Tammy Faye: A New Musical - Almeida

Looks like they are selling last minute returns specifically to the returns queue. Showed up at 6.10 a couple of days ago and there was a front row seat available straight away. Maybe pure luck. Snapped it! I’m not the one for musicals usually, but that was just splendid!

Saw this last night and loved it! It really is Katie’s show and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. The first scene set the tone with a script of great zingy lines but a depth as well.
Could have done without the ‘villain’ songs though. We got the point pretty quickly.

I enjoyed the set, simple but effective. Especially the live camera feeds. Need to now go and research Tammy in more depth!

Music was effective and some great lyrics (sometimes hard to understand as the music overwhelmed the singers voices). Although the final song just kept making me want to sing ‘take me to heaven’ from sister act!

Will be rushing back to see this as soon as it transfers and hope Katie wins awards for this!

They only ever had Katie in mind. She’s worked with Rupert G before. Cassidy Jansen would KILL this show. And not in a good way.

They will transfer this with Katie and only Katie.

The show will transfer when all the stars align, or it won’t. Or it’ll go straight to Broadway. At the moment there’s nothing certain to be said.

Confused as to why there is any need to criticise another actor when someone simply suggested it.

This show was even better on second viewing, the one issue I have is the awful song in the middle of act 2 ‘the villains’ song if you were, it doesn’t work with the rest of the show and is painfully underworked. Props to the performers though for giving it 100%

Turns out that I don't need a returns queue for tonight as I've managed to bag two singles as they came up this afternoon. Delighted!

Back from seeing this tonight with my cynical friend who didn’t believe it could possibly be as good as my shouting about it suggested. She was won over and I still love it.

It seemed extra emotional tonight, maybe because I was in the front row and Katie Brayben really lets those tears flow. Extra funny and extra touching. I will miss this one!

I am soooo looking forward to seeing this tomorrow!!!

I am clearly in the minority but I did not enjoy this, it left me cold. It is entertaining but not much than that.

In my opinion, the mixture of the political with TF's story does not work. It is forced and preachy. The actor playing Jerry Falwell plays more a caricature than a character.

The pace is fine but for my taste too many songs that don't let you get closer to the main characters. One thing I truly hate is when a song finishes and the director (I assume) does not know how to switch to the next scene so the play a bit more of the song until they can move on. This happened at least 4 times that I noticed. There is a number on the second act, when everyone turns against Tammy that I thought it was terrible. The director has KB running around the stage, jerking, holding the TVs wall, etc. You can get away with that in an amateur production, not here.

Andrew Rannells is quite wooden. Only saw him once before, in the recorded version of Falsettos, and I thought the same.

Katie Brayben is great, lots of energy, great singing and acting. I must say though that the number that ends the first act was a bit over the top, it did not ring true to me. People loved it, so it must be me.

For such big names and great reviews (except S Clapp's in The Observer) quite a disappointment.

Having had a chance to chew over my viewing at todays matinee, Katie Brayben deserves to get some theatre gongs for her performance as Tammy. She is simply sensational in this and that Act 1 closing number “Empty Hands” was stunning. I thought she worked well with Andrew Rannells.  I enjoyed seeing him on stage and vocally was great but I wanted more emotional depth with his portrayal as Jim as well as a bit more story for him that led to his downfall.

With the Jan Crouch character, as soon as Amy Booth-Steel came on stage in that pink wig, all I saw was a younger version of Are You Being Served’s Mrs Slocombe. I really couldn’t take that character seriously at all.

Bunny Christie’s set was great and I loved the use of the live camera feed bits to give the to screen feel as though as an audience member you were seeing them on tv.

I got more out of Act 1 which I think had the stringer writing and musical numbers than Act 2. I’d definitely of liked to have had a bit more on Tammy’s life after the collapse of the tv show and how she made a comeback. If I was involved in the creative process, I’d be having another look at Act 2 and to make some changes in how it flows.

As for the score, Jake and Elton really have written some great numbers here that would get a second listen to if an OCR ever got made.

Overall, I really enjoyed it though mainly for KB’s performance. An absolute star.

I’m so happy someone from here was there last night! What a special experience!