South Pacific - Chichester/ Sadlers Wells/Tour

I did the double show day yesterday, mostly to catch Zack Guest during his only two scheduled lead performances.

Zack did really well. He has a beautiful voice and dances well. I thought he was a little nervous at first, but he soon settled in. He does got rather young (leading to some extended laughter after one of the lines), but he'll be perfect for the role in the future.

Sergio Giacomelli was on as Yeoman Quayle (Zack's normal track) and did perfectly fine.

I was in extreme side seats for both shows, but at opposite sides, which was handy as you get a completely different view of a lot of the scenes. One bonus is you can see the secret (and very funny) ventriloquist scene) that plays out around the back during the Thanksgiving revue.

As was mentioned, there was a show stop in the afternoon show. After about a 10 minute extra break, it was announced that the stage crew would be wheeling the set on and off. They very quickly cleared the benches for the review (presumably as there would be no one free to move them later) and the sailors had to sit on the floor. The crew stayed on the stage holding each corner of the wheeled-on set pieces so they didn't move. It looked a little odd, but it worked. Thankfully I didn't have to run for a train as the show finished very late.

Everything was fixed for the evening.

The main evening incident took place in the first half when Leslie Garcia Bowman managed to drop his cigarette into the back of the office set, then spent the next five minutes trying to reach into the furniture through different angles to retrieve it. He didn't manage it, so the set got taken off leaving the cigarette rolling about on the stage until one of the ensemble retrieved it at the start of "Wash That Man".

The audience (around me) was very good with wearing their masks. It wasn't consistent across the venue, but it was still one of the better choices.

Unfortunately, during the afternoon performance I ended up by a group of seven people (mostly speaking French) who had booked the end two seats in the front four rows. They had two young children in the first row, one of whom was bored stiff, talking, getting up, moving to sit on the knee of the person sat behind etc. And yet they still brought him back for the second half to do more of the same. He also had a light up watch. I had a woman next to me with a light up phone and she seemed determined to leave this up on her lap, completely oblivious to anyone else. She did turn it off after I had a word.

I also got to see both of the lead performers as Nellie. Both excellent and both tackling the role in different ways.

Gina Beck plays Nellie as inexperienced and vulnerable. Perfect voice.

Alex Young's Nellie comes across as more world weary. They use the costumes to show her as having a fuller figure, which I think is sensible so she matches Gina Beck. Alex is a fantastic comedy actor, really great facial expressions and she's able to play a lot of moments for laughs. I did notice a line out of place early on but Julian Ovenden recovered it well and I guess Alex hasn't been on many times yet.

I hope that this transfers and I'd be happy to see either lady in the lead role.

Keir Charles seemed to be struggling his voice a bit, but he got through both shows.

The evening performance also finished a few minutes late, but I made the train. The train journeys were not pleasant (there was already a line closure, then additionally there was a problem with the Thameslink line, so I got diverted from Blackfriars to Victoria, but still made the show in good time). You haven't lived until you've got on the midnight train from Brighton to London. What can I say? Based on everything that was going on, I'm sure I wouldn't have had any problems finding a dealer had I felt so inclined. My mask kept most of the smoke out and I had earphones to keep out the sound of what appeared to be a fight breaking out. But I think it was worth the long day overall!

Has anyone ever been to one of the “Theatre Days” at Chichester? They’re doing one the day I go to see this and I was wondering what it involved.

I went to the socially distanced matinee yesterday. As you can imagine the audience was mainly elderly, even by Chichester standards (and I say that as a pensioner myself). Staff were good at ensuring masks were worn.

I thought the audience rather slow to respond at first. No applause after A Cockeyed Optimist but Julian's rendition of Some Enchanted Evening won them over and at the end about half stood for an ovation. There were a couple of titters when Nellie asked Emile who's children they were, but I thought this was mainly at Nellie's naivety.

I am sorry if this isn't a more incisive critique of the production but it was simply wonderful to be back in a theatre with performers and an orchestra. A couple of times during Some Enchanted Evening I was in tears.

Two off-stage memories I take away from it:

An elderly chap behind me wondering if the leading lady who was a "bit on the chubby side" might possibly be pregnant? Afterwards as I was coming away from the theatre, a couple were walking down North Street in the road with the 80-something woman singing off-key: "Younger Than Springtime Am I", oblivious to a car behind trying to get through.

Apparently they’re eyeing up a London transfer in 2022, though I don’t know how much has actually been organised.

Q&A with the cast tonight says they've heard nothing yet, although they're all up for it...

It's hard to think which London house of the right size would be available for it to go in to unless something flops. The Gillian Lynne is probably the most suitable to preserve the staging but it looks like Cinderella won't be leaving anytime soon.

Pretty Woman has an open run so I don’t imagine it closing any time soon

Ideally it would play at the Gillian Lynne.

Cinders is doing plenty of box office for now. If this transferred it would quickly I reckon before the buzz dies.

Is the streaming version available to purchase to view at any time or is it gone?

I can see this...

Otherwise the Gilly like previously suggested, however Cinders will be there for a while I suspect.

Whilst I think it is a production which deserves a longer life, I'm not sure whether there's enough of an audience appetite to sustain an extended west end run given how much the production will cost in town and without household names in the cast (and heaven help if the names Alfie Boe or Michael Ball are thrown into the mix as a way to boost the box office). I'm sure they'll want to wait until Gina Beck can return - by which time even more productions will be circling over a very small number of suitable theatres which might possibly be free - and Disney probably has deeper pockets than CFT. Hope I'm wrong though.