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Post by sfsusan on Oct 17, 2022 10:17:06 GMT
I've just checked theatremonkey and they comment that the mixing desk in J will bother nobody But nothing about Row P? I sat next to the mixing desk and it did kind of annoy me because I could hear them whispering and clicking away. Was that in J or P? |
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Oct 17, 2022 10:20:30 GMT
that was row J, specifically seats J8, J9. Don't think P had a mixing desk, but don't quote me on that. |
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Post by alece10 on Oct 19, 2022 17:32:38 GMT
Just come out of the matinee of Cabaret and once again it was an amazing show.
I saw it right at the beginning (2nd preview) and sat at one of the bistro tables at the front. This time I was sat in row H of the stalls. Still a great view and plenty of legroom in these seats.
Callum Howells gives quite a different performance to Eddie Redmayne and its impossible to compare. I thought Callum was brilliant. Great singing voice and brought more humour to the role. He really had a great stage presence. I also enjoyed Madeline Brewer and thought she did a pretty good English accent. Not a bad singer either. She played the role less manic than Jessie Buckley. The rest of the cast were good but felt some of the original cast were better. Although ensemble were terrific. I did miss AJ Casey though.
Quite good audience considering it was a matinee and almost full standing ovation at the end.
Someone mentioned they had stopped the free drink but I was offered one so maybe they felt sorry for me 😀
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Post by tommy123 on Oct 21, 2022 6:40:24 GMT
Does anyone know with the TodayTix lottery, what sort of time do you find out if you’ve won for a matinee?
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Oct 21, 2022 8:16:13 GMT
what sort of time do you find out if you’ve won for a matinee? if i remember correctly it was something like 9/half 9 ish? |
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Post by matildaswinton on Oct 21, 2022 10:55:59 GMT
Saw this a few weeks ago thanks to the lottery… had seats at the end of row B upstairs right next to the band.
What a phenomenal production. Having seen the white-knucklingly gritty Mendes version in NYC with Emma Stone and Alan Cumming, I am so happy to have caught this iteration. Not to say that other production isn’t fantastic, but this one did a few things for me that the other didn’t.
It was timely, somehow in a way that the other tried to be but missed. The show begins with so much color and joy, and slowly that gets stripped away… perhaps I’m in the minority, but the soft ending worked for me. It was like the show gets more and more hopeless… you can feel that life has changed all around these people.
Going off of that, I felt that Callum’s performance begins full of exhuberance. This emcee feels like a real person, and young kid with a fantastic job working in the best club in Berlin. And he is milking it and spreading joy. Yet by the end, it feels like he is trapped in this changing world. First time I felt this character had an actual arc.
Madeline is sensational I my opinion. She can actually sing and therefore makes informed choices on her vocals that aid in the building of a character. What I loved about her Sally was that everything was grounded. Where Emma was a manic rush of energy that sped towards oblivion, this Sally gives you her ups and downs, and you follow her journey line by line. She’s not a one-note railroad track to ruin, but a woman trying to move through life in a way that works for her.
The production is brilliant for following the text… time and time again, characters refer to the club as the hottest spot in Berlin, and it really felt like that. I wondered why other interpretations go so far towards druggy grit. These characters might drink and do drugs, but they’re beautiful and talented and working and having fun. It makes the slow creep of fascism devastating.
Vivien Parry and Richard Katz are perfect… immediate and fully alive. Michelle Bishop nails it all.
This whole production is directed with such a groundedness that also breathes. Nothing goes too fast or gets out of hand… we feel everything with them until the numbness sets in.
My only issue was Sid Sagar. I think I understand the casting… Cliff felt like the kind of kid who would swing both ways and fall madly in love with Sally. He felt like a dreamer, young and righteous as the Nazis move in. But he felt flatter than the rest. And when Sally reveals where she’s been in the second act, he did a Voila Davis ugly cry that I felt was extremely chewy…. It felt like he was stealing he scene from her. Madeline was great in reacting to it… like, “wow, this reaction is a lot more than I even expected…”. But I felt it took the focus away from the choice Sally made and her explanations. It became so so sooo about him. Not sure if it was direction or his choice. Kinda like when Bart Sher had one daugher break down and cry on the floor right before Matchmaker in Fiddler… like, we didn’t need this. Maybe he got there in rehearsal one day and they told him to replicate it every night. But it didn’t work for me. And the transition into the next scene was immediate ugly cry face to neutral and we’re on the train. Hmmm.
All in all, brilliant show.
And the band!!! That brass!!! Amazing orchestrations and playing. It felt electric.
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Post by oedipus on Oct 25, 2022 10:00:15 GMT
I saw this Cabaret this weekend (having seen Mendes' revival in the US just before the pandemic) and it's equally terrific: different, but powerful. Definitely the best Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider I've ever seen -- those sequences really popped.
However, I agree 1000 percent with MatildaSwilton, re: Sid Sagar's Cliff: his second-act reaction was just *way* too much, particularly after an understated performance in the first act. I've seen a half-dozen Cliffs, and for the life of me I can't understand why producers don't cast *against* type: Cliff is (frankly) underwritten as passive--a 'camera,' as Isherwood put it--so why lean into that characterization? It would be 10 times more interesting to cast Cliff as a solid, swaggering, salt-of-the-earth Pennsylvanian, so that it makes sense why pansexual men and women are throwing themselves at him. And so the revelation of Cliff's own sexuality might be something of a surprise rather than a foregone conclusion -- and the thought of a family somehow a sliver of normalcy in a world increasingly unhinged.
But this is a quibble, really. It's a strong production. I thought the "Money" song was particularly spooky and brilliantly re-conceived.
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Post by gussiemwra on Oct 25, 2022 11:36:23 GMT
Is it true that they're no longer giving out a drink when you go in? From what I've heard, they are extremely understaffed. A friend of mine who used to work there said its a toxic environment and ushers are quitting.
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Post by alece10 on Oct 25, 2022 11:42:33 GMT
Is it true that they're no longer giving out a drink when you go in? From what I've heard, they are extremely understaffed. A friend of mine who used to work there said its a toxic environment and ushers are quitting. I was there last week and got a drink token. Maybe it now depends on where you are seated. Can't say for other parts of the theatre but in the stalls there were loads of ushers and FOH staff. |
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Oct 25, 2022 22:51:08 GMT
I got a drinks token this week. They ushered everyone into the same entrance because of the rain and everyone got the drinks token and sticker for their phone.
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Post by kyvai on Oct 26, 2022 6:33:14 GMT
I went on Friday for my second visit, and was offered the shot of schnapps on the way in same as first time around. I went in a lot later (about 7.10) and it was quite rushed to get through - if it’s your first time I’d definitely recommend getting there earlier, think I went in about 6.40 first time and felt I had plenty of time to enjoy the prologue and explore the bars and everything that was going on before the show.
Btw I thought Madeline Brewer was fantastic on Friday. Her voice was beautiful, I was super impressed with her English accent as well. Very much enjoyed Callum Howell’s emcee as well. I can’t believe he is only 23. I think Fra Fee was a bit darker though, a bit grittier, especially played “If You Could See Her” a bit more chillingly. Still 5* from me :-)
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Post by alece10 on Oct 26, 2022 14:52:55 GMT
I went on Friday for my second visit, and was offered the shot of schnapps on the way in same as first time around. I went in a lot later (about 7.10) and it was quite rushed to get through - if it’s your first time I’d definitely recommend getting there earlier, think I went in about 6.40 first time and felt I had plenty of time to enjoy the prologue and explore the bars and everything that was going on before the show. Btw I thought Madeline Brewer was fantastic on Friday. Her voice was beautiful, I was super impressed with her English accent as well. Very much enjoyed Callum Howell’s emcee as well. I can’t believe he is only 23. I think Fra Fee was a bit darker though, a bit grittier, especially played “If You Could See Her” a bit more chillingly. Still 5* from me :-) I commented last week to one of the FOH staff about how good Madeline's accent was and she told me that Madeline was a bit concerned for the first few days and sometimes the accent dropped but she had been really working hard to get it right and I honestly think she has nailed it now. |
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Post by stagey on Oct 31, 2022 15:06:22 GMT
Does anyone know any casting rumours for who's next once these 2 leave?
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Post by Being Alive on Oct 31, 2022 15:10:04 GMT
Remarkably they are cast already for the next pairing (which is way more organised than Cabaret has been with this stuff) - don't have names though I'm afraid.
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Oct 31, 2022 16:11:02 GMT
when are the next pair starting? I know Callum has Romeo and Julie lined up in February, but I'm not sure exactly when their last show is?
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Post by Being Alive on Oct 31, 2022 16:27:54 GMT
They finish on the 28th Jan
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Oct 31, 2022 17:05:49 GMT
do we know if it's just the main two leaving or if we're getting a new Cliff/Schneider/Schultz too? I'm assuming the ensemble are staying the full year.
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Post by Being Alive on Oct 31, 2022 17:38:05 GMT
Only asked about Emcee and Sally - will investigate. I would imagine they're Schultz/Schneider/Cliff are staying as apart from Viv Parry they're relatively new to the show
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Post by ockey01 on Nov 2, 2022 12:25:03 GMT
I have tickets for Saturday matinee, but due to the train strikes the last train might be quite soon to the show ending. For those in the know, does it usually finish as close to 4:45pm as the website suggests?
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Post by andypandy on Nov 2, 2022 12:27:19 GMT
Is it true that they're no longer giving out a drink when you go in? From what I've heard, they are extremely understaffed. A friend of mine who used to work there said its a toxic environment and ushers are quitting. I went 3 weeks ago and received my token and had the free SCHNAAAPS! Fun. The show is phenomenal. 10/10 |
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Post by hitmewithurbethshot on Nov 2, 2022 12:40:52 GMT
I have tickets for Saturday matinee, but due to the train strikes the last train might be quite soon to the show ending. For those in the know, does it usually finish as close to 4:45pm as the website suggests? When I went a few weeks ago for a 7:30 evening show it finished at 10:16 so you should be ok |
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Post by alece10 on Nov 2, 2022 15:54:56 GMT
I did a Wed matinee a couple of weeks ago. Started 2pm and we were out about 4.50pm
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Post by showtoones on Nov 11, 2022 23:55:02 GMT
When you go on ATG tickets, it will only let you buy a pair at the cabaret tabes in front. If I only wanted to buy 1 ticket, would they let me do so if I turned up at the Playhouse/ Kit Kat Klub box office?
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Post by alece10 on Nov 12, 2022 8:44:23 GMT
When you go on ATG tickets, it will only let you buy a pair at the cabaret tabes in front. If I only wanted to buy 1 ticket, would they let me do so if I turned up at the Playhouse/ Kit Kat Klub box office? My guess would be yes if you turned up before the show and the table wasn't sold. Netter to get some revenue than nothing st all. And as far as I know they don't upgrade people if the tables are empty. I was there a few weeks ago for a matinee and all the tables on one side were empty, looked a bit odd. |
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Post by westendgurl on Nov 14, 2022 22:46:54 GMT
I managed to catch the show last week and wow it's incredible! I thought Callum and Madeline were brilliant and I'll be sorry to see them go. The whole production just gave me chills.
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