Pacific Overtures - Menier Chocolate Factory

I was there last night. Flying back to NYC this afternoon.

First impression is that it needs more and has room to get it

I’ve never seen another production. People around me have said the same.

It’s clear that the minimal setting is under utilized.

Some cast members will sit in the audience so please do not put you wine glass on the floor if your in the aisle. The audience on the other side will have a good laugh.

The cast is good. No stand-out performances

The show is 1 hour 45 minutes.

I saw this last night. Certainly enjoyed it but it was a bit of a mixed bag.

Pros - the design and staging. The finale. At least half of the musical numbers. Some great directorial choices.

Cons - Very slow to get going. Lacking in energy. Very poor diction meaning Sondheim's intricate lyrics were often lost, even though I was in the front row and actors were often only a few feet from me.

It's a strange little show, isn't it? It's by far the Sondheim show I know least well - I have three recordings but never feel like playing them. I have seen it once before, at the Donmar twenty years ago, and I remember almost nothing of that production. Even for Sondheim, it feels like an intellectual experiment and I think my biggest problem with it is that its dramatic integrity (even more so now in this edited version without Chrysanthemum Tea) also means that, for half of the show, it just isn't very engaging or dramatic. It's so intent on not letting the Broadway musical/western influences in until the point in the story that Japan starts to open up, that it ends up lacking drive or energy also until that point. I wouldn't mind this if I felt the first half was really beautiful and magical, but (even with some exquisite moments, like the Poems song) it just feels like we're waiting for Sondheim and Weidman to stop pretending to be Japanese and to get to what they do best. I just don't find this portion of the show convincing or engaging. Maybe that's just me - I don't know. But it all felt very very flat until we got to Someone in a Tree and Please Hello. I'd be interested to read comments from people who know the show better than I do, to get a sense of whether this is endemic to the sript, or it's a fault with this production.

I am there tonight.

I caught it last night as well.

I can only say that it is a decent production of a not very good show.

Works as a history lesson but otherwise has no emotional weight of for that matter, heart.

Liked the design, the direction and performances but the score proves that even the theatre "Gods" are fallible.

*** from me.

Saw this last night.

I thought it was very good. It was a full house. We were very tightly packed in.

I have only ever seen an amateur production of this show many years ago so knew the basic storyline outline. I also knew the songs as I have a cast recording an on occasion, a song may come up on a random playlist, but it was good to see it all in context.

Personally, I missed Chrysanthemum Tea. I guess there's a reason why they chose to cut it.

There is much to like about this production.

Firstly, the intimacy of the space. I have been to the Menier so many times that I've lost count but you're so close to the performers.

I loved the costumes and wigs.

Each one of those cast members is working really hard.

As minimal as it was, the set worked.

I loved the ships (Four Black Dragons), the way a battle ship was made out of a bedsheet and when the foreign ambassadors arrived (Don't Touch The Coat!).

Another Sondheim ticked off my list!

When it finished and started walking back to the station I realised how little I know about Japan.

Really enjoyed this yesterday. It’s a classy production and one of the best uses of traverse at MCF. The sound balance between vocals and instrumentals was exceptional (it’s so rare to have it this good.)

Also it was so well sung.

Like so much Sondheim the vocal lines are not easy. There’s not much lyrical music in the score, the exception being Pretty Lady. Most of the songs are relatively rapid motivic phrases of 4 or 5 notes. Because of that performances resort to a kind of sprechgesang - and that includes the original, and excellent, Broadway recording - but yesterday it was refreshing to hear most of the notes actually sung.

Is there quite a small pool of Asian musical theatre performers in the UK? I note that the same few performers seem to pop up in every Asian based/focused show as if the talent pool must be pretty small. Do we not see many Asian performers come over to drama school here? Is there just a lack of interest in performing/the arts within our Asian communities?

I'm sure there is an interest, but imagine telling your first generation parents, who have made huge sacrifices to give you a better life, that you want to be an actor, rather than the doctor/lawyer/accountant they had been hoping for.

The critics seem to like it. Lots of 4 stars.

A mixed experience as others have said above,but worth the effort.

Just a note 're comfort. We were really packed in and sitting at the end of the row meant 1.45 with your head at 45 degrees and no ability to swivel at all.
Also the a\c u it above was blasting down on us when it was 3degrees outside. Much shuffling to put coats back on. I

There's an explanation in the programme by John Weidman why he and Sondheim have decided to cut Chrysanthemum Tea. Although a"tour De force" it destroys the tone the authors want. I think you'll wait a long time to see a production with it included.

I sat in the back right, right by the sliding doors.  There is a column right in front that blocks a lot of what is going on inside the doors, but the rest of the stage is not restricted.  I have thought about going back again to sit in a different area so that I could get a complete view of the stage.

Had a similarly unpleasant experience at the weekend.  Having booked fairly early (i.e. before the usual Menier price increase policy kicked in), my friend had picked two seats at the left end of the row on what is probably considered the "back" of the auditorium.  These seats were sold at full price and not marked as "restricted view" in any way, shape or form.  

Lo and behold, the view from them - and especially from the one at the very end of the rod - was super restricted by a pillar that's at least a good 20 cm wide.  Yes, most of the action takes place at a more central location on stage, to the right of the pillar, but having such a chunky object in your visual field is massively distracting anyway, and there are a fair few bits happening to the left of the pillar and... on the opposite side of the pillar itself which plays the role of a tree, at some point.  

We thought it was rather unfair that the venue had put those seats on sale at full price in the first place, but perhaps even a touch shady that they did not include a warning re: the pillar.  Plenty of other theatres in London - the Almeida and the Old Vic come to mind - are very thorough at marking seats that have (much thinner, btw) pillars in the way as restricted/partially restricted view, and they price them accordingly.  The NT goes to the extreme of labelling "restricted view" their front row seats for "Infinite lives" at the Dorfman, where actually there's no impediment in the way whatsoever, and the stage is set at a comfortably low height.   

Because of this, my friend contacted the Menier Box Office to flag that those seats should have been marketed as providing a significantly restricted view and that, like many other venues in London do under the circumstances, they probably should have been priced taking that into account. 

The response from the Menier's management was rather disappointing.  First of all, they offered my friend the (oh so generous...) opportunity to see the show again, maybe from different seats, that they would have been able to buy at the preview price instead of the now updated higher price.  Secondly, they told an interesting story of how only during previews had they become aware that views might have been somehow restricted from those seats, and so they couldn't have adapted their prices in advance. 

Which is, quite frankly, hard to believe and not a very honest answer.  Even am dram productions - which get virtually no tech time in the venue they'll perform at - pay special attention to how their staging works and impacts the view for audience, and so it wouldn't be unfair to expect a professional production to be at least conscious of the space they'll be inhabiting.  Further, it is not the first time that the Menier uses this very set-up in the traverse, and so that pillar will have been obstructing views for audience members in other productions... so Mr Babani and the Menier's management must be very much aware of it by now. 

Speaking of which, the venue itself is not in great conditions.  What once was the restaurant upstairs now looks like a rather decrepit community hall, the bathrooms have issues with water not running smoothly and taking forever to refill the toilet tanks, and overall they don't really convey a sense of hygiene and tidiness.  It's all very sad, as in its own quirky kind of way the Menier used to be a venue I looked forward to visiting and spending time at, the restaurant upstairs used to feel warm and cosy and sort of invited you in as you made your way to the actual theatre.  I've seen so many memorable productions there, but if this is the standard they're content with nowadays, well... I don't feel like I'll want to go back particularly soon.