274 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Jul 20, 2023 11:02:08 GMT
I saw this yesterday afternoon with a packed house. (As has been noted on this board, the matinees are selling well). I thought Gina Beck was fantastic; I also loved her in "South Pacific", although I did find her pregnancy a distraction at times. As for discussion as to whether she was too old for the part, Ye Gods, from where I was sitting(Row J) she could have passed for 30 or possibly younger. She was singing beautifully and prancing around like a mountain goat. In contrast, as theatremiss noted, Edward Harrison as Captain von Trapp sounded like a goat to me. (How I missed Julian Ovenden)
Other points from previous comments: there was criticism of the diction of Ako Mitchell as Max but he sounded perfectly clear to me. A lady I was talking to afterwards said she had problems hearing dialogue fromJanis Kelly as The Mother Abbess. There was one line she spoke which got a laugh which I didn't quite catch but otherwise I could hear her OK. I don't get the comment that Rolf was effeminate, unless you think a boy doing ballet movements is effeminate. (I'm not haveing a go at people who made these comments; I am just giving my alternative viewpoint).
The children were delightful and the nuns' chorus superb. The audience reaction can be summed up by the comment I overheard from one lady as we were leaving: "That went down a treat."
I am going to award it 4 stars. It probably would have been 5 with Julian Ovenden.
PS As we were going through the underpass by the theatre car park, we saw ahead of us a group of teenagers going to the theatre with one lad dressed as a nun. When we went past them as they were standing by the public toilets, a woman (presumably a teacher) was making him take off the nun's outfit. He was in T-shirt and shorts underneath. Seriously, would anyone be offended by a youth dressed as a nun to watch "The Sound of Music"? I just thought it was funny.
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Post by toomasj on Jul 20, 2023 12:58:00 GMT
That reminds me, there were a couple of adult chaps I saw dressed as nuns at the performance I attended. Was all very good natured and brought smiles to peoples faces.
Genuinely surprised by the consistent criticism of Edward Harrison’s singing voice. He’s constant vibrato and somewhat trills, I get it, but vocally he’s not even the worst Von Trapp I’ve heard (that would be Jason Donovan who really struggled) - he isn’t a powerhouse vocally but the part doesn’t require it in my view.
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Post by toomasj on Jul 20, 2023 13:11:18 GMT
Review round up:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - The Telegraph - PAYWALL (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/sound-of-music-chicester-festival-theatre-review/)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Broadway World (https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Review-THE-SOUND-OF-MUSIC-Chichester-Festival-Theatre-20230718)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - The Stage - PAYWALL (https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-sound-of-music-review-at-chichester-festival-theatre-starring-gina-beck)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - The i Newspaper (https://inews.co.uk/culture/arts/sound-of-music-chichester-festival-theatre-review-2485821)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - The Times - PAYWALL (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-sound-of-music-review-i-have-confidence-in-this-decorous-show-q8qq2rfjw)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - The Guardian (https://amp.theguardian.com/stage/2023/jul/18/the-sound-of-music-review-chichester-festival-theatre)
Raves from Portsmouth News, Sussex Express, Chichester Observer and the following blogs: Jonathan Baz, TheatreCat, Sardines Magazine, Fairy Powered, Box Office Radio and others.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2023 19:27:29 GMT
Looks a pretty solid 4 star majority so I'd say that would be considered an excellent review.
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Post by Being Alive on Jul 29, 2023 23:56:11 GMT
Oh this was just a delight this evening.
Is it the best production of The Sound of Music I've ever seen? No (for all its faults that was the Palladium in all its grandness) - but what this does have is real heart, a super solid cast, and the charm that SOM always has.
Gina is a delight, as she always is - sings up a storm, and is warm, charming and hugely endearing.
I really enjoyed Edward Harrison as Von Trapp - he isn't the strongest singer in the world but nor did he need to be - I found him moving very solid.
Emma Williams is fabulous and it's so great to see her back on stage. I loved the choice to not have the Baroness hate the kids as she usually does, meaning that the only conflict is the women both being in love with the Captain.
Overall this production sounded gorgeous (with a stellar rendition of Climb Every Mountain from Janis Kelly) - the nuns chorus are so strong and that gorgeous choral music is really affecting.
It's a solid 4 stars for me. I enjoyed what they did with the production - it's not flashy particularly but it achieves what it sets out to do well.
Might even go back actually for the final show!
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Post by vickyg on Jul 30, 2023 14:14:29 GMT
I had a very mixed experience at this yesterday at the matinee. The good (and they were really good): - Gina Beck who as others have said was in great voice, was warm and all around wonderful
- Janis Kelly who brought me to tears at the end
- Emma Williams
- The nuns' chorus in general
- The icy feeling that I felt during the music festival with the spotlit Nazis throughout the auditorium.
Now the not so good. I know that I'm a grouch and it's not a good look to bag on children, but I did not enjoy a single moment of any of their performances. They are supposed to be naughty children, who, having lost their mother, are acting out and wanting the attention of their father. Not precocious know it alls. I don't know what you can expect from children of these ages performance wise but all their scenes seemed so awkward to me. The second half was better but it really reminded me of why I tend to swerve productions with a larger reliance on professional children. Captain Von Trapp seemed very flat and I didn't believe he was in love with Maria. I also felt he could have been quite a lot older which would have created more of an age gap as he and Maria looked more or less the same age.
This is something that I feel the need to see again in case I was just in a bad mood because I wanted to love it. And I really did love parts of it. I had goose bumps from the beautiful voices several times, but overall it wasn't what I wanted it to be.
It was also a pretty terrible experience audience wise. I haven't heard so much chat in an audience throughout the performance for a long time. And it wasn't the children who, in general, were very well behaved. It was the older people having full volume conversations. The two very elderly ladies next to me were 25 minutes late and it must have taken them a full five minutes to get past me and sit down whilst they talked the whole time at full volume. No one who is 25 minutes late should be seated before the interval.
I think overall this is 3 stars for me which is an average of the 5 star and 1.5 star moments. Hopefully I can get back again and love it because I really do want to love it!
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Post by toomasj on Jul 30, 2023 15:58:56 GMT
New EPK available:
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5,896 posts
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jul 30, 2023 16:51:06 GMT
I had a very mixed experience at this yesterday at the matinee. The good (and they were really good): - Gina Beck who as others have said was in great voice, was warm and all around wonderful
- Janis Kelly who brought me to tears at the end
- Emma Williams
- The nuns' chorus in general
- The icy feeling that I felt during the music festival with the spotlit Nazis throughout the auditorium.
Now the not so good. I know that I'm a grouch and it's not a good look to bag on children, but I did not enjoy a single moment of any of their performances. They are supposed to be naughty children, who, having lost their mother, are acting out and wanting the attention of their father. Not precocious know it alls. I don't know what you can expect from children of these ages performance wise but all their scenes seemed so awkward to me. The second half was better but it really reminded me of why I tend to swerve productions with a larger reliance on professional children. Captain Von Trapp seemed very flat and I didn't believe he was in love with Maria. I also felt he could have been quite a lot older which would have created more of an age gap as he and Maria looked more or less the same age.
This is something that I feel the need to see again in case I was just in a bad mood because I wanted to love it. And I really did love parts of it. I had goose bumps from the beautiful voices several times, but overall it wasn't what I wanted it to be.
It was also a pretty terrible experience audience wise. I haven't heard so much chat in an audience throughout the performance for a long time. And it wasn't the children who, in general, were very well behaved. It was the older people having full volume conversations. The two very elderly ladies next to me were 25 minutes late and it must have taken them a full five minutes to get past me and sit down whilst they talked the whole time at full volume. No one who is 25 minutes late should be seated before the interval.
I think overall this is 3 stars for me which is an average of the 5 star and 1.5 star moments. Hopefully I can get back again and love it because I really do want to love it!
Did you ask them to stop talking? |
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Post by vickyg on Jul 30, 2023 18:50:57 GMT
I haven't heard so much chat in an audience throughout the performance for a long time. And it wasn't the children who, in general, were very well behaved. It was the older people having full volume conversations. The two very elderly ladies next to me were 25 minutes late and it must have taken them a full five minutes to get past me and sit down whilst they talked the whole time at full volume. No one who is 25 minutes late should be seated before the interval. I think overall this is 3 stars for me which is an average of the 5 star and 1.5 star moments. Hopefully I can get back again and love it because I really do want to love it! [/font][/div][/quote] Did you ask them to stop talking? [/quote] Did I ask many groups of people in various rows around me to stop talking? No, no I didn’t. |
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Post by showgirl on Jul 31, 2023 3:41:39 GMT
Slightly off-topic but why should it be the responsibility of the poor audience member affected - by talking, loud rustling of sweet wrappers, latecomers, blatant use of mobiles after warnings to switch these off, etc - to remonstrate with the offender(s)? It isn't and there are FoH whose job that is. Whilst I know that at some venues, staff do not notice or are too far off, in both houses at CFT, ushers are readily available. As well as possibly feeling uncomfortable personally about tackling offenders, we know how wrong this can go so it's best left to staff.
That said, I recently had a bad experience of this at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford, when a couple arrived late, talking and with the man/husband using his phone. A nearby audience member asked them to be quiet, only for the man to retort that the house lights were still up so it didn't matter. In fact there did seem to be an issue with the house lights being left on (unless this was intentional at the start, as they did then dim), but the performance had definitely begun and it was after the advertised time.
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5,896 posts
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jul 31, 2023 9:09:35 GMT
[/font][/div][/quote] Did you ask them to stop talking? [/quote] Did I ask many groups of people in various rows around me to stop talking? No, no I didn’t. [/quote] No - did you ask the 2 ladies? Because you really could have if they were that annoying. |
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jul 31, 2023 9:10:41 GMT
Slightly off-topic but why should it be the responsibility of the poor audience member affected - by talking, loud rustling of sweet wrappers, latecomers, blatant use of mobiles after warnings to switch these off, etc - to remonstrate with the offender(s)? It isn't and there are FoH whose job that is. Whilst I know that at some venues, staff do not notice or are too far off, in both houses at CFT, ushers are readily available. As well as possibly feeling uncomfortable personally about tackling offenders, we know how wrong this can go so it's best left to staff. That said, I recently had a bad experience of this at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford, when a couple arrived late, talking and with the man/husband using his phone. A nearby audience member asked them to be quiet, only for the man to retort that the house lights were still up so it didn't matter. In fact there did seem to be an issue with the house lights being left on (unless this was intentional at the start, as they did then dim), but the performance had definitely begun and it was after the advertised time. Ushers only seem to appear when people are on their phones (sometimes). I think they should be there to tell people to STFU if they are making noise |
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Post by vickyg on Aug 1, 2023 17:51:59 GMT
[/font][/div][/quote] Did you ask them to stop talking? [/quote] Did I ask many groups of people in various rows around me to stop talking? No, no I didn’t. [/quote] No - did you ask the 2 ladies? Because you really could have if they were that annoying.[/quote] I chose not to draw even more attention to myself than I already was by standing for about 5 mins, blocking the view of people behind me as the ladies moved to their seats. Before you ask, I didn’t go down to the stage and ask the children to improve their performance either. |
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Post by mrbarnaby on Aug 1, 2023 19:47:39 GMT
[/font][/div][/quote] Did you ask them to stop talking? [/quote] Did I ask many groups of people in various rows around me to stop talking? No, no I didn’t. [/quote] No - did you ask the 2 ladies? Because you really could have if they were that annoying.[/quote] I chose not to draw even more attention to myself than I already was by standing for about 5 mins, blocking the view of people behind me as the ladies moved to their seats. Before you ask, I didn’t go down to the stage and ask the children to improve their performance either. [/quote] So defensive! Just asked if you actually asked the people annoying you so much to be quiet. Not a controversial idea! |
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Post by showgirl on Aug 2, 2023 19:23:12 GMT
Really enjoyed this today and found it way better than I'd expected, which was a welcome surprise, especially as I'd largely booked for FOMO and the weather and train journeys were grim. It was a genuine revelation and joy and I actually found it quite moving and poignant at times... must be going soft in my old age but well worth the trip and I didn't even mind having to miss Rock Follies in the evening.
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Post by bram on Aug 10, 2023 12:51:03 GMT
Amazing singers. It is what it is and is very well executed
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Post by theatrelover97 on Aug 13, 2023 18:32:07 GMT
Gina Beck has announced on instagram that due to rights issues the production is unable to be transferred at this time
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Post by toomasj on Aug 13, 2023 19:52:53 GMT
Gina Beck has announced on instagram that due to rights issues the production is unable to be transferred at this time Gutted, was sure this would transfer. Glad I saw it when I did, Gina is consistently brilliant. What a talent. Edit: I realise that I’ve now praised Gina Beck in about 25% of my posts. I am not her agent or president of the fan club, I just really can’t think of a more underrated but consistently excellent leading lady currently working. |
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Post by tom on Aug 13, 2023 20:44:17 GMT
Gina Beck has announced on instagram that due to rights issues the production is unable to be transferred at this time Gutted, was sure this would transfer. Glad I saw it when I did, Gina is consistently brilliant. What a talent. Edit: I realise that I’ve now praised Gina Beck in about 25% of my posts. I am not her agent or president of the fan club, I just really can’t think of a more underrated but consistently excellent leading lady currently working. How is she underrated? She has had big roles in Phantom, Wicked, Matilda, Les Mis, Sound of Music... and always seems to get good reviews. I am not sure that she can be much bigger than she is as musical theatre people don't seem to be big "stars" to the public anymore. |
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Post by toomasj on Aug 13, 2023 21:08:39 GMT
Gutted, was sure this would transfer. Glad I saw it when I did, Gina is consistently brilliant. What a talent. Edit: I realise that I’ve now praised Gina Beck in about 25% of my posts. I am not her agent or president of the fan club, I just really can’t think of a more underrated but consistently excellent leading lady currently working. How is she underrated? She has had big roles in Phantom, Wicked, Matilda, Les Mis, Sound of Music... and always seems to get good reviews. I am not sure that she can be much bigger than she is as musical theatre people don't seem to be big "stars" to the public anymore. I am referring more to the fact that certain performers have been in shows which have caught the zeitgeist, and developed a relatively large fan following off the back of their performance. Performers such as Carrie Hope Fletcher (Heathers), Kerry Ellis (Wicked) and others are better known in my opinion, with similar or weaker bodies of experience and critical acclaim. This is meaning no disrespect to those performers, but it’s what I meant by “underrated”. |
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Post by tom on Aug 13, 2023 21:33:11 GMT
How is she underrated? She has had big roles in Phantom, Wicked, Matilda, Les Mis, Sound of Music... and always seems to get good reviews. I am not sure that she can be much bigger than she is as musical theatre people don't seem to be big "stars" to the public anymore. I am referring more to the fact that certain performers have been in shows which have caught the zeitgeist, and developed a relatively large fan following off the back of their performance. Performers such as Carrie Hope Fletcher (Heathers), Kerry Ellis (Wicked) and others are better known in my opinion, with similar or weaker bodies of experience and critical acclaim. This is meaning no disrespect to those performers, but it’s what I meant by “underrated”. Yes I get that. I think with Kerry it was more to do with the role and the show at the time. CHF uses social media and manipulation to her advantage. Gina just does her job! |
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Post by showgirl on Aug 14, 2023 3:21:13 GMT
Also re Gina Beck possibly being under-rated, I think if you're more a theatre than a musicals person, you may have heard less of her or not come across her at all. This was certainly the case for me as when GB was announced as one of the leads in South Pacific at CFT 2 years ago: her name meant nothing to me and even when I saw the show, she made no particular impression; certainly not a lasting one. This time round, of course I knew her name but I think the role of Maria allowed her to play to her strengths or was a better fit to show her capacity for emotional warmth. Whereas Les Mis, Matilda, Phantom, Wicked, etc - all shows I saw decades ago (or not, in the case of Matilda) and mainly disliked and I have no idea now who any of the cast were.
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Post by FairyGodmother on Aug 14, 2023 8:29:41 GMT
Just musing on name recognition.
There are also some who crop up who I remember from the ALW programmes. Or sometimes I'll recognise people's names if they do concerts (especially radio ones) or the musical Proms.
If you 'only' do long-running shows back-to-back then you probably do end up with less name recognition?
Also "well-established MT performer excellent in another role" isn't that exciting a story. You're more likely to get a story with somebody new being catapulted to fame — even for Cinderella with Carrie Hope Fletcher the newspaper story I remember is "ALW picks somebody who auditioned as a dancer to be star of new show".
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274 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Aug 14, 2023 9:21:56 GMT
Just musing on name recognition. There are also some who crop up who I remember from the ALW programmes. Or sometimes I'll recognise people's names if they do concerts (especially radio ones) or the musical Proms. If you 'only' do long-running shows back-to-back then you probably do end up with less name recognition? Also "well-established MT performer excellent in another role" isn't that exciting a story. You're more likely to get a story with somebody new being catapulted to fame — even for Cinderella with Carrie Hope Fletcher the newspaper story I remember is "ALW picks somebody who auditioned as a dancer to be star of new show". There does seem to be a big gulf between knowledge of musical theatre stars among those who are MT enthusiasts and knowledge among those who are occasional theatre goers. A man in my book group astonished me when we were discussing musicals at Chichester by saying how good "Singin' In the Rain" had been despite casting "complete unknowns in it." The leads were Adam Cooper and Scarlett Strallen, who I certainly wouldn't describe as complete unknowns. The cast also had Michael Brandon and Sandra Dickinson. |
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Post by capybara on Aug 14, 2023 10:43:55 GMT
Saw this on Saturday as part of a two-show day down in Chichester. Bizarrely, The Sound of Music has completely passed me by over the years. I’ve never seen the film, I’ve never seen previous productions and while I’m of course familiar with most of the score, it really took me by surprise what an enchanting piece of musical theatre this piece is.
Gina Beck was wonderful as Maria and vocally flawless. The children were great as well, with special mention for Lauren Conroy as Liesl. Edward Harrison was a good Captain von Trapp without ever needing to especially exert himself, but I suppose that is the nature of the character.
The first act is obviously stacked with classic show tunes and provides relatively light relief when compared to the darker, more suffocating, feel of the second.
Such a shame this production isn’t getting a transfer. I didn’t quite understand the reasons mentioned by Beck in her Instagram post so would be interested if someone could explain why they have the rights to put this on at CFT but not London?
Only downside was having to move seats for the second time in the same day due to incredibly distracting sweet rustling directly behind me all through the first act. I started fairly close to the side of the stage but had to move to the very back of the stalls to be able to watch in peace. However, that did give us a wider view of the concert scene at the end which probably was no bad thing.
Four stars.
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