Roald Dahl's The Witches - NT Olivier

And with the 7pm start I was hoping to be away by 9.30pm but sounds like it's going to be nearer to 10pm now.
Aren't the kids going to be very restless having to sit for 3 hours.

I saw it last Saturday night, and I LOVED it.

Some spoilers follow. . .

On the downside, the special effects really could benefit from an OMG moment, which doesn't happen.

However, on the plus side, Daniel Rigby's performance as the Concierge is comedy gold, possessed of puffed up manic helium, repeatedly punctured and maniacally reinflating. From his first prancing appearance in the "Hotel Magnificent" song to the last, he remains a camp laugh riot that completely reinvents the character from the borefest that Rowan Atkinson and Stanley Tucci were condemned to perform in the films.

Also on the plus side, the self-involved showman character, Bruno, is hilarious! We had Cian Eagle-Service on Saturday (the narrator character, opposite him, called Luke in this, was played with dynamic aplomb by Bertie Caplan), and Eagle-Service completely fulfilled the promise he showed in the "Love never Dies" concert, where his uber-curious mini-Phantom was somehow one of the most memorable elements of the show lol. Here he is on major comic form, making snobbish pronouncements like a character out of Oscar Wilde, a comedy coward with a gluttonous weakness for chocolate. He got to perform the showstopping "Bruno" song, which is no simple song, as it possesses, like "Bohemian Rhapsody," comic and dazzling twists and turns, the most major of which occurs when he gets a "sugar rush" from a bite of a chocolate bar. For a moment, I thought I was watching 42nd Street lol!

Along with the comic masterpiece "Bruno" song, I also really enjoyed Katherine Kingsley's two big numbers as the Grand High Witch (Kingsley gives great villain, as always), one of which is a call-to-action song ("One Day is Now," or something like that) and the other of which is a more character-based I-hate-children song ("Wouldn't it be nice?" or something like that). Of the two, the second song is the one destined to be penetrate popular culture, as it doubles as a song that parents can use to tease their children and each other about how "nice" it would be if parenting didn't eat up your entire life lol.

The thing I would observe about a song like the latter, and about Daniel Rigby's ecstatic comic performance, and about the show-stopping Bruno song, is how much fun there is for adults who go to this show. In that sense, it is a true family show, having something to entertain the kids and something to entertain the grown-ups. I can't imagine that this wouldn't be a massive hit over the Christmas period.

Another observation I would make is that while this is more faithful to the Dahl book plot than either of the two films, it's much less dark, and much more comic, than the two film versions, particularly the 1990 one that Dahl so hated, for being too scary and for changing the ending. This means that if it's darkness you want first and foremost, you will be disappointed. By and large, I loved the comedy too much to miss the darkness (the warning states it's for "brave 8 year olds" and above), although the cardboard cutout costumes for the big "Get Up" rendition probably swung a little too much away from darkness towards a U-rating lol.

Sally Ann Triplet is a terrific Granny. She drives the plot with urgency, alongside the Luke character, and the storytelling is coherent I thought. She also had one of the few songs that felt somewhat nuanced and lyrically complex.

All in all, I loved this enough to vote 4 stars in the poll, and I would definitely see it again after press night.

2 hour 45/50 minutes while long isn't unusual for family musicals, Wicked is 2 hour 50 minutes as was Mary Poppins.

Caught this last night.

I haven’t read the book but have seen the Angelica Huston film, only once, many years ago.

It was a full house with audience members of all ages, young and old. I was in Row C at the front, on the aisle. For £20, I wasn’t complaining! The compromise was limited leg space; not so much a problem for me in an aisle seat.

I had a very enthusiastic American couple with their 5 year-old son between them. They had bought The Witches T-shirts that they were wearing proudly.

I am trying to not give away too many spoilers.

The set is very ‘Into The Woods’. However there is a large revolve that is used more in the second act, than the first.
When at the Bournemouth hotel, the whole set are varying shades of crimsons, magenta, maroon and pink.

Except for the leads, every adult on stage played multiple roles.

(In truth) I’m not a huge fan of kids on stage but for this kind of show, it really unavoidable.

This is a very family friendly show. Lots of colour, action and comical characters for the kids but also enough adult humour.

The timings quoted in the previous post were pretty accurate.

There are two big dance numbers, with tap dancing and ‘jazz hands’.

There are quite a few costume changes for all and multiple wigs for nearly everyone on stage.

Every Witch removed her hair and had purple fingers and toes.

The costumes were excellent, especially for the Grand High Witch- at one point in the second act during one big solo number I couldn’t help but think drag queens would go crazy!

The stage trickery was excellent, especially for that of the Grand High Witch.

All of the cast are working extremely hard, especially all of the females, making each Witch her own character. There are (at least) 15 Witches!

However, for me there were three stand out performances.

Sally Ann Tripett as the Norwegian Gran- cigar smoking, feisty, tough as nails, yet also very vulnerable.

Daniel Rigby as Mr Stringer, running a hotel in Bournemouth suddenly overrun with mice. He plays it for laughs, and it works!

Katherine Kingsley as the Grand High Witch. Her costumes were great and to my ear, her accent which she maintained throughout, sounded like a fusion of Russian and Swedish!

In the second act, there is an elaborate kitchen sequence; very amusing!

The only thing that ruined it for me was when the set was revolving, from the dining area where the Witches were eating to the kitchen, you could clearly see the backstage staff ‘sandwiched’ between the two sets.

I noted the ending was different from the film. Not having read the book, I don’t know which ending- the ending in this show, or the movie was more true to the book.

4 stars from me

Hmm. Agree “A-Hole” isn’t exactly Dahl-esque

Something like “Stinking little carbuncle” comes to my mind

Oh to go through the books for more insults

I’m in no doubt that there are people reading this who could pass that on, but won’t.

 

OK - Dahl-esque insults. Twitvengers Assemble. Let's Go. We can SAVE THE SHOW from it "Ratner moment". And not real ones - only made-up ones that sound like they must be real. Boggle-Bumpers. Cudgle-Munkers. Finkle-Frottles. Flaffen-grubers. More fun with Wine... ;-) xxx

Thinking of a Dahlesque insult how about something antisemitic?

I saw this on Monday and really did enjoy it, primarily due to the excellent performances of the adults, but it's very ropey at the moment for an NT production. I think I enjoyed it to a 4.5* level but thought it was (only just) a 3* show for now. Hopefully there are improvements and I definitely give a lot of leeway for being in previews and having a lot of children to work with, but in general it's just not slick. The tricks are terrible and completely visible from way back where I was sitting. Some people have commented positively about the costumes which I thought were noticeably bad in many cases, not only cheap looking, but lots of the hotel staff costumes were horrendously creased.

Of course there is no avoiding children in this production but I did think they seemed under rehearsed and the scene where they are all on stage dressed as various household items particularly made me cringe. Costumes were again, not good, and it seemed more school play than national theatre production.

The witches were all great. Funny, unnerving and as someone else said above, each their own character. Mr Stringer - also great. Katherine Kingsley is a total star, vamping and camping it up. Loved her. She got a 'whooo' when she came on in her bedroom outfit and the look she gave the audience was so subtle but so hilarious.

The end time of 9:50pm does pretty much seem to be standard. We had a very short show stop to reset the revolve and I thought the interval possibly seemed a bit longer than normal so maybe they can shave 10 mins off but there would have to be cutting to actually get to 2hrs 30.

Overall I look forward to seeing how this develops and will definitely go at least once more.

I had high really hopes for this, being a huge admirer of Dave Malloy’s work so far (also, it is based on one of my favourite children’s books), but was quite disappointed when I saw it yesterday.
The score is just okay (I suspect it will grow on repeated hearing) as is the book, but I found the direction and design totally uninspired. There is no inventive or theatrical effect for any of the magical procedings, I think. (Especially the costumes of the bewitched kids, which seem to come from a bad pantomime!)
The huge cast works hard, but it says something about the whole endeavour when the role that comes out as most interesting is Bruno.
It ran 2 hours 45 minutes last night (now also updated on the website).
I would not recommend the first row bench seats, they seem to miss quite a lot.
Three stars from me.

I saw this on Saturday for the matinee and enjoyed it. There weren't many (disgusting ) kids in, which made it more enjoyable. It is a long show at 2 hours and 50 minutes though.

No mishaps that I spotted, other than one of the remote controlled mice ending up on its back.

Speaking of mice, they are often running over the stage, but I expect that the front row had no idea. I could just about see them from the third row, although they were blocked by speakers/lighting at various times. Speaking of my seat, a perfect view, especially as I had no one at either side or in front (which was a little odd, as the rest of the theatre was full).

I'm glad they stayed faithful to the book. There is some updating to the language (not always sounding very Roald Dahl). Some oddities, like a plant in the audience that I doubt fooled a single person. I suspect this is designed to transfer or tour as they haven't overdone the set (the revolve wasn't really necessary) and there's little in the way of magic and illusions. I do think this could easily lose 20 minutes to make the running time appeal more to children.

Overall, enjoyable, and I would see this again. But it is also based on a book that I must have read at least 20 times (although not in the last 20 years).