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Post by westendwendy on Jul 18, 2016 11:30:11 GMT
Can't wait to see this. All of Christian Duhram's shows are amazing!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 12, 2016 23:48:59 GMT
The only times theatres have lost capacity is through disrepair which is what happened to the Dominion's upper circle or accident like the Apollo where it's very unlikely the balcony will ever be reopened. I know about the accident but have they not repaired it? The dominiums upper circle wow I remember that! As for the Apollo yes they have repaired it and put that moon designed cloth covering the auditorium ceiling. Does that cover the gods too?
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 12, 2016 21:36:56 GMT
Saw this at the Wyndams tonight. Wow what a treat! We all loved it. I really to think that it wasn't advertised as a comedy and looked serious on the posters. One act fabulous smart well written performed show. Go and see it people!! I agree it wasn't advertised that is is only an 80 minute no interval show.
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 12, 2016 21:35:57 GMT
Saw this at the Wyndams tonight. Wow what a treat! We all loved it.
I really to think that it wasn't advertised as a comedy and looked serious on the posters.
One act fabulous smart well written performed show. Go and see it people!!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 12, 2016 17:29:16 GMT
Not sure if to book for this, I was badly burnt by Wonder.Land which was a mess I agree I hate the national version. Crazy timing to bring this Wildhorn. version out. The other one received the worst word of mouth ever! I hated it!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 12, 2016 16:42:34 GMT
Launching on the 19th July via the TodayTix app: A limited number of tickets will be available to purchase for just £25 via a daily lottery. Beginning two and a half hours before the performance, guests are invited to enter the lottery in person at the Lyceum Theatre to be in with the chance of purchasing up to two £25 tickets. This is exciting news! I wouldn't be surprised if it was decided due to the success of the online Lottery on Broadway.
And they need to do it online or on an APP. People have to work!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 12, 2016 9:45:56 GMT
I wonder if this means it could extend or possibly transfer, especially considering it clearly has an audience and maybe could do a limited run somewhere in town, Charing Cross, Arts Theatre, somewhere intimate The Arts will be closed for redevelopment, after the failure of McQueen and Urinetown, I suspect the St James won't be trying any transfers anytime soon. It sounds like it's going to tour in 2017 though The reason why they both failed is that they both stank! (The second literally) I didn't like either shows and word of mouth was generally the same. But Candle Makers Daughter on the West End, Carrie or Dogfight and audiences would lap them up as they are fantastic shows.
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 11, 2016 1:30:20 GMT
Such a shame Aida never came. It's a great show. Saw it three times. Why don't you raise the capital for a WE staging? The last Disney exec I spoke to about it said the figures didn't work out. Basically it's too expensive to run in the West End. Or not enough profit anyway.
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 10, 2016 22:47:34 GMT
Finally close Lion King down. Problem solved. Now that's one thing that is definitely not going to happen any time soon! Such a shame Aida never came. It's a great show. Saw it three times.
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 10, 2016 10:38:23 GMT
I also don't see how Frozen is ballet proof. There is a fine line between a flop and a hit - look at Love Never Dies, i disliked it in the West End and loved the Australian production. If they don't get the snowman right, it could well not be a massive success and miss the mark. I hope I'm wrong! I hear that Disney are putting in stringent measures that any FOH staff can eject audience members who burst into a pirouette or arabesque during the interval, or indeed throughout the performance. Hahaha.... Auto correct!!! Changed.
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 10, 2016 1:12:57 GMT
what about important things, like who was too camp? Did the theatre smell?? The Prince Edward has a very cramped front of house but I think we can all agree that the auditorium is beautiful. It's always a treat to visit unlike certain fringe theatres under arches or pub theatres with sticky floors. There were also no over camp performers in Aladdin I agree, the ensemble were very good, I did notice that they were all mostly the same height! I also don't see how Frozen is bullet proof. There is a fine line between a flop and a hit - look at Love Never Dies, i disliked it in the West End and loved the Australian production. If they don't get the snowman right, it could well not be a massive success and miss the mark. I hope I'm wrong!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 9, 2016 19:34:58 GMT
I think it's a given that Frozen will be a huge whopping great hit, unless they mess it up. Which is highly unlikely I'd say Well in my opinion Aladdin was a flop. An amazing film, gorgeous music and the stage show comes nowhere close. No one out of the ten people who I went with this week came out and said it was great. It's not. We all stood there on Old Compton Street and said "well apart from Friend like Me it was just ok". It's average at best with a disappointing set, a strange arrangement of A Whole New World and old fashioned front cloth scenes with the two baddies, some acting and singing bordering on all bad! I give it 5/10
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 9, 2016 16:34:07 GMT
I imagine it'll run until Frozen is ready to come over in 2020 Frozen might not be a success. The film is wonderful but that doesn't mean the stage show will be. So much hype and it might not live up to it. Plus if it is successful and a hit I'm sure they will go for the Palladium, Dominum, Theatre Royal or if I was the producers throw it into the Hammersmith Apollo. It could run forever!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 9, 2016 10:06:40 GMT
I hear that it's not selling as well as expected.. Maybe it won't be much of a runner after all Everyone will see it and word of mouth will be the same from everyone - the show just isn't that good. A friend like me is great but it never reaches that climax again. Without the Genie the show is dull. The show isn't funny, the story weak, singing wasn't brilliant and the set awful and cheap looking. Who on earth at Disney thought it was ok to have show cloths?!!! The panto duo were painful to watch. I soooo wanted it to be miles ahead from Aladdin the panto (Beauty and the Beast was) this wasn't and everyone will say the same. It will run for 2-3 years then tour. I preferred Tarzan, Aida and dare I say it even Little Mermaid over this!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 8, 2016 16:19:22 GMT
I didn't want to reveal the actors and bits I thought of camp, but yes one of them was the telegram-scene. For a moment I expected a plot twist with the Telegram guy and Barret Me too. Me three!!! I laughed out loud he wassssssss ssssssssssoooooooooo prisssssssssey... There's a time and place and a huge difference between old school nerdy and camp!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 8, 2016 12:52:45 GMT
Starlight Express in Bochum is the best show I have ever seen in my life. Period. The scale and speed and spectacle is like nothing else. It's Cirque Du Soleil on wheels!
I believe that each year 20 are recast (40 odd in the show with all the swings) and each year 3 or 4 drop out due to the extreme skating, stunts, heavy costumes, crazy races around the terrifying rollercoaster track. If you are scared of heights forget it.
The emotional, physical and mental strain on those performers is unlike anything else on stage - they have to go from musical actors, dancers and singers to full on Olympic standard speed and trick skaters in 4 months!!
There were rumours years ago of Andrew Lloyd Webber wanting to bring the German production to Battersea Power station. That will not happen now but wow... what a show it is!!! I wish they did one or two shows in English sometime!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 8, 2016 8:51:52 GMT
Which characters are people thinking of? I think the whole point of me/others not saying which roles they were is called being sensitive to others feelings. There was one guy in the cast who k thought was just dreadful, wooden, bad singer and bad actor and should not have been cast (his voice was click tracked in a major show and he had to mine over it) but alas it's not too fair to hang people out to dry..
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 8, 2016 0:52:55 GMT
Thank you TheatreBoard for letting me win last months comp! I had such a good time First of all, I arrived at the theatre at 7.31 (thank you suspended piccadilly line) and felt so bad for being late. (in 20 years of going to the theatre A LOT, this was my first time being late..) But in the end it was the best thing that could happen, as we did miss the openingscene, but: -tiny spoiler-: they use the audience entrance for the actors to leave the auditorium during the opening. (That's all I can 'spoil' as I couldn't see what was going on on stage). So me and my friend were patiently waiting with an usher to be let in the auditorium, and cast members ran singing, half undressed to switch roles, and with a lot energy by us before re-appearing on stage again. Very funny to see a bit of backstage buzz. The show it self was amazing. Really strong ensemble, I personally love the score, and I thought the staging was very clever. Sometimes it did felt the show was a bit static though, maybe because the set never really changes or so, but in the end, everything worked out for me. -the last scene, I thought was very impressive- As said, the cast was really strong. The only thing -I don't mean this in an offensive way, but I just have to share it- is that two of the male-roles had a line something like 'I'm married to a woman' but they were portraying there roles in a pretty 'gay'-way. That was the only thing I really did not believe, haha! For a second I thought it might was a joke or so, but nothing happened with it story-wise, so I guess it just made that impression on me, and therefore I didn't believe him. But furthermore I believed it all, and felt like I was in a first, second, third- class, cold, dark sea and may or not be in a lifeboat. (lights off during dark-sea scenes, clever special effects with the collision etc) Sorry for this awful review,but thanks again TheatreBoard. I loved this show but had great issues in the obvious gay performers playing straight roles. That's not homophobic - I love my gays galore - just play the roles as they are meant to be!! Straight!!! Mincey Priscilla Titanic just doesn't cut the mustard with me. The fact that so many people have mentioned it, says it all.
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 8, 2016 0:46:46 GMT
I'm going to be in London for a week in November and my last night before flying home is Monday November 14, which is the night School of Rock is opening. What do you think the chances are of getting a ticket to this performance? Are there usually tickets for opening nights made available to the general public? Any experience you can relate from other RUG show openings would be appreciated. Thanks :-) The upper circle or gods are normally on sale yes. If not now then two weeks before.
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 8, 2016 0:34:00 GMT
Even the cave is quite minimal, albeit very gold. You thought so? Stopped the show with applause when it trundled in to view, the night I saw it. Looked fabulous, I thought. Out of interest, which sets do you consider spectacular, then? I went with a group of ten tonight. We all hated the cheap looking set. Sorry it's the general opinion.
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 8, 2016 0:22:53 GMT
I have to say I was completely and utterly underwhelmed by this show. I had looked forward to it with great interest, but soon became bored. I thought the Genie was a pain in the **** and agree with Andy614 that A Whole New World was far too rushed. In fact I wasn't impressed with anyone's performance, although if I had to single anyone out it would be Stephen Rahman-Hughes as Kassim - he has a great voice and actually looked as if he was enjoying himself. I saw the pantomime Aladdin in Birmingham earlier in the year and thought their flying magic carpet was far more effective (ok, you could see how it worked, but it came out into the audience and turned upside down, which this one doesn't). Interesting to see quite a few of the ensemble of Miss Saigon appearing. I was glad when it ended. Sorry guys - I must have been having a bad day. I completely agree after watching the show tonight. I was bored in the first act!!!!
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Post by westendwendy on Jul 7, 2016 23:57:29 GMT
Finally saw Aladdin the Disney musical tonight at the Prince Edward. A whole new world? Nahhh.... I thought it was just bubble gum and has all been done before. I so wanted it to be different and much more sophisticated than a panto and well.... the show was fine but just nothing special.
The story is blah, acting is "acting", the set basic and just awful (cardboard 2 dimension set/old fashioned painted show cloths) for a huge new multi million pound Broadway show? We were disappointed.
The Genie and Friend Like Me routine were super and worth seeing as was the flying carpet.
Enjoyed it but should have been much better. 6/10
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Post by westendwendy on Jun 29, 2016 0:05:00 GMT
Is the Friday Forty 40 seats released for each show or for each week? (Sorry if this has been asked before).... And where are they sat?
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Post by westendwendy on Jun 28, 2016 23:57:56 GMT
The reality
Cinderella - Katie Price
Ugly Sisters - Craig Revel Horwood and Christopher Biggens
Fairy Godmother - Claire Sweeny
Ugh.....
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Post by westendwendy on Jun 28, 2016 13:53:39 GMT
I heard a serious but highly unsubstantiated rumour that this was looking into a possibility of transferring to the Vaudeville. I would be *hugely* surprised, though. It's not selling well at the Charing Cross. However, Danielle Tarento is making a lot of money with this show with what the ticket prices she is charging and the little amount she pays the cast. Not to mention what she will have made from the Toronto run, so maybe she can afford it. Wow - that would be really exciting!
I can't help feeling that this could do really well, if only a bit more publicity and more "buzz" could be generated about it, because it is an excellent show.
I've said it 24 times the theatre is horrible. Southwark shows I go see musicals twice. Titanic I wouldn't and the space is so horrible! Come on its true!!
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Post by westendwendy on Jun 24, 2016 11:58:07 GMT
What does it mean for the theatre world? Especially for all those British actors working abroad? For example, most cast members of Starlight Express in Bochum are British. Same for European tours. I doubt it will make any difference to Starlight in Bochum - they also hire actors from America, Canada and Oz. If Meinolf the producer, Arlene, Debbie Hearden want someone specific to join the cast they will get them.
The cast members already need to sign so many documents to work there anyway. (Ahem maybe I know from personal experience) so leaving the EU won't mean anything.
As for the West End. I doubt people will stop visiting London.. If anything they will come more if the dollar is stronger!
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Post by westendwendy on Jun 24, 2016 9:26:47 GMT
What does it mean for the theatre world?
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Post by westendwendy on Jun 24, 2016 9:20:08 GMT
I bet it will be Mame - this has been discussed for years.
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Post by westendwendy on Jun 22, 2016 17:03:42 GMT
Dear god no.. This show was AWFUL!
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Post by westendwendy on Jun 21, 2016 22:44:11 GMT
Pippin was superb on Broadway recently - wow what performances, but the entire story is bonkers and downright abstract and odd.
We have all seen circus themed shows. Hope they think of something else. Great tunes - random show!
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