Opening Night - Gielgud

I wonder at what point the cast realise it’s a complete turkey? Not only after Press night surely? I mean, there will be be an element of ‘word on the street’ and undoubtedly there will be people connected with the show reading this thread (hiya 👋) but does anyone actually let on that the feedback is terrible?
It sounds much more serious than can be rectified by cutting a few bits out. It sounds like it’s fundamentally bad.

I guess the problem is that if another show used the same filming methods and everyone adores it, anything similar that isn't as successful with always looked like a failed copy.

Van Hove had cameras outside the NT for 'Network' in 2017, and I'm sure someone said he'd done it even earlier than that. To say he's copying Sunset is ridiculous.

So after seeing this again last night, my thoughts changed a bit. I was able to see that Sheridan truly is giving a great performance - several scenes here she’s the best I’ve ever seen her.

Some of the music actually kind of “clicked” with me this time and I enjoyed several songs, although they tended to be in the weirder moments of the show. And that’s where I personally think the show is at its best, in those “WHAT??” scenes that are inside Myrtle’s head or where the action around her or directed towards her is intense. When the show shifts to “We are a happy Broadway family let’s all sing a happy song and live the Broadway life”, that’s where the show falls completely flat, for me. Those songs sound like they would have been cut from a 70s musical and tonally don’t fit at all in this show.

I really do respect what they’re trying to do with this show but I just don’t think their goal is ultimately a success. If this were 95-100 minutes straight through with a good 30 minutes cut, then I think they’d have a more streamlined book and score and it could actually make sense. That will never happen obviously, but I really do think this piece would benefit from something like that.

I think that’s smart to snag the same security guard from “Sunset” - he knows the gig already.

The use of cameras and live feeds has been common on mainstage European theatres for the best part of two decades, and in experimental theatre practices for even longer. It was admittedly used to great effect by Jamie Lloyd in Sunset Boulevard, but it wasn't remotely new. (What was impressive was the clarity of the image, which has more to do with budget than anything else...) That being said, the use of video in Opening Night feels very by the numbers, even for van Hove. A lot of the staging is almost identical to what he did in The Damned, especially the ghost stuff.

But the biggest problem with the work is Rufus Wainwright's songs: lyrically derivative, void of any dramatic meaning or structure, tonally unmoored from the narrative and the drama. The numbers (it's hardly a score) are at odds with the staging, and while one can perhaps get away with it within an opera as Wainwright did with Prima Donna, here it's a disaster. The second act disco number is probably the most weirdly misjudged moment I've ever seen in a commercial West End musical.

Like many have noted above, it's a real puzzle how anybody - least of all a creative team of this calibre - thought this was ready to go into production.

I went to see this last night and avoided comments online as wanted to go into it as blind as possible. All these reactions are very interesting indeed. To steal a line from Merrily We Roll Along, I sort of enjoyed it.

The staging is basically Van Hove to a tea. If you have seen one of his productions than you have basically seen all of them staging wise. Not that it is a negative. I enjoyed the camera work and the minimal design did not hinder it. Sometimes the cameras feel a bit overly used and I would have liked some more focus on the physical staging of the actors. It would have been better to have gotten a actual playwright as the book writer, rather than Van Hove doing it himself. It feels especially like a story where a female writer would have added a greater depth to the piece.
As for the songs, I really enjoyed Rufus Wainwirght's music and scoring as it felt very much inspired by golden age musicals rather than the more modern pop ones but the lyrics let it down. Again I felt like they either needed more depth or just to be more clever lyric wise.

The main draw for me was Shira Haas as I think she is a wonderful actress and was very excited to see her onstage. For me she was the highlight of the cast and played the part of Nancy very well with a very impressive voice, even if her soft folk-like voice sometimes felt at odd's with the music choices. I hope we see her onstage a lot in London as she is really terrific as an actor. The rest of the cast were strong but have to say Benjamin Walker did look a bit bored, don't know if he was acting it or not. Sheridan Smith was as you would expect, a very strong performance.

Yes this show is not very good but I enjoyed it somewhat. I think as a piece it would have been more interesting to really focus in on Myrtle as a character as I didn't care about all the side characters. Let's see if it completes it's run in London though.

I thought that looks quite good!

Full movie is on YouTube. 

It was such a strange atmosphere at the interval for this last week.

Some people were furious at what they'd had to endure. Pretty much everyone seemed to he expressing their bewilderment and disappointment. Ushers were talking among themselves about how many people were heading out of the auditorium and taking their coats with them. I can't recall ever experiencing such a collectively underwhelmed audience response before.

Throw in the bizarre antics unfolding on stage and it all made for a thoroughly surreal evening!

I did the same! I have to say, I'm watching eagerly to see if my date actually goes forward. Judging by reviews, though, I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't (though I recognise it will hurt for the cast and crew!) as I can see a different show in that time.

Fabulous!!!

Can anyone provide a short synopsis of what the musical is about?