Becoming Nancy - Birmingham Rep

I bought a cd if his at the time of him being signed to MCA
He's quite renowned in the field of British Pop.
And a successful author too.
I'd be more than happy to have achieved a tenth of what he has

There you go, I have a good answer to this.

When I saw the Menier’s production of La Cage Aux Follies I saw all four Albins: Douglas Hodge, Graham Norton, Roger Allam and John Barrowman, in real life two are straight and two are gay - I know what two I would pay to see again. Conversely when I saw Kinky Boots on Broadway with Billy Porter who identifies as being gay and should also identify as being excellent, I certainly was the one putting on social media that we need Billy Porter to bring the show over, but just who knew we had Matt Henry who was superb, I don’t know what Matt identifies as and to be honest I don’t really care, I just know my eyes and ears didn’t deceive me he was the real deal.

So there is a great case study where two actors identify as straight, played a gay role superbly in Albin as they played the role with restrained and nuanced, John and Graham certainly was the opposite to this and seemed to over compensate.

John McCrea and Layton Williams who are both gay we’re excellent in Jamie, Ivano Turco was very enjoyable but not as good John and Layton, not sure on Ivano sexuality though.

So the answer is depends, straight actors can play gay roles, the exact answer is really how good of an actor they are, Douglas and Roger are award winning actors and are both as good as it gets and are top of their game.

One day we might talk about Priscilla and the excellent Tony Sheldon! However we don’t need to talk about Jason Donovan.

I did see Douglas and Roger or really several times.

My preference would always be for queer stories to be told by members of the queer community.

But I would always cast the best performer for each character.

It is important that the production is a safe and supportive place. So all involved must be allies of one another.

Yes, I would do all I could to recruit a representative pool of auditionees. But after that, talent and fit for the role are the only determining factors.

What’s new pussycat was fabulous far better than a lot of the rubbish I’ve seen go to the west end in recent years … I could never work out why it didn’t make it ? Such a shame …. And now Tom Frances is in sunset Blvd. Brontë was in newsies then her Stella show with another pussycat cast member. , lem is in Hamilton Dominic …. Swoon … done lots of WE. Such a fabulous cast all round it deserved a proper WE run

Two stars from The Guardian.

"Contains plenty of energy but this show about a drama club production of Oliver! has a school play quality itself."

I think at most schools the girls would complain!

In real life boys playing Nancy would pretty much be confined to productions at all boys' schools.

It's a tricky role to do it with though, because she's an alto so it wouldn't work for a treble without lowering it. For boys whose voices have changed you'd need a countertenor I suspect — you'd have to be an exceptionally well-trained teenage tenor to be hitting her top notes comfortably, or it would be falsetto which is a possibility I suppose. I can't really imagine a baritone in the role.

You'd have to change the keys for all the part songs as well as the solos, so I suspect most boys' schools would just ship in a few girls.

In musical land though, I'm sure it works fine in their production. Out of interest, how old is he supposed to be, and how high is he getting?

Agreed.

I mean taking my feelings on this particular show aside, that isn't remotely accurate.

I saw last Saturday’s matinee (12th October) of BECOMING NANCY and absolutely adored it. The events of the show are so far removed from my personal experiences, but I found this funny, hard-hitting, tender and emotional in equal measure. It was a lovely surprise!

The score by Stiles and Drewe is brilliant. The songs hook you in on a first listen and are also pure musical theatre. The only negative I would have is the heavy reliance on synths in the band, and in some cases this was glaringly obvious. Proper acoustic instruments would have been much better. I also felt the music to be slightly over-amplified (as everything seems to be nowadays). That being said, I really want a full cast recording, so hope that this is in the pipeline.

The cast bring incredible energy and attack to the material, and I liked the production.

Here’s hoping for a West End transfer.

4 stars

It appears that since I saw the show in preview, Paige Peddie has a new number added just before opening night 'Who I Am'. Does this replace one of her numbers or is it in addition to the score already in place?