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Post by David J on Sept 11, 2020 11:43:16 GMT
Please don’t take out If I Can’t Love Her. Such a stirring end to the first act
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Post by David J on Sept 10, 2020 19:42:32 GMT
To anyone who has seen this would someone sitting at the extreme end of the front row likely miss any big moments at the back? Would one take the lower or higher numbered seat
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Post by David J on Sept 10, 2020 17:52:53 GMT
This has been an ongoing controversy for the last few weeks. Basically Netflix has released a film about a group of young girls deciding to start a twerking dance group and explore their sexuality
Apparently this movie is criticising the sexualisation of children in today's media and is meant to shock audiences. But at the same time the director had this group of girls be trained to do overtly sexualised dance routines for this film to make her point
And you can find clips from the film of them dancing that is being shared on twitter, including one involving a security guard, as well as descriptions of plot points and it is disturbing.
Saying that this had to be done to address the issue does not excuse it and shouldn't encourage filmmakers to do this.
Reminds me of the The Nether that addressed a more nauseating topic brilliantly and shockingly by IMPLYING what was going on.
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Post by David J on Sept 10, 2020 10:35:30 GMT
Diary of Anne Frank
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Post by David J on Sept 8, 2020 20:19:57 GMT
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)?
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Post by David J on Sept 5, 2020 4:57:28 GMT
Had a wonderful night out seeing the first performance of this concert at Broadlands, Romsey headed by John Owen Jones, Earl Carpenter, Katie Hall and Kerry Ellis
Audience is situated in groups of up to four in little plots. All spaced out so the cheapest is a way a way from the stage but there is a screen to see the faces
A variety of the usual songs as well as Into the Unknown (Frozen 2), Evermore (Beauty and the Beast remake), In Lily’s Eyes The Sexret Garden), and John and Earl playing off each other with A Musical (Something Rotten) and You’re Nothing Without Me (City of Angels)
Some quaint humour sprinkled in including a jab at Phantom being closed
Everyone sang songs from musicals they had been in. Earl Carpenter sang Sunset Boulevard wonderfully, Kerry Ellis sang a song from We Will Rock You and As Long As Your Mine with John. Katie gave her rendition of Think if Me and All I ask of You with Earl. Both he and John gave a duet of Music of the Night
And of course the night rounded off with Les Mis. John and Earl gave their Bring him Home and Stars as well as Confrontation. Made me wish I hadn’t missed Earl in the 2010 tour. Kerry Ellis was kinda left out I must say. As a former Fantine couldn’t she have done a duet of I Dreamed a Dream with Katie Hall
Complaints would be if you’re at the front you have to wait a long time standing around before you’re ushered back to your car. And there was a pre-show video where Earl Carpenter asked us to please use their phones to promote the show and reluctantly promote John and Kelly’s albums. And he does this whilst putting on...an act...of speaking...like...this. Which is fine except he also listed all the many rules of distancing, keeping to your plots and the facilities which went on and on
But a lovely evening seeing John and Earl together again
Concert is going to Bywell Hall, Newcastle and the British Motor Museum outside Warwick
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Post by David J on Aug 29, 2020 17:45:16 GMT
Pepe, Ricardo and Maimuna are on for the matinee today - I'm seeing it this evening, so I assume this means no Ricardo for me. (Which is fine because I loved Declan and Tyrone in 2016, but I'm dragging a friend along and was hoping I could introduce her to Ricardo's Judas.) Just hoping the weather holds because I'm on the grass banks this time... You’d be pleased to know they are on tonight
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Post by David J on Aug 28, 2020 15:53:41 GMT
Even without including furlough payments for 90% of its staff, the RSC receives just under £15 million a year from the taxpayer, via ACE. All we have received in return this summer are two 45 minute pop-up performances, three days a week! Don’t forget Dorans interviews with the rsc’s previous top performers that only subscribers and members could watch
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Post by David J on Jul 30, 2020 18:47:10 GMT
I think the only continuous long runner for a musical will be The Lion King as Mamma Mia! has moved theatres twice and they replaced the set when they moved to the Novello. As I said, I don't think any show should continue their long run after this pandemic
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Post by David J on Jul 28, 2020 22:36:42 GMT
But as for bringing this touring version in, didn't they do something similar when Les Mis moved from the Palace to the Queens, by using a set used for a touring version and with some revisions made to the staging and choreography? Yet people did still refer to it as the original? Unless the original creatives (Trevor Nunn, John Caird, John Napier, etc) were involved? I never saw the Palace production but the Queens version, the touring set design and direction as you say, is generally the same as what was envisaged by the original team. Just on a smaller scale with I'm sure people here can point out some tweaks here and there and additions like the proscenium. If the 2020 touring Phantom set is being brought in at least that is closer to the original than the current Les Mis set is. Last year I said that to my mind Les Mis will loose its longest running musical by this October. Now I'd say every long running show in London and Broadway should start all over again after this pandemic. Cameron can say all he likes that Les Mis and Phantom are still running in 10 to 20 years from now whilst pretending they are still what was envisaged from the start, this long gap does not count. At least Les Mis can now keep its title for roughly the next 34 years and not be overtaken by shows like Mamma Mia.
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Post by David J on Jul 27, 2020 17:09:50 GMT
The Mousetrap is re-opening late October
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Post by David J on Jul 24, 2020 10:31:15 GMT
I wanted to book for the Camelot actor-musician concert, just to cross it off the list of stage musicals to see, but you can only book a table for at least 2 with a meal (which consists of cold meats and salads) for the price of £120. Now, I DO want to support theatres and I'm glad that the theatre's performances have sold out (and they've got an audience there who can afford this), but I wasn't prepared to pay for this. I don't even have anyone to go with me apart from my mother, who doesn't like musicals.
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Post by David J on Jul 22, 2020 18:12:23 GMT
1. Simon Russel Beale 2. Kathryn Hunter 3. Orson Welles (if the previous rules didn’t apply) 4. Patrick Stewart
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Post by David J on Jul 22, 2020 12:29:50 GMT
Michelle Terry also played Hamlet and Rosalind but that's repeating
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Post by David J on Jul 22, 2020 7:58:08 GMT
1. Mary Tuomanen 2. 3. Michelle Terry 4. 5. 6. Kathryn Hunter 7. Mark Rylance 8. Harriet Walter
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Post by David J on Jul 17, 2020 15:29:37 GMT
2012 RSC Twelfth Night had a tank of water at the end of the stage in the corner. When the show started Viola got into the tank somewhere, swam under and and appeared dragging herself onto the stage like it was the shore. Sebastian appeared there as well.
Later sir Andrew aguecheek leapt in at the sight of Jonathan Slinger as the party pooper Malvolio. We were sitting at the front by that corner. The ushers gave us towels before the show to cover ourselves
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Post by David J on Jun 18, 2020 16:10:51 GMT
I've been going through the House series on amazon. It bugged me that Dr House's team had left at the end of season three and I go straight through to season 4 and it turns out they're still there.
I thought maybe I'm used to TV series making a big thing about established characters leaving and that maybe I should take a break before watching the next season because it certainly felt jarring.
Then again by season 8 I'm now used to the writers have team members leave and return all of a sudden like the hospital is a revolving door.
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Post by David J on Jun 7, 2020 19:11:47 GMT
And if anybody mentions, La La Land had the advantage of being a call-back to the old stylistic musical films. The Oscars love call-back films like The Artist
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Post by David J on Jun 7, 2020 13:09:05 GMT
I've just watched this video on Cats by youtuber Lindsay Ellis, who makes some very insightful essay videos on musical films like Phantom. Well worth a watch but the last 5 minutes sums up why I don't want a Miss Saigon movie, or even Hamilton for that matter.
She mentions how much of the big film musicals since Moulin Rouge and Chicago have been Oscar bait films (the added unnecessary song, the casting of celebrities and so on). Except the Oscars nowadays prefer films set in realism which made Tom Hooper a shoe-in with his need to make Les Mis and Cats realistic.
Is there still a market for musical films. Sure, but if you want a film that's true to the source material then don't expect Hollywood to make one and they are certainly unable to make a Miss Saigon film
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Post by David J on Jun 4, 2020 11:48:13 GMT
I Get a Kick Out of You - Anything Goes
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Post by David J on Jun 4, 2020 11:37:40 GMT
Cameron Mackintosh did say Miss Saigon will become a film is Les Miserables was successful
Still, in an ideal world we would cast actual musical actors for the film but this is Hollywood we're talking about. You need people like Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe to bring the crowds in. Perhaps get a musical actress for Kim (someone who actually comes from Vietnam, Hollywood would like that) but otherwise...
Who would be the Engineer or Chris?
I wonder if making a Miss Saigon film is awkward for Hollywood since China is the second biggest movie market and Hollywood has been cosying up to them altering their movies and so on
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Post by David J on Jun 3, 2020 0:46:17 GMT
Zombie - Fela
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Post by David J on Jun 1, 2020 19:55:32 GMT
Loved Bertie Carvel’s cold and menacing Miss Trunchball pre-west end. Hate his more shrill Trunchball after that
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Post by David J on Jun 1, 2020 13:36:05 GMT
I am the Freak Show - The Grinning Man
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Post by David J on May 29, 2020 20:34:48 GMT
I find Jeremy Herrin a great ensemble director. Much Ado, Wolf Hall, People Places and Things, Uncle Vanya, Junkyard - I noticed in every production how he gets the best out of everyone, not just the leads. Even in small productions like The House they Grew Up in and The Nether the acting is top notch
If the acting is a bit broad and stylised I think its called for here because many of the cast members are doubling up as multiple MPs that many younger audience members don't even know (I certainly didn't). They all were switching accents and characteristics and every character they played stood out.
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