Glory Ride - Charing Cross Theatre

I concur with above. I was also there last night. Not many plays about cycling (Ventoux at the Vaults is the only one I can remember) let alone musicals.

This kind of grew on me, it's a good (true) story in its essentials about a sports star engaging in acts of real heroism as opposed to sporting acts of "heroism". The music is fairly generic and think some of the vocals need polishing a bit but the book sheds light on a detail of the war in Italy which deserves wider knowledge.

Mods might change name of the thread? It's "Glory Ride" as has been pointed out.

I want to see this but every performance looks like maybe 15 seats are sold, so I’m not even sure if they go ahead with performances with that few people in the audience.

Well, I love to ride my bicycle, I love to ride my bike...but I didn't notice this thread and frankly I'm astonished. (Also a musical about the Mont Ventoux climb? who knew)

www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/glory-ride-todd-buchholz?eea=K2hYK0hDbXNmUW5wcVRxSUI2UWc4d2ppUFozcld3d1Rtd1NIYmRvNWlDND0%3D&utm_source=acs&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DIAMOND_CY_EDI_FRI%20IN%20THE%20DROPS%20060223&deliveryName=DM147056


Intriguing back story and plot, I wish them luck.

I went to yesterday's matinee and agree with the comments made.

The story was interesting and very moving in places. Josh St Clair as Gino Bartali was astonishing - great voice and good looking to boot. I won't say anything about his tight fitting shorts...

I'm pleased I made the effort to go.

I thought this was a great little show, and I was totally immersed in the story. I do agree, though, that the songs were not that memorable, even though at the time they seemed ok.

Saw this today for the Matinee show, Peter Watts was on as Gino Bartali, he was doing a great job and suited the role well.

The cast work nicely together and it is emotional at times. It had a decently developing story with some strong lead performances but songs were not memorable but every character does get a chance to shine, maybe some more work on the book is needed.

Glad I saw it and now reading more on Gino, such a fascinating and extraordinary man, his story would make a great film as well.

Additional note: during the first bike race the onlookers on stage were waving Progress Pride Flags and for the curtain call Niall Sheehy (Cardinal Dalla Costa) wore some coloured beads) as it was Pride day in London.

2nd note....how terrible are the seats in the theatre some of them need a complete overhaul with fabric hanging off!

Caught a weekday matinee of this earlier this month on my London trip. Was very excited as I'm really into Italian history and culture. Sadly enough I have to say it must be one of the worst shows ive ever seen.
For some pretty serious source material, there are way too many attempts at light hearted little jokes in the script, that all fell flat for me. Speaking of the script, I feel like it is oversimplified making the piece entirely too black and white, making it lack any depth it could have. The protagonist is just a hero who only does the right thing, thats his whole characterization. Nothing more there. The love interest might be even worse in this regard, who's literally just there to be his wife (and also do some good together with the hero main character).
The music is very forgettable and most songs seem to be there to fill time to make this a 2 act show. Because there is so little happening. I saw a review on a poster saying something in the vein of "full of twists and turns", and I couldnt disagree more. This is the most boring, straightforward, sugarcoated retelling of a historical happening u could imagine.
The cast was alright, nothing badly to say about them. One of the few lightpoints infact was Amy di Bartolomeo's solo. Too bad its somewhere in the middle of this at times boring, other times really frustrating and corny show. Oh, and I really liked how the set looked, that was done well I guess. Not much was done with it unfortunately.
Overall I looked forward to this and was really, really dissapointed.
Oh and yes the fake Italian accents that seemed to come and go where as annoying as u'd expect, either do a show in italian or english, not this for godsake.

Amazed this is still running. Saw it over 2 months ago and found it one of the most stultifyingly dull musicals I’ve ever seen. Audience response was also extremely muted. I thought the set was terrible too - a bit like what you might find in an amdram panto.

Well doping in cycling is now quite prolific...

I saw yesterday's matinee. Good that they've got full houses to play to in these last shows; the cast deserve it. Josh St Clair was great as Gino and Amy Di Bartolomeo also superb as Adriana. Terrific singing and acting from both - I'd love to see them as Eva and Che in Evita.

By placing the staging on a set that was mainly attempting naturalism (fake ivy never works), but had a vanishing point of more representationally painted buildings, and also archive projections, I absolutely couldn't get into the production choices and aesthetics. It often looked like a show playing in front of the set for another show. There's one song that steps out of the overwrought balladry and anthems with hints of burlesque and gospel in a more comic number - it works and the audience want it, but the whole look of the show is wrong for it. If the writers want to go in that fluid ecletic direction they'd be freed up by jettisoning the elements of old-fashioned and naturalistic set, and let us be more aware it's a story being made in front of our eyes (which is much more 'now' for current successful musicals). That freedom could then inform the writing style.

Very strange use of a revolve - only used once, during a cycling sequence. However, rather than helping it look like Gino was taking a bend while riding, he was always surrounded by people talking to him when it turned. So the revolve was used for the moments on his bike ride when Gino was ....stationary! - What? Lol

This production would have benefitted from the Charing Cross Theatre still being in its traverse configuration, which would have forced more staging invention out of that sparsity of design, and just looked more cool.

This literally was on filler for every single show of it's run and got terrible reviews - surely not 😂