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Post by angie on Aug 8, 2022 5:10:30 GMT
Also, I know I’ll get crucified for this, but with Houchen I just didn’t buy it. Sorry, but it’s true. Not believable for the energy the character was meant to have. Sang “Younger than Springtime” beautifully though. Had the same issue with this young man as Marius too, where he sang “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” wonderfully too. Its your opinion and I accept that. You are, as you are probably aware in the minority. I personally believe him to be a huge talent and the reviews on this show agree. Perhaps you are just not liking the way the director wanted him to play the part. He also was absolutely brilliant as Marius, played him for nearly three years in the West End as well as in the staged concert. He changed my view on Marius as a character, gave him more depth than other portrayals. Mr Houchen has already won best supporting actor in a production (Regional Production) for South Pacific some critics award I think and I am sure he will be nominated at the Oliviers. He is always in demand and I just love his beautiful voice. Daniel Koek was my favourite JVJ
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Post by mrbarnaby on Aug 8, 2022 5:45:29 GMT
The guy who plays Billis here is truly terrible. Weakest performance of the show IMO
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Post by inthenose on Aug 8, 2022 7:07:50 GMT
Also, I know I’ll get crucified for this, but with Houchen I just didn’t buy it. Sorry, but it’s true. Not believable for the energy the character was meant to have. Sang “Younger than Springtime” beautifully though. Had the same issue with this young man as Marius too, where he sang “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” wonderfully too. Its your opinion and I accept that. You are, as you are probably aware in the minority. I personally believe him to be a huge talent and the reviews on this show agree. Perhaps you are just not liking the way the director wanted him to play the part. He also was absolutely brilliant as Marius, played him for nearly three years in the West End as well as in the staged concert. He changed my view on Marius as a character, gave him more depth than other portrayals. Mr Houchen has already won best supporting actor in a production (Regional Production) for South Pacific some critics award I think and I am sure he will be nominated at the Oliviers. He is always in demand and I just love his beautiful voice. Daniel Koek was my favourite JVJ Yeah. I found him very wet as Marius (similar to Gary Tushaw or Alistair Brammer) and he was going for stoic in South Pacific but comes off wooden to my taste. I’m not buying his attraction to Liat either. I know he’s a bit of a golden boy and he has a lot of superfans. So I appreciate the need to defend their guy. I’d do the same with my favourites/friends. If Daniel Koek was your favourite Valjean, it fits that Houchen’s Marius “changed your view … as a character”. Having seen every cast since the mid 90’s of that show, including covers and many second covers, I’d rank him towards the bottom. His Phantom was also pretty average. As was his Anatoly in Chess (except for Anthem). I am glad you are a fan of these actors but you won’t change my opinion of what I saw. If I see him in something and think he is great I will say so.
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Post by angie on Aug 8, 2022 8:05:32 GMT
Apologies posted above x 2 managed to delete I think...also replied but not sure its been submitted....OR.....it will be duplicated 1/2 doz times, if it is I apologise again, hang my head in shame and back out of the website.
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Post by angie on Aug 8, 2022 8:57:56 GMT
"I am glad you are a fan of these actors but you won’t change my opinion of what I saw. If I see him in something and think he is great I will say so".
I am sure you will. It wouldn't do for everyone to see the same thing in an actor or role, how boring that would be. I personally did not enjoy Michael Balls Javert in the Staged Concert I felt he was totally miscast but how can they do Les Mis without him?
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Post by robertb213 on Aug 8, 2022 12:58:29 GMT
I'm a massive fan of Rob Houchen but I thought he was a bit lacking in the acting stakes and unconvincing in this. I think he's just stronger as an singer. Still a top talent though and I'd watch him in anything. His Marius was superb.
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Post by angie on Aug 10, 2022 15:56:48 GMT
I'm a massive fan of Rob Houchen but I thought he was a bit lacking in the acting stakes and unconvincing in this. I think he's just stronger as an singer. Still a top talent though and I'd watch him in anything. His Marius was superb. Interesting...Press reviews found him to be superb. I think I need to go again and maybe take off my rose coloured glasses😁 booked for Leeds in November.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 10, 2022 17:09:06 GMT
Did anyone see that post from someone on one of those dreadful MT Facebook groups describing Gina Beck as sounding like “bad Reba”? (McIntyre I presume). They also found R&H’s overture to be “unimaginative”. Lol.
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Post by robertb213 on Aug 10, 2022 17:33:33 GMT
I'm a massive fan of Rob Houchen but I thought he was a bit lacking in the acting stakes and unconvincing in this. I think he's just stronger as an singer. Still a top talent though and I'd watch him in anything. His Marius was superb. Interesting...Press reviews found him to be superb. I think I need to go again and maybe take off my rose coloured glasses😁 booked for Leeds in November. One of the press reviews was mine 😁 I just found him a bit wooden and not particularly convincing as a lieutenant. Vocally he's exceptional, I just don't think he's a very strong actor.
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Post by angie on Aug 10, 2022 19:17:50 GMT
Obviously didnt see that one, please post a link so I can have a full read of you review I really am interested. I do disagree but I respect your professional experience. As I say I will see South Pacific again in November and I will try to watch objectively.😁
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Post by robertb213 on Aug 10, 2022 22:21:13 GMT
Obviously didnt see that one, please post a link so I can have a full read of you review I really am interested. I do disagree but I respect your professional experience. As I say I will see South Pacific again in November and I will try to watch objectively.😁 No problem, here you go! northwestend.com/south-pacific-sadlers-wells/
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Post by Oleanna on Aug 10, 2022 22:42:29 GMT
Did anyone see that post from someone on one of those dreadful MT Facebook groups describing Gina Beck as sounding like “bad Reba”? (McIntyre I presume). They also found R&H’s overture to be “unimaginative”. Lol. Are they referring to this production specifically? Because it doesn’t use the original overture.
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Aug 13, 2022 21:49:35 GMT
Julian Ovenden beautiful! beautiful! beautiful! After last night's performance, I need him to sing me to sleep... Me too.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Aug 14, 2022 7:36:28 GMT
Great score and themes but the book really plods on and do we those endless reprises ? Shoot me down as i really want for a Peter Brook type figure to come along and turn it into a 1 act drama.
Plus I'm not a fan of the Trevor Nunn school of directing so the whole thing was a big snooze fest from me. Ah well.
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Post by mrbarnaby on Aug 14, 2022 15:25:40 GMT
Great score and themes but the book really plods on and do we those endless reprises ? Shoot me down as i really want for a Peter Brook type figure to come along and turn it into a 1 act drama. Plus I'm not a fan of the Trevor Nunn school of directing so the whole thing was a big snooze fest from me. Ah well. The book doesn’t stand up well at all. It needs some major cutting and revising I think.
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Post by danb on Aug 14, 2022 16:17:20 GMT
But what strand would you cut to tighten it up? Billis could go for me. He doesn’t feed into enough other plot points really (nothing that Bracket couldn’t do) and yes, skip the reprises.
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 16, 2022 10:06:05 GMT
I saw the Sunday performance and managed to get a third row rush ticket. So much better than when I saw this from further back earlier in the run.
Before the start of the show, there was an announcement that it was a "cut show" (using those words) as one sixth of the cast were unavailable. This was mostly the female ensemble, who managed to make everything work with only four people. There were some changes with lines assigned to different people, which mostly worked smoothly apart from one section of dialogue where the lines were spoken in a fairly random order. They also hadn't got the updates to the sound desk as occasionally microphones were not turned on.
Despite the reduced cast size, all of the leads were on. Plus, they were all in fine form.
Got to say, this is an excellent show and selling well. It's a shame the London run is so short.
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Post by Dawnstar on Aug 16, 2022 16:57:36 GMT
Before the start of the show, there was an announcement that it was a "cut show" (using those words) as one sixth of the cast were unavailable. This was mostly the female ensemble, who managed to make everything work with only four people. Did they say why they were so short of cast? Is it a covid outbreak? I'm thinking about going tomorrow & while I don't mind seeing the show short on ensemble I wouldn't want to turn up & find that it's spread and some or all of the leads I particularly want to see (Beck, Ovenden & Houchen) are now out too.
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 16, 2022 17:24:47 GMT
Did they say why they were so short of cast? Is it a covid outbreak? I'm thinking about going tomorrow & while I don't mind seeing the show short on ensemble I wouldn't want to turn up & find that it's spread and some or all of the leads I particularly want to see (Beck, Ovenden & Houchen) are now out too. They didn't. But it was unplanned, as the woman making the announcement said they'd only had two hours to rework everything as they didn't want to cancel and that some people were on in tracks they'd never covered or rehearsed before. So, I'd certainly think Covid, but it was never said outright. Nothing on West End Understudies (Twitter) about any leads being off tonight and they normally pick up on most covers.
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Post by Dawnstar on Aug 16, 2022 20:21:01 GMT
Thanks. I was going to check West End Understudies. I suppose I can only hope. Tomorrow is about the only day where the temperature is forecast to be low 20s & there's no train strikes!
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Post by TallPaul on Aug 17, 2022 8:23:58 GMT
If you do go today, Dawnstar, then be sure to check the trains are running, which I'm sure you do anyway. The radio travel bulletins have been reporting problems all morning.
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Post by Dawnstar on Aug 17, 2022 10:05:40 GMT
TallPaul I've had to abandon going today as when I checked the Cambridge-London trains they're screwed & Great Northern is saying disruption expected until 8pm. Luckily I hadn't bought a theatre ticket so at least I'm not out of pocket. Train strikes for the rest of this week so I'll have to hope there'll be a day next week when it's not too hot & the trains are actually running!
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Post by ladidah on Aug 17, 2022 12:28:23 GMT
So tempted by the good prices tomorrow but unsure if the tube goes mad.
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Aug 17, 2022 22:36:13 GMT
Just got back from the show tonight and they were still quite down on female ensemble - only 5 of them on rather than 8. They were also down 1 man out of the 12. All the leads were still on though.
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Post by fossil on Aug 18, 2022 8:41:11 GMT
For the next three evening performances there are some tickets for £15 + £3.50 booking fee. These are the stall back row and side slips, circle slips and most of the upper circle. Use this link and scroll down to the South Pacific entry. sobus.org.uk/2022/08/The stalls side slips look to be a particularly good bargain. I hope so - I have just bought one.
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Post by tmesis on Aug 18, 2022 9:56:21 GMT
For the next three evening performances there are some tickets for £15 + £3.50 booking fee. These are the stall back row and side slips, circle slips and most of the upper circle. Use this link and scroll down to the South Pacific entry. sobus.org.uk/2022/08/The stalls side slips look to be a particularly good bargain. I hope so - I have just bought one. Also some great TodayTix offers. Got a £90 mid stalls seat for yesterday’s matinee for £25.
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Post by tmesis on Aug 18, 2022 10:55:11 GMT
So glad I caught this again after loving it at Chichester last year. I think the production fitted CFTs stage better, and worked more fluidly, than at SW but other than that I think it has improved if anything with the cast deepening their roles. Houchen is very good as Cable; his You’ve got to be Carefully Taught was really good but I was disappointed by Younger Than Springtime - he chops up the legato line of this exquisite song and lacks the breath control to do it justice. The gold standard for this song is Mandy Patinkin from the complete musical recording. But really the reason for seeing this production is Beck and Ovenden. Everything Gina does is wonderful but she really comes into her own in I’m in love with a Wonderful Guy. This really is one of the great music theatre songs. Rodgers almost squanders three cracking themes in the verse before he even gets to his stonking Big Tune (hell ALW would mine this amount of material for a complete musical.) She delivers it with huge panache, alert to all the changing subtleties of tone and mood from the defiant, minor key opening to the exuberant major key conclusion.
And then there’s Julian…
what can I say - the guy’s sensational. I first experienced him live at the John Wilson Prom singing Rodgers and Hammerstein and I was hugely impressed but I just think he’s got better and better. His Some Enchanted Evening sets the bar at the start with a gorgeous falsetto at the end but later in act two he gives it full throated wellie at the conclusion. Julian is described as a tenor (which he is) but hell, he also has a magnificent bottom end* which he shows off at the start of This Nearly Was Mine. Musical theatre singing doesn’t get any better than this. He builds the song wonderfully with a change of mood, and tempo for the minor key section and then a frisson-making sotto voce for the return of the main tune with maximum oompah and breath control for the final note where he went right up to the mediant (which I don’t think he did at Chichester.)
*We fortunate ones who saw him in My Night with Reg may read extra meaning into this.
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Post by scarpia on Aug 18, 2022 15:39:41 GMT
Very excited to be seeing this tonight. The cast looks fantastic.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 19, 2022 7:53:33 GMT
When I saw it in Manc I sat next to a young-ish man who was on his own and we got chatting before it started. He’d never been to a musical before but was getting into opera and had seen several. He asked if there was a live orchestra and seemed surprised when I said yes. I thought he seemed a bit sniffy about our beloved genre but happily explained how these things work from an audience perspective. Yes, there’s an interval, yes people clap at the end of songs etc. etc. At the end during the applause he turned to me and said “is it always this good?” 🙂.
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