Present Laughter - Old Vic / Cinema July ‘24

So the first part of my day at the Southbank yesterday was spent at the matinee of this. The recent revival on Broadway with Kevin Kline (who won a Tony) is still quite fresh in my mind but I will try not to over compare.

Firstly that set is breathtakingly beautiful, almost worth the price of admission on it's own, I want to live in it. The art deco detail was fabulous, obviously if you don't like that style then save your money but otherwise, oh my!

My main feeling about this production was that it seemed as if the instruction had been to set the dial to 11. Everything seemed a little bit too frantic, it's a comedy but it felt like they were straining for farce too much without allowing the wit of the writing to build the action to a crescendo on it's own. Perhaps there was no trust in the piece itself; as has been mentioned it is dated. I've just checked online though and the running time was the same on Broadway but this felt 'faster'. Strange. Nevertheless there are laughs a plenty, although the man next to me did not crack a smile once throughout.

I actually preferred Andrew Scott to Kevin Kline, possibly because he's more the right age and from what I've read it's quite rare for the actor playing Garry to be age appropriate but he also seemed to embody the loucheness of the character very effectively. He was excellent. I'm not sure the gender swap idea worked as well as it could have, it possibly wasn't taken far enough. Maybe a Carrie Essendine would have been interesting or even turning all of Garry's entanglements male. Indira Varma was lovely and ideal in her role

Also didn't understand the point of the music from the 60's & 70's was, does anyone know? Was there meant to be a theme? (Full marks though for using the majestic Thelma Houston version of Don't Leave Me This Way rather than the abomination vomited out by The Communards)

Unfortunately there were some howlingly bad performances on the stage, Enzo Cilenti was very poor and Suzie Toase, was, well, I'm not sure what she was doing but it didn't work. However the prize for one of the most dreadful performances I've ever seen must go to Sophie Thompson. She was utterly appalling. Her accent went to more places than Easyjet, was it meant to be Scottish? Irish? Possibly Welsh? Was that a touch of Australian? No, wait, it's an impression of Maggie Smith, as Miss Jean Brodie, no from Downton, hang on, Lily Savage as Maggie Smith? A grotesque shambles.

Monica should be a sensible sardonic rock in the whirling activity of the play, here she was just an inmate in an asylum and offered no centre for the audience.

Just bingewatched it and it's really rather lovely! Thanks for the recommendation / reminder. Now I'm going to have to get the DVD because it's about to go off iplayer and my own Mum wants to watch it.

(Btw, this is yet another BBC series not available on bluray - why on earth not?)

Can anyone confirm where the rush seats from today tix are. Thinking of trying on Saturday!

Great to hear, have Q35 for next week's matinee!

I thought this was great. Genuinely hilarious and Andrew Scott is ace.

It was certainty fun watching Scott channel his inner Noel Coward and he does invest so much in the role it is a pleasure to see.

Won't name names but one or two here were a little light.

It must all have seemed very daring in the wartime 1940s.

Got today tix rush and was seated middle of Row T. I was worried but it was actually a superb seat. The show was filmed behind me tonight, probably for the archives or in preparation for the NT Live.

JK Simmons in the house tonight.

I did really enjoy this and was laughing throughout. Loved Andrew Scott, not so keen on the other lead males.

Sorry Have I missed something. Why is the filmed performance on 6 Aug NTLive not being screened until Nov?

Because of NT Live 10 years thing, they had already encored something in September (One Man Two Guvnors) before decided to do this, and they don't do one in August. So it's happening in October/November instead.

Really enjoyed this production. Scott was superb. I did wonder why they didn't try to update it - it could have worked with Gary's character being a well-known TV star in the age of Netflix.

I understood it - but I think scarpia makes a fair point too. For a modern audience, it’s perhaps stretching credibility a little that the world would go quite so ga-ga over a theatre star. I certainly can’t think of anyone with quite the pulling power of Garry working in theatre today, who hasn’t already made their name in TV/film.