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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 27, 2022 7:36:23 GMT
I’ve said this like five times: the transfer is set in stone, or as good as exists in theatre. It was created FOR the West End and was originally going to open straight into the West End until RG came on board and requested an Almeida run to be added first.
It’s not a question of “will it transfer” but “will the existing confirmed transfer be cancelled” and I honestly don’t see that happening unless it’s a total flop, which it clearly isn’t in terms of sales and audience response. I guess it’s possible the reviews will affect this but I honestly can’t see a couple of bad reviews causing people to cancel tickets en masse. Not when public word of mouth has been so good.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 26, 2022 14:31:14 GMT
Inclined to agree with alessia and Burly - torture porn/misery porn. I’m sure it’ll be a quality show, but hard pass from me.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 26, 2022 10:35:00 GMT
It's interesting just to see a major musical exploring themes of religion so overtly, in a time when religion is having such an impact on politics (especially in America). I wonder to what extent the extremely varied religious backgrounds of the creative team played in figuring out what balance to strike in how to portray faith and organised religion as an entity.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 22, 2022 19:14:58 GMT
Surely the whole point is that the people “taking Abigail’s side” don’t share your opinion that she’s a psychopath? It’s just an opinion after all. We all have our own opinions and perspectives on plays and on characters. It's not my opinion, it is what the characters is and how she was written. There is no opinion on someone being a psychopath, they are either a psychopath or they are not. This is a fact, you can't have opinions on facts, they are just facts. Or have facts been cancelled now too and we should all just consider Hannibal Lector was someone who was really, really hungry? Now you can feel sorry for the psychopath if you like, but you know...actually I don't know because I would never do it. That the vast majority of the the population has no idea what a psychopath actually is (ironically they think they are all like Hannibal Lector) how they operate or what they are capable of is the problem here and the play is trying to rectify that. This is the whole point of giving her such an unlikeable 'opponent'. We dislike Proctor because he cheated on his wife and slept with a child and we dislike the wife for taking him back and kicking Abigail out of the house. Neither of these characters is likable, so our empathy for this child kicks in immediately and we stop paying attention to what she actually does throughout the play because our judgement has been purposely clouded. We are then given a 'hero' to help us decipher this, Mary Wallace, who knows exactly what is going on and tells everyone the truth but crumbles because no one around her will listen and apparently no one in the audience is listening to her either. The whole point of the play is that if you fall for the con woman you are complicit in the con and it's aftermath. IE If you voted for Hitler or Donald Trump or Brexit, you are complicit in what happens next because you fell for the con. In this case if you fall for Abigail's con and were there at the time, you would've been complicit in the hanging of these women. It is literally just an opinion. Opinions that are not the same are yours are just as valid as yours. It’s not physically possible to say whether a fictional character is a psychopath or not since they’re not, you know, real. It’s all just a matter of how an individual audience member chooses to interpret a fictional character, which is itself dependent on the choices the particular director and actor make (one production’s Abigail might be a psychopath, a different production might create an Abigail that is completely different.) I really don’t think we need to compare opinions on a fictional character, with supporting Hitler.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 22, 2022 17:02:49 GMT
Surely the whole point is that the people “taking Abigail’s side” don’t share your opinion that she’s a psychopath?
It’s just an opinion after all. We all have our own opinions and perspectives on plays and on characters.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 22, 2022 14:34:31 GMT
It is transferring to the West End. It was created for the West End, and the Almeida run was arranged afterwards. Rather than being an Almeida play that was successful enough for them to start talking to West End theatres.
Details are embargoed for now.
I’m not sure if they have a theatre and dates confirmed or not yet for the Broadway run. But a Broadway run has been in discussion for at least a couple of years.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 21, 2022 21:58:54 GMT
Wait. This is the PM queue? Apologies. I thought it was for Tammy Faye Returns. Apologies. Can we not just let James Graham have a bash at actually being Prime Minister?
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 20, 2022 13:33:48 GMT
I accidentally sat in row AA then after the show realised my ticket was for row A the other week. The theatre was pretty empty to it was fine.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 20, 2022 13:18:13 GMT
I, for one, welcome our new lettuce overlord.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 19, 2022 21:53:11 GMT
Some shows on the West End and touring (I.e. Back To The Future) have electronic cast boards that change to show that night’s cast, while others just have bits of A4 paper somewhere in the foyer or stairwell saying who the understudies are that day (Only Fools and Horses, Six UK Tour) and some shows don’t have any noticeable boards at all, so you have to play the ‘guess who’ with the cast photos in the program. I wish that these things were standardised… The whole 'random bit of A4 paper" is just so cringe. I expect that from a fringe show above a pub. It's embarrassing when a West End or major touring venue can't at least try to look professional.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 19, 2022 21:42:24 GMT
I mean, I agree that it’s complex. But such a clean divide between "fan/stan" (who targets celebs and isn't a danger) and "traditional stalker" (who targets regular people, and is) doesn't match my experiences of having worked in theatre for a few decades, or having famous loved ones.
If someone is breaking into your house, hacking your and others' email and social media, harassing your family, breaking into your parents' homes and workplaces, turning up at your kids' schools (all things I've experience of fans doing), does it matter what motivates them or what category of stalker they are? It's really not uncommon for fans to wage years-long stalking campaigns against celebs, and the behavioural pattern of ownership/control/destroy is common among fans who have fantasised a relationship and feel slighted, for example by a celeb getting married.
Between 20-25% of people who report being stalked to police find that their stalkers are strangers. The (non-famous) women I've known who've been stalked, it's been pretty evenly divided between ex-boyfriends and, like, "some guy I smiled at when I handed him his coffee order and he thought that meant I was in love with him." I guess that's what makes it complex. I wonder how big a part erotomania plays.
Now this part I completely agree with!
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 19, 2022 11:39:28 GMT
Press night is next Wed, 26th.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 18, 2022 20:06:31 GMT
Well known actors aren’t most people, though. If you’re in the public eye then you will have stalkers or at least fans who breach boundaries, it’s almost inevitable.
Some of the most horrifying stalking I’ve witnessed as been directed at playwrights or directors, people you’d never think would be “celeb” enough to be stalked by crazy fans.
Of course attitude differs a lot. Some people in theatre tolerate and seem inured to behaviour most people would consider 999 territory, while others freak out if a fan comes to see the show more than twice.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 18, 2022 16:28:22 GMT
This stuff happens to everyone in theatre, most performers just don’t talk about it publicly.
Talk to performers or even behind the scenes creatives privately, they all have stalker and bad audience member stories.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 17, 2022 17:28:37 GMT
Oh excellent, I'll be in South Ken next week and will check it out.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 17, 2022 15:44:50 GMT
Can I also remind people posting reviews that before covid we always mentioned nudity or dogs on stage, that seems to have slipped. I think we should reintroduce it 😀 Ha! Seconded. Nudity...? No nudity, but Jim and Tammy's TV show does re-enactments of Bible scenes, and there's one Bible re-enactment that features Jesus carrying the Cross to his crucifixion while being very homoerotically whipped by another man, and both are wearing gold hot pants identical to the ones Kylie wore in her music video. It's highly camp and rather surreal, and thematically ties in with a subtext about Christian fundamentalist homophobia often being an obsession with gayness and/or suppressed homosexuality.
No dogs. One alligator.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 17, 2022 15:06:03 GMT
I can totally get all of those very detailed examples that you have clearly spent a long time coming up with, and am fully sensitive & appreciative of all of them. However, my problem with lazy, entitled people feigning hurt because something they weren’t expecting happened remains. People need to take responsibility and accountability for their own lives as much as is humanly possible, so that when someone else is actually responsible for a misdemeanour or crime, the waters are not muddied with wishy washy liberalism or excuses for poor decision making. Our country is awash with people failing to take responsibility for their decisions and actions. That way the genuinely in need don’t get forgotten. But these "lazy, entitled people feigning hurt" don't actually exist, do they? You've simply invented them out of thin air for the purpose of manufactured outrage. (Unless you're referring to the person who literally threw themselves under a train, who we can safely assume was not merely "pretending" to be upset.) The only person "feigning hurt" is the Tweeter throwing a tantrum because he's chosen to be offended by the existence of a small sign. Can you post one actual example of a person who is "feigning hurt" over this production? Honestly this is just completely bizarre. A rape victim with PTSD finds it useful to research whether a play has a violent rape scene in it or not, and you're saying they should not be allowed access to that information, because it will somehow destroy the concept of personal responsibility and result in criminals getting away with their actions? Making a point of looking at the content warnings IS taking responsibility. Surely looking at the content of a play ahead of time, and applying that knowledge to your own self-awareness of your own mental health needs, is the definition of "taking responsibility for your own actions"? How else would someone "take responsibility" for a show no one has seen, given there's no way bar psychic powers of knowing what elements of Tammy's life the team have chosen to include, which parts they have chosen to leave out, and how they have chosen to portray and stage those elements? Your post is pretty rude. I spent perhaps three minutes writing my post. Obviously the fact the Almeida recently had a public controversy over content warnings is going to be mentioned in a discussion about... the Almeida having content warnings. I don't think it's appropriate to use an accusatory term like "you clearly spent a long time coming up with that" in response to a post discussing rape survivors.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 17, 2022 14:42:22 GMT
2 hours 20.
It’s a very good show, just haven’t had time to post about it yet.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 17, 2022 13:16:48 GMT
Twitter appears to be making fun of some rather baffling ‘trigger warning’ notices meant to protect any delicate flowers lucky enough to be going to see it. Notices warning about getting a ‘booboo’ if they trap their fingers in doors or to blow into their hot coffee to cool it down first, are still being prepared. Well, no. One pathetic bloke threw a tantrum (poor man, so easily triggered!!) because the Daily Mail told him content warnings are for special snowflake woke liberals or something, and got his arse handed to him. Honestly this whole thing is so stupid. Of course there are gay people who due to their own experiences will find hearing homophobic slurs upsetting, or who would feel better knowing about it ahead of time. Why are people so invested in preventing minorities and people with mental health problems from being made more comfortable? Ditto, the parts about cancer are very graphic - descriptions of bleeding from the anus. Imagine if your husband had died a week earlier from rectal cancer? Or if you were an older person with rectal bleeding who was too scared to go to a doctor? Imagine how you'd feel going to see a play where a woman graphically describes anal bleeding, and is shown actually dying as a result of delaying seeing a doctor? Knowing the Tammy Faye story doesn't mean you can predict how much stage time will be given to her death. How many people know that detail about her anyway? It's not like Marilyn Monroe where she's famous for the way she died. I personally know a rape survivor who was worried about seeing this play because the cast list said an actor was playing Jessica Hahn (the woman who accused Jim Baker of raping her), because she didn't know if the production would stage the rape or not, or how violent the rape scene might be if it was included. The fact rape isn't mentioned in the content warning reassured her that the rape scene isn't included in the show. What kind of monumental cabbage-head wants to force a woman who's been violently raped to watch a rape scene without warning? That goes to show that guff about "audiences should do their research" is nonsense. Because there's no way to know what parts of a true story the writers will choose to include and how they'll present it. Anyone familiar with Jim and Tammy Faye would assume the rape would play a major role, but they would be wrong. Also remember this is the Almeida. Over the summer they had a play on that featured a scene where (discussion of real life suicide) a person attempts suicide by throwing themselves under a tube train, and by horrible coincidence there was an audience member who a few months prior had thrown themselves under a tube train and had obviously survived, who ended up having a panic attack in the theatre. What if that audience member - who evidently had been very mentally unwell - had walked out of the theatre, walked to Old Street tube, and repeated their earlier action? The chance that someone who recently survived throwing themselves under a train then unwittingly going to see a play feature the exact same thing must be tiny. But clearly the risk is there. The Almeida are obviously sensitive to the fact content warnings are needed. Besides content warnings are absolutely standard in theatre now. If you don't need content warnings then just ignore them. It has literally no impact on you whatsoever. I honestly can't imagine being such a sensitive little baby that I'd throw a public tantrum over the fact a tiny little sign exists. The tweeter needs to grow up.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 16, 2022 0:41:13 GMT
Just googled it.
Oof. What IS that??
I thought it’d be something more like that gorgeous Kelpie statue in Scotland or something. Except maybe more tentacly.
This is just… I don’t know what that is. How is it a sea monster?
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 15, 2022 17:51:03 GMT
I think Sheridan will be perfect for this. I remember Meera Syal doing this at the Menier. She cooked egg and chips from scratch every night on stage. No mean feat considering she was peeling and chipping the potato whilst talking and looking at the audience. The smell was amazing but each night by the end of the show I was starving. Never even got as much as a chip! Egg and chips! I was trying to remember what it was. God, it’s all coming back now. I was right at the top and the smell drove me mad! Ditto the bit in Chris Bush’s latest play where they cook a fried cheese toastie on stage. A tie-in toastie van outside (which I know for a fact exists; I’ve seen it outside the NT) would make money hand over fist. I once saw a play where someone made spag bol on stage.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 15, 2022 16:02:45 GMT
The more intimate the venue the better. I saw this with Meera Syal at Trafalgar Studios a good few years back and it was wonderful (played in rep with Educating Rita, from the Chocolate Factory) Is that the one where she cooked a meal on stage? Sheridan Smith is perfect casting for this!
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 15, 2022 15:59:56 GMT
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 15, 2022 8:26:59 GMT
It was created for the West End, and was going to go straight to the West End until Goold requested an Almeida run first. It’s not a case of “will it transfer,” it’s a case of “it would have to flop really hard for the West End transfer that’s already contracted to be cancelled.”
Ditto the Broadway run.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 14, 2022 22:55:23 GMT
Tammy Faye is gonna sweep this.
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