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Post by scarpia on Sept 22, 2022 21:53:32 GMT
The press statement says that the Sheffield production is the first different UK production since the 1989 original, but is that really true? Surely the Connor one that toured and then became the West End revival was the first (even if it wasn't a total reimaging, just a downscaling)?
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Post by inthenose on Sept 22, 2022 22:09:03 GMT
The press statement says that the Sheffield production is the first different UK production since the 1989 original, but is that really true? Surely the Connor one that toured and then became the West End revival was the first (even if it wasn't a total reimaging, just a downscaling)? Yes, unlike the prior tour, Connor’s tour/West End transfer was indeed a “new production” rather than a revival. New director, new smaller sets, new smaller orchestra and a few new designs/cloths/set pieces. Some venues couldn’t even fit the helicopter, so were treated to just an extended version of the projection, while the actors ran off stage. At the larger venues and in the West End, a shorter version of the projection was played on a mid stage cloth, used to mask the helicopter being pushed in place. There were also new arrangements for the Connor tour, including the new version of “The Ceremony/Dju Vui Vai” which actually means something in Vietnamese, and isn’t just gibberish words like the original. Plenty of lyric tweaks and little orchestration changes. But that tour was designed intentionally to play much, much smaller houses on the road. The prior tour could only fit into the very biggest venues because of the size of the sets/helicopter, and they wanted this one to go anywhere/everywhere possible (including Europe, which I don’t think happened in the end). FWIW, it was Laurence Connor’s best work. |
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Post by danb on Sept 23, 2022 5:39:15 GMT
It certainly didn’t feel like a downgrade; more just a minor restaging.
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Post by theatremadhatter on Sept 23, 2022 13:56:13 GMT
The press statement says that the Sheffield production is the first different UK production since the 1989 original, but is that really true? Surely the Connor one that toured and then became the West End revival was the first (even if it wasn't a total reimaging, just a downscaling)? Yes, unlike the prior tour, Connor’s tour/West End transfer was indeed a “new production” rather than a revival. New director, new smaller sets, new smaller orchestra and a few new designs/cloths/set pieces. Some venues couldn’t even fit the helicopter, so were treated to just an extended version of the projection, while the actors ran off stage. At the larger venues and in the West End, a shorter version of the projection was played on a mid stage cloth, used to mask the helicopter being pushed in place. There were also new arrangements for the Connor tour, including the new version of “The Ceremony/Dju Vui Vai” which actually means something in Vietnamese, and isn’t just gibberish words like the original. Plenty of lyric tweaks and little orchestration changes. But that tour was designed intentionally to play much, much smaller houses on the road. The prior tour could only fit into the very biggest venues because of the size of the sets/helicopter, and they wanted this one to go anywhere/everywhere possible (including Europe, which I don’t think happened in the end). FWIW, it was Laurence Connor’s best work. The reason it was Laurence Connors best work is because it wasn't his. It was Mitchell Lemsky's, he reimagined the production and mounted it in 2004 the then 'new' tour. I remember reading an article at the time how he spent 6 months in Vietnam to come up with the re-imagined version. It opened with Jon Jon Briones as the Engineer. The assistant director was none other than Laurence Connor. After opening night Mitchell walked away from the production after a disagreement with Cameron. Laurence as Assistant stepped in and took the badge of Director in his absence. I always found it odd when it ended up in the West End he happily claimed it as his without the huge amount of work and re-imagining Mitchell did to get it to that stage. link to story which correctly cites Mitchell as Director |
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Post by hitmewithurbethshot on Sept 23, 2022 14:19:34 GMT
Connor can’t really take credit for the bargirls singing actual Vietnamese either, that was one of the Broadway revival ensemble members who pointed it out and contributed a translation
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Post by scarpia on Sept 23, 2022 14:24:06 GMT
Yes, unlike the prior tour, Connor’s tour/West End transfer was indeed a “new production” rather than a revival. New director, new smaller sets, new smaller orchestra and a few new designs/cloths/set pieces. Some venues couldn’t even fit the helicopter, so were treated to just an extended version of the projection, while the actors ran off stage. At the larger venues and in the West End, a shorter version of the projection was played on a mid stage cloth, used to mask the helicopter being pushed in place. There were also new arrangements for the Connor tour, including the new version of “The Ceremony/Dju Vui Vai” which actually means something in Vietnamese, and isn’t just gibberish words like the original. Plenty of lyric tweaks and little orchestration changes. But that tour was designed intentionally to play much, much smaller houses on the road. The prior tour could only fit into the very biggest venues because of the size of the sets/helicopter, and they wanted this one to go anywhere/everywhere possible (including Europe, which I don’t think happened in the end). FWIW, it was Laurence Connor’s best work. The reason it was Laurence Connors best work is because it wasn't his. It was Mitchell Lemsky's, he reimagined the production and mounted it in 2004 the then 'new' tour. I remember reading an article at the time how he spent 6 months in Vietnam to come up with the re-imagined version. It opened with Jon Jon Briones as the Engineer. The assistant director was none other than Laurence Connor. After opening night Mitchell walked away from the production after a disagreement with Cameron. Laurence as Assistant stepped in and took the badge of Director in his absence. I always found it odd when it ended up in the West End he happily claimed it as his without the huge amount of work and re-imagining Mitchell did to get it to that stage. link to story which correctly cites Mitchell as DirectorThat's fascinating. So how different was the West End revival to the 2004 Lemsky version? It looks like Lemsky also worked his way up 'in house' like Seth Sklar-Heyn, with stints in the original Song & Dance, Miz, Phantom and Saigon on Broadway. |
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Post by inthenose on Sept 23, 2022 15:58:45 GMT
Yes, unlike the prior tour, Connor’s tour/West End transfer was indeed a “new production” rather than a revival. New director, new smaller sets, new smaller orchestra and a few new designs/cloths/set pieces. Some venues couldn’t even fit the helicopter, so were treated to just an extended version of the projection, while the actors ran off stage. At the larger venues and in the West End, a shorter version of the projection was played on a mid stage cloth, used to mask the helicopter being pushed in place. There were also new arrangements for the Connor tour, including the new version of “The Ceremony/Dju Vui Vai” which actually means something in Vietnamese, and isn’t just gibberish words like the original. Plenty of lyric tweaks and little orchestration changes. But that tour was designed intentionally to play much, much smaller houses on the road. The prior tour could only fit into the very biggest venues because of the size of the sets/helicopter, and they wanted this one to go anywhere/everywhere possible (including Europe, which I don’t think happened in the end). FWIW, it was Laurence Connor’s best work. The reason it was Laurence Connors best work is because it wasn't his. It was Mitchell Lemsky's, he reimagined the production and mounted it in 2004 the then 'new' tour. I remember reading an article at the time how he spent 6 months in Vietnam to come up with the re-imagined version. It opened with Jon Jon Briones as the Engineer. The assistant director was none other than Laurence Connor. After opening night Mitchell walked away from the production after a disagreement with Cameron. Laurence as Assistant stepped in and took the badge of Director in his absence. I always found it odd when it ended up in the West End he happily claimed it as his without the huge amount of work and re-imagining Mitchell did to get it to that stage. link to story which correctly cites Mitchell as DirectorThanks, I had absolutely no idea this was the case. It did seem a strange outlier to have such a competently directed work come from him. It makes a LOT more sense now. |
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Post by theatremadhatter on Sept 23, 2022 16:37:39 GMT
The reason it was Laurence Connors best work is because it wasn't his. It was Mitchell Lemsky's, he reimagined the production and mounted it in 2004 the then 'new' tour. I remember reading an article at the time how he spent 6 months in Vietnam to come up with the re-imagined version. It opened with Jon Jon Briones as the Engineer. The assistant director was none other than Laurence Connor. After opening night Mitchell walked away from the production after a disagreement with Cameron. Laurence as Assistant stepped in and took the badge of Director in his absence. I always found it odd when it ended up in the West End he happily claimed it as his without the huge amount of work and re-imagining Mitchell did to get it to that stage. link to story which correctly cites Mitchell as DirectorThat's fascinating. So how different was the West End revival to the 2004 Lemsky version? It looks like Lemsky also worked his way up 'in house' like Seth Sklar-Heyn, with stints in the original Song & Dance, Miz, Phantom and Saigon on Broadway. It was pretty much identical really. I believe Mitchell Lemsky had quite a big part in coming up with the breathing trucks left and right and the spin-able dreamland centre section hence why he was always mentioned alongside design and direction. I also think Laurence's key was keeping Jon Jon Briones from 2004 to West End as he created that slightly darker sleazier version of the Engineer with Mitchell. I found this trailer which seems otherwise erased (to probably hide the fact the West End Version wasn't as reimagined) on a Steven Houghton fan page who played Chris you can see how similar it is - |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Sept 16, 2024 17:10:19 GMT
Back in cinemas later this month.
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Post by interval99 on Sept 16, 2024 18:16:08 GMT
Vue cinemas sent out a promotional email with the heading of this being the greatest musical ever!
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Post by BVM on Sept 16, 2024 18:46:58 GMT
Vue cinemas sent out a promotional email with the heading of this being the greatest musical ever! It's 2nd after Starlight Express, so guess they weren't far off. |
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