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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2017 18:24:34 GMT
Just seen the matinee of this show and it's brilliant! Lovely score with great performances! Katherine Kingsley steals the show for me - her accent is hilarious!! Scarlett Strallen is amazing too - her voice is sublime. Mark Umbers plays his role too really well. Dominic Tighe wasn't on and wasn't a lover of his understudy but atleast he didn't have much stage time. Upset as was looking forward to Dominic and Katherine being on stage together and seeing it. Les Dennis played his part well too! Songs are really good! The set is amazing, loved the revolves!! First time at Menier and would definitely return! It would've been great to have seen Funny Girl in a venue like that! So intimate! 4 Stars
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2017 23:12:35 GMT
Also, I think this must transfer?! It would work SO well in a smaller venue like the Playhouse, Duke of York's, Wyndhams etc. Don't want to loose the intimacy though!
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Post by Mr Snow on Jan 15, 2017 9:26:33 GMT
Had a great time at yesterdays matinee. Left with the same feelings I had after La La Land. Good music and dancing sends me out with a smile on my face.
But...
I saw the version at the Savoy and I still think there's a great production of this musical to be had. Its a delicate soufflé and very hard to get it all right.
Loved Scarlett in Candide but she didn't quite work for me here. Ice Cream is THE stand out no and I still have fonder memories of Ruth Henshall and Barbara Cook, who performed in concert this well into her 70's. It needs a kind of innocence that SS and the Director eliminated from the role.
Katherine Kingsley was the start turn but she set a tone that didn't quite sit with the rest of the show? She was a purely comic character and there was no real sadness at the way she was treated.
Norman Pace (a revelation) and all the business with the trays was immaculately timed but again pushed the show away from 'the Lubitsch touch' of the original film.
Thought Les Dennis was hopeless with zero warmth - necessary so we see him turn cold and feel for his character.
Kept thinking Mark Umbers is a shoe in if they ever make a film about AA Gill. He's always very good but he lacks a certain star Quality. The rest of the cast are strong.
Makes it sound like I didn’t have a great time. I did, but I've raced back to the box office after previous Menier productions, but not this time. (Reserve the right to change my mind on that!)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2017 9:38:42 GMT
Had a great time at yesterdays matinee. Left with the same feelings I had after La La Land. Good music and dancing sends me out with a smile on my face. But... I saw the version at the Savoy and I still think there's a great production of this musical to be had. Its a delicate soufflé and very hard to get it all right. Loved Scarlett in Candide but she didn't quite work for me here. Ice Cream is THE stand out no and I still have fonder memories of Ruth Henshall and Barbara Cook, who performed in concert this well into her 70's. It needs a kind of innocence that SS and the Director eliminated from the role. Katherine Kingsley was the start turn but she set a tone that didn't quite sit with the rest of the show? She was a purely comic character and there was no real sadness at the way she was treated. Norman Pace (a revelation) and all the business with the trays was immaculately timed but again pushed the show away from 'the Lubitsch touch' of the original film. Thought Les Dennis was hopeless with zero warmth - necessary so we see him turn cold and feel for his character. Kept thinking Mark Umbers is a shoe in if they ever make a film about AA Gill. He's always very good but he lacks a certain star Quality. The rest of the cast are strong. Makes it sound like I didn’t have a great time. I did, but I've raced back to the box office after previous Menier productions, but not this time. (Reserve the right to change my mind on that!) I was at yesterday's matinee too so saw the same show as you but, funnily enough, I disagree with most of what you thought! I LOVED Katherine Kingsley and she stole the show for me. She was hilarious and I loved her accent. Great musical theatre actress all round, in my opinion, and I hope she does more musicals too. Scarlett Strallen was great for me and I loved her voice, she's funny and Ice Cream was amazing!! Les Dennis played his character well, imo, and I didn't think he had no warmth. Mark Umbers has got a good voice. Agree whole ensemble are good, wish there was more Dancing numbers like in the cafe. 12 days to Xmas was brilliant! Only person I didnt like was the actor understudying Dominic Tighe - who I'm upset wasn't on. I agree I probably wouldn't see it again but I still loved it!
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 15, 2017 9:51:26 GMT
Les Dennis has warmth, but no charm, which is essential for the role.
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Post by loureviews on Jan 21, 2017 18:44:16 GMT
Just back from this. Lovely, sweet and I left with a smile on my face. It's a good score, and there are some lovely performances here although Les Dennis will never escape the memory of his Mavis impersonations!
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Post by lonlad on Jan 22, 2017 12:03:10 GMT
Doubt it will transfer since Scarlett has a gig coming up in NY at Encores! and I can't see that they would replace her - also the show almost never been a commercial hit. It's a critics' darling, not a commercial one.
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Post by loureviews on Jan 22, 2017 17:41:37 GMT
My thoughts on this:
A delightful revival of the Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock musical is running on London’s fringe right now, and I heartily recommend it.
You might have come across this story before, in the films ‘The Shop Around The Corner’, ‘In The Good Old Summertime’ or ‘You’ve Got Mail’. You might have seen the versions shown on television in 1978 and on digital live-streaming last year.
Georg Nowack (played at the performance I saw by understudy Peter Dukes, who was rather good, if a little plain) is an awkward bachelor who serves as one of the sales clerks in the perfumery of Mr Maraczek (Les Dennis, whose decision to use a truly awful accent colours his role) in 1930s Budapest. He’s been corresponding with an unknown lady after placing an ad in the lonely hearts column, and he’s going to meet her soon for the first time.
Amalia Balash (a perky Scarlett Strallen, who steals the show with her “Vanilla Ice Cream”) comes to the shop for a job and instantly finds herself at odds with Nowack, and she is also corresponding with a ‘Dear Friend’ which we quickly find out, is her nemesis himself. In the meantime, Ilona Ritter, a vision of bad hair dye and thick make-up (played with scene-stealing effervescence by Katherine Kingsley, who has a whole library of comic expressions and barely disguised malice) is dating smarmy cad and fellow shop-worker Steven Kodaly (Kingsley’s real-life spouse, Dominic Tighe, who is perfectly hissable) and watching her life slowly slip away.
The main cast is rounded out by Ladislav Sipos (Alastair Brookshaw, playing the twitchy family man who ‘never disagrees’, with aplomb) and a new discovery, Callum Howells as delivery boy Arpad Lazslow, whose “Try Me” is an Act 2 delight. Norman Pace has joined the cast as Head Waiter, and he’s lots of fun in the restaurant scene, and surprisingly strong-voiced. I also liked the couple who found romance through reading: “Victor!” “Hugo!”
For a fringe production in a small venue, a lot of thought has gone into the revolving sets and production design, and Paul Farnsworth definitely deserves praise for his sparkles, bright colours, and leaf/snow combination indicators of the change of the seasons. Fine choreography too, and a more-than-decent house band give the fifty-something songs life and breadth (although the repetitive ‘Thank you madam’ refrains could easily be chopped after the first couple of times). If only the wigs had looked a little more realistic, it would have been quite perfect; but this is a fun little confection that certainly raises a smile in this winter season.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 23, 2017 13:00:07 GMT
I was really bored in this. I just didn't care and I wasnt entertained
Strallen for the first time disappointed and why cast Les Denis - he was terrible
Good production and set, liked most of the cast but I could quite happily never see a production of this again
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Post by haz23 on Jan 25, 2017 1:06:14 GMT
Saw it tonight - my first time at the Menier which is such a great little venue! Loved Scarlett Strallen and Katherine Kingsley, the revolving set was genius and I thought the ensemble were very tight and slick. Wasn't too impressed by Les Dennis, he looked rather bored throughout! A lovely feel-good show which left me smiling from start to finish.
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Post by poster J on Jan 28, 2017 22:43:47 GMT
Oh how I love the Menier! Saw this today and thought it was wonderful - great cast and it just put a smile on my face.
Scarlett Strallen and Katherine Kingsley were outstanding, and I even thought Les Dennis wasn't half bad! The only thing that bothered me was the dodgy range of English accents - completely unnecessary in my opinion, and made the whole show being set in Budapest just seem strange!
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Post by popcultureboy on Jan 28, 2017 22:47:03 GMT
I'd much prefer people using their own accent than attempting something Eastern European and ending up in 'Allo 'Allo territory, personally.
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Post by poster J on Jan 28, 2017 23:02:36 GMT
I'd much prefer people using their own accent than attempting something Eastern European and ending up in 'Allo 'Allo territory, personally. Why set it in Budapest then? I'm not familiar with the show but I presume the original was written that way for a reason?
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Post by popcultureboy on Jan 28, 2017 23:12:11 GMT
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Post by poster J on Jan 29, 2017 1:17:20 GMT
Thank you.
To me that makes using a range of random English accents which don't appear to be half the performers' actual accents make even less sense! I get that the range of accents portrays a class divide, but it just seemed to me unnecessarily jarring given all the names of the characters are Hungarian! I did love the production, it was just that one element that bemused me (perhaps more so because Katherine Kingsley's accent was slightly irritating and so took away a little from her performance for me).
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Post by mallardo on Jan 29, 2017 13:17:36 GMT
Re the accents, the show is usually played with American accents, hence everyone the same. A point is made in the programme that using British accents (as they are) raises the class issue and they have to now deal with that. Like others here, I found it a distraction.
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Post by longinthetooth on Feb 5, 2017 0:43:56 GMT
I loved this! The attention to detail, the costumes, the sets, the glorious cast, everything. Well, OK, maybe the score wasn't that memorable, but it made up with shed loads of charm for what Death Takes A Holiday was lacking. I know, that doesn't sound right, but you get the gist. The accents didn't worry me in the slightest. I loved Scarlett Strallen (but that wig did make her look the spitting image of a young Auntie Bonnie!) and Katherine Kingsley - in fact, Katherine's applause was far louder than Scarlett's when they took their bows.
I hadn't realised until tonight that Callum Howells was taking part in Let It Shine, but then left the programme as he'd been offered the part of Arpad in She Loves Me.
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Post by ali973 on Feb 5, 2017 5:43:27 GMT
I actually liked the use of English accents in this version. Normally I find them cringeworthy in say Wicked and Lion King, they even get a tad annoying in Les Miz. So when I saw She Loves Me at the Menier (on its first preview!) I remember going, "oh, dear they're going all British with this" (especially since the Savoy version was based on the Roundabout production from the US). But TBH I thought it worked very well, or at Katherine Kingsley made it work very well for her and milked it to get more humor.
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Post by ukpuppetboy on Feb 7, 2017 23:20:40 GMT
I saw it last week and found the accents to be ridiculous. And there's a dialect coach credited in the programme! I spent much of the evening remembering the brilliant delivery of Tracie Bennett and Barry James from The Savoy as lines were being said and wishing I was watching that production instead. And the less said about Les Dennis the better - who keeps giving him acting roles?
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Post by Tibidabo on Feb 17, 2017 10:52:26 GMT
Saw this yesterday and thought it was absolutely fantastic! Negative bits first. I'd never been to the Menier before and hated it. I nearly went down the stairs far quicker than I'd intended and why oh why had they saved all the lightbulbs for the restaurant bit? Seriously, not the place to go if you wear reactolight lenses! I was going to say I'd never go again but have just seen what's coming so I'm going to have to have a re-think! Due to the crowded darkness of it all we'd not found anywhere to buy a programme until the interval. I'm donning my tin hat now as I've read the thread and realise I'm out on my own with this and may well be carted off to the tower, but here goes......Scarlett Strallen. Seriously? As I didn't know what she looked like (never seen her before - I'd seen Summer in Top Hat and she was, ahem, perfectly adequate) I honestly thought we had an understudy. I can't remember seeing such a wooden, hammy, am-dram acting performance - even up against Les Dennis, who wasn't as bad as some have made out in my opinion. I hated her singing voice. Piercing, out of place with the piece and really just not a pleasant thing to listen to. I would not go again to see anything she is in. Enough. The rest of it was amazing. Stand-outs for me were The Set, Katherine Kingsley, The Girls' Shoes, Norman Pace and Alastair Brookshaw. I'd never heard of KK or Norman Pace (or, indeed, AB) so wasn't expecting anything. These three had their comic timing down to perfection. I was close to the stage and, for me, comic timing is such a wonder to behold when given such a masterclass. They all had this ability to let the audience know, a split second before, that they were about to give us a gem and had our full attention for its delivery. I just loved them. The set was stunning. Clever, effective and enough has been said up-thread. If you saw it when it was broken I seriously suggest a re-visit. One thing about the script that got me a bit - in spoilers and don't click if you don't know the story and are going as it gives away the ending for one of the characters. {Spoiler - click to view} As this was a feel-good piece, I was a bit disappointed that we never really got an ending for Kodaly who was just sent off into the mist having not done anything wrong. {Spoiler - click to view}
But a great show. We really enjoyed it. A great show - and maybe I'll work out how to get out of spoiler mode before my editing time is up!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 11:06:45 GMT
^ I agree on most accounts, with you, except perhaps for SS. It was my first time seeing her, and I thought her marvellous, particularly during "Vanilla Ice Cream".
As for that spoiler, he was a very naughty boy indeed.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Feb 17, 2017 11:13:15 GMT
{Spoiler - click to view} As this was a feel-good piece, I was a bit disappointed that we never really got an ending for Kodaly who was just sent off into the mist having not done anything wrong. {Spoiler - click to view} {Spoiler - click to view} He slept with his boss' wife?? and kept stealing for the the shop??
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Post by Tibidabo on Feb 17, 2017 11:14:28 GMT
Was he really @tom89 ? {Spoiler - click to view} And I thought they'd made up the bit about the boss's wife!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 14:41:59 GMT
I can't seem to work the spoiler tags so avoid reading the following if you want to remain spoiler free... Tibidabo I'm sure it did happen. He stood up Ilona on the night they were staying late to decorate the shop, for a cancelled "appointment". Maraczek then phoned his wife who said she had to go somewhere that evening without him.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 14:47:41 GMT
Thank you. It seems so obvious now you explain it. The button wouldn't work for me.
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Post by Tibidabo on Feb 17, 2017 15:09:50 GMT
@tom89 I remember him standing Ilona up, but have no memory of the Maraczek phone call! Completely passed me by that he was up to no good with the boss's wife - just thought he was playing around a bit. As for the stealing - I only really cottoned onto that quite late in the proceedings! I would have liked him and Ilona to have ended up together though, soppy ha'peth that I am!! I'm sure she'd have tamed him! Anyway. Thanks for putting me straight. There was so much to enjoy it was obviously too much for me to catch everything when I didn't already know the story. ETA: LOL! I still can't do the spoiler thing, despite @theatremonkey 's best efforts! It is there under one of those tags! Honest!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 17:01:21 GMT
Odd, Tom89. If you can type in the "Quick Reply" or "Reply" box, it really is just the same. You just type [ then the word spoiler then ] then your message then [ then /spoiler then ] and that is all! Apologies, I was using the button with the "shh" face (finger on lips) which had no effect
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Post by JJShaw on Feb 19, 2017 19:57:20 GMT
saw this today, its very hard to not enjoy this show!
clearly the director has seen the recent broadway revival, lots of similarities. i must also commend them on the revolving set, and how beautiful it looked! some very cinematic moments it was lovely. As were the new orchestrations, it was like listening to it for the first time!
I enjoyed Scarlett Strallens performance, and the ensemble, particularly the female shop customers, did some lovely dancing and framed the show wonderfully. Katherine Kingsley, who I have been a fan of for a while, I had to warm too. I understand why the cockney accent was chosen but I'm not quite sure if the artistic intention outweighed the jarringness of it. She was a much more brash Ilona, but by her Trip To The Library she'd won me over once again! Similarly with the gentleman who plays Arpad and his Welsh accent. I didn't find an issue with the british accents but these two accents stuck out. Mark Umbers as George gave a rather odd performance for me, his complete change in character at the end of act one all of a sudden being incredibly hostile to Ms. Amalia was not in keeping with his almost cringe bumbling nature for the first act (even when he didn't like Amalia he still wasn't being incredibly rude to her) his Tonight at Eight lacked but his version of the title song was very nice. (Also you can't have a character wear glasses for just two scenes the continuity doesn't make sense ! As a fellow glasses wearer haha!)
Very enjoyable, I would love for it to transfer. I also found Amalia's 'Dear Friend' letter from Vanilla Ice Cream land around my feet, a lovely little souvenir!
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Post by Tibidabo on Feb 23, 2017 11:31:21 GMT
Love this tweet from Les Dennis.
Les DennisVerified account @lesdennis
Follow More As the music struck up in She Loves Me @menchocfactory I heard a woman on the front row say "Oh God. He's not going to sing again is he?"
You weren't THAT bad Les!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2017 12:40:23 GMT
I hope you're not on twitter in the middle of your lessons, miss!
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