923 posts
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Post by Snciole on Jul 29, 2016 12:18:56 GMT
I've just revealed my REAL identity, haven't I? I should add I debated being outright cruel because I had received free ticket. I would be interested to see how well this is selling because £40 premium tickets, under 3-star reviews and the terrifying St James' Theatre do not make a must see combination.
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1,827 posts
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Post by stevej678 on Jul 29, 2016 12:36:52 GMT
Reviews Hub sums up the main problem for me - "It is when Michael Greco appears as Pandora’s manipulative manager, Miles Mason, that the whole show really starts to come off the rails. Whereas everybody else is at least attempting to play Jimmy’s story straight, or as straight as a musical can be, Greco is an over-the-top, wild-eyed lunatic, as at home among the other characters as a pantomime dame would be in a Pinter play." www.thereviewshub.com/exposure-the-musical-st-james-theatre-london/ |
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Post by Seriously on Jul 29, 2016 18:12:46 GMT
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Post by Seriously on Jul 29, 2016 18:18:58 GMT
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433 posts
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Post by DuchessConstance on Jul 29, 2016 19:14:35 GMT
I think the problem might lie here: Mike Dyer who is 'Executive Producer, Concept, Book, Lyrics & Music' - is it normal for a single individual to be responsible for all of this? Overall, enjoyable but bizarre. He also took over as director shortly before they opened. |
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Post by Seriously on Jul 29, 2016 20:04:01 GMT
Really?  Wow. I hope they made a "behind the scenes" video. Sounds like it could be more interesting! |
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Post by firefingers on Jul 29, 2016 20:18:41 GMT
Yep, i understand the original director fired after first pretview.
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Post by Seriously on Jul 29, 2016 20:51:10 GMT
Wow. You're right. Phil Willmott just tweeted "Time to reveal the writer/producer of EXPOSURE the musical took over from me as director last week to add 'improvements' to my production".
Blimey. I'm not sure what this show needs is "more" Mike Dyer.
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433 posts
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Post by DuchessConstance on Jul 29, 2016 21:24:56 GMT
Who the hell fires Phil Willmott?
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125 posts
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Post by CBP1 on Jul 29, 2016 22:18:48 GMT
Just got back from this. Agree with much of the above. The cast (notable exception aside) are generally very good, and the female leads in particular manage to do a lot with some ropey material.
In the interval I was thinking that it was a decent show that needed a bit of work. A lot of the first act was very musical by numbers - dialogue then predictable song, dialogue then predictable song. Repeat as needed. Melodies generally pleasant but lyrics pretty simplistic.
Oh God did it unravel in the second act! It took itself extremely seriously until it suddenly descended into farce completely out of nowhere. And then back to sickly sweet again in an instant.
Some of it was really quite good. Niamh Perry was a particular highlight. Her performance was really moving at times and and had some great songs. But some of it was downright bizarre. Overall I just don't think they got the tone right. The opening had me giggling as it had an African scene that felt straight out of the Book of Mormon but without the intentional humour. Some felt a bit Jason Robert Brownesque. The really bonkers bit strongly reminded me of a cross between the Master + Marguerita and Spooky Mormon Hell Dream. And my wife said exactly the same.
House nowhere near full. And a couple of people left when it all went mad. The cast looked quite embarassed during the bows.
I actually quite liked the projections. And there was a lot of great choreography (with gymnastics galore).
I don't quite know what I thought of it but I don't regret seeing it. Give it a go if you can get a discount/comp - as seems likely given the reviews.
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Post by Seriously on Jul 30, 2016 10:59:57 GMT
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Post by Seriously on Jul 30, 2016 23:12:34 GMT
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5,056 posts
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Post by Phantom of London on Jul 30, 2016 23:58:11 GMT
I don't think this managed 5 stars collectively.
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Post by tlt on Jul 31, 2016 0:25:44 GMT
Yeah, I very rarely give a red light but this merited (is that the correct word?!) a red/amber light - red for the book and a lot of the songs (admittedly there were some better ones but they struck me as probably (I may be wrong about this but ...) written at another time for another purpose and most of the merit in the amber for the efforts of cast who were really good. One thing I did feel is that there was a distinct lack of interest in the process of photography (apart from the camera shutter design which like Sideways with its books' backdrop was clever but got somewhat lost) for a show that was supposed to be about a photographer. It was more interested in the Faustian and celebrity theme. While Herman's Mack & Mabel has a famously dodgy book, it does display a love of and some insight into silent movies. And though I've never seen Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George, I assume it does have something about the process of painting and art in it?! Anyway my review is at bit.ly/2a5K6Ss |
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Post by Seriously on Jul 31, 2016 22:24:33 GMT
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Post by Seriously on Aug 1, 2016 14:52:23 GMT
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Post by Seriously on Aug 1, 2016 22:47:17 GMT
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Post by Seriously on Aug 2, 2016 12:49:37 GMT
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396 posts
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Post by djp on Aug 3, 2016 22:32:26 GMT
Saw this today. About half full - though strangely with a group of 15-20 Chinese(?) visitors - Lord knows what they made of it. People seemed to respond to the cast well.
The good things
The ensemble is very good. Lively, athletic, and, when given the chance, to sing together, they sound good.
The ensemble and female lead casting is really good. some established stars and some new names to watch.
The photography used at times is very effective. As are the sound effects.
The rain maker was very good - I could have done with more of him- and less of several other characters. He had no lyrics and worked better for it.
Natalie Anderson was good. Not enough to do , but did it well. She suffered from having her sound levels too low to survive the band noise in her final big number, but before that she shone through the piece.
Nimah Perry could make the phone book sound interesting and she scored here- creating a different type of character from what I have seen her play before, complete with the look, accent, a school girl outfit, hot pants, and lycra. She's got the best song by far in the show, and she performs it beautifully, and movingly. She got the pin drop moment brilliantly. Ironically, they had her sound levels too low early on, and then switched their attentions to giving Natalie the problem at the end.
The bad.
The book.
The worse - the lyrics.
The Father, given nonsense to say, with lots of long words, that should never appear in a musical lyric, but managed to save the audience from trying to decypher it by making it incomprehensible. I quickly discovered it was better not to try, and just listen to the music, as there wasn't much to miss.
The devil. From the Jason Donovan school of wooden acting. True he had rubbish lines.
I have no idea what was meant to be happening by the end. The devil seemed to have gone nuts en route to the finale, the three little pigs turned up minus two pigs, and someone seemed to have ended the story for no apparent reason - other than the original book was three times as long. The photographic theme isn't tied into a coherent moral story, no one seems to matter much to the story, and only the devil literally knows what was going on. It started to go wrong in the first scene when someone dies of a heart attack to the ankle.
The programme has the telling answer, when asked if the show has weightier themes than we usually find in musicals
The question itself betrays a pretentious view of other musicals - many of which have as big themes, dealt with more effectively.
But the writer's answer is telling
Well thats because I never set out to obey all the established rules of musical theatre. I let the piece take me wherever it took me, then handed it over to you to make sense of.
Yes indeedy. thats what happened.
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Post by Seriously on Aug 5, 2016 18:10:04 GMT
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Post by Seriously on Aug 5, 2016 21:28:09 GMT
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1,064 posts
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Post by bellboard27 on Aug 5, 2016 21:32:36 GMT
Love the concluding sentence in the review "So bad that it's good, I absolutely recommend that you see this greasy stinker of a musical right now"! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2016 6:59:10 GMT
Cult classic!
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Post by Seriously on Aug 8, 2016 2:39:50 GMT
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923 posts
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Post by Snciole on Aug 8, 2016 9:18:44 GMT
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Wow. I hope they made a "behind the scenes" video. Sounds like it could be more interesting!
