529 posts
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Post by ruby on Mar 25, 2022 13:02:28 GMT
Saw this in Bath last night and absolutely loved it. I know who Carole King is but had no idea she wrote so many well known songs.
The cast were all excellent, I really enjoyed the actor musician aspect, and thought the whole thing flowed really well.
My parents were supposed to go but tested positive yesterday so I went instead. Can't wait to see it again in Cardiff with them, I'm sure they'll love it too.
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Post by newda on Apr 16, 2022 17:51:13 GMT
Saw it this week in Southampton and thought it was great.
I was a bit reserved at first having seen this thread, but the way they've done it is very clever with the band being part of the cast. I like the way they all take turns on the instruments, drums, guitars, brass, rotating fluidly so they can be centre stage for their parts in the story. I don't remember much from the London version I last saw, but it was certainly an enjoyable production and brought something quite different to the show the way it was staged.
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41 posts
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Post by louonthegogo on Jul 24, 2022 11:52:38 GMT
Any deals on for this yet? I rarely go to England for touring shows but this doesn't appear to be making any stop in Dublin (and ticket prices in Belfast are ludicrous as always). Looking at the Liverpool leg, it seems to have very few sales, so I imagine some discount tickets will prop up? I'm looking to bring my mam for her birthday.
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Post by musiqualetheater on Jul 24, 2022 21:06:12 GMT
Any deals on for this yet? I rarely go to England for touring shows but this doesn't appear to be making any stop in Dublin (and ticket prices in Belfast are ludicrous as always). Looking at the Liverpool leg, it seems to have very few sales, so I imagine some discount tickets will prop up? I'm looking to bring my mam for her birthday. I haven’t seen any, but at Cardiff I just bought a cheap ticket and on the door they told everyone to sit wherever in the better circle. I asked at the box office for deals but they were adamant in not discounting! |
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19,783 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Oct 11, 2022 21:43:50 GMT
Well,you can tell this is a Curve/Nikolai Foster production the minute you walk into the auditorium because there’s a huge lighting rig all spread out over the stage and “those lights” (the ones used in Sunset Boo, A Chorus Line and Billy Elliott) were very much all present and correct. And the Curve’s huge open stage layout is replicated with the entire backstage area of The Palace exposed. The corrugated iron side walls and the very back wall which is made from breeze blocks in full view. Sat at the front of the stalls I could see into the wings, up into the flys where crew were flying in set and lighting rigs as well as actors and crew coming and going throughout.
As for the show, I wasn’t really looking forward to it because I found the tour of the WE version to be dreary largely due to the cast who seemed to be phoning it in. It looked nice but that was about it. This on the other hand is probably the best actor musician show I’ve ever seen. So dynamic, and much more gritty. The set is minimal but works perfectly with the overall aesthetic described above. That big lighting rig does its thing admirably. With the exception of one cast member who gets a lead singing role in a couple of the songs and was really not up to it, the rest of the cast were fabulous. I felt absolutely no compromise with the quality of the instrument playing as can often be the case. They’re all very very young and Molly Grace Cutler reads a bit older than most of them, including the actor playing her mother unfortunately but my word she performs it fantastically and actually sounds like CK which is something Brontë Barbe in the previous tour absolutely did not.
I loved it. And from going in with my expectations on the floor I came out blown away. The rest of the audience loved it too. Standing ovation for a cast who looked a bit overwhelmed and delighted by the reception.
This production has completely turned around my opinion of this show. A big ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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2,263 posts
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Post by richey on Oct 11, 2022 22:04:10 GMT
I was there tonight too- cheap seats at the back of the stalls. I found the set extremely distracting, with the massive gaps either side and the rear wall in full view.
Can't fault the cast, some great performances though not sure it was worthy of the now customary "must leap to my feet" ovation. I'm not a massive fan of actor/musician productions but in this case it works (with a few exceptions).
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3,319 posts
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Post by david on Nov 16, 2022 18:58:42 GMT
Having seen the original WE production and loving it so when I heard that there would be an actor-musician version, I was in two minds as to whether to get a ticket or not for its Liverpool stop this week. However, based on both the very positive review BurlyBeaR and the chance to bag a £20 front row seat in the stalls, I took a punt on this last night and any concerns I had about it quickly evaporated, and I came away loving this version from Nickolai Foster and his creative team. Whilst the set itself can only be de described as functional rather than anything spectacular, the biggest issue I had was that because it didn't fill the vast Empire stage, from my seat, I could clearly see a lot of the backstage and cast and crew moving around during the show which was a big distraction from my seat. I would have loved the unused stage to have been curtained off to mitigate the distraction. Where this show won me over was with the cast and having them play their own instruments. Having seen a number of actor-musician shows over the years, this type of production has been very hit or miss with me. Some shows I have loved whilst others just left me cold. With this show it works really well and felt a natural part of the show. Molly-Grace Cutler was just stunning. Despite her appearing older than her other cast members, vocally, she sounded just like CK was actually on stage at times as she was singing those iconic songs. With respect to the other cast members, they were all equally as great in singing their numbers. From, last night's show, I would say that this is the model to use for actor-musician shows in the future. Rating - 5 stars and standing ovation |
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Post by joanna123 on Nov 19, 2022 8:11:03 GMT
I had the opposite issue in Cambridge, the set was too big for the stage and people were being moved seats on arrival from one side of the auditorium to the other so they would be able to see.
It was a great show though, everyone was on their feet at the end.
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594 posts
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Post by og on Nov 19, 2022 8:33:17 GMT
Having seen the original WE production and loving it so when I heard that there would be an actor-musician version, I was in two minds as to whether to get a ticket or not for its Liverpool stop this week. However, based on both the very positive review BurlyBeaR and the chance to bag a £20 front row seat in the stalls, I took a punt on this last night and any concerns I had about it quickly evaporated, and I came away loving this version from Nickolai Foster and his creative team. Whilst the set itself can only be de described as functional rather than anything spectacular, the biggest issue I had was that because it didn't fill the vast Empire stage, from my seat, I could clearly see a lot of the backstage and cast and crew moving around during the show which was a big distraction from my seat. I would have loved the unused stage to have been curtained off to mitigate the distraction. Where this show won me over was with the cast and having them play their own instruments. Having seen a number of actor-musician shows over the years, this type of production has been very hit or miss with me. Some shows I have loved whilst others just left me cold. With this show it works really well and felt a natural part of the show. Molly-Grace Cutler was just stunning. Despite her appearing older than her other cast members, vocally, she sounded just like CK was actually on stage at times as she was singing those iconic songs. With respect to the other cast members, they were all equally as great in singing their numbers. From, last night's show, I would say that this is the model to use for actor-musician shows in the future. Rating - 5 stars and standing ovation woah, 5 stars for a show where you're distracted by cast and crew movement 'backstage', how would you rate a flawless show?  |
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Post by ruthieh on Nov 24, 2022 23:07:32 GMT
Just home from seeing this at Oxford. I loved it too. Molly-Grace Cutler was extremely good. I certainly preferred her to Brontë Barbe in the last tour a few years back.
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3,349 posts
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Post by Dr Tom on Nov 30, 2022 10:38:17 GMT
Managed to catch this on Friday evening in Oxford, prior to the end of the tour (I would have tried for Saturday were it not for the rail strikes). Hadn't realised you can go from Marylebone to Oxford for under £20 with a network railcard, even for the evening peak, so something I'll remember when checking where musicals are touring.
I wanted to see this again as it's one of my favourite musicals and I fear it may not tour again soon.
I still find the style of this version very different to the original, but you can't certainly can't fault the music or the talent of everyone involved. There was just so much energy and they presented the songs with a real rock feel to them. A few ad-libs too. I thought the set fit well on the New Oxford Theatre stage. The vocals and performance of Molly-Grace Cutler are excellent.
A little bonus as well was having Alexander Zayne (who wasn't with the tour when I saw this at Leicester) on as Neil Sedaka (and, as the on-stage Musical Director too). I already knew he was very talented, and purely by chance (as I didn't know he would be on), I ended up on the front row at the side he was playing. A great bonus.
As I mentioned, glad I saw this again and I hope this production has a further life, but I'm not sure if it quite lived up to expectations on the sales front. Still, well done to everyone involved.
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