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Post by David J on Jun 11, 2023 13:16:57 GMT
If you’re tall your knees will be up against the railing. You’ll also miss any action below you but the intimacy of the theatre makes up for it
I’d say the further you are to the front end of the slips, rather than above the stage, the better the view
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Post by David J on Jun 9, 2023 10:19:38 GMT
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (Watermill Theatre)
Me and a friend to this on the strength of the four star reviews. I'm afraid we left at the interval.
Not that the production and acting wasn't terrible. Some of the director's choices were well done.
The problem was the script. I read on the Guardian review that they decided to change up the structure of the story, afraid that people who have read the book or seen the TV series will predict everything and wanted to keep them guessing.
But for someone who hasn't read the book or see the TV series the tooing and froing from present to past and there and back again left me disconnected from the story playing catch up with whats going on.
I'm sure it was a good production, and at 1 hour and 45 minutes long it did feel like a pacy production in the first act.
This just didn't work for me.
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Post by David J on Jun 7, 2023 17:51:15 GMT
Or be a Victorian to get Oliver. Or be a campanologist to get Hunchback of Notre Dame. Or be a cat to get Cats. Wait, no-one gets Cats. Do you have to be bad to get Cinderella? Or spend 19 years in prison for stealing some bread where you’re treated as sub-human and made to do back breaking labour to understand Les Miserables
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Post by David J on Jun 2, 2023 13:39:49 GMT
I'm going to book this but I'd love to know {Spoiler - click to view} Do they still have the guy in the Groundhog suit appearing during a dance sequence playing on a drum kit during the second act?
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Post by David J on May 31, 2023 13:08:56 GMT
That was on the RST stage. You're thinking of King John aren't you True. King John. Another one he didn’t produce at all was Pericles. That was disappointing. Would love to see a full scale production of Pericles on the RST. Should have seen the National Theatre community production. Still, I bet whatever the RSC could have cooked up could not have exceeded the Dominic Drongoole's brilliant Sam Wanamaker production
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Post by David J on May 31, 2023 9:40:12 GMT
The Two Gents did get an outing in Newcastle as well as a broadcast. But Godwin should have been nurtured rather than discarded He even relegated his own production of Troilus to a short run in the Swan despite his initial promise to produce every play in the canon on the main RST stage. That was on the RST stage. You're thinking of King John aren't you
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Post by David J on May 20, 2023 22:20:47 GMT
Saw having put off seeing this after so many years and I thought it was 4 star worthy
But to anyone balking at the £80 prices, if you’ve seen shows like the 39 steps or anything by Le Navet Bete recently, I say keep trying the lottery. This is not worth £80
It’s your usual small cast double role-ing, comedic retelling of xxx subject matter. With the usual wall breaking, musical references and using different song styles like rapping to set apart each song
Not that there weren’t some clever bits in this. The tangled phone wire scene was the highlight for me and there the occasional laugh out loud moment. And Jak Malone as Hester singing the love letter song was touching as intended. Got a longer applause than others
But haven’t we moved on from the buck-tooth, hunched, introverted nerd stereotype? I rolled my eyes at that
But generally the cast were great. Including holly sumpton who was on at Montagu
Very good show. But I’m glad I didn’t pay full price to see this
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Post by David J on May 19, 2023 13:09:21 GMT
Saw the broadcast yesterday and enjoyed it.
As someone who knows nothing about the debate and only a little about the events surrounding it I appreciated the amount of set up the play took amongst the debate scenes. Though they did make the play feel long.
Whilst the sudden switching back and forth between scenes felt jarring initially, it was better compared to Motive and the Cue's predictable structure.
Enjoyed David Harewood and Zachary Quinto's performances. The others played characters a bit larger than life but like James Graham and Jeremy Herrin's This House it helped me get up to speed with what's going on and everyone's point of views
4 stars
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Post by David J on May 18, 2023 22:59:02 GMT
I hear you. But his Dennis Nilson on the telly was so chilling, and really showed me how good he can be even when he isn't using his very considerable comedic skills. I feel he can do anything if he sets his mind to it, basically. My only worry (as suggested by Jan above) is whether the production and vision around him holds up. Fingers crossed. Yes on TV the lack of a live audience was in his favour. I think he can probably be good but it will be difficult with Max Webster directing. On Simon R-B who I've seen a lot more than Tennant: There's a story about Jack Lemon in the film of Glengarry Glen Ross. They rehearsed it for weeks like a play and in rehearsal Lemon played the character really cold and bleak and unsympathetic and it was perfect. But then as soon as the cameras were turned on he put a bit of a twinkle into it, like he couldn't help giving his audience what they were expecting. I think SR-B is a bit like that, he can't play wholly wretched unsympathetic characters, not like Fiennes for example who I think is far better suited to Macbeth. Jury is out on Tennant. Yeah, I wish I could have seen SRB in his earlier years but I get the impression he prefers playing over the top, comedic roles like Collaborators and London Assurance. He's fine playing serious roles, though I didn't enjoy his King Lear. Played it too mean spirited for my liking. And when he plays angry he has this tendency to speak the lines sPiTTing The sYLlaBles anD sPeaKing QuicKly, like he has something against the lines themselves
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Post by David J on May 18, 2023 21:08:03 GMT
I find David Tennant is more comfortable with lighter, more comedic roles. . . I hear you. But his Dennis Nilson on the telly was so chilling, and really showed me how good he can be even when he isn't using his very considerable comedic skills. I feel he can do anything if he sets his mind to it, basically. My only worry (as suggested by Jan above) is whether the production and vision around him holds up. Fingers crossed. Sure. I think the right director could get him out of his comfort zone. Maybe growing a beard again will make him throw some more weight in macbeth.
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Post by David J on May 18, 2023 17:52:46 GMT
I find David Tennant is more comfortable with lighter, more comedic roles than the serious kind. Not that he can’t do tragic but his performances tend to be light weight.
I remember enjoying his hamlet and he was my favourite for a while. But I do think he was bringing out his inner Doctor during his antic disposition and Berowne in Loves Labours Lost later that year suited him more.
And I feel he gives the same light weight performances since. Much ado for one, though with catherine tate what would you expect. I couldn’t take him seriously as the dangerous character of Don Juan in Soho, leaning heavily on the comedy.
He was fine as Richard II but I’ve seen better, and I feel he’s going to be the same in Macbeth
Happy to be surprised. But I’ll take my chances on a possible nt broadcast or day seat
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Post by David J on May 15, 2023 13:52:40 GMT
Won the lottery! Got a ticket for Saturday evening
Plenty of seats offered around the edges of the stalls, dress cirle and upper circle
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Post by David J on May 15, 2023 0:48:04 GMT
Saw this on Saturday
This certainly has things to say but the execution is predictable and plodding at times
The length is felt during the recitals of the hamlet speeches and scenes. And sure we’re watching the rehearsals but all you get is the actors playing the actors who performed in this historic production.
Jack Thorne thinks he’s made something profound but you can just predict the next scene where Tuppence Middleton can get a look in as Elizabeth Taylor, or where everyone is at their low point, or the moment when John Gielgud shows vulnerability, or the eureka moment.
And it’s a eureka moment that comes out of the air. A better writer would be dropping bread crumbs over Richard Burtons issues growing up.
So sadly it’s a play that lifts the surface up but doesn’t delve deep beyond that.
Johnny Flynn is the reason to see this. He brings so much energy and liveliness as Richard Button. In contrast I found Mark Gatiss gave a good performance as Gielgud that wasn’t merely impersonation. But in comparison to Flynn his range barely moves beyond seasoned actor who is closed off and struggles to be director.
And you can sense Sam Mendes seeing this show through a wide angle camera lens the way it’s staged. Also this production uses that film trope of using text over a long shot image of main character telling what happened afterwards
Had its moments with some humour here and there. But nothing extraordinary
3.5 stars
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Post by David J on May 10, 2023 17:56:19 GMT
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Post by David J on May 3, 2023 18:42:13 GMT
The Guardian was the only non 4 or 5 star review but I get the impression they don't like much theatre. I'm not saying anything about this particular review, but I do have a feeling that some critics don't really care about theatre, or even know much of it either.
It would be great to have a place where we could read reviews on reviewers (and their reviews), with stars and everything.
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I can say the same a lot of the media these days. Not just in theatre but in newspapers, journals, magazines, and down to supposed 'fan' blogs there is an increasing number of journalists reviewing or writing about something they have no interest in or even have a disdain for the subject matter, and all they want to do is shove in their political views. This Kotaku review of the Playstation 5 back in 2020 for example was heavily mocked for the way the writer went from giving a okay review of the console to just moaning about the state of the world at the end - kotaku.com/playstation-5-the-kotaku-review-1845588904. That and the things the Guardian theatre reviewer says are just a drop in the myriad of terrible pieces you can read out there. It's funny you were suggesting about reviewing other people's reviews because on youtube there are an increasing number of channels who critique video reviews and essays to a minute detail. More geared towards film, video games and TV series. Admittedly they can go on for hours like EFAP (or Every Frame a Pause) www.youtube.com/@everyframeapause. As the title suggests they have live streams where they discuss every infinite detail about the latest media, video reviews and essays. And believe me its very popular. Even I tune into some of these long livestreams. There's a hunger for objective and lengthy discussion about media that mainstream journalists are increasingly incapable of doing. A trend that's been going on since particularly 2016 when Star Wars The Last Jedi came out, a film that is famously polarised between critics and fans.
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Post by David J on Apr 29, 2023 23:28:48 GMT
So I went up to Stratford after nearly 4 years to see Gregory Doran’s last hurrah with Cymbeline.
Firstly, it is long and it is felt in the first part running at 1 hour 30 minutes
It’s not helped by a cast of mixed performances. Some act like they’re in different productions. At times it livens proceedings. Alexandra Gilbreath and Conor Glean ham it up as the villainous Queen and clumsy Cloten whilst others played it straight
Jamie Wilkes was the standout in the first part as Iachimo. He owned the stage with his debonair performance. I’ve seen him in Shakespeare productions before and he knows how to deliver the verse.
Which unfortunately exposed Ed Sayer’s flat and pedestrian delivery as Posthumus. When he and Wilkes are on it’s like night and day. No real feeling when he has to show anguish or despair either. More performative
Amber James is better as Imogen but she doesn’t convince as this graceful, chaste princess. She could also do with speaking up in the main theatre. So when you’ve got a first part that centres around these two lovers you do feel that hour and 30 minutes go by.
The senior actors fare better with Peter de Jersey as Cymbeline and Mark Hadfield giving a nuanced performance as Pisanio. Other bright spots include Jake Mann as the suspicious doctor and Theo Ogundipe looking commanding in Roman armour
It’s the second part where things really settle down and the best scenes are found between Christian Patterson, Scott Gutteridge and Daf Thomas as the exiled Belarus and the missing sons. All performing off each other and giving natural and engaging performances. Just how Shakespeare should be performed. I could watch a show with those three any day. Except for an unnecessary song the lads sing untunefully. Even Amber James fared better with them pretending to be a boy
Good production values taking inspiration from that sun installation the Tate Modern had ages ago.
And you get a recording of Patrick Stewart playing Jupiter as a bonus
Overall I enjoyed myself by the end but there are problems here and there. 3.5 stars
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Post by David J on Apr 7, 2023 12:03:56 GMT
londontheatre.co.uk used to be my go to website, listing shows on and off west end on a day I select.
Since the website revamp, after I worked out where the date selection had disappeared to, practically any show that is not running yet is shown on a selected date. And they've cut down on the fringe shows they list. Only the popular venues and shows
I have to go to offwestend.com for fringe shows, though again after a revamp seems less intuitive. That grid layout with the information and promotional image cramped into boxes don't do it for me.
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Post by David J on Apr 4, 2023 12:31:51 GMT
Aren’t we forgetting the Regent’s Park one. Actually outdoors! Can’t get more major revival than that
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Post by David J on Mar 31, 2023 15:00:30 GMT
I think there's a cultural shift starting. Massive layoffs are happening at Disney, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and different media companies. The economic situation we're in is pushing this but overall they are trimming off the unnecessary fat. It doesn't matter who you are or look like, unless you're REALLY talented and can deliver products that can sell for them, you're out the door. Meritocracy in a nutshell. I find theatre is slow to react but soon I think companies will get people who who will focus on just getting quality plays and productions out there. Even if there's more safe revivals. Worthy of discussion on another thread anyway. As for Daniel Evans coming in. I don't know. I know he's done Shakespeare before and even performed in the RSC early in his career but moved onto performing and directing musicals with the occasional play since. I wonder if the RSC will start doing musicals again under his leadership. His track record as AD at Chichester has been good but not as outstanding as Jonathan Church. I've never been to Theatre Clwyd so can't comment on Tamara Harvey. Generally they seem better candidates than Erica Whyman and I'll remain hopeful that they will surprise me. I mean I thought Gregory Doran was a perfect choice for AD back in 2013. They just need to get the talent back to Stratford. And I hope they won't be treated like outsiders by the RSC who have been used to Doran and Whyman's leadership for the past decade. The layoffs at Disney and the tech companies are more to do with the fact they over expanded during the pandemic. True, but they've been putting on bloat before then and the quality has been declining for years. You can only look at how they and Lucasfilm under Kathleen Kennedy has been gradually running Star Wars into the ground. The current Mandalorian season I'd say represent the malaise going on in media
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Post by David J on Mar 31, 2023 14:41:35 GMT
I see this and other threads saying the artistic director should go - Erica Whyman, Vicky Featherstone, Rufus Norris, Gregory Doran, Michael Longhurst - and that major theatres are underperforming like Hampstead Upstairs. There is a general malaise going on in the theatre and media in general. It's a longer list than that. I find it a difficult thing to call. It looks like we are now likely past 'peak Woke'/Twittermob dominance, but for a time it must have been nearly impossible to manage 240 character agendas, programming and that other thing ... art!
Coincidentally, I see Lisa Burger, once of the Southbank parish, has popped up recently as a trustee to the Board at the ROH. Good hire.
I think there's a cultural shift starting. Massive layoffs are happening at Disney, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and different media companies. The economic situation we're in is pushing this but overall they are trimming off the unnecessary fat. It doesn't matter who you are or look like, unless you're REALLY talented and can deliver products that can sell for them, you're out the door. Meritocracy in a nutshell. I find theatre is slow to react but soon I think companies will get people who who will focus on just getting quality plays and productions out there. Even if there's more safe revivals. Worthy of discussion on another thread anyway. As for Daniel Evans coming in. I don't know. I know he's done Shakespeare before and even performed in the RSC early in his career but moved onto performing and directing musicals with the occasional play since. I wonder if the RSC will start doing musicals again under his leadership. His track record as AD at Chichester has been good but not as outstanding as Jonathan Church. I've never been to Theatre Clwyd so can't comment on Tamara Harvey. Generally they seem better candidates than Erica Whyman and I'll remain hopeful that they will surprise me. I mean I thought Gregory Doran was a perfect choice for AD back in 2013. They just need to get the talent back to Stratford. And I hope they won't be treated like outsiders by the RSC who have been used to Doran and Whyman's leadership for the past decade.
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Post by David J on Mar 31, 2023 12:57:38 GMT
I see this and other threads saying the artistic director should go - Erica Whyman, Vicky Featherstone, Rufus Norris, Gregory Doran, Michael Longhurst - and that major theatres are underperforming like Hampstead Upstairs. There is a general malaise going on in the theatre and media in general.
I could point out the firing of executive Victoria Alonso from Marvel Studios recently for one, after a year of gradually underperforming movies culminating in Ant Man 3 bombing. Though Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige should take some responsibility as well.
I could pick upon things like focusing on agenda or diversity and so on but overall there is overall lack of strong management. I may be nostalgic for the old days about 10 years ago and it's not as though there's been nothing but bad theatre ever since. But when can we admit that there's been a general decline in quality in places.
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Post by David J on Mar 30, 2023 0:13:11 GMT
Just back from the Julius Caesar press night Very poor piece of work. Not as bad as the infamous Troilus. But an ill conceived and, at times, amateurish effort I have seen more convincing student Shakespeare productions A friend saw it and left at the interval. Said they preferred Troilus to this!
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Post by David J on Mar 27, 2023 0:22:57 GMT
Saw this yesterday afternoon and had a wonderful time.
Standing in the immersive area was a treat though standing away from the centre seemed a better position. I took the opportunity to stand by the main stage for the start of the second act and enjoyed it there but I spent a good portion of Luck be a Lady Tonight looking at the ensemble's legs whilst Andrew Richardson stood on the opposite corner. The staging doesn't lend itself to full on ensemble pieces unless they're sitting down during Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat, by which time I went back to watching it from afar.
As for You're Rocking the Boat, the biggest disappointment for me was slowing down the chorus. The fast tempo I feel is what makes the song brilliant. And I don't think Cedric Neal meets Gavin Spokes' charm as Nicely.
The four leads are overall strong but I too think the show belongs to the guys. Every role I've seen Daniel Mays in he throws himself into and here he sells Nathan Detroit. From the voice to the gestures he's like a born-again New York gambler and genuinely funny. Andrew Richardson may be acting his inner Marlon Brando but he has the charisma and his acting was top notch.
Celinde Shoenmaker sung beautifully as Sarah Brown and was earnest as her walls broke down for Sky. Marisha Wallace is a great singer and I enjoyed her two numbers in the Hotbox nightclub. And the two of them were a great pair in Marry the Man Today.
I just feel Marisha could take more advantage of the comedy in songs like Adelaide's Lament. Not asking for Sophie Thompson levels of dumb blonde. Her and Daniel's rendition of Sue Me is wonderful, with him bringing the acting and her the singing and some acting. Now if she could meet his level of acting it could turn the song up a notch.
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Post by David J on Mar 22, 2023 15:35:29 GMT
that's a failure of the theatre. a really good play will end up selling well through word of mouth. the royal court's failure over the past 10 years hasn't been because they've embraced diversity, but because they appear to have no interest at all in the 'craft' of playwriting, or in supporting playwrights in producing the best version of their play. at a guess, they've wrongly identified good writing with conservatively structured 'well made' plays.. and thrown out the baby with the bathwater.. Well, I tend to agree that broadly speaking the current trends in fringe theatre are a certain type of play which may not sell particularly well somewhere like the RC, and plays that as a whole I'm not particularly interested in seeing personally (as others have said, quite didactic and lacking in more traditional theatrical structures) which is why I think a mixture of established names and new talent would be the most beneficial way to spread out a season. But when previous seasons were announced with established names, the debate always rages about RC in particular not meeting its remit, that fringe artists 'can't even get a look in/a meeting' and calls for this exact this type of show - so why aren't those same people booking these up when they're announced? If the complaint at the time is that the RC should be more radical in its programming, braver about who is produced, and not about the actual plays, then personally I think those same people should be putting their money where their mouth is and booking as soon as it's announced, rather than waiting for the reviews or word of mouth, otherwise their argument falls apart. 'They should be commissioning a certain type of play, but I won't go and see it and it won't sell well.' How does that help? This is a problem over all media. Companies listen to the demand for more diverse voices and actors but when they deliver, with mixed results, the audiences aren't actually there. Whilst I'm sure there are those who ask for diversity and consume the products aimed at them, they are actually a small audience. For the rest, all they care about is that companies are doing what they demand. This in turn is also alienating the established audiences, the loyal ones who pay lots of money to consume the products they love and just want a good story and be entertained, not be lectured or given sub-par stories. It's made even worse when one expresses their issues with the quality and is accused of every -ist or -phobe imaginable, especially from the creators themselves. People see that and go elsewhere. I do wonder how long it will be until the Royal Court turns their attention solely to writing that will make them profit.
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Post by David J on Mar 4, 2023 20:55:11 GMT
I noticed when booking the vortex that they have a message up about holding back the back/balcony seats in the main theatre unless there’s demand
I did notice at orient express that there were plenty of empty seats. I don’t even think mother goose was sold out the night I went
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