Pinocchio - National Theatre

Of course, I just don't think it works as well as they were hoping it would and I'd have much preferred it the other way round. 

yep, the irony of course, but isn't it also about the story being told from Pinocchio's point of view and we, the audience, are down with his scale. the adults are of course bigger to him, and us.

imagine Avenue Q if the puppets mouths didn’t open. What an odd choice!!! It brings them alive.

This had some very good things about it - we liked the huge puppets, particularly the Coachman and Stromboli - their huge size emphasizing their huge awfulness - and the tricks. We were in Row A and still couldn't figure out how they did some of them. There were good performances from Audrey Brisson as Jemininy (though oddly the cricket has been turned into an self-proclaimed OCD-sufferer and nag, instead of offering the homespun wisdom of the Disney version - with some flat jokes about gluten and such thrown in); as well as the performers (sorry can't find my cast list) who played the Fox (very good opening from him) and the Blue Fairy. I agree with those above who say that the actor playing Pinocchio didn't work - a grown man, half-naked, and not convincingly innocent. I also agree that the sparse songs made it feel more like a play with a few songs than a musical. But I certainly wouldn't put this down as a flop and my companion loved the Pleasure Island sequence. However, the reaction from the audience throughout was subdued - very few laughs or other reactions - so in terms of a family show it may have missed it mark.

You make that sound like it's a bad thing.

I managed to get a rush ticket at 20 pounds. Circle, row G. Is the view good from there for this show?

You'll be able to report back by now, but having watched the show from the Slip seats, I'd say that the upper level is the best place to take this in. Circle Row G should be a good view.

I rather liked this and thought it was one of the better NT Xmas offerings of the past few years. Having read the comments, I wonder if the people who didn't like it were expecting a big WE/Broadway version and were disappointed to not get it? I really liked the staging and thought it was beautifully lit throughout; I much prefer the NT approach over big budget Lion King type productions that leave no room for you to fill in the dots with your own imagination, but if that's what you were looking for you probably would think this looked 'cheap'.

Agree that the puppets were a bit of a problem - puppets can definitely convey emotion but these didn't (Gepetto just looked constipated throughout). I thought the same about the Barbican Midsummer Night's Dream a few years ago - the puppets didn't convey any emotion or thoughts and the production really suffered as a result.

The biggest problem for me was the fact that the relationship between Pinocchio and Gepetto was never established; P just got created and then buggered off. So the basic premise that he wanted to get home to his 'father' who was missing him never took off and as a result it just meandered from one scene to another; I didn't care whether he made it home or not and I didn't feel like he did either. In fact, none of the relationships really took off - the Cricket was was clearly supposed to be humorous but wasn't particularly and again there was no sense of any believable emotion between her and Pinocchio.

But it all went past perfectly entertainingly and I didn't resent spending my time and money on it. I would imagine that it would be a nice outing for kids and a good intro to the theatre. Though I doubt theatregoing was a rarity for many of the spoilt demanding brats I had the joy of sharing the evening with.

A rave from Ben Brantley for the NY Times

www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/theater/pinocchio-review-national-theater-dennis-kelly.html

Finally saw this last night -

It needed more songs and didn’t know if it was a play or a musical (imagine Stiles and Drew attached to the project).

The set either looked amazing or too sparse and a big black stage (random ladders for no reason?).

The puppets worked mostly but not having their mouths move was a big mistake. They looked frozen.

Jiminey Cricket was wrong in everyway, not funny, too much talking, no top hat, miscast and why was he played by a woman?

The pleasure-island section in Act 2 was a mess. What was the Scottish girl Krankie doing punching everyone in the face? (The donkey transformation was cool).

Some of the effects and cast were amazing, some wonderful ideas but overall despite the good ending of humans needing pain and the puppet/human reversal - the production was kinda a mess (I can see the similarities to Harry Potter too).

If it had been more Disney/Mackintosh production, maybe in American accents, ten minutes less dialogue in both acts, and generally more of a musical - it might have worked better. 6/10.

Ha ha zzzzzzzzzz

American accents for an Italian set show created in the UK? That doesn't make sense on any level. Yes, Disney have done it before but it always grates, Use the actor’s natural accent, that me that makes much more sense than pretending they are American. Do they perform them in, say Germany or Japan, with American accents, anyone know?