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Post by Dawnstar on Mar 24, 2020 22:33:52 GMT
Obviously almost all of us have a string of current & future theatre bookings that we're not going to see now. However amidst all the discussions on what we're disappointed not be seeing, I thought I'd try to be a bit more positive (for once) & start a thread for what we've seen in the last few months that we're now thinking "thank goodness I saw that before the theatres closed". Mine are:
Zorro at Cadogan Hall. I had to wait nearly 11 years to see one of my favourite musicals again so I am incredibly grateful that it happened.
The Comedy About A Bank Robbery. Obviously I'm gutted that it's closed early but I had a great run of visits from the end of December to the end of February when I saw it 7 times in 2 months with loads of understudies on & 3 of my favourite former cast members back emergency covering. Also that I was able to fit in a last-minute visit on 14th March which I knew would almost certainly be my last time seeing it, and turned out to be the 4th from last performance, so I was sort of able to say goodbye.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Seeing the tour 5 times at 4 different venues December-February, including lots of understudy action.
The Royal Ballet having front-ended their season with classics so I saw Manon, Concerto/Enigma Variations/Raymonda Act III, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Onegin & Dances At A Gathering/The Cellist while only missing Swan Lake plus two modern triple bills that I wasn't entirely looking forward to anyway!
Seeing ETO's Cosi Fan Tutte in Hackney, because of wanting to see a particular singer in a double-cast role, rather than waiting for it to come round to Cambridge in May, which it obviously isn't now doing. The other production, Giulio Cesare, I have missed but at least it's a revival so I saw it in 2017 when it was new.
Seeing what turned out to be the only performance of the final cast of the season of the ROH's La Traviata, on 14th March, so I saw one of my favourite sopranos, Aleksandra Kurzak, give her first (now only) performance of Violetta at the ROH & one of my favourite mezzos, Helen Sherman, have her ROH debut.
More generally, I had 4 months without a job mid-October to mid-February & my mother urged me to rein back on my theatregoing to save money. Instead I decided to raid my savings account & keep theatregoing! I am so glad now that I did so.
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Post by Mark on Mar 24, 2020 22:43:50 GMT
Very grateful for my Broadway binge before the lockdown!
Moulin Rouge
Jagged Little Pill
West Side Story
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
The Minutes
The Inheritance Part 1 & 2
Diana
Mean Girls
Ain't Too Proud
Company
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Post by david on Mar 24, 2020 23:01:10 GMT
The Old Vic's A Christmas Carol back in January and more recently Back to the Future in Manchester.
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Post by talkingheads on Mar 24, 2020 23:06:39 GMT
Well Peter Pan Goes Wrong for being the most I've laughed in a theatre this year.
Kunene and the King because it meant I got to see two of the greatest actors in the world share a stage and it's an experience I will never forget.
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Post by crowblack on Mar 24, 2020 23:27:28 GMT
Uncle Vanya, The Welkin and Shook, a fab debut play which I caught on tour at the end of last year - it was due for a West End transfer in April and I hope that it still goes ahead later in the year.
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Post by FrontrowverPaul on Mar 25, 2020 0:05:44 GMT
The 70 shows I managed to see in 2020 up to March 15th, of which I failed to enjoy only two so a 97% personal hit rate. Excessive perhaps but my time is my own so I go to at least one show most days.
Finishing with a perfect evening enjoying Love At The Musicals at Cadogan Hall before it all closed down. Thank the lord now for You Tube !
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Post by David J on Mar 25, 2020 0:37:39 GMT
Not quite the same but I thank the stars that I was lucky enough to get a ticket at the front for the final performance of the original Les Misérables last summer.
I hadn't seen the last cast yet so I decided to see them on their last night before the theatre closed for refurbishment. And then an hour or so later it was announced the performance was also to be the show's final night and the booking site went down with everyone rushing for a ticket.
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Post by danb on Mar 25, 2020 10:16:59 GMT
I’m just pleased that my daughter & her boyfriend got to see the last performance of ‘Hamilton’ (her Xmas present), and my son got to see the last ‘Be More Chill’. I also feel less grumpy about having to watch it with him.
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Post by justfran on Mar 25, 2020 10:17:17 GMT
The recent tour of Priscilla for me was excellent. I’d been a bit disappointed with various elements of the previous tour but this one was such a fun couple of hours. You couldn’t help but smile at the joy on stage, particularly Joe McFadden who was clearly loving being in it.
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Post by Forrest on Mar 25, 2020 10:28:52 GMT
Great thread! :)
My joys for the year - the plays I am really, really happy I got to see, out of the 23 (I believe) I've seen - have been: Uncle Vanya (for Toby Jones, the obvious reason!), Endgame (I had no real expectations from this, and it swept me off my feet, so it was all the greater joy for it!), Othello (which I loved, and which came with an enchanting trip to Cambridge, as an added bonus), Labels (at the VAULT - this made me absolutely fall in love with Joe Sellman-Leava's work), The Welkin (which spoke of so many things important to me), A Number (which came with what is possibly my favourite performance since RIII last year - still thinking about it) and Afterplay (for many reasons).
My only regret was not writing about any of these, because they were either previews or I was afraid I would not do them justice. Looking back, it seems silly.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2020 11:53:20 GMT
I haven't seen much yet this year due to work craziness, but I am grateful I made it to the Come From Away cast change.
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529 posts
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Post by ruby on Mar 25, 2020 12:31:32 GMT
I got to see the delightful The Boy Friend at the Menier, very happy about that.
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Post by xanady on Mar 25, 2020 12:53:35 GMT
Be More Chill
DEH...not a surprise
Come From Away
Prince Of Egypt
WOS Awards....March 1st...seems like a lifetime ago!
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Post by NeilVHughes on Mar 25, 2020 13:38:33 GMT
As a Theatrical experience was very glad that I caught The Seven Streams of the River Ota before the shutdown, a wonderful and engaging day of Theatre that I can feast on over the next few weeks/months.
Been a good year so far with some top productions and hopefully will continue when things come back on line
- Uncle Vanya
- Afterplay
- Sunset Limited
- Beckett at both Jermyn St and Old Vic
.....
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Post by LaLuPone on Mar 25, 2020 13:58:54 GMT
Hamilton from the front row for £10, a completey unique and amazing experience. Getting to see Rachel Tucker in The Pirate Queen before she left us for the bright lights of Broadway for a while. And of course getting to see my favourite Waitress three times this year, once last minute with Desi Oakley and twice with Sara Bareilles, truly magical nights at the theatre seeing her.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Mar 25, 2020 16:36:01 GMT
West Side Story @ Curve.
Brought many tears to my eyes
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2020 18:10:15 GMT
For me, two things:
Six tour - we had tickets for Sheffield, but I persuaded my friend to go for the Lowry too. Now Sheffield is unlikely to happen, I'm so glad I saw the tour cast, as I really loved them and thought they were overall funnier than the West End cast.
Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) - the happiest and best thing I've seen in years. Managed to see it twice, including the last Saturday in Oxford. My god it was fun. So good.
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Post by jaqs on Mar 25, 2020 19:13:21 GMT
&Juliet got me out of a bit of a funk. Also Cyrano brought a friend down to London and we both enjoyed the show and catch up.
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Post by clair on Mar 25, 2020 19:37:07 GMT
Been lucky enough to see several good shows so far this year - Madonna, The Red Shoes, Blueberry Hill at Trafalgar Studios, Dog Walker at Jermyn Street, Blood Brothers, The Boy Friend and Mame along with a few others that were all enjoyable.
Think Madonna, The Boy Friend and Mame would be top 3 - seriously want Mame to have another life, the one word that was in my head leaving the theatre was 'joyous' which will be much needed once this is all over and theatres open up again and life goes back to some kind of normal!
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Post by maggiem on Mar 26, 2020 12:40:40 GMT
Everything I've seen since New Year:-
Uncle Vanya
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Cyrano De Bergerac
Hamilton
Quality Street (Lowry)
Coriolanus (The Crucible) - this especially as it was the last weekend before the shutdown.
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Post by fiyero on Mar 26, 2020 16:31:40 GMT
Thanks for this thread as I'm struggling with missing theatre!
My last theatre trip was on Saturday 14th and was a weird day. I was due to see &Juliet and Be More Chill and knew that &Juliet was a risk as Thursday was cancelled and Friday a cut show.
I'd never seen &Juliet before and was looking forward to seeing it and wasn't sure if I should still go when they announced it wouldn't be the full show. To the point that I was looking around for other things to see. I decided to go and support the show and am so glad I did. It was a very spread out audience - good for social distancing - but the 15 people on stage gave us an amazing afternoon. I don't really know what we missed but it was a great show in itself so if that was the cut-down concert I know I can't wait for the real show.
I then went to Be More Chill which was cancelled after it was supposed to start so though I didn't know it then &Juliet will be my last show for quite a while.
Overall I have been lucky and had a lot of theatre recently. Other highlights have to be Sara Bareilles in Waitress and Funny Girl in Paris. Waitress was so much better than I was expecting and it was a privilege to see the person who wrote it starring in it. I had hoped to see the show again in its run (tomorrow in fact!) I was lucky that they extended the run of Funny Girl so I got to see it while in Paris on holiday. It was a lovely experience in a lovely theatre.
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Post by schuttep on Mar 30, 2020 10:31:56 GMT
My last show before the lockdown was Pretty Woman - The Musical with two of my partner's sisters who were visiting us. It was a lovely weekend, not least because there really was little premonition that a day or two later theatres would close. CLOSE. This hasn't happened since the Commonwealth in 1649. Even during the World Wars, some theatres stayed open!
I wasn't actually looking forward to Pretty Woman as the reviews had been pretty poor. But it was an absolute delight! Too much emphasis was placed on it being about prostitution. I can't remember Sweet Charity getting reviewed in such a negative light. The cast were obviously delighted at the - well-deserved - standing ovation (which I rarely do). So, I went out on a high!
Other highlights this year were Julie Hesmondhalgh in The Greatest Play in the History of the World - a one-woman tour-de-force; The Boyfriend at the Menier - uplifting and joyous; Gypsy at Manchester Royal Exchange - brilliant show performed brilliantly; Six - for the second amazing time; The Sugar Syndrome at The Orange Tree - disturbing but necessary; Blithe Spirit at the Richmond Theatre - always funny and a quirky performance by Jennifer Saunders; and the 2 Caryl Churchill's: a Number and Far Away - just excellent.
It's day 10 of the "Lockdown" and it's so sad to think I won't be able to repeat these experiences for - at the very least - several weeks.
But thanks to everyone here for helping me keep my chin up.
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