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Post by cherokee on Mar 22, 2022 12:29:16 GMT
As much as I was looking forward to this (in truth) I was a little underwhelmed by the London production, especially the Chocolate Room. (Just a useless bit of trivia) Has anyone ever noticed that the children go in the order that they come? Augustus Gloop is the first Golden Ticket winner and is the first child to go. Violet Beureguarde is the second and then Verucca Salt and so on and so forth. I've never seen the stage show so I don't know if they changed it, but that's not the case in the book where Veruca finds the second ticket.
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Post by cherokee on Mar 16, 2022 15:43:28 GMT
I think I must be out of step with just about everyone else on this. Really didn't enjoy it but that was mainly due to disliking the two lead performances: Jonathan Bailey giving a grotesque and massively unsubtle performance (just as he did in 'Company' - which most other people also seemed to love), and Taron Egerton just being weak and unconvincing. I think the play might feel a little dated now, but I really wanted to see what it would have been like in the hands of subtler and stronger performers. Would have loved to see Whishaw and Scott doing it.
2 stars from me.
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Post by cherokee on Dec 22, 2021 9:28:29 GMT
Four shows at the NT this year. After Life - pretty good Normal Heart - I know it got great reviews but I wasn’t fully taken by it. Hex - Not good East is East - Really great show and production. I’m definitely being more cautious of what I book ay the NT now though. Avoided Manor due to the write-ups on here. I will try and catch Trouble in Mind in the new year and I am quite fancying the next two Dorfman plays too (Our Generation and Middle). I’ll wait for the word of mouth on the others. And East Is East was actually a Birmingham Rep production that transferred...
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Post by cherokee on Dec 20, 2021 15:47:54 GMT
The NT website is still selling tickets for tonight and up to 23rd. Maybe just the understudies have finished? I can't imagine any production choosing to dispense with its understudies whilst intending to continue running at this precise moment!
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Post by cherokee on Nov 10, 2021 19:43:15 GMT
E-mail from the Curve saying running time approx 1hr 45mins without interval. Is it ever performed with an interval? I was involved in an amateur version and we put it in between 'Gimme the Ball' and 'Dance 10; Looks 3', but I don't know if any professional productions ever have one.
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Post by cherokee on Oct 31, 2021 11:41:50 GMT
My memory of the original production was sitting halfway back in the stalls of the Palace Theatre, having paid for top price tickets, only for the overhang of the dress circle to block all the scenes that happened on top of the bus or on Ayers Rock, rendering entire musical numbers including Adam's operatic 'aria' and most of the three divas' songs invisible to our party. By that stage they'd put a couple of telly screens up which relayed a very blurred and fuzzy image, but I was not happy. I had quite a battle but they gave me a full refund in the end.
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Post by cherokee on Oct 28, 2021 14:38:05 GMT
A "Jenny Seagrove in Every Show" season?
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Post by cherokee on Oct 21, 2021 22:38:27 GMT
I might be misremembering, but I think in the past they've allowed a celeb to miss one week and then return to the competition, but if their absence extends to a second week, they have to leave. So the timing might be awkward for Judi. Has there been any news on whether Ugo is well enough to return?
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Post by cherokee on Sept 27, 2021 10:41:32 GMT
Some rather strange judging, I thought. Kitty Scott Claws and Veronica Green both had the most basic looks across the two outfits, I thought. But I can understand they wouldn't want to put Veronica in the Bottom 2 straightaway. She looks like she's in danger of repeating her mistake from last year though - she looked very vulnerable and nervous. I'd say all the other girls exuded more confidence than she did. Which I think is a shame, as she is talented. But she needs to believe in herself more, otherwise she's going to be her own worst enemy yet again.
Scarlett Harlett is very funny, and I liked Choriza May too. Krystal Versace is clearly very impressive as a "looks queen". Victoria Scone is obviously a very accomplished comic performer. I'm still on the fence as to how I feel about her inclusion in a drag competition though. Surely part of it is how convincing you are dressed as a woman. A biological female therefore has a natural advantage. Just feels weird.
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Post by cherokee on Sept 17, 2021 14:07:32 GMT
With the new album and the Voyage concert, I wonder if the band might finally be persuaded to agree to a biopic being made? I can’t see it - the story of ABBA isn’t a happy one is it? Surely that would make it a more interesting story? 90 minutes of four people all getting along nicely would be a bit dull. There's plenty of incident. Frida's life story could fill a mini series on its own; and Agnetha has had her share of emotional ups and downs too. And actually there's a pretty satisfying story arc - especially now. 2 young couples fall in love, marry, then divorce, and after 40 years they reunite as friends and bathe in global adoration. But I certainly can't see it happening during their lifetimes. They're far too private for that. And without the official seal of approval, any film wouldn't be allowed to use any of their music. And apart from anything else, what do you do about the accents? Cast Swedish actors and subtitle it, which would limit its commercial appeal? Have them speaking English but in Swedish accents which would inevitably make it sound comic, or give them generic English/American accents which would lack verisimilitude?
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Post by cherokee on Sept 16, 2021 20:45:25 GMT
Does anyone know why the theatre's website is listing two actors as Frank: Henry Everett and Kulvinder Ghir? Are they sharing the role? The latter seems to have performed on Press Night from the reviews I've read.
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Post by cherokee on Sept 16, 2021 13:31:01 GMT
I rather enjoyed this. As a ghost story, it's no great shakes and relies on a sound effect at the end of each scene to elicit a jump scare from the audience, but I found it witty and entertaining, with a strong cast. Hadley Fraser is always great, and Lily Allen more than holds her own. Jake Woods is very enjoyable too. Maybe I'm just dense, but I didn't see the twist coming at all, and it was fun reassessing the rest of the play in light of that.
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Post by cherokee on Sept 16, 2021 13:28:31 GMT
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Post by cherokee on Aug 31, 2021 8:22:00 GMT
Yes, the material is so weak, the best actors in the country could do nothing with this. And as the acting challenges on Drag Race (US, UK or wherever) always prove, drag queens are rarely even half-decent actors. The show starts with ten minutes of Vinegar Strokes, who is so awful, nothing could recover from that!
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Post by cherokee on Aug 23, 2021 10:10:54 GMT
I didn't have a problem with the accents. Eric is from Birmingham and it was an interesting choice to have Bernie as Irish.
I quite enjoyed this production, without loving it. It's clearly inferior to the Donmar production a few years ago, and I felt it lacked subtlety and subtext. John was morose throughout and it was rather a one-note performance. His looks and his body aside, it was hard to discern the charisma that inspired Guy's decades-long infatuation. Paul Keating held the show together pretty well and - spoiler alert - his absence from Act 3 was felt. But again, for me it was a performance rather lacking in subtext. It would have been more interesting - and I venture more realistic - if Guy had tried harder to conceal some of his emotions - the neuroticism, the fussiness and the longing for John were all very obviously there on the surface, and it didn't really give him anywhere to go.
By far the strongest performance came from Stephen K Amos, who has a naturalness, a charm and considerable comic timing rather lacking elsewhere. I'd been a bit wary as obviously he's better known as a stand-up, but I found him easily the most watchable on stage.
I've seen criticism that some of the parts are miscast: I'm not sure Alan Turkington entirely convinced as the dull and uptight Bernie, and Gerard McCarthy doesn't really have the charisma to carry off Daniel. But I have to admit I found the casting of Eric particularly egregious.Eric's faux naive, head-cocking performance left me rather cold, unfortunately, with the eroticism of that final scene pretty much absent.
So a bit of a mixed bag. It's a great play which nevertheless shines through, but it's not exactly at its best here. The final act is rather ponderous, and the interval at the end of Act 1 is abrupt and comes far too soon. Would probably have been better to have it after Act 2 if at all.
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Post by cherokee on Aug 18, 2021 16:43:20 GMT
I guess it's because none of those names you mentioned, apart from Bianca who played it as American, would be able to draw people in to watch it. Shane Ritchie might be a name to alot of people, but i wouldnt go and see something just because he was in it. Yes, I agree. None - apart from Bianca - are going to put bums on seats, so if that's the case, why not cast someone who's right for the part? I can't believe there are no middle aged actors out there who can't convincingly play a Northern drag queen. I simply don't get why they keep returning to Phil Nicol either. I've seen him three times now and each time the show dipped noticeably whenever it got to any scenes involving him.
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Post by cherokee on Aug 18, 2021 13:40:55 GMT
Talking of accents, why cast posh Brit Richard E Grant as a Northern drag queen when he can't do the accent? I've always been bewildered as to why the role of Hugo has always been so monumentally miscast on stage and now on screen. It surely can't be that difficult to cast a middle-aged actor who can convincingly play a) gay and b) Northern?! From Phil Nicol to Shane Ritchie to Bill Ward to Bianca del Rio to Rufus Hound to Lee Ross, we're lucky if they can portray just one of those things, and most can do neither!
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Post by cherokee on Jul 29, 2021 18:00:09 GMT
I deliberately waited to see Priscilla until after Donovan had left.
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Post by cherokee on Jul 29, 2021 14:16:47 GMT
Jason Donovan's bow is AFTER Jac Yarrow's?? Much bigger star... Well, yes, but I think if I were him, I'd show a bit of humility and say: No, Jac, you should come on after me. Also, any time I've seen him on stage, he's been mediocre at best: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the original production of Joseph. I'm a bit bemused that he's getting such good reviews for this.
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Post by cherokee on Jul 29, 2021 10:03:36 GMT
Jason Donovan's bow is AFTER Jac Yarrow's??
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Post by cherokee on Jul 28, 2021 13:30:17 GMT
Assuming it's genuine, a post under The Stage's article about the postponement is from Stacey Abalogun (one of the - former - cast members) and simply says:
Lies they should tell the truth.
Doesn't sound great. I wonder if more will emerge...
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Post by cherokee on Jul 26, 2021 15:57:05 GMT
That statement sounds like they've had a proper crisis. Nobody pulls a show that was due to open in a week and a half and abandon the money already spent on rehearsals and publicity, as well as refunding all the tickets unless something's gone catastrophically wrong in the rehearsal room.
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Post by cherokee on Jul 13, 2021 13:58:25 GMT
Yes I'm sure she has suffered racist abuse but that didn't stop her accusing the English team of practicing gesture politics for protesting against racism and refusing to condemn those who booed them for it. She doesn't get to do that and then turn round and condemn the racists later on without getting some backlash against her hypocrisy. In the same way she is putting in place virulently anti immigrant policies despite coming from an immigrant background herself. Well you can't claim the England team taking the knee isn't gesture politics - that's literally exactly what it is, that's a simple matter of definition. The UK government, with her as Home Secretary, have given right of residence to 5.4 million Hong Kong Chinese who had no automatic right to live here. This is a humanitarian gesture as they may be subject to political repression in Hong Kong. Not all will come, but it is estimated 300,000 will. This figure dwarfs the 30,000 Ugandan Asians who were admitted after being expelled by the racist Ugandan regime in the 1960s. It is hard to characterise this policy as "virulently eni-immigrant". The footballers are not politicians though, are they? It seems to me, you can only really accuse professional politicians of indulging in 'gesture politics'. It's a derisive and derogatory term for something that doesn't really achieve (and probably isn't even intended to achieve) anything, and is done mainly for effect. Taking the knee is hardly that - indeed it has sparked a massive debate about racism, and was for a while being deployed by the government in their latest sally in the cultural wars they spend(waste) so much time pursuing. Although it now looks as if that tactic has backfired on them. The Hong Kong policy is one exception amongst the many UKIP-facing policies this Vote Leave government has conducted: including the creation of a new hostile environment for EU nationals, and for asylum seekers. And this from a Home Office that is still stained by its treatment of the Windrush Generation. I don't think even Priti Patel's most avid supporters would seriously suggest that she is pro-immigration... In fact, her USP is her strident anti-immigration stance. (Although sadly amongst the current crop of Tory politicians this is hardly unique.)
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Post by cherokee on Jul 4, 2021 16:29:07 GMT
Agree to disagree! Pleased to see they've ditched the weird 'all in one' curtain call and now people get their own bows as they should! The curtain call is usually the very last thing to be set during the rehearsal period, because everyone understandably wants to prioritise getting the show itself sorted. The director will often tell everyone to just come on and bow for the first few previews, with every intention of sorting out a more complex 'walkdown' when time allows.
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Post by cherokee on Jun 21, 2021 10:32:13 GMT
I wonder if the backlash to Scarlet surprised them at all. It didn't feel like the narrative of the series was building to a win for Kita. I reckon they were going for a 'redemption arc' which would have seen Scarlet crowned: she'd certainly got the most impressive track record going into the funeral. Really felt like they were left with only one non-controversial option as the winner.
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Post by cherokee on Jun 19, 2021 13:29:11 GMT
I actually think your review does a massive disservice to the Above the Stag pantos - which are always witty, clever and heart-felt, (as well as being filthy). The writing of 'Death Drop' just doesn't compare - and to be fair, neither do the performances.
Admittedly I saw the 'original cast', and it's true that Vinegar Strokes was terrible. I can imagine Myra Dubois being a big improvement. I love drag too, but this was like watching a Drag Race acting challenge (which is usually terrible but bearable when it only lasts five or ten minutes) dragged - pun intended - out into a full-length production. And it only goes to prove that the number of drag queens with actual acting ability is very, very small!
Loads of people around me were in hysterics when I saw it, but I also left at the interval.
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Post by cherokee on Jun 14, 2021 13:15:22 GMT
Well, I think we're left with a rather underwhelming Top Four. I'm not really excited about the prospect of any of them taking the title, which is unusual for me when it comes to Drag Race. It's hard to imagine Karen or Scarlett taking the crown given their problematic back-stories around race. Art Simone would also be a controversial choice given she was reinstated for no reason. And that leaves Kita. Who is ... fine, but hardly a queen likely to set pulses racing.
Compared to the latest UK series and even the never-ending marathon that was the US series, this hasn't been a great start for the Down Under franchise. Will they bother doing it again, I wonder?
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Post by cherokee on Jun 4, 2021 8:39:20 GMT
Absolutely. I really enjoyed seeing them together again - although Matthew Perry's appearance was a little concerning. Matt LeBlanc looks the most normal and at peace with himself.
Agree about Corden though. All his interview sections were just excruciating. He came close to ruining the whole thing.
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Post by cherokee on May 24, 2021 11:39:13 GMT
Blue aren't really camp enough for Eurovision though. Steps would be more fitting. Was the voting political? I'm not a Eurovision fan but... maybe. Other countries don't like the UK, but at the same time everyone wants to live here. Bit of old-fashioned begrudgery maybe. Not sure we should mess around with Steps. Ed Sheeran, Adele, Coldplay or nothing The problem is we're locked into a vicious circle. We keep submitting mediocre songs sung by weak, inexperienced singers who have little stage presence and give them poor staging or tacky gimmicks. Therefore we routinely end up last or nearly last. As a result, no self-respecting artist or song writer wants to submit themselves to the likelihood of doing poorly and being humiliated on an international stage.* So we end up submitting a mediocre song sung by a weak singer... Repeat ad nauseam. * This is also why you wouldn't get Adele or Ed Sheeran touching it with a bargepole. To be honest you'd probably struggle even to get Right Said Fred even if people wanted them to do it!Also, in terms of going back to the rule that countries should have to sing in their native language. Well, English is the universal language of pop music. Why should other countries be penalised by not being allowed to sing in English? It certainly helped the UK in the period when that rule did exist, but it's hardly fair on everyone else.
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Post by cherokee on May 7, 2021 12:46:38 GMT
It's so strange to see headlines saying Barrowman is 'accused' of exposing himself. He - and numerous co-stars of his - have openly talked about it for years. It's a matter of public record that he did it in every job he ever did.
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