Jest End returns

Myself and danieljohnson14 will be there on the 4th - very much looking forward to it!

Currently interval and I couldn't agree more with you. I really enjoyed it last year, but this year's production is much weaker. One or two funny numbers so far, but most of it is just unfunny and stupid.

Really think they should've made a break this year and returned next year or even the year after next, as Garry Lake seems to have run out of ideas.

Casting is also not as strong as last year. I quite like Bronté Barbé and Dan Buckley, the other two not so much.

13 audience members - at least they didn't cancel the performance.

Fingers crossed for a stronger second act. Currently, I wouldn't give it more than 2*.

Second act was stronger but still far from being good. However, I couldn't help myself and had to laugh out loud during the Sarah Harding number.

Also, it was really short. Finished by 9.10pm including a 20min interval. Most numbers in the 2nd act were just hinted.

I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately I can't give it more than 2* - and that's with much goodwill.

Really hope this takes a creative break and doesn't return for the next 2 or 3 years.

13 people. What a shame for everyone involved.

In that kind of situation why don't they tweet out a last minute ticket offer? Surely it has to be better to fill the seats, even if they are reducing prices.

My smallest audience was 3 and that included the theatre director. It was in London.

Just over 50 - so 6%!

I've worked on shows with 4% audience, but only in fringe. Had 5% audience in a 1000 seat West End house once. That was an awkward show. Full house standing ovation though!

Worth a visit. Needs more trade.

Worth seeing for Bronte Barbe as Billy Elliot, and, in contrast, as a, curvy, mermaid .Liked her Jersey Boys too. She's really good at comedy and characters - and sounds great too- singing the lyrics and adding some money notes. No idea what she was wearing in Circle of life. Jemma Alexander added some nice work, and added to Bronte's soprano power. Her spin off of Vanities(?) was really impressive. And the two together, in homage to Sideshow, was good - if short. the boys were fine - and would have been better with better sound levels set. If they hadn't sounded so similar , there might have been more contrast and a suitably gruff Crowe - but as if they reportedly only found one male lead very late , you can see why thats so. 

I think its now got a series of structural problems. People who saw the last one , and its transfer, may not want to see it again - or find out if they should. Westend Wendy, if I recall, missed some previous sketches she liked, that were not there - while others didn't want to see the same ones again. Barrowman, for example, doesn't work as well - since he's gone to pantoland in the sky - with Torchwood. The answer is to put new shows in , but if people haven't seen them, its like mimicking the invisible man . Wot they taking off now, was sometimes  the response - apart from from the MT students and mega Broadway fans. There was more mileage in Half a Sixpence, although obvious problems doing Mrs Henderson .....or Showboat, or the Bodyguard. Some  ideas were dealt with with skecthes that were too short too - Side show - Phantom....

The C list names are taking over material is over done, but there's room there for a more effective Kenwright cheapo sketch. Ghost was along the right lines - very funny - though Sarah had escaped some people's news knowledge. The problem isn't C listers - its not picking the really good ones. or the really good pros, and subjecting audiences to the bad ones. Its now pretty random whether the C lister is brilliant casting, mediocre, or plain bad.

There's also some stuff thats just nasty, and wrong headed. Frances Ruffelle has a far bigger place in MT history than Lake , she doesn't look anyting like her age, and she's about to play another Westend lead - cut that bit - its wrong on taste, and fact. And the Les Mis stuff verges on envy - it succeeds because its good, its message is universal and veverlasting, and because its characters can change with, new, good enough, different actors playing them. If you want to make fun of it, go for Crowe murdering Javert more effectively, add whispering Jonas, or alto Christine, perhaps, keep Stares, and think of something original for some other characters, don't just envy the success.