Cake - Tour / Lyric / The Other Palace

I am really sad this is closing, such talent and a fun show.

Yep, the first impression did not draw me in. I'm speaking only as someone who knew nothing about the show but historical pop musicals are getting tired so it didn't inspire me to dig deeper. Especially after perusing the previous feedback in this thread.

For some reason 'Playlist' in the title had me mistakenly thinking this was a jukebox musical as well. I'm listening through the cast recording and there's several catchy songs on there. I feel for the cast & crew, and it's a shame the show won't even get a press night.

Cancelling the entire run before press night seems a crazy decision. If the reviews were good, lots more tickets would have been sold. Such a shame for everyone involved.

Oh, wow, it never occurred to me it was anything other than an artfully picked jukebox show! 

I think of 'playlist' to mean today's version of doing your own 'mixtape'.  In terms of success / failure I'd think the jukebox would actually be more attractive to the target audience - and it's not been running long enough for those people to be disappointed and word to spread. So although I'm certain that's really bad and confusing marketing, I doubt it contributed to the failure.  Then again - the absence of being able to say 'featuring the hit songs......' loses an easy selling point.

Interesting that Drew McOnie was involved in the 'Strictly Ballroom' musical when it got revised to remove all the original songs (from the mixed old and new) of the Australian original production; so what was seen in Leeds and the West End was fully jukebox I think. McOnie is himself remixed out of The Other Palace version - perhaps just due to being busy with 'The Artist'; the direction and choreography at TOP are based on his work though.

24th September

They should have at least had their press night.

I agree, WEL would have been great promo.

If the financials were really dire in terms of how much money they'd lose if they did the full run then it was likely cheaper to cancel the rest of the run.

Sad news. I saw the show at the weekend and enjoyed it. Found the plot a bit patchy at times, but the music is great and I've been listening to the album on Spotify over the last few days.


They should have given it a run at the Edinburgh Fringe first like Six or Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch

They've moved press night to tonight, at least unofficially. Not sure what critics have been moved but the after party is tonight and the cast and creatives are treating it as their opening night and a chance to celebrate the show.

I do think we need a better divide between actual fringe venues like Southwark Playhouse to what I would consider off West End which is things like the Menier, Almeida, TOP etc Even somewhere like the Orange Tree in Richmond I would not consider a fringe venue. 

Shows cost a lot to put on and you cannot make money or pay the cast and crew a decent wage if you price the tickets too low.

Any merch or programmes?

Really enjoyed this tonight, I'm even more gutted for everyone involved now! One of the more enjoyable off-West End experiences I've had in a while.

I definitely agree with some of the criticisms in this thread (I do wonder how much has changed between the Lyric version and this one). I don't think that Jeanne's change of heart at the end was particularly well done, it seemed very random and sudden.

I think this is somehow the first time I've seen a Strallen sister on stage! I thought that Zizi was phenomenal. In fact I think the whole cast did a very good job.

Particular shout out to the Sunset Boulevard reference!