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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2019 9:59:39 GMT
Booked! Thought there would be more of a scrum for this given the very short run.
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Post by robertb213 on Aug 1, 2019 18:08:40 GMT
£30 for an hour-long show?! That's a no then....
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Post by zahidf on Aug 1, 2019 18:34:52 GMT
£30 for an hour-long show?! That's a no then.... Lot cheaper for the fringe thankfully |
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Post by craig on Aug 1, 2019 22:21:25 GMT
Booked for the 4th September. Very much looking forward to seeing Frances as Billie again.
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Post by Deal J on Aug 9, 2019 12:50:38 GMT
Opened last night in Edinburgh and today the 6 songs from the show are available as an EP: I've already got Friendly Fire and Run, girl, run on the Billie Trix CD Single that was sold at the original run of Closer To Heaven, but no doubt I'll be getting the full EP.
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Post by sf on Aug 9, 2019 15:13:31 GMT
Opened last night in Edinburgh and today the 6 songs from the show are available as an EP: I've already got Friendly Fire and Run, girl, run on the Billie Trix CD Single that was sold at the original run of Closer To Heaven, but no doubt I'll be getting the full EP.
Source
I'd been on the fence about whether to book a ticket (long journey from where I live for a relatively short show); after downloading the EP this morning, I caved.
There is just one performance in London with a start time before 9pm. If you want a ticket for it, move NOW. There are very few left (there's much more availability for the 9pm shows). And previous experience of this venue suggests it would be prudent to built in some additional time if you're booking a train after the show; the last time I went there, for Audra McDonald's show with Seth Rudetsky a couple of years ago, I had to duck out before the encore because it started over half an hour late.
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Post by n1david on Aug 13, 2019 23:14:06 GMT
Well this isn’t really a musical, it’s a one woman show with songs. Frances Barber is exceptional as Billie Trix, but the text is on the obscure side and there are a lot of arty jokes that don’t resonate with a broad audience (how many people will get jokes about Taxi Kum Zlo?)
The music is very pastiche, which means it’s not very good because the songs that Billie is singing aren’t supposed to be very good. Friendly Fire stands out because it’s an amazing song, but I think the others are intended to be not great, to fit in with the character.
Edinburgh audience was a bit cool on this, but I liked it very much. I don’t think this has a long life, but if you’re into the world of Billie Trix, it’s a lot of fun.
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Post by n1david on Aug 14, 2019 10:25:34 GMT
And that should, of course, be Taxi zum Klo for any other intrepid Googlers.
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Post by horton on Aug 14, 2019 16:38:24 GMT
I assumed the switch of consonants WAS a deliberate kum joke.
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Post by zahidf on Aug 14, 2019 23:26:37 GMT
I thought it was very funny and barber is great. It is just a comic monologue with 6 songs though
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Post by sf on Sept 4, 2019 11:25:28 GMT
Really enjoyed this last night. Jonathan Harvey's script is very, VERY funny, the songs are perfectly in-character, and Frances Barber is wonderful.
And I'm reminded every time I go there - which isn't often - how much I loathe the Leicester Square Theatre, whose management are apparently incapable of starting a show on time. Last night it was "only" ten minutes late, but these people clearly have no respect for their audiences.
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Post by craig on Sept 5, 2019 15:51:50 GMT
Caught this last night too.
I mean, it is what it is. Don't go if you didn't see her as Billie Trix... it would be completely impenetrable...
Song wise, I enjoyed Run, Girl, Run, Ich Bi Musik and For Every Moment. Friendly Fire remains wonderful. Soup was AWFUL though, and not even funny. What was the point? Jonathan Harvey's script was wonderful and Frances was as fabulous as ever. The audience were in stitches.
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Post by ruggerlad on Sept 7, 2019 8:30:18 GMT
I loved this.
Interestingly the person I took hasn’t seen Closer To Heaven and still got it too.
Must admit seeing Frances back in the role only highlighted further the short comings from Adele in the Stag CTH production.
Perfect at 60 minutes doesn’t outstay it welcome and just lots and lots of quotable lines.
A joy to have the character back.
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Post by clair on Sept 7, 2019 8:35:08 GMT
I saw it in Edinburgh and loved it - and I've never seen Closer to Heaven either! Frances Barber is just wonderful and I felt that it stood on it's own well although perhaps I would have loved it even more had I already known the character but then perhaps not as I went in with no preconceived ideas or expectations.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2019 7:05:18 GMT
Enjoyed this a lot, great fun! Felt like we'd seen a proper show despite the short running time. Wonder what future life it will have. Presumably since all she needs is a chair, an eyepatch, a projector and a Pet Shop Boys CD, Frances Barber could pop up doing it whenever she feels like it.
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Post by squidward on Sept 8, 2019 13:14:44 GMT
I’m pretty sure that this will be an unpopular opinion, but I was really disappointed by this show.
I love Frances Barber and have been a big fan of TPSB for many decades. My jury has always been out with regard to Jonathan Harvey’s writing though.
I thought the subject matter of the Marianne Faithfull type of rock & roll diva/survivor was really great, but so much more could have been done with it in terms of the script.
Within about 15 minutes I felt like I knew exactly what the next 45 minutes would hold. It felt like a cross between a stand-up & a drag act to me.
Granted there were some very funny lines, but as a woman (and not a particularly PC one), some of the material felt like it crossed the line and made me feel uncomfortable.I don’t think that as the material was performed by a woman, it made certain parts of the script any less unpalatable (no pun intended).
There’s no doubt about the quality of Frances Barber’s performance which managed to succeed in both being funny and also quite moving at times.
All but one of the songs ( the one about soup...a big case of ‘why?’ for me and also way too long) really hit the spot, but my overall feels no is that the show could have achieved so much more if it hadn’t relied quite so heavily on crude gags.
Judging from the opinion on the board, I think I may be a lone voice here, but just wanted to add my thoughts into the mix.
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Post by n1david on Sept 11, 2019 7:51:00 GMT
Coming back to London next year, according to the Pet Shop Boys.
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Post by Steve on Sept 11, 2019 11:08:19 GMT
It felt like a cross between a stand-up & a drag act to me. I saw this Saturday night, and I agree it was a stand-up act, and not at all what I expected.
But I preferred it to what I expected, as it was far funnier than I imagined it would be. There are some massive laughs in this, not least because Frances Barber has great comic timing!
Some spoilers follow. . .
In "Closer to Heaven," Billie Trix was a marginal character, in that she didn't have much to do with the plot, but merely narrated it. So I really didn't know what to expect from a show which centred on her, but I suppose I expected a comic drama, similar in tone to the original piece.
But no, this is an out and out comedy, which I'd class as "Character Stand-up," a form of stand-up where the Comedian maintains a character, who is the butt of all the jokes. Trix's character traits are pretentiousness and narcissism, and boy, does this show absolutely skewer those traits, while, paradoxically, making us feel more comfortable with those traits.
Songs like "Soup," which on their own sound pointless, acquire meaning through Trix's pretentiousness and narcissism:once you realise that Andy Warhol was entirely inspired by her.
With President Trump, a rampant narcissist, making narcissism feel scary these days, this show does us the favour of making narcissism funny again! It even includes Trump, as Billie Trix was his inspiration, according to her, lol. And Trix's relationship with her daughter is hilariously even more neglectful and distant than Trump's apparent distance from his daughter Tiffany.
Given that Trix loves everything about herself, it is no surprise that in her mind her femininity is devastatingly fertile, beyond mere child-breeding, with her vagina rendered an all-seeing "third eye" with astounding artistic power (I imagine this sort of thing is why some have felt uncomfortable with the show, though it really is hilarious in light of Barber's sheer exuberance).
One of the sad things about political correctness has been the way using accents in comedy has become taboo in and of itself, whether or not the meaning of the comedy is offensive, and Barber's German accent is one of the un-pc comic delights of this show, which along with her timing, and her exuberance make this show one of the funniest hours of stand-up I've seen lately. Although it's not deep, this show is hilarious.
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Post by intoanewlife on Sept 11, 2019 19:59:41 GMT
It felt like a cross between a stand-up & a drag act to me. I saw this Saturday night, and I agree it was a stand-up act, and not at all what I expected.
But I preferred it to what I expected, as it was far funnier than I imagined it would be. There are some massive laughs in this, not least because Frances Barber has great comic timing!
Some spoilers follow. . .
In "Closer to Heaven," Billie Trix was a marginal character, in that she didn't have much to do with the plot, but merely narrated it. So I really didn't know what to expect from a show which centred on her, but I suppose I expected a comic drama, similar in tone to the original piece.
But no, this is an out and out comedy, which I'd class as "Character Stand-up," a form of stand-up where the Comedian maintains a character, who is the butt of all the jokes. Trix's character traits are pretentiousness and narcissism, and boy, does this show absolutely skewer those traits, while, paradoxically, making us feel more comfortable with those traits.
Songs like "Soup," which on their own sound pointless, acquire meaning through Trix's pretentiousness and narcissism:once you realise that Andy Warhol was entirely inspired by her.
With President Trump, a rampant narcissist, making narcissism feel scary these days, this show does us the favour of making narcissism funny again! It even includes Trump, as Billie Trix was his inspiration, according to her, lol. And Trix's relationship with her daughter is hilariously even more neglectful and distant than Trump's apparent distance from his daughter Tiffany.
Given that Trix loves everything about herself, it is no surprise that in her mind her femininity is devastatingly fertile, beyond mere child-breeding, with her vagina rendered an all-seeing "third eye" with astounding artistic power (I imagine this sort of thing is why some have felt uncomfortable with the show, though it really is hilarious in light of Barber's sheer exuberance).
One of the sad things about political correctness has been the way using accents in comedy has become taboo in and of itself, whether or not the meaning of the comedy is offensive, and Barber's German accent is one of the un-pc comic delights of this show, which along with her timing, and her exuberance make this show one of the funniest hours of stand-up I've seen lately. Although it's not deep, this show is hilarious.
4 stars. Being narcissistic and being a narcissist are 2 completely different things. We are all have a certain amount of healthy narcissism. A narcissist has a major personality disorder and is on the psychopathy scale. |
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Post by zahidf on Oct 28, 2019 10:42:45 GMT
Back at lecister square theatre from 5th February – 1st March 2020.
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Post by intoanewlife on Jan 25, 2020 12:18:24 GMT
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Post by xanady on Jan 25, 2020 12:25:07 GMT
For those in the know,would you def have to see CTH to understand this show or are they independent storylines?
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Post by intoanewlife on Jan 25, 2020 12:30:21 GMT
For those in the know,would you def have to see CTH to understand this show or are they independent storylines? I haven't seen it, but I doubt it. She tells her life story in this I believe and covers that period as well. If she is as amazing in this as she was in CTH it'll be hilarious! |
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Post by xanady on Jan 25, 2020 12:31:03 GMT
Thanks,intoanewlife 👍
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Post by intoanewlife on Jan 25, 2020 12:32:56 GMT
Read through the comments on the page before...some say it matters some say it doesn't matter. |
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