A Face in the Crowd - Young Vic

There doesn’t seem to be a huge number of tickets left for this over any dates - so maybe it’s a conscious decision to save money and let the show sell itself. If it gets decent reviews, pretty sure that will sell the remaining tickets.

That might be it.
If that is a money saving strategy it didn’t work so well for Passing Strange unfortunately.

Looking forward to seeing this next weekend. For those who want to know a little bit more about it, it is based on a film which regained popularity after the election of a certain US president. It's about a immoral populist entertainer who becomes a politician. If you can find it - it's a really enjoyable film with a great central performance by Andy Griffith.
This trailer will give you an idea:

I must confess I booked this for Ramin. Sounds like it's quite a different role for him. Tell me he's still fantastic?

Saw it this evening.

There's a lot to admire, and a lot of potential, and some of it is great - and there are a few things that need a bit more work. If the same two-month run had been scheduled at, say, Playwrights Horizons or the Public in New York, there'd have been a lot more than a week's worth of previews before press night.

On the plus side, very strong performances and a spectacular star turn from Ramin Karimloo. A lot of the score is terrific. Good set, the lighting still could use a few tweaks, appropriate costumes. Still a few pacing issues, but it's early days and they've had to cancel a few performances so that's understandable.

Things that need work: Olly Dobson's character (the Walter Matthau role in the film) is badly underwritten and his two songs both need a bit of tweaking. The first one, in particular, could do with the lyrics being a fair bit more self-lacerating, and the say-guys-won't-you-sing-with-me song cue feels like it has crept in from an entirely different show, and it has to go. The song cues, in general, are an area where Costello and Ruhl could stand to do a bit more tweaking. Quite a few lines all the way through just need a little bit of sharpening - but I'm not sure how much of that is about the writing and how much of it is just about the cast needing a few more performances under their belt. I'm going back at the end of October, and it'll be interesting to see how it evolves between now and then.

Overall - a fascinating, complex, often thoroughly entertaining show that is *nearly* a major triumph. It needs a bit more work, but it deserves a life after this production.

And I hope at some point there'll be a cast recording.

I’m at this tomorrow evening. I have to admit I booked for Ramin, judge me if you want. But, I do like the sound of this though. May be a relief after Coriolanus at NT in the afternoon.

Oooooh.

There was some good stuff here. And I’ll preface with the fact that country etc is not my favourite genre in any shape or form. It all sort of melted into one for me and I don’t remember a single tune. The clap-a-long thing was extremely cringe.

Emotionally this felt flat for me. A shame as the two leads are exceptionally talented. There is a story here, too, and it’s a timely one.

I think the show needed a couple of workshops to finesse it. It needed to be a little less po faced and a little faster paced. Cut a good 20-25 mins from it. Get, for gods sakes, a less am dram set.

Overall I wanted to be wowed (as I expected to be by Ramin and co) but was left cold.

Really wasn’t a fan of this. It’s a shame because the actors are good, but the whole production just feels very amateur.
I felt like I was watching a school play with west end actors.
I have to say I haven’t really enjoyed anything much at the young vic in a while. I won’t be sad to see Kwame go.

Underpowered and under-directed... this doesn't bode well for when I see it...

What you describe as the 'scandal' with two female playwrights is a grey area in my book.  I know of two other occasions where they joined someone else's project and ownership became disputed; they're either very unlucky or have a way of operating that's unclear. The other incidents were before the Young Vic. One of these got described online from the other perspective, the production company they had joined (it's still online*), the other wasn't voiced publicly but I heard about it direct from the writer. Joint ownership and collaboration is difficult - someone who thinks they brought the ingredient that transformed a piece can feel they have huge ownership. Others see it another way.

*I'm not going to bring all the specifics onto theatreboard - names can be googled.  I just want to stand up a bit for the 50/50 of this situation where Kwame Kwei-Armah's tenure is being weighed up.

I was there last night and found this delightful. It was witty, stylish and brilliantly acted (I had no idea Ramin was so charismatic, but the whole cast were fabulous), and the songs were beautiful, with lyrical and original images and yearning melodies.

On the downside, it was nowhere near as dark and hard-hitting as I was expecting, and neither was it particularly inventive, either in its storytelling or direction. I was expecting something artier and grittier, going by the writer, songwriter and poster. It's a pretty traditionally structured musical comedy, albeit a fairly contemporary take on the genre. But after bemoaning recently the lack of new musicals aimed at an adult audience, this at least offers some balance to that.

I was in the second row and the sound balance was clear as a bell where I was.

Thoroughly enjoyable. I really hope we get a cast recording.