438 posts
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Post by Rukaya on May 22, 2019 9:16:47 GMT
Oh come on, CHF and Sabrina Aloueche are always the first to wade into anything on Twitter! I’m sorry, but the Twitter faux outrage has been from all the usual suspects. People should be more like John Mcrea on Twitter IMHO. I have an issue with all these performers wading in when they probably don’t know exactly what’s gone down! All they’ve succeeded in doing is creating more negativity around the show, and like everyone else has said, the only people who will suffer here are the cast and crew! For example, I found it weird that Caroline Sheen would wade into this with her outrage about a “name” (in her words), and yet Amber Davies was cast in 9 to 5 exactly because she’s a “name”, and I’ll bet Caroline will defend her to the hilt if anyone came after her. I feel so so bad for Ashley right now, and hope she’s not checking her mentions! Amber Davies went to Urdang. Yes she became famous because of a TV show, but at least she's trained. |
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Post by sparky5000 on May 22, 2019 9:34:49 GMT
I have an issue with all these performers wading in when they probably don’t know exactly what’s gone down! All they’ve succeeded in doing is creating more negativity around the show, and like everyone else has said, the only people who will suffer here are the cast and crew! For example, I found it weird that Caroline Sheen would wade into this with her outrage about a “name” (in her words), and yet Amber Davies was cast in 9 to 5 exactly because she’s a “name”, and I’ll bet Caroline will defend her to the hilt if anyone came after her. I feel so so bad for Ashley right now, and hope she’s not checking her mentions! Amber Davies went to Urdang. Yes she became famous because of a TV show, but at least she's trained. I know but she still hadn’t appeared in a West End show before and would most likely not have been cast straight into the lead role if she wasn’t Amber Davies. And I’ll bet you that there were plenty of West End performers that were similarly grumbling about her casting at the time, albeit in private. Ashley Roberts might not be a trained in MT (and not all west end performers are) but she’s professional performer and singer. I’m certainly ready and willing to give her a chance to prove herself too on stage, just like Amber did, instead of jumping on the nasty anti “stunt casting” bandwagon that’s going on with her at the moment. |
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Post by sparky5000 on May 22, 2019 9:55:36 GMT
I have an issue with all these performers wading in when they probably don’t know exactly what’s gone down! All they’ve succeeded in doing is creating more negativity around the show, and like everyone else has said, the only people who will suffer here are the cast and crew! For example, I found it weird that Caroline Sheen would wade into this with her outrage about a “name” (in her words), and yet Amber Davies was cast in 9 to 5 exactly because she’s a “name”, and I’ll bet Caroline will defend her to the hilt if anyone came after her. I feel so so bad for Ashley right now, and hope she’s not checking her mentions! Make that “faux outrage”. It makes you wonder how these people deal when something genuinely bad happens. Everyone’s at a “10” on everything these days. Pathetic. This! The whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. Yes undoubtedly the Waitress decision makers here have not covered themselves with glory, but that doesn’t excuse some of the vitriol that’s been thrown around on social media. And this idea that the West End community is so inclusive and supportive clearly only applies when you’re actually part of the group. Poor Ashley isn’t and probably never will be! |
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Post by sparky5000 on May 22, 2019 10:13:11 GMT
Now everything is official, the thing that I still don’t really get with all of this is, what actually was the point of Lucie covering Kat for those 5 performances when she was away instead of the understudies? 🤷🏻♀️😆
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5,050 posts
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Post by Phantom of London on May 22, 2019 10:28:56 GMT
It is utterly appalling and I am beside myself with anger, that the producers have dumped a talented musical theatre actress, about to make her big break and gone with complete stunt casting now and cast Carrie Hope Fletcher in the role of Jenna.
This train wreck will never last and agree it won't last the summer.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2019 11:39:58 GMT
I noticed that Caroline Sheen had commented on this on her Twitter - she was parachuted into a show when a name had unfortunately injured themselves and performed for a couple of months until Louise returned. Amber had already been cast in the show when Caroline was drafted in and Caroline knew that she'd have to hand the role back over to Louise in due course.
We don't know if Caroline has been offered the chance to take over again when Louise leaves or whether she'll get the role on tour etc.
Does anyone know if Laura had a contract post Kat's leaving date and this has been amended to allow Ashley to take over. There would be the cost of compensating Laura and paying Ashley who will likely be on more than Laura plus the extra rehearsal costs for Ashley to practice the role although this was likely already there as Lucie was being rehearsed. Also with Lucie may be on less money than Kat so that offsets the cost of compensating Laura and paying Ashley.
When I saw David Hunter mentioned I almost got my David's confused with Kat's future husband!
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2019 11:42:03 GMT
There seems to be a big Twitter backlash to Ashley replacing Laura although Laura will return later in the summer. Ashley from the outside age and lookswise would have seemed a more natural Jenna but her vocal range might not be up to it. Ashley was popular on I'm A Celeb but the public never warmed to her on Strictly for some reason. At least Laura will be returning as Ashley will be wanting to keep an eye on Giovanni for the next series of Strictly. No, they never warmed to ‘dances for a living’ Ashley. Funny that. The predominantly middle aged women that vote for Strictly just couldn’t get past it. I never understood why she was seen in negative terms, she didn't come across as annoying or irritating and would middle aged women vote for someone like Stacey more than Joe's army of younger fans. |
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Post by sparky5000 on May 22, 2019 12:10:18 GMT
Mark Shenton’s take on this ....
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1,936 posts
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Post by wickedgrin on May 22, 2019 12:36:41 GMT
Mmmmm......
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Post by danb on May 22, 2019 12:42:47 GMT
No, they never warmed to ‘dances for a living’ Ashley. Funny that. The predominantly middle aged women that vote for Strictly just couldn’t get past it. I never understood why she was seen in negative terms, she didn't come across as annoying or irritating and would middle aged women vote for someone like Stacey more than Joe's army of younger fans. It’s bizarre. She always struck me as genuine and lovely so I’ve no clue why people didn’t engage. |
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Post by latefortheoverture on May 22, 2019 13:01:23 GMT
I'm feeling terrible for everyone atm.
Obvs the industry is angered; I've never seen so many tweets regarding the same matter.
This is neither Laura or Ashleys fault. Laura is in a great show and doing a great job, but to pick it up for a couple months they've put Ashley in, who also is just trying to make a living. Neither of these amazing women deserve all the tweets and aimed tweets towards them. I can't imagine how Laura's feeling atm, judging from the shows off not too good, I just want this all to be over for the pair of them!!!
And seeing all the tweets from the casts, they are also sick of it all! Sarah O'Connor even tweeted asking people to stop texting her over the situation!!!
The only people we should be tweeting and writing to is the producers- it's nobody else fault!
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Post by sparky5000 on May 22, 2019 13:03:14 GMT
That’s weird because pretty sure this is Laura’s mum? .... |
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Post by sparky5000 on May 22, 2019 13:06:42 GMT
I never understood why she was seen in negative terms, she didn't come across as annoying or irritating and would middle aged women vote for someone like Stacey more than Joe's army of younger fans. It’s bizarre. She always struck me as genuine and lovely so I’ve no clue why people didn’t engage. Because this whole idea that women support women is BS a lot of the time, and every year on Strictly there is one female celebrity that gets singled out for bashing. Remeber how Alexandra Burke was treated? It was disgraceful .... |
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Post by stevej678 on May 22, 2019 13:11:04 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2019 13:29:12 GMT
No, they never warmed to ‘dances for a living’ Ashley. Funny that. The predominantly middle aged women that vote for Strictly just couldn’t get past it. I never understood why she was seen in negative terms, she didn't come across as annoying or irritating and would middle aged women vote for someone like Stacey more than Joe's army of younger fans. Because a lot of Strictly viewers don't appreciate proper technical dancing ability and instead like to get in a faux rage about any form of training whatsoever even if it makes no difference to ballroom & Latin ability. And anything that people can claim as faux humility/trying to hide experience. I didn't rate her because I didn't think she was very good, certainly nowhere near as much as the judges hyped her up to be (no-one was last year), but she didn't deserve all the negativity or criticism of her experience. People like her who can actually dance a bit are the only good thing about that show sometimes! |
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Post by danb on May 22, 2019 15:48:43 GMT
It’s bizarre. She always struck me as genuine and lovely so I’ve no clue why people didn’t engage. Because this whole idea that women support women is BS a lot of the time, and every year on Strictly there is one female celebrity that gets singled out for bashing. Remeber how Alexandra Burke was treated? It was disgraceful .... My 70 year old Mum showed me a Strictly group chat that she was in of similarly minded ladies and it was anything but supportive...of anyone. She had to leave it in the end as it was just too savage! |
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Post by mrbarnaby on May 22, 2019 21:53:40 GMT
So sad for Laura. This is a dreadful way to treat someone. Really depressing news.
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Post by anthem on May 22, 2019 22:35:15 GMT
Lovely show tonight. The three levels were open and the stalls looked full to me.
Katharine’s voice is incredible. Marisha always delivers. Laura is fantastic. It struck me that Dawn needs to be a pretty decent singer so I hope Ashley is up to it. Laura also pitches the comedy perfectly- the character has the potential to be irritating with the wrong actress.
Jack’s vocals have improved slightly and his comedy moments really seemed to go down well with the crowd. I really enjoy David Hunter’s performance.
Compared to my first viewing, there was a much bigger reaction to Jenna’s big scene with her husband at the end. No inappropriate laughing during the more serious bits. Pretty much instant standing ovation, if that counts for anything. It’s a shame the show has been the target of so much negativity in the last week- hopefully people will continue to enjoy it into the coming months.
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Post by wickedgrin on May 23, 2019 7:57:26 GMT
It’s a shame the show has been the target of so much negativity in the last week- hopefully people will continue to enjoy it into the coming months. There has been some negativity on this board towards the show at times especially towards the producers but we have to remember we are a small community here. I don't think the general public have any negativity towards the show especially. The apparently struggling box office is simply down to the fact that the show and the star name is relatively unknown here and this together with no discounting of prices means the public are not willing to give it a try. The producers hope that casting Ashley will improve this although I have my doubts. |
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Post by sparky5000 on May 23, 2019 9:14:07 GMT
Lovely show tonight. The three levels were open and the stalls looked full to me. Katharine’s voice is incredible. Marisha always delivers. Laura is fantastic. It struck me that Dawn needs to be a pretty decent singer so I hope Ashley is up to it. Laura also pitches the comedy perfectly- the character has the potential to be irritating with the wrong actress. Jack’s vocals have improved slightly and his comedy moments really seemed to go down well with the crowd. I really enjoy David Hunter’s performance. Compared to my first viewing, there was a much bigger reaction to Jenna’s big scene with her husband at the end. No inappropriate laughing during the more serious bits. Pretty much instant standing ovation, if that counts for anything. It’s a shame the show has been the target of so much negativity in the last week- hopefully people will continue to enjoy it into the coming months. I haven’t been to the show for a while but am going tonight with some of my friends who are visiting from the States. They’re just looking forward to seeing the show because they like Sara’s music and they like Kat. They know nothing about all this ~drama~ and it made me realise that 99% of the people who go won’t either. All these issues can seem so major in the West End community microcosm but really aren’t that important in terms of how it will affect show to the wider public. That’s not to say it shouldn’t start a discussion about how things were handled by producers etc, which of course it should. But I also think everything has been blown out of proportion, fuelled by the twitter mob. |
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Post by sparky5000 on May 23, 2019 10:30:08 GMT
This photo is cute 😍
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2019 11:39:57 GMT
Soooo, she has a pie where her hands should be...thats why they cast her. It all makes sense now. 😂 That is such a truly terrible photo, not just the hand stumps. It’s like the marketing team for this just don’t give a damn. |
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2019 11:51:01 GMT
Changing the subject, it went through my mind on Twitter that the show could get some positive publicity by offering free tickets to the staff made redundant by Jamie Oliver. A nice show of solidarity from one diner to another. More likely they would egg and flour them, then watch the Twitter backlash. |
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Post by missthelma on May 23, 2019 12:19:17 GMT
I saw the film on first release in the cinema and loved it so much I bought the DVD on release (back when people still did that kind of thing). Seeing the musical yesterday makes me wonder if I had taken temporary leave of my senses back in 2007.
But that needs separating out a bit. The musical is good, not outstanding, the songs are servicable but fairly unmemorable and without prior exposure to the two best known ones, am not sure they would have made the impression they did. The cast is superb, goosebumps from me when Katharine McPhee sang 'She Used To Be Mine', truly incredible, Marisha Wallace also impressive, Laura Baldwin, slightly less so. The male cast, secondary really to the story but all very good. Even Jack McBrayer nailed the comedy aspects to the extent that you almost forgot/forgave the fact that his singing is really not great. A slightly better voice and that role would have been a show stopper (as I imagine it was with Christopher Fitzgerald on Broadway). This show's future which seems to be a hot topic on here will live and die with the casting of the lead, I am unfamiliar with Lucie Jones. I can imagine a return visit to see somebody in the lead role I liked but not for any other purpose
So why my ambivalence? Well, what a bunch of really quite vile characters. Stalkers, abusers, cheating spouses, rude customers. I know these factors have been mentioned previously in the thread so don't need belabouring/rehashing again. I don't think I've changed that much since 2007 so why the cinematic equivalents (who were the same) didn't bother me as much I cannot say. Dr Pomatter who is played as a likeable doofus is just the most reprehensible person, truly contemptible. And Jenna's arc is quite problematic too. Especially as to how she has no agency of her own
It's something I would struggle to encourage others to see despite its entertainment value. A very odd experience
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Post by freckles on May 23, 2019 15:04:45 GMT
Saw this on Wednesday matinee, and enjoyed it very much, although I agree it’s an odd story and I didn’t know quite how to take it. Most of the characters are quite exaggerated caricatures, seemed a bit odd to have Jenna played so straight amongst all that.
But laying that aside, I thought Katharine McPhee was excellent, her voice is stunning (although at times her mic seemed to have a lot of echo) and she was beautiful in the role. I wasn’t expecting to like Jack McBreyer but thought he worked well; very funny. The rest of the cast was great, especially the nurse.
The cast board said Olivia Moore was Dawn, but I’m not sure it was her.
The balcony was closed so I was moved down to a very good stalls seat, which was nice. There were quite a few empty seats at the rear of the stalls but I think the dress was open.
I’m sure Lucie Jones will be amazing. I’d like to see a slightly less cutesy Jenna. I’m also quite curious who will replace Jack.
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