Murder Ballad

Okay I was aware that that front row was restricted because of the high stage. I am tall so I thought I would manage

What the website should have said was 'high stage with a high floor added'

Do not even consider a front row seat

Apparently the arts theatre sent out messages to those who long ago booked those seats before it was established how high the new stage was going to be. They offered them a seat elsewhere Since I bought a ticket yesterday I didn't get the message

But why the hell would they resell what I assume was a returned ticket? I may have been the only numpty to have sit in that row?

From what I have been told front row is now priced at £20 to reflect the very restricted view. Those who booked in advance have paid £50 something which is why the theatre is contacting them offering different seats or a partial refund. I hope they only charged you £20 for your ticket.

Just to add I was moved to the circle slips without paying more so alls fine

But where's the logic here? Why was the only person who even went near that row and no one else

It only took someone in your row to mention that the £50 people were given different seats, so I went back to the box office. They reminded me that the site said extremely high stage (that doesn't equate to high stage with extra stage on top) but gave me the slip seat

So by the time I arrived the theatre was aware that there would be seats available to move front rowees elsewhere, and yet the box office or ushers at the doors didn't stop me

£50 for ANY show at the Arts is atrocious.

Saw this Saturday night, and liked it alot. Could have loved it, if it were more wild!

It's a deliberately lurid story that needs to be unhinged in it's telling, especially as the narrator's presence alerts us to the fact that it is also ABOUT the process of telling lurid stories, how the audience revels in the story's exploitational elements, the sex and the violence.

From the first number, "Murder Ballad," we are told it's a love triangle, and someone is going to die. I didn't know who dies, or how they die, going in, but I was primed for a coy there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-I rollercoaster ride of attraction and anihilation, and to a great degree, I got it, from a well-told yet predictable story, which has a surprisingly terrific payoff.

I absolutely got it from Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, who is the undoubted star of this show. Hamilton-Barritt has a coiled unhinged huskiness, that suggests she's holding back bullets, even as she subtly and tenderly circles dark and dangerous emotions in her singing. She is like a gun that ever-threatens to go off, and that is what the whole production needs to be. My highlight of the evening was Hamilton-Barritt's explosive rendition of "Clubs and Diamonds," towards the end.

That this production just misses the headiest heights that the show is capable of, at Saturday night's preview anyway, is mostly down to Kerry Ellis' inability to fully connect with her inner bad girl. Her singing is exquisite in it's nightingale fullness (noone sings a better "Born Free") and has a Mary Poppins preciseness, a tad too precise in fact to threaten the night of insanity this musical calls for. Her casting, of course, is the only reason we have this production at all, as Soundcheck Productions was formed to find projects for Kerry Ellis, and this role is undoubtedly an attempt to stretch her acting chops, an attempt which she somewhat succeeds at, though she never comes close to conveying the aura of danger that surrounds the delivery of Victoria Hamilton-Barritt.

Ramin Karimloo looks dangerous, as the bad boy in the threesome, and has an endearingly tender core, revealed by his rangy delivery of the love ballad "Sara," which was another highlight. He just needs to add a soupcon of unpredictable craziness, and he'll be where he needs to be.

Norman Bowman is pitch perfect as the good boy, Michael, fully inhabiting ever aspect of the character's civility and tenderness, but also blazing in his worm-turned searing jealousy, when he finds himself with a love rival.

He rocks with hard hate in the hardest rock song of the night, the reprise of "You Belong to Me," which in fact features excellent on-point hard rock angst from all 4 performers, in one of the most rousing songs of the night.

This is a good show, but is shy of being great, as it needs to simmer twenty degrees hotter! When it ended, I immediately wanted to hear it again, but if I go again, I will venture to see if Natalie McQueen raises the temperature on the part of Sara at the Friday Matinee, and hope that the whole show comes to a boil harder and faster. Everything about this show should take it's cue from the scorching magnificence of Victoria Hamilton-Barritt!

4 stars

You're welcome. It was a great experience, so I want to show other people that this is a wonderful cast that's worth seeing.

They have tickets on TodayTix so if you can find a £10 discount code that might help?

Tickets available on lastminute.com for £12, including a free meal! www.lastminute.com/entertainment/theatre/murder-ballad/availability/2016/October/?acntb=theatre&utm_source=LMNUK&utm_medium=crm_promo&utm_campaign=NL_active_04102016&utm_content=theatre&utm_term=winningshows

Great offer thanks for posting

damn, I lost the £12 tickets!

Murder Ballad production pics out - www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Flash-First-Look-at-UK-Premiere-of-MURDER-BALLAD-20161003 What do we think??? I'd love to see it as it's so different from the off-Broadway production. Although Kerry as Sara looks exactly how I imagined she'd look as Alice.