All About Eve - Noel Coward Theatre

Hahhaha that Trya gif is the most accurate review of this production I’ve seen.

Is this because Lily James can't act

or is it just badly directed?


(She is awful imho, a real cardboard cutout actress.)

It won't extend due to a scheduled period of refurbishment at the theatre.

Cinema broadcast on 11th April. 

I thought she was better than Anderson in this, much as I loathe to criticise the latter. Maybe that was intentional on the director's part though...

☝️Me too. I thought Lily was terrific. Gillian just used the show as an excuse to waft about in some lovely outfits looking fabulous while throwing out the lines like every one of them ended in an exclamation mark.

Mind you, I do have some sympathy for the cast. I think they all had a sweepstake going as to what point in the show Monica Dolan would tumble out of that sparkly dress and they were all on tenterhooks as to who would win the money. I'd be distracted too if I were them.

Has anyone sat in the RC boxes for this?

Does warn of missing the projections- do they make the production? Though they were extremely cheap for £25

When the cameras went outside the theatre in Network I was surprised that Mr Van Hove was unconcerned that a play based in America featured some lovely views of the British South Bank and the NT signs. It rather took me out of the moment.

Back to AAE though. I was massively disappointed with the play. I absolutely loved Lazarus and saw it several times. I thought the direction was masterful in the way that audience members who went along for the ride were completely transported to another world and held there until the very end. It was also one of the very few plays that I've seen that would have suffered if there had been an interval.

With AAE, I couldn't see any reason for the lack of interval apart from sadism and I found the whole production glacial at best and extremely soporific (exacerbated by PJ Harvey's score).

Because of the acting choices made by Gillian Anderson/Mr VH, it seemed very strange for any of the other characters to want Margo to calm down during the party scene, given there was no signs of anything that even vaguely resembled a bumpy night.

I found the steadicam shots of the other party guests crammed into the tiled box very distracting and in general thought this trick really didn't the material.

In my humble opinion, some of the casting choices were questionable. Monica Dolan and Rhashan Stone had no chemistry whatsoever, Stanley Townsend appeared to be in a different play which required MASSIVE' acting' in contrast with the rest of the company who appeared to be on ether and I really didn't think Lily James had the acting chops to make the transition from an apparent wide eyed innocent to a ruthless manipulator.

I wasn't hoping or expecting to see a replica of the film, but neither did I expect to be bored stiff, unmoved and full of regret that I'd lashed out such a lot of money to see a production that to me, felt dead on arrival.

Anyone desperate to see, they have released £25 tickets for the rear stalls with "camera view" (ironic for a show where everyone gets a camera view haha) for the camera rehearsal on the matinee of the 11th.

I saw this last night and thought I'd see how it had developed since I last went and...well I stand by my original comments... I presume last night some of the actors had an off day because acting wise it wasn't great. Lily seemed in a rush and for some reason she didn't sing at the end, just played the piano. It might be that she's sick maybe, the guy who plays Bill sounded coldly and Gillian's voice was very croaky at one point to the extent where I wondered if they'd have to stop the play (you could barely hear her) but then she suddenly got it back and carried on. My friend who I went with was bitterly disappointed with the play, but a woman we were chatting to sitting next to us has been 12 times, so I think this show is definitely like marmite!

Satellite problems delaying the start for my friends in Cineworld, Leigh (that’s in the north west for the uninitiated).

Anyone else?