2,150 posts
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Post by richey on Feb 26, 2024 18:00:38 GMT
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874 posts
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Post by BVM on Feb 26, 2024 21:26:51 GMT
This is amazing news. Absolutely love this show :-)
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Post by bobbievanhusen on Feb 27, 2024 2:00:13 GMT
It's expensive. £42.50 is a lot for that venue.
I still booked for it though. 8th June
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71 posts
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Post by Paulw on Feb 27, 2024 8:21:26 GMT
Does anyone know how to get the concessions on the online booking? I can only see the £42.50 option on find tickets
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Post by bigredapple on Feb 27, 2024 10:16:56 GMT
42.50 to listen to a train overhead every 2 minutes
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96 posts
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Post by mrbluesky on May 1, 2024 9:13:32 GMT
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874 posts
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Post by BVM on May 1, 2024 9:30:02 GMT
Oh my God this is fabulous! Not usually one to get excited about casting, but Queen Frances Ruffelle - take (more of) my money. What a perfect fit!
Glenn is an interesting choice - really wouldn't have had him down as a Straight Dave but maybe the role's been butched up lol. Anyway he can SING so another excellent choice.
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1,878 posts
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Post by distantcousin on May 1, 2024 10:18:02 GMT
And that Tiktoker/instagrammer, Lewbearbrown (Lewis James) who I admit can be very funny.
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1,878 posts
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Post by distantcousin on May 1, 2024 10:19:24 GMT
Oh my God this is fabulous! Not usually one to get excited about casting, but Queen Frances Ruffelle - take (more of) my money. What a perfect fit! Glenn is an interesting choice - really wouldn't have had him down as a Straight Dave but maybe the role's been butched up lol. Anyway he can SING so another excellent choice. Not sure what you mean, because I've never heard of Glenn Adamson. Do you perceive him as more butch or less butch than how the character has been previously portrayed?!
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Post by lotster on May 1, 2024 10:20:02 GMT
Anyone who has been to The Turbine... How easy is it to get to on public transport? I know there is that new tube station there, but is it easy to get to? Can you walk from Victoria?
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874 posts
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Post by BVM on May 1, 2024 10:31:08 GMT
Oh my God this is fabulous! Not usually one to get excited about casting, but Queen Frances Ruffelle - take (more of) my money. What a perfect fit! Glenn is an interesting choice - really wouldn't have had him down as a Straight Dave but maybe the role's been butched up lol. Anyway he can SING so another excellent choice. Not sure what you mean, because I've never heard of Glenn Adamson. Do you perceive him as more butch or less butch than how the character has been previously portrayed?! Very butch! He's just lead the Bat Out of Hell tour as Strat! (Although now am thinking about it, am re-appraising this....) Also very MT/rock type voice. Think he'd done things like American Idiot etc beforehand. He's just not someone that in a million years would have crossed my mind for Dave but fascinated to see it.
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1,363 posts
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Post by Dave B on May 1, 2024 10:41:19 GMT
Anyone who has been to The Turbine... How easy is it to get to on public transport? I know there is that new tube station there, but is it easy to get to? Can you walk from Victoria? Very easy. I reckon maybe a 20 minute walk from Victoria or 5 minutes from Battersea Power Station tube on the Northern Line or 10 minutes from Battersea Park on a couple of overground lines.
Plenty of buses either stopping by Chelsea Bridge or just by the tube station.
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1,878 posts
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Post by distantcousin on May 1, 2024 14:07:10 GMT
I've seen two previous versions of this - the amateur premiere in Brighton about 2010 and the Union Theatre one about 10 years ago.
I thought the amateur one was FAR better in every way!!
Spookily I was only watching clips of the original production on youtube yesterday, as I'd been watching an interview with "Jonathan Pie" and it reminded me that he (well, Tom Walker) played Mile End Lee. He was cute back then!!
SIDE NOTE: I often wished Elaine Paige had recorded Friendly Fire - would have been magnificent!
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1,117 posts
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Post by theatrefan62 on May 1, 2024 14:20:57 GMT
This isn't a great ad for the show i dont think.
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907 posts
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Post by max on May 1, 2024 14:35:31 GMT
This isn't a great ad for the show i dont think. It's a shaky start, the words don't fit that well, may have been better 'speak sung' until the song gets more determinedly on beat, but that happens quite quickly and I liked it from there. A bit of a Marianne Faithful quality to it vocally; I've forgotten when this is set and what kind of rock diva she's meant to be. Perhaps for younger audiences today (even if it's still set 25 years ago) Marianne Faithful isn't a very resonant reference; I'd say Hazel O'Connor or Toyah Wilcox type icons may be more believable but they're probably a mystery to many too, lol.
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472 posts
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Post by Deal J on May 1, 2024 14:51:26 GMT
I rather liked that! On the whole I think the speedier tempo works well, although it does get a bit muddled around the "I who studied make-up" section. The characteristics/accent seem to be at least inspired by the "other Frances" from the original cast, which I'm glad about as I thought Frances Barber's characterization was indeed iconic (even though I am no longer fond of that actor). I must dig out my old promotional copy of the "Billie Trix" single that they sold in the 2001 production, I was genuinely shocked to realise that was 23 years ago now.
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3,792 posts
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Post by anthony40 on May 1, 2024 14:54:04 GMT
Anyone who has been to The Turbine... How easy is it to get to on public transport? I know there is that new tube station there, but is it easy to get to? Can you walk from Victoria? Yes, very easy from the new tube station. From Victoria? It's a bit of a hike!
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472 posts
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Post by Deal J on May 1, 2024 15:04:38 GMT
This isn't a great ad for the show i dont think. [clip removed to avoid bloating page] It's a shaky start, the words don't fit that well, may have been better 'speak sung' until the song gets more determinedly on beat, but that happens quite quickly and I liked it from there. A bit of a Marianne Faithful quality to it vocally; I've forgotten when this is set and want kind of rock diva she's meant to be. Perhaps for younger audiences today (even it's still set 25 years ago) Marianne Faithful isn't a very resonant reference; I'd say Hazel O'Connor or Toyah Wilcox type icons may be more believable but they're probably a mystery to many too, lol. Yes I believe even though it was set in early 2000s, the character of Billie was an "old diva". I've found my original Billie Trix promo which gives more of an idea of Billie's era; it's her fictional single Run Girl Run listed as the "original 1971 single version" and "1981 post-apocalyptic nightmare mix". It even comes with a fictional potted history: Can you tell I'm getting excited for this!? I steered clear of the previous revivals but will definitely be booking for this one.
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7,538 posts
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Post by alece10 on May 1, 2024 15:16:02 GMT
I saw this years ago at The Arts Theatre with Paul Keating (I think) and Frances Barber as Billie Trix who was just fab. Saw it again at the Union Theatre which was not so good.
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874 posts
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Post by BVM on May 1, 2024 16:46:04 GMT
I've seen two previous versions of this - the amateur premiere in Brighton about 2010 and the Union Theatre one about 10 years ago. I thought the amateur one was FAR better in every way!! Spookily I was only watching clips of the original production on youtube yesterday, as I'd been watching an interview with "Jonathan Pie" and it reminded me that he (well, Tom Walker) played Mile End Lee. He was cute back then!! SIDE NOTE: I often wished Elaine Paige had recorded Friendly Fire - would have been magnificent! Oh my God he was cute - literally never made the connection that this was the same person. Interesting fact of the day :-)
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874 posts
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Post by BVM on May 1, 2024 16:51:35 GMT
I rather liked that! On the whole I think the speedier tempo works well, although it does get a bit muddled around the "I who studied make-up" section. The characteristics/accent seem to be at least inspired by the "other Frances" from the original cast, which I'm glad about as I thought Frances Barber's characterization was indeed iconic (even though I am no longer fond of that actor). I must dig out my old promotional copy of the "Billie Trix" single that they sold in the 2001 production, I was genuinely shocked to realise that was 23 years ago now. Yes Frances Barber became morally a bit of a disaster area for me. I loved her in the original of this and she acted and sang the role so well. Her behaviour around the whole thing also really exuded gay icon. Then in the last 10 years she has morphed through the stages of trans questioner, trans denier and now reached the stage of full on JK Rowling and Sharron Davies anti trans obsession, bordering on hate speech. It's depressing to see. So very much no longer a gay icon in my eyes of any sort. I was surprised the PSB worked with her on the Billie Trix one woman only follow up to this to be honest (at Leicester Square theatre - what was it called?) as she'd made her views pretty clear by then.
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874 posts
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Post by BVM on May 1, 2024 16:54:39 GMT
I saw this years ago at The Arts Theatre with Paul Keating (I think) and Frances Barber as Billie Trix who was just fab. Saw it again at the Union Theatre which was not so good. Yes while I enjoyed The Union version, mainly as was nice to see the show on again and there was a lot of nostalgia there, it was very underpowered. The next revival at that place in Vauxhall (The Stag?) with Blake Patrick Anderson and Adele from Fascinating Aida as Billie was much better. Bigger sound. Bigger lighting. Think they used backing tracks which whilst I would normally be dead against, but I was for in this case it was all money would allow. The Union was just a piano and no mics for quite a few songs....
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Post by bobbievanhusen on May 1, 2024 17:47:48 GMT
I've seen this a few times too. The Arts Theatre production also included Louis Spence.
Useless fact: Did any of you watch the Netflix series Mindhunter, with Jonathan Groff? He had a partner in the show, Bill Trench, well his wife in the series was played by Stacey Roca, who played Shell in the original cast of Closer To Heaven, and is on the recording.
I do wish they had put the full 10 minute opening (My Night) on the recording instead of hacking it down to 3 mins something. It was recorded and can be found on YT.
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1,878 posts
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Post by distantcousin on May 1, 2024 19:11:46 GMT
I've seen two previous versions of this - the amateur premiere in Brighton about 2010 and the Union Theatre one about 10 years ago. I thought the amateur one was FAR better in every way!! Spookily I was only watching clips of the original production on youtube yesterday, as I'd been watching an interview with "Jonathan Pie" and it reminded me that he (well, Tom Walker) played Mile End Lee. He was cute back then!! SIDE NOTE: I often wished Elaine Paige had recorded Friendly Fire - would have been magnificent! Oh my God he was cute - literally never made the connection that this was the same person. Interesting fact of the day :-)
He's in this clip
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Post by scarletmood on May 1, 2024 19:46:31 GMT
Yes Frances Barber became morally a bit of a disaster area for me. I loved her in the original of this and she acted and sang the role so well. Her behaviour around the whole thing also really exuded gay icon. Then in the last 10 years she has morphed through the stages of trans questioner, trans denier and now reached the stage of full on JK Rowling and Sharron Davies anti trans obsession, bordering on hate speech. It's depressing to see. So very much no longer a gay icon in my eyes of any sort. I was surprised the PSB worked with her on the Billie Trix one woman only follow up to this to be honest (at Leicester Square theatre - what was it called?) as she'd made her views pretty clear by then. I hadn't heard about Frances' views as regards trans people. She was a partial gay icon and certainly very close to Sir Ian who I believe nursed her back to health after she had a back injury I think. Sharron Davis finished 2nd in the 1980 Moscow Olympics to an East German swimmer who was on testosterone. Sharron I feel just wants to protect the integrity of women's sport and not have an adult transitioned woman competing against biological born women. Sharron was not a slight female she was pushing 6ft tall and weighed near 11st when she competed and in later years was a Gladiator. But she has always felt that she couldn't compete against someone who was born a male and transitioned.
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Post by stageydan45 on May 1, 2024 20:38:40 GMT
Wasn’t a huge fan of the Pet Shop Boys in my youth. But have grown to love their work over the past few years, and they’re everywhere at the moment, so seems the perfect time to bring this back. I have tickets to see them at the Royal Opera House this summer also, so very clever to have this playing at the same time.
Glad to see this isn’t a biopic. And very intrigued into how their club inspired tunes lend to a musical. Understand it’s not their actual jukebox songs but still very much in their unique style.
That said, I’m very excited by this cast so will make my first trip to the Turbine to see them. Big Fan of Courtney & Glenn, great voices and comedy bones, and saw Frances in Les Mis way back in my youth too so excited to see her again all these years on!
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4 posts
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Post by fleshpuppet on May 1, 2024 20:56:09 GMT
I adore Paul Keating; have done since Tommy (Kim Wilde: double yay) and his transformation into the star of the original Closer to Heaven (I might even give his RestN range a chance). I preferred the Southwark revival over Above The Stag’s, saw Francis Barber loosely reprise her role at Leicester Square, have endured Vocal over Positive Role Model and STILL CANNOT WAIT to see what they do with this. Frances Ruffelle sounds fabulous and once again…I’m all in! (And stageydan45, the ROH is my favourite PSB venue to date after 35 years of concerts!)
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874 posts
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Post by BVM on May 2, 2024 2:49:10 GMT
Oh my God he was cute - literally never made the connection that this was the same person. Interesting fact of the day :-)
He's in this clip
Gosh. Very clearly him. Consider my mind blown!
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Post by bobbievanhusen on May 2, 2024 5:14:28 GMT
Glad to see this isn’t a biopic. And very intrigued into how their club inspired tunes lend to a musical. Understand it’s not their actual jukebox songs but still very much in their unique style. The PSB album 'Nightlife' has a few songs on it that are in the show, Vampires, Closer To Heaven (which was used in a few of their concert tours) as well as the Kylie Minogue duet 'In Denial' They later released an album called 'Further Listening 1996-2000' which included quite a few demos and earlier versions of songs from the show 'For All of Us' 'Call Me Old Fashioned' 'Friendly Fire' and 'Positive Role Model' I loved Positive Role Model and was surprised that they swapped it out for Vocal, but I must admit that the lyrics of Vocal do work better in the show.
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472 posts
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Post by Deal J on May 2, 2024 7:45:53 GMT
[...] I loved Positive Role Model and was surprised that they swapped it out for Vocal, but I must admit that the lyrics of Vocal do work better in the show. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? They swapped out Positive Role Model? But I want a Positive Role Model!
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