do we also include the sainted Kerry Ellis? I agree they're in a separate category. What do we think of Kerry's appearance? I thought she really didn't do herself justice. It was weird for a bona fide star of musical theatre to be judged alongside amateurs like that.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 8, 2016 11:57:04 GMT
Olivier winner Matt Henry on the voice!
Zoe Birkett, Darius Danesh, Will Young and Gareth Gates from Pop Idol (the entire top 4)
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 8, 2016 11:32:43 GMT
Simply had to share this video for Aaron Tveit and Gavin Creel singing Take me or Leave me. Adorbs. Very cute indeed. Any chance Aaron plays for our team?
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 8, 2016 10:39:11 GMT
I consider Lara a co-lead, with Imelda, but I know I am in the minority with that thought. I listened to some of the other music from Mrs. Henderson and it sounds a bit dated, but I think I'll still go and see it. It's incredibly inconsistent. If Fantine is a lead role in Les miserables then Louise is also a lead role
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 6, 2016 21:20:38 GMT
Just watched the Jersey Boys performance in the Covent Garden stage for the Oliviers... Not a huge fan of the new cast. It makes you realise how strong Michael Watson is vocally for this role.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 5, 2016 22:17:44 GMT
Does anyone have a clip of the gypsy performance?
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 1, 2016 16:48:11 GMT
Ew he's the anti-hot! LOL But to each his own, and I won't troll the man just on the way he looks. souchyboyy-don't get me wrong! I like Kerry Ellis a LOT, but I kind of think she has her limitations. Her strength is certainly in her voice and not acting. I think the role should require hotness as a prerequisite to add to the sexual undercurrent between Lola and Charlie. Killian miscast in my opinion... Stark sands did set the bar extremely high to be fair. Other such roles that require hotness are Chris in Miss Saigon, Link in hairspray, Fiyero in Wicked and Warner in Legally Blonde
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 1, 2016 14:49:23 GMT
I'm quite surprised there's the demand. I thought it was OK but nothing remarkable or unmissable
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 1, 2016 12:23:34 GMT
I'm yet to hear him hit the notes 'I see flashing lights and fashion heights ' in Everyone Say Yeah
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 1, 2016 11:46:09 GMT
What's the cheapest site to book on?
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Post by theatre-turtle on Apr 1, 2016 10:13:57 GMT
I'm guessing it will of been for Archive purposes, which they do for a lot of West End shows. They wouldn't release a DVD now as the show has only been open for 6 months and it is selling really well at the moment, so there would be no need to release it on DVD at the moment. It's selling ok. It's a very expensive show to run. The Oliviers could bolster ticket sales, or at least make people aware of what Kinky Boots is. What makes it an expensive show to run? It doesn't seem any more expensive than most modern musicals
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 30, 2016 17:57:41 GMT
I'm surprised her manager didn't stop her tweeting sooner. I expect someone has intervened
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 30, 2016 16:53:49 GMT
My preference for Curious is the circle so you can see the stage floor clearly. I agree, front of the circle would be the best view. Helpfully the stage slopes upwards though.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 30, 2016 15:00:46 GMT
Despite the fact it is coming back to Birmingham next year, I've booked a spontaneous trip next week to London to see this! Been wanting to see this for a while so I'm very excited! I really enjoyed the book. Booked centre Row V in the Stalls, does anyone know if I will miss much due to the overhang of the circle (which was warned as I booked them on the Delfont Mackintosh site)? I'm assuming it won't be that much surely as the row in front didn't have this warning...I hope! You won't miss anything major although I think it's a little far back and you might feel a bit disconnected from the action
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 30, 2016 9:39:22 GMT
Jamelia?
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 29, 2016 21:33:40 GMT
I was at the performance tonight and it's easily one of the best things I've seen for many many months.
Hope it wins the Olivier Award.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 29, 2016 15:09:10 GMT
Amber will have an alternate performing every Wednesday Evening. Aaaaaaaaand she issssssss tellllllllllling you, she's not going (on a Wednesday night) . . . Listen... It's for one night only
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