Amelie - Watermill Theatre / Tour

I know this sounds silly but they didn't do programmes when I went yesterday and it annoys me because I get a programme for everything I see, as expensive as that is. I was wondering if anyone had one they wouldn't mind sending or world be kind enough to pick one up on the other stops of the tour if they do them? I'd pay obviously!

I was thoroughly charmed by this at today’s matinee. In places, it was a really beautiful show. I have seen the film, but if I am honest, I can’t really remember much about it.

Whilst it could possibly be seen as quite ‘samey’, the score was beautiful for me. The stunning orchestrations, played by the band/cast, helped with this appreciation. The piano, strings and cajon combination could be spine-tingling at times. When the whole cast were performing as one, it was thrilling, such as in the opening number. I can certainly understand why there has been some call on here for a cast album - I would certainly like one. For now, I will be listening to the Broadway cast album.

I liked the story, and the questions it posed, such as - What do we do with the little time we have on this earth? - are universal and always relevant. It is a show about living in the present moment, love and ultimately, the importance and need for human connection. It was very moving in places. For example, when Amelie returned the box she found in her flat, and the emotions that stirred up in the owner, I was welling up with tears. I’m sure most people can relate in some way to that moment of reconnection. I also liked the surreal aspects that took place in Amelie’s mind. It again allowed for some creative staging, and stopped the show from being overly sweet.

The staging was brilliant. I loved the set, and how it was used was very imaginative. The lighting was also particularly fantastic, and very effective. The choreography, whilst subtle and simple, added to the style of the style of the piece and helped to convey the inner thoughts of the characters.

The performances were all strong, but the show ultimately belongs to Audrey Brisson as the title character. Hardly off the stage, she gives a very physical performance.

A quiet show, but well worth the visit. I am very tempted to visit this again at the Other Palace.

Also I was super disappointed and bemused at the lack of, at the very least a generic, programme

I’ve seen the odd bit of postering in the city centre, Madagascar The Musical mainly, but you’d have no idea that Amelie was on in the city.

But on a positive note it’s great to have an alternative large theatre in the city and some of the one night shows are great there. I’m particularly looking forward to Sunday At The Musicals in September after last years genuinely amazing show

It is good, especially because a lot of the tours they are taking are the ones you'd have normally had to travel to the Alex in Birmingham to see, so it's good we get them in Leicester now.

I think that Curve will start getting the bigger tours in now as well because the capacity is increasing.

I saw this in Birmingham on Tuesday, inventive staging with on-stage actor musicians, sadly a sparse crowd but with weather and people away on holiday, it could almost be expected. Audrey Brisson is an absolute pocket rocket of energy and brings a certain almost mesmerising quality to her roles.

A chap from Canada was talking to me at the interval and he'd seen Audrey in something in Canada as she did some training over there and when he noticed she was in this show whilst on holiday, he came especially to see it.

I'm looking forward to seeing Amelie in Glasgow, and have been following the reviews - fifty of sixty in the national and regional press - and they're overwhelmingly effusive in their praise. So I'm pretty surprised to see a number of really negative appraisals of the show on here. Each to their own, I guess.

Still thinking about this nearly 24 hours on...very clever show...going to get the CD as a souvenir of the show...

What did you think @remark ? I was there tonight on the ATG half price offer.

I don’t know if it was just me but I couldn’t hear all the lyrics, particularly in the first act which had an impact on my understanding because there’s not a great deal of dialogue in this. People around me were laughing hence me thinking it might be just me because I genuinely think I’m going a bit mutton! The act 1 set up to the fig joke in act 2 I didn’t hear a thing of. 
I liked the set and was nice to see couple of  old fashioned but very effective illusions such as the backlighting. 
Audrey B was adorable in it, Danny Mac gives a very understated and appropriate performance, all of the supporting cast were great and the ending was gorgeous BUT I had some problems with it in addition to the sound...
There seems to be a ‘thing’ where if you have actor musicians they have to be on stage ALL the time. As a result the stage is crowded ALL the time. This is a bit exhausting. Add that to what is a very busy design and you end up being extremely distracted. There were several moments where it would have benefitted the story to have the musicians playing off stage instead of lurking about, adding nothing but the music and cluttering things up. No disrespect to them, there were scenes where they totally added to the story even if only playing,  but many others where they didn’t. 
The encounters with the various people she helps were so fleeting that I didn’t really care about any of them. Danny’s Act 1 song, dreadful and a waste of him. The whole thing is 25 minutes too long. Curtain down at 10.10 and this for a story where very little really happens. It’s just a series of vignettes leading up to the somewhat inevitable ending (and I hadn’t seen the film). I was a bit past caring by the end to be honest. 

Having said all that that I had to drag myself off the sofa to go, cos I wasn’t that in the mood and this no doubt affected my perception. I’m pleased I saw it but it’s only ⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me. 

Stalls full, and I think the circle was busy. Upper closed I think. 

Saw this in Malvern last week was surprised as the had half price offer on all tickets a week before it had sold extremely badly had not seen the film so went in blind I agree with your review .... esp the sound I couldn’t make out the lyrics and had to guess why was going on for most of it which spoilt our connection with it. We both thought it was well staged nice set loved the puppet and the little illusions too
The travelzoo offer must have worked as ticket sales shot up .... and miraculously between 1am and performance the day we went they sold around 45 more seats the same block that whooped and cheered and gave standing ovation at the end
We enjoyed it but would have liked it more if we could have understood a word of it 😊

That 'twist' at the end. What a cop out!

BurlyBeaR exactly the same situation as you. I was sat stalls center of row M and really struggled to understand alot of what was said/sung in Act 1 and some of Act 2 meaning I really didn't care about anything going on in the second act. I think it's a combination of really bad sound design made worse by the forced accents. Whatever PA they were using was definitely the wrong choice for this venue. There was no clarity in anything, you could hear it all, granted, but no definition in the sound. Everything was just there in a mush of sound. I don't think the accents helped at all. They could establish we're in France early on and leave it at that. Phantom manages to place itself in Paris pretty successfully without the need of dodgy accents throughout it.
I also though the lighting design was incredibly cheap. That glowing clock and the two specials, the globes, also pulsing away all night needlessly. Far too much LED Tape on the set, probably because it's cheap. A Lot of missed cues and lots of a bad focus meant the wrong characters were lit in people heavy scenes.

Musically I really enjoyed it, but unfortunately as mentioned couldn't follow much of it. There was some tittering during bits of the first act, but mostly during the little dialogue there was connecting the songs.

It felt a bit underdeveloped to me. Once the guy gets his box back we don't see him again, so we've wasted alot of time following that just to show she likes returning stuff to people. They'd be better off doing more to establish and develop a stronger Amelie/Nino relationship. I had no reason to invest in Nino and didn't see why she would suddenly fall for him.

The Elton John scene felt like an unnecessary big finish crowbar-ed in for the sake of a big act closer. Same for the fig attack. Needless distraction from what could be a nice show.

Agree there's far too much of people on stage for the sake of seeing them. There was a lot of unnecessary direction, such as when everyone is facing upstage except Amelie, why does the cello player turn round to play facing the audience, with no discernible lead or reason?

There were a few understudies on, I'm fairly sure Danny Mac wasn't Danny Mac. Really enjoyed the score but there quite a few flaws in it's execution unfortunately.

There was some minor issues with the sound when i went, i agree it could be quite a bit clearer, but it wasn't a major problem at all. I stand by my review that it was excellent.