Sylvia - Old Vic

I was there last night, swayed by good reviews and a TodayTix £25 ticket, and enjoyed it a whole lot more than I thought I would. Is there any way I can get a cast list for last night as I bought a programme, and tried to work it out and couldn't. I think there were definitely some understudies/swings on.

Amazing. Thanks colelarson I missed that sign, but the link did work. I knew there were at least 3 not in their main roles, but after that I gave up trying to work out who was on for who!

Cast Recording, Let's hope it moves to another West End Theatre for a longer run.  I want to see it in NYC as well. Maybe on Broadway or the Armory on the upper east side.  Lehman played there before moving to Broadway.

You know what, I actually loved this and gave it five stars. It’s interesting how it seems to have spread the vote between users on here.

I really enjoyed it at the first preview in January but, being sat in the upper circle, I felt a bit removed from the show.

Returning earlier this month in stalls row D was fantastic. The fat has been trimmed and the performances were exquisite. Beverley Knight in one song - I think it was called ‘You Changed’ or something - was wonderful.

I hope it has a life beyond the next couple of weeks. It’s a lazy comparison to rate Sylvia against Hamilton but in many ways I preferred it. For me, the best songs in Hamilton were the more R n B influenced tracks sung by the women, rather than the monotonous rap battles so I guess that makes sense.

I do love this show, so I thought I'd see it again post-preview, and it really was firing on all cylinders tonight! It turned out surprisingly moving for me the way the bigger and smaller pictures came together to be wonderfully meaningful.

Some spoilers follow. . .

All the cast were back on, as far as I could tell, so hopefully they'll all play out the final week (except for the pre-arranged days off for Beverley Knight).

(1) The show does makes the difficult decision to make the women's movement a character, in a way, so that the movement itself (including both the Emmeline-votes-for-rich-women and the Sylvia-votes-for-all-women varieties) is embodied by building relentless beats and repeated choreography that makes intimate moments (the typical lifeblood of musicals) difficult;

(2) and yet, despite this difficult challenge, threaded to this thrusting movement, driven by it's pile-driving beats, are many many many successfully realised intimate moments (the moment Emmeline takes Sylvia's hand despite their estrangement; the moment Sylvio sings of his love; the moment Sylvia admits her love of Keir Hardy; the moment she takes in his death; the moment she admits to having fears and doubts in prison (like Jesus lol); and many many more);

(3) I appreciated the music so much more than in preview, being more familiar with it, and there are some truly magnificent and meaningful songs: "March Women March," "Be the Change," "Stand up," "Make Some Noise," for example);

(4) As a consequence, this is a musical that would desperately benefit from a cast recording, so that potential audiences can dig for all the melodic and passionate aural gold buried beneath the beats;

(5) Of course, Beverley Knight is worth her weight in gold, her Emmeline Pankhurst is so soulful, fierce and rousing in voice, even when being utterly unlikeable lol. But Sharon Rose is so emotive and almost equally fierce, and also in marvellous voice - the cast recording really needs these two;

(5) It was a shame that some of the lyrics of Jade Hackett's opening comedy song were buried under said beats, which increase to Dizzy Rascal level thumping for her song, as she is very funny, and every lyric needs to be heard;

(6) I do feel this musical is underappreciated because of its uniqueness, it's willingness to be one long overwhelming movement (a movement about a movement), which can be interpreted as samey and boring, but which, on multiple listens becomes something unique and wonderful. I did get the feeling tonight that the majority of the audience were really feeling this, especially younger people, given their shrieks of appreciation, and I hope that bodes well for the future;

All in all, I'll miss this show. I hope it gets a cast recording, I hope it comes back, but there is only one Beverley Knight, so if it does ever return, I hope more audiences get to appreciate just how terrific she is in this!

I'd raise my rating for this from 4 to 4 and a half stars, and I'm changing my poll rating to 5 as I had such a great and moving time tonight.

We need a cast recording desperately. The music is spectacular!

No it’s not 

Just thought that Beverly Knight is back in Sister Act March-June next year…..I wonder what she could be doing after that?!? Maybe?

Thrilling performance at the Olivier's I thought. Adored this show and hope there will be a further life for it. And what a star Beverley Knight is. Her award was well deserved.

Has anyone heard anything about a cast recording?

The Old Vic was replying to people last month saying there are no plans for a cast recording

Such a shame no cast recording is on the cards, I’ve still got earworms from nearly a week ago. All paws crossed that it may return to the West End in future.