Oklahoma! - Young Vic / Wyndham’s

Well it looks like it’s very smartly installed at the Wyndham’s.

It still remains one of the most turgid nights I’ve spent in a theatre so… good luck to em but I won’t be seeing it again!

Do we think they'll leave the house lights on as they did at the YV?

Looks like the wooden panelling extends into the auditorium too, presumably to minimise the separating effect of moving to a proscenium theatre.

Theyve gone a little overboard with the gun racks haven’t they?

Do we think they'll go for the prolonged complete blackout (with hardly any prominent warning) which caused fear and panic to someone sitting next to me.  I knew it was 'just theatre' but she thought something had gone wrong, and as I was on the very narrow balcony I feared she was going to try and get out, pushing past  Totally irresponsible at the Young Vic - ushers said they'd had many complaints and 'situations' around it.

That’s a stretch isn’t it? 

No reports yet, so I will add mine. I saw this last night (second preview) and it has transferred very well. So well in fact that I've edited my undeserved 4* rating to a 5* rating.

I got lucky with a rush tickets, so was two seats from the end of the front row. I think the outer two seats at either end are the rush tickets (there may be more, depending, I suspect, on how many seats have been sold). The show was sold out.

As you may be able to tell from the pictures, there is a main stage area with a small step down to the middle of the front row. The band are between the low stage and the front row, there is no orchestra pit. The front row is a little restricted, but not too bad.

The show is restaged a bit, but the essence is the same as at the Young Vic. Sound quality is very good.

At the previous venue, there were lots of seats for the performers to interact with. Here, they can only really get to the middle of the front row (I was almost in the safe zone). So only book these if you enjoy a bit of audience participation, you don't mind having someone sit on your lap, or having James Patrick Davis singing seductively into your eyes and playing footsies with you. On the positive side, Stavros Demetraki very much seems to enjoy helping everyone to cool off. You also get lots of smoke in your eyes.

The front row yesterday was all male (singles and couples) which was an interesting dynamic.

I thought the show much more sexually charged in its new iteration, especially between Anoushka Lucas and Georgina Onuorah (Georgina is also absolutely fabulous as Ado Annie and brought the house down).

To answer earlier questions, the house lights stay on. It is uncomfortably hot at times, especially at the front, so dress accordingly. It also gets pitch black, I thought it even more pitch black (if that's a valid phrase) than at the Young Vic. There are plenty of warning signs, but I've no idea if anyone read them.

The audience was generally very polite, apart from a few inappropriate laughers. I got the impression most people had not seen this before. The ending is very powerful and better staged for the majority than before, not least because everyone is watching from the same angle. Hopefully without spoiling it, I will say they got the jets exactly right.

As I say, this remains excellent. The casting is top notch. You just can't get the intimacy of the Young Vic at this venue, so I'd recommend sitting near the front of the Stalls (or the front of the Circle if you want to avoid a musician obstructed view), but the cast do their best to draw everyone in.

And the lovely Luke Redmore was directing everyone in the queues on the way into the theatre. What more could you want to start the evening off with a smile?

Running time was just over 3 hours.

Fellow human beings?  Yes.  

A simple Google search for that names comes up with an actor who seems to have quite a good MT cv including West end BOM, so if this is the same person then the poster is doing nothing wrong with putting their full name and obviously recognised them. They are also complementing them.
It's not that unusual to see actors working FOH, I often see them at the Palladium.
I remember a recent visit to the Palladium and the theatre was late opening so there was a huge crowd outside waiting to go in. One of the FOH staff stood at the top of the stairs and made an announcement in such a loud projected voice that everyone could hear him quite clearly. I looked at my friend and said "he's definately an actor".

I didn't go up there, but I think it would be a decent view from near the front of the Grand Circle. The sound seems well managed everywhere.

I was sat all the way up in the grand circle and the heavy heavy fog meant that I could barely see the dancer in the dream ballet. Caught maybe 50% of her performance if that. They seriously need to scale down the fog.

Anyway, I still enjoyed this, but I feel like something was lost when the staging was adapted. Less impactful and some of the lounging around stage felt less natural and engaging like this?

I'm a huge fan of the original and I know this production is not for me - but I am nosy - can you please spoil for me what the new ending is?