Spring Awakening - Almeida / Cinema Release

Oooh, probably their system then. Though I saw you only called for the refund last week, I think the issue was only happening for refunds they put through the system on the 29th. :-)
At least it seems to be in hand, which is good. Was worried I was the only person with the issue and that it would be a lot of faff of having to prove that it never got into my account, etc. Fingers crossed it'll come through soon.

They said in reply to my email that they don't store bank details!

Spring Awakening @ Almeida. (20 Jan 2022)

How totally f*cking awesome was this production? I was lucky enough to catch it in the week before its premature closing, and think it might be my favourite experience in a theatre since the before-times! I know this show inside and out (have even been in it a few times), and have a deep love for the material. Goold’s production stood out to me for the clarity and depth with which he was able to portray the social dynamics of this community. With strong ensemble building and a few moments of theatrical wizardry, he found great momentum in this narrative of building social pressure, isolation, and despair, culminating in a gut-punch final 30 minutes. Miriam Beuther’s treasure box set provided a potent visual metaphor for the piece, the characters always on the edge, sometimes treading carefully to maintain control of their lives, and other times daring to plunge into the unknown. A few ingenious directorial moments made me gasp, including the surprise transition into “The Bitch of Living”, a hilarious piano scene in “My Junk”, and the heart-wrenching final moment of “Left Behind”. However, for me the core strength of this staging was the detailed relationship building between characters. Throughout the evening, I gathered so much information from how cast members observed and judged each other, if at all. The most obvious example being Ilse’s constant presence on the outside of the group, trying to participate, but unable to do so in the same manner as her peers. It made Carly-Sophia Davies’s gorgeous second-act work all the more affecting. I found the cast to be uniformly fantastic, anchored by a star-making trio of central performances.

The score was handled really well, beautifully sung with some great changes made throughout. A few added interludes and harmony lines in songs such as “Touch Me” gave the lesser characters a bit more to do, and the inclusion of “There Once Was a Pirate” helped set up a really strong reworking of the second act. I really didn’t care for the heavy trap beat under “I Believe”, and found some of the choral numbers a bit lacking in energy, that is until we arrived at one of my favourite musical theatre numbers of all time: “Totally F*cked”. What to say? It was insane. The smoke, the wind, the fire, the added choruses, and even the flashes of contemporary political statements elevated this song in ways I didn’t think possible. I was hyperventilating under my mask, and didn’t stop all the way through “The Song of Purple Summer”, tears streaming down my face. The depth of emotion found in this production totally astonished me, and I desperately hope to see it have a future beyond an early closing.

Still nothing for me! Please let me know what they say if you chase them tomorrow

I just spoke to the box office again and they said that they themselves chased up the payment processing company again yesterday, as people were getting in touch again saying their refund had still not shown. So apparently it's taking the payment processing company a lot longer than they anticipated to get through that backlog of cases that were impacted by their system glitch as they have to do each one manually and obviously the Almeida had a fair few cancellations to process that day with three cancelled shows. But they were told that it should all be done by early next week.

The lady on the phone was super apologetic but there is nothing they can do from their end, it's all with the payment processing company. So we'll see how it goes I guess. Will update on here once my refund has come through. :-)

Every time I see a new post has been added to this tread I get excited thinking a transfer has been announced!

Sorry, I shall refrain from talking refunds then. LOL

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/spring-awakening-at-the-almeida-part-one/id1511147953?i=1000552346068

Another episode up today. Some really interesting insight into some of the artistic decisions made in both episodes

I heard from people on the production that it’s not happening this year as a producer pulled out (it was about to announce). Might happen in the future but sense is not with the current cast and not this year.

Thanks for this. I would have missed it otherwise. I've put it on record, so looking forward to watching this later.

This was fab and cringey and warm and sentimental. It reminded me of all the things I loved about SA, and gave space for people other than Lea & Groff to recount their memories too. Far too little from Krysta Rodriguez for my liking but what can you do?