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Post by nash16 on Mar 6, 2018 17:19:00 GMT
Kwame Kwei-Armah's opening production as director and as Artistic Director at the venue.
Brand new music and songs.
Opening in September.
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Post by martin1965 on Mar 6, 2018 17:50:02 GMT
The same one that the public theater did in NY?
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Post by oxfordsimon on Mar 6, 2018 18:14:56 GMT
If so, I hope he cuts the vast majority of the dancers. The staging looks massively over-fussy
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Post by martin1965 on Mar 6, 2018 20:23:50 GMT
Have now checked Public site and it is indeed. He directed it in NY.
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Post by crabtree on Mar 6, 2018 23:19:00 GMT
Heck, of course things can be reinvented, as indeed they must, but Twelfth night of all things, is a small, intimate, domestic piece. I'm surprised it's not been done as a chamber opera - maybe it has. An opera with such conscious symmetry would work well.
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Post by zahidf on Mar 7, 2018 11:08:56 GMT
Any word on when it will be announced?
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Post by QueerTheatre on Mar 7, 2018 12:14:07 GMT
From the title alone, it doesnt feel like a Young Vic show?
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Post by princeton on Mar 7, 2018 13:13:53 GMT
It looks as though The Public Theater is reviving this as part of this year's Shakespeare in the Park season publictheater.org/Tickets/Calendar/PlayDetailsCollection/SITP/Twelfth-Night-2018/Clearly not a small piece - as the Delacorte Theatre seats 1,800 people. The blurb on this version mentions lots of community participants so I'm guessing this will be the case at the Young Vic too. If it is his opening production it does seem a bit odd to do something that he's directed in New York only a few weeks earlier. And equally odd that he'd be out of the country for several weeks immediately before his first season - though as Oskar Eustis is credited as co-director for the Central Park production - maybe Kwame is more hands off this time round. |
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Post by AddisonMizner on Aug 5, 2018 19:29:52 GMT
I'm excited for this! Shaina Taub has written the music, and she is a recent discovery for me. For those that don't know her, she is currently at work on lyrics for the musical version of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA with Elton John, and is a prolific singer-songwriter in her own right. DIE HAPPY is her most recent album, and is very good. She writes story-driven songs, but ones that are very melodic and "catchy". There are demo recordings of her TWELFTH NIGHT songs available here to listen to (I think the New York run may also be getting a cast recording): shainataub.bandcamp.com/album/twelfth-nightI don't know if Shaina will be over here to see rehearsals, but would love her to do some London concerts. |
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Post by sf on Aug 6, 2018 16:31:03 GMT
I'm excited for this! Shaina Taub has written the music, and she is a recent discovery for me. For those that don't know her, she is currently at work on lyrics for the musical version of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA with Elton John, and is a prolific singer-songwriter in her own right. DIE HAPPY is her most recent album, and is very good. She writes story-driven songs, but ones that are very melodic and "catchy". There are demo recordings of her TWELFTH NIGHT songs available here to listen to (I think the New York run may also be getting a cast recording): shainataub.bandcamp.com/album/twelfth-nightI don't know if Shaina will be over here to see rehearsals, but would love her to do some London concerts.
She dropped a big hint on Twitter the other day that a cast album from the New York run would be forthcoming.
Based on the video clip on the Public's website, I've booked to see it at the Young Vic. It looks terrific - although the combination of this and 'A Very Very Very Dark Matter', which I'm seeing the same day (all the better to save train fare...) may turn out to be a bit head-spinning.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 17:24:58 GMT
I'm excited for this! Shaina Taub has written the music, and she is a recent discovery for me. For those that don't know her, she is currently at work on lyrics for the musical version of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA with Elton John, and is a prolific singer-songwriter in her own right. DIE HAPPY is her most recent album, and is very good. She writes story-driven songs, but ones that are very melodic and "catchy". There are demo recordings of her TWELFTH NIGHT songs available here to listen to (I think the New York run may also be getting a cast recording): shainataub.bandcamp.com/album/twelfth-nightI don't know if Shaina will be over here to see rehearsals, but would love her to do some London concerts. Thanks for linking to this. Completely unaware of Shaina Taub before this post. The Twelfth Night & As You Like It albums sound great, immediately purchased! |
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Post by andrew on Oct 2, 2018 22:29:33 GMT
I was at the first preview tonight, it was great. I definitely recommend this.
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Post by ruby on Oct 2, 2018 22:45:04 GMT
I've booked for November and am looking forward to it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 14:49:49 GMT
What was the running time on this?
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Post by fansylvanians on Oct 3, 2018 15:10:40 GMT
What was the running time on this? First preview came in at 96 minutes and there's no interval. I enjoyed it immensely. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 15:26:35 GMT
Boss, thanks. Tempted by the lucky dips seats.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 19:13:53 GMT
Loving this.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 5, 2018 19:35:46 GMT
I walked out, I was on the end of a row and the prep for tomorrow’s dinner party was far more appealing
When the verse speaking is that bad and all you can think of was the very good Watermill and the excellent NT productions.
Direction seemed really amateur, gimmicky and panto. I just kept thinking of the Inheritance, Fun Home and marinading my chicken!!!
Hey hoe you can’t win em all
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2018 20:10:09 GMT
I just kept thinking of the Inheritance, Fun Home and marinading my chicken!!! Oh you saucepot! |
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Post by Rory on Oct 5, 2018 23:29:25 GMT
I just kept thinking of the Inheritance, Fun Home and marinading my chicken!!! Oh you saucepot! Totes hilaire! |
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Post by tmesis on Oct 6, 2018 20:39:32 GMT
Just come out of tonight's performance and I absolutely loved it. At first I was a little uneasy about the juxtaposition of the lines from the original Shakespeare with the more vernacular songs but you soon atune to this and many of the words are clever and witty. The music is wonderful; mainly in an extremely accessible 70s soul style with just the occasional, more broadway-like waltz or patter song. The original play is very cleverly filleted and the whole thing drives along thrillingly, the music very cunningly positioned to achieve a glorious 95 minutes without a dull moment.
The set is lovely - kind of Earls Court meets Burano.
The two stand out performers were Viola and Malvolio (don't know the actor's names since I didn't have a programme and the website isn't very informative.) Malvolio was hilarious, far more so than in the original. He has a terrific song and dance number.
I think this should get, and deserves, a W.E. transfer.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 6, 2018 20:45:09 GMT
I struggle to see how you can do justice to Twelfth Night in 95 minutes - particularly when sung material often takes longer than speech to convey the same moment (as demonstrated by the video posted a couple of days ago - which took the Ring speech and extended it into nearly 5 minutes of song)
I think there is a successful musical to be made out of Twelfth Night. I just think it deserves more than 90 minutes of stage time.
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Post by foxa on Oct 6, 2018 21:21:39 GMT
Tmesis - I was there tonight too and agree with everything you said.
I LOVED this - I'm not a big standing ovations person but there I was - I may even have whooped. Which Mr Foxa doesn't approve of whooping - but tough.
If you want all of Shakespeare's lines - give this a miss. If you want a big-hearted, optimistic musical, full of yearning and romance - try to get a ticket. I would happily see it again.
This is the cast (from the press announcement):
Melissa Allen (Feste)
Gabrielle Brooks (Viola)
Gerard Carey (Malvolio)
Natalie Dew (Olivia)
Martyn Ellis (Sir Toby Belch)
Gbemisola Ikumelo (Maria)
Jyuddah Jaymes (Sebastian)
Jonathan Livingstone (Antonio)
Silas Wyatt-Barke (Andrew Aguecheek)
Rupert Young (Orsino)
The professional cast will perform alongside a community chorus of 60 members from Southwark and
Lambeth. The chorus will be divided into two teams of 30.
Gabrielle Brooks is a star - her disguise as Cesario made her look like a young, pocket Sterling K Brown. She was a very sympathetic Viola - funny and hopeful and I loved absolutely every choice she made. Gerard Carey as Malvolio was exceptionally funny - I don't want to spoil it for anyone but his big number had surprise after surprise in it. The hard-to-please Mr Foxa loved his performance (though he did say, 'I like to see him play Malvolio in a real production of the play.)
We were in cheap upper level side tickets - and they were great. We didn't miss a thing.
So 5* from me. Probably 4* from Mr Foxa.
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Post by Steve on Oct 6, 2018 21:45:52 GMT
I was there tonight too.  Less bittersweet Twelfth Night, more Midsummer Night's Dream style celebration of crazy love, this colourful, carnivalesque musical, has a rampant community chorus, a superb cast singing eclectic and glorious songs, making for oodles of silly joyful fun. Some spoilers follow. . . With a running time sliced to 1 hour, 45 minutes, and songs that repeat lines like "If music be the food of love, play on" hundreds of times, there is little time left for any Shakespeare but his plot. And even then, it may be hard to follow if you don't already know the piece, as nearly all the verse is sacrificed for songs; The biggest innovation of the show, and for me it's greatest strength, is it's reinvention of Malvolio, who instead of a repressed and repressive fop becomes a force of nature, a self-actualising geek of immense agency, a cross between Lloyd Webber's villainous preening Count Fosco and loveable unloved outsider, Evan Hansen. The reinvention is such that the piece emerges with more in common with Midsummer Night's Dream, than Twelfth Night, with Malvolio the most exaggerated exemplar of the craziness of love. And for his unrestrained unembarrassed all-singing all-dancing jazz hands celebratory courting of Olivia, Gerard Carey's Malvolio emerges as the principal hero of the show, a man willing to be laughed at to prove himself in love. This transformation of Malvolio vastly simplifies the play, on the one hand, but on the other, it amplifies the celebratory party atmosphere of the show in general. If Kwame Kwei-Armah intends this show as a statement of what's to come, he intends to entertain and include his audience, first and foremost. Other than Carey's standout Malvolio, Gabrielle Brooks, like a slippy-slidey Michael Jackson eluding Natalie Dew's Billie Jean/Olivia, sings thrillingly and passionately as Viola, Natalie Dew herself is winning and rambunctious as Olivia, and Melissa Allan is energetic, sonorous and commanding as Feste, the chief of ceremonies (at least while Carey isn't storming on stage, looking like a bumble bee, to sting her and steal her thunder). So, if you're seeing this, brush up your Shakespeare, then discard any thought of him, and prepare for a party instead. 4 stars.  |
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Post by Boob on Oct 6, 2018 22:24:54 GMT
I was there tonight too, the one with folded arms and a general look of bemusement/shock/horror. This is most certainly not without charm - the score is mostly wonderful, Gabrielle Brooks is a star and, just occasionally, the material matches Shakespeare and enhances him. Otherwise, I found the production pretty toe-curling, the performances generally poor (and often incomprehensible) and the marriage between professionals and community an unhappy one (it has been done much better at the same venue and elsewhere). Have a funny feeling the Young Vic is going to be my new Donmar.
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