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Post by sf on Jul 28, 2020 15:15:12 GMT
That's a great list, but most of those started their careers decades ago. Not one of your initial parameters. And many of them were comic actors in movies rather than mixing straight and comic roles All of them have done notable work in straight dramatic roles. But even those names don't appear in as much 'everyday' work as the UK comics that I recognize. My mistake. I thought you were interested in a conversation, rather than merely in having your perceptions confirmed.
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Post by sf on Jul 28, 2020 12:07:40 GMT
Well... Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Melissa McCarthy, Steve Carell..
I don't think it's that unusual for American comedians to move into dramatic roles, although I do agree performers get pigeonholed more in the US than they do here. My sense is that it's less of a leap here for comedians to move into things like documentaries, at least on mainstream networks - but that may partly just mean I haven't seen those programmes, because one of the big differences between TV in the US and TV here is that the big US networks mostly don't show documentaries in prime time, whereas BBC1 and ITV1 do.
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Post by sf on Jul 25, 2020 18:07:50 GMT
How on earth will they ‘police’ this? Ineffectively. Other countries have managed it. Here, the will just doesn't seem to be there.
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Post by sf on Jul 25, 2020 12:14:23 GMT
I think phasing in would be good allowing venues to learn form eachother as to what works. To be honest I am impressed with the Lloyd Webber initiatives. He has obviously read our (my) posts with the implementing of self cleaning handles and improved toilet facilities etc. Yes he had to spend dosh and no he won’t recoup til he can have full theatres but he wasn’t sitting on his hands moaning ( or at least he was on the phone ordering other people about) . I know all the problems, I do really understand but I just don't get why the NT can’t put on something - outside or inside with distancing in that massive sarcophagus of a building, They have loads of toilets, ways in and out that can be guided, lots of staff available, poor sods now unemployed, talent already booked and ready to go and an audience of tourists and regulars both willing and cooperative. Well that’s me ranted out for this evening. One of the reasons venues and production companies are being very cautious, I think, is that it would be financially very damaging to start working towards opening up again and then have to go back into lockdown because of a second wave.
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Post by sf on Jul 25, 2020 11:47:01 GMT
The risk/benefit balance is for them to come to a conclusion about, not anyone else. I would not dream of hassling a stranger for not wearing a mask. That said, the point of wearing a mask is to protect other people FROM YOU, which means people who choose not to wear a mask are potentially putting other people at risk. That's incredibly selfish.
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Post by sf on Jul 25, 2020 11:42:59 GMT
The forum is throwing up an advertisement: Brits Are Baffled Pounds Plummeting to Zero I thought it might be a comment on the effect of Brexit on the economy, but it turns out it looks like it's just a diet ad. The morning after the referendum I sat in the cafe in my local Tesco Extra listening in slack-jawed amazement to the conversation at the table behind me - a man on his phone loudly bemoaning the pound's overnight drop against the Euro. He'd voted Leave, because it was the patriotic thing to do (his words, not mine), and he'd come in to get currency for his holiday to Lanzarote... and he'd thought a Leave win might affect the exchange rate, so he'd come early to see if the bureau de change counter had any old stock left at yesterday's price.
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Post by sf on Jul 24, 2020 20:43:35 GMT
Dinner: yuzu/mustard-glazed salmon served with couscous with roasted vegetables.
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Post by sf on Jul 24, 2020 15:14:41 GMT
It's good that it was able to be restored, but this is not Manchester's most shining moment:
(It is also, unfortunately, not remotely surprising.)
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Post by sf on Jul 24, 2020 11:21:26 GMT
I watched it again the other night for the first time since it was out in cinemas. It's not a bad film, and there are some very good performances in it, but nothing about it screams "please make me into a musical".
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Post by sf on Jul 24, 2020 11:15:02 GMT
One point does anyone find taking the knee slightly ironic given it was a knee to the windpipe which killed George Floyd? Not particularly, given that the gesture existed long before George Floyd was murdered.
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Post by sf on Jul 22, 2020 16:47:53 GMT
Far too many people aren't even paying attention to basic distancing, never mind face coverings. I think it's partly a misguided perception that the danger is now passed - it REALLY isn't, although the infection rates have gone down it wouldn't take much for them to begin to rise again - and partly naivety, and partly just plain selfishness: masks are more about protecting other people than about protecting yourself, so people simply can't be bothered.
The weeks of the government and press telling people they were useless doesn't help at all.
Quite. Anybody who'd paid any attention to what had been happening in Singapore or Taiwan or Japan could see very clearly that masks in certain kinds of spaces were important, and it's a message the government should have begun reinforcing as soon as it became necessary to shut down performance spaces.
Unfortunately, promoting masks at that point would have also meant taking some responsibility for making sure they were widely available, and for this government that looked too much like hard work.
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Post by sf on Jul 22, 2020 16:36:42 GMT
Sainsbury's should enforce it with some way to identitfy those exempt - too many people are naive enough to think most people will comply - a ride on a London bus will tell you otherwise.
Honestly no one is following every rule.
Far too many people aren't even paying attention to basic distancing, never mind face coverings. I think it's partly a misguided perception that the danger is now passed - it REALLY isn't, although the infection rates have gone down it wouldn't take much for them to begin to rise again - and partly naivety, and partly just plain selfishness: masks are more about protecting other people than about protecting yourself, so people simply can't be bothered.
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Post by sf on Jul 22, 2020 16:33:52 GMT
sf Really? My experience of Covid is that it has brought out the best in people far more than the worst. There are more people around my way volunteering to help people than there are needing to be helped; I've met loads and loads of neighbours I've never even seen before through various mutual support groups, collections for food banks, etc. At the start of lockdown and just before, strangers were chatting on the street and in shops and being kind to each other like I've never seen before. I've absolutely hated the whole coronavirus thing and I'm still having sleepless nights about the long-term impact it's going to have on things like theatre and my employment prospects, but aspects of it have been exceptionally moving. Though not the mawkish clapping thing, I hated that. I hated the clapping thing too - and this week 340 Tory MPs proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how transparently insincere their participation in it was. It is not contradictory to note individual acts of kindness AND to recognise that, overall, this has become a much more selfish country than it used to be.
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Post by sf on Jul 22, 2020 15:03:30 GMT
'd be pretty disappointed in us as a species if only the threat of punishment was effective in making people do what's right, and I'm pretty disappointed that people here seem to think all humans are that self-centred and irresponsible. If your life experiences have shown you that they AREN'T, you have been very, very fortunate.
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Post by sf on Jul 22, 2020 12:44:18 GMT
It doesn't need everyone to follow the rules at all times, even though they ought to. It just needs enough of a majority to be effective, and given that the shops started opening weeks ago and infection levels have remained low the system appears to be working despite the few people who seem to imagine they have been granted a natural immunity by being arrogant arseholes. But by that logic then why would anybody follow the rules? Give people an inch and they'll take a mile, that's been the problem all the way through the pandemic. If we'd had stern guidance from the start, we'd be in a much better place. But this wishy washy non leadership is leaving gaping loopholes for people to use, the mandatory masks seems to be the first genuine rule that has come into effect. And the more people DON'T comply, the longer it will take until we're able to start moving back to something more closely resembling a normal life. It's that simple. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens on Friday. Sainsburys have already said their staff won't enforce the rule, and I can certainly understand not wanting to put that burden onto store staff - but yes, unfortunately, if you give people an inch they'll take a mile, and this has become a country full of very, very self-absorbed people.
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Post by sf on Jul 21, 2020 18:40:58 GMT
With the hand sanitiser, isn't that like every soap dispender? You might have to touch the dirty dispenser the microsecond before you rub sanitizer into your hands? My local supermarket has installed dispensers you operate with a pedal, so you never have to touch them with your bare hands. They also, unfortunately, haven't ever bothered to refill them, and have simply dumped hand-operated plastic pumps on top of the empty foot-operated dispensers, but never mind. The thought was there, for about ten seconds. (I take my own.)
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Brexit
Jul 21, 2020 12:52:25 GMT
Post by sf on Jul 21, 2020 12:52:25 GMT
Well... not as explosive in the sense that people were looking for direct evidence of Russian interference in the referendum process.
I agree the fact they didn't look is worse - far worse - but the bare facts of the report give the right-wing press and people like Farage an easy way to spin it. They can claim - they are claiming - that the report shows no evidence of interference, and plenty of people are credulous enough to take that claim at face value. If the report showed clear evidence of Russian interference, there'd perhaps be less wiggle-room for people to spin it.
There is no excuse - at all - for it not having been made available prior to last year's election, although Jeremy Corbyn was such a staggeringly incompetent leader of the opposition that Labour may not have gained much capital from it.
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Jul 21, 2020 12:02:52 GMT
Post by sf on Jul 21, 2020 12:02:52 GMT
...and while it's perhaps not as explosive as some people were hoping for, it's still a damning indictment of the last several Tory governments. The revelation that Russian interference into the 2016 referendum was not investigated is breathtaking - all the more so given that the report does tell us there's evidence Russia undertook influence campaigns in the 2014 Scottish referendum.
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Post by sf on Jul 20, 2020 14:23:40 GMT
I assume while a vaccine is the best shot for normality, more treatment will be discovered that will help in the interim. Promising news on that front today as well: "The treatment from Southampton-based biotech Synairgen uses a protein called interferon beta which the body produces when it gets a viral infection.
The protein is inhaled directly into the lungs of patients with coronavirus, using a nebuliser, in the hope that it will stimulate an immune response.
The initial findings suggest the treatment cut the odds of a Covid-19 patient in hospital developing severe disease - such as requiring ventilation - by 79%."
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Post by sf on Jul 19, 2020 13:49:16 GMT
If Kiss Of The Spider Woman is so universally popular, why doesn’t it ever get revived? Two reasons. One, the title role is formidably difficult to cast. It doesn't just need a strong singer and dancer, it needs a kind of old-fashioned song-and-dance STAR that barely exists these days. Chita Rivera's replacement in London - Bebe Neuwirth - was absolutely qualified for the role on paper - she can sing, and she's a superb dancer - but she doesn't have anything close to Chita Rivera's stage presence and the show didn't work anything like as well with her at the centre of it. Two: size/complexity. It's not that big a show, but the fantasy sequences need a bit more space (and frankly a bit more pizazz) than you'll find at somewhere like the Southwark Playhouse or Charing Cross - and at the same time, while the original production is a very powerful memory for a lot of people who saw it, me included, it wasn't that big a hit on either side of the Atlantic, and unless there was a really big star attached - and I don't mean a theatre star, I mean Madonna or Beyoncé or Jennifer Lopez - there's no commercial case for a revival in the West End or on Broadway.
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Post by sf on Jul 17, 2020 15:29:09 GMT
That is amazing for Danielle. I saw her in The Color Purple at Curve in what I think was her first major role, and she was the stand out performer for me, I just knew she would go on to great things. I was sad to never see her as Juliet and guess I won't now! I'm sure she's wonderful and it's a great job - but it's rather unpleasantly cynical of the producers to cast a performer of colour as the first cover for Elsa when I guarantee you they would NEVER have given a non-white actress the role outright, at least in the opening cast. If they're going to open the door, and they certainly should, then they should open it all the way.
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Post by sf on Jul 17, 2020 14:18:46 GMT
Shifting responsibility to the theatre: if they go bankrupt, not the govt fault!
Absolutely. It's disgusting, but it's this government's modus operandi: their messaging in just about every area now is designed more or less solely to give themselves plausible deniability.
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Post by sf on Jul 17, 2020 12:31:19 GMT
British people just don't have the discipline to wear masks. I don't think people get that keeping it round your chin does nothing. That's partly it, but it's also a significant issue that far too many people are too inherently selfish to bother with a measure that is less about protecting themselves than about protecting other people.
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Post by sf on Jul 16, 2020 22:13:56 GMT
The cinemas are closed as no films are being released as the cinemas are closed as no films are being released ... .... ... And much as I like the new model of streaming the latest blockbusters to your TV, expecting anyone to pay £15.99 to rent the new Scooby Doo film Scoob for two days is extortion. The only film I might even consider paying that for is the new Bond. Yes. Since the lockdown began I've rented/purchased a few films via streaming services, but I haven't paid anything close to that for any of them. There's a limit to what I'm prepared to pay in order to watch a film on my own (low-end) television, and that's way above it.
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Post by sf on Jul 16, 2020 17:22:16 GMT
23rd March? It was earlier than that, surely? One of our customers at work shut down their shops on the 17th, and the pubs were already closed by the end of that week. I know because I'd planned to go out towards the end of that week and couldn't.
Theatres were advised to close on the 16th, but the lockdown was announced on the 23rd and began on the 24th. Boris Johnson's TV address to the nation announcing the lockdown was broadcast in the evening on Monday 23rd.
An awful lot of people began social distancing earlier than that, and a lot of workplaces had already switched as many employees as they could to working from home by then. I'd been flathunting in and around London, and during the second week in March it became very obvious very quickly that a lot of people were making major changes to their behaviour and their travelling patterns.
I was in a Travelodge on the 23rd, waiting to get the keys to my flat on the Friday that week. When hotels closed on the 24th, it was a real push to get the paperwork through so that I could get the keys that day - and there's a special place in Hell for the letting agent who, that morning, told me it wouldn't be possible. It was possible, and it took about two hours.
(There's a special place in Hell for letting agents and estate agents anyway, as far as I'm concerned. Haven't met an honest one yet.)
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Post by sf on Jul 14, 2020 15:03:13 GMT
One of the things that concerns me is that people who are genuinely exempt might end up being treated with hostility in the same way as people with hidden disabilities are when they use a disabled parking space. I would hope people who are genuinely exempt will be treated kindly. HOWEVER... having been, for several years, the primary caregiver for someone - my mum - whose medical issues included just about the worst bout of pneumonia you could imagine (as in, six weeks in hospital incuding a week in the high dependency unit, including ventilator support for a couple of days, then a month in a care home, then about eight months to recover to the point where she began to regain some independence and a year before she was anywhere approaching a lifestyle most people would consider 'normal', and which was sustainable only with an awful lot of support) on top of a heart condition that often left her breathless, I would suggest that anyone whose respiratory system is so compromised that a basic paper or cloth mask has a serious negative effect on their breathing probably needs to stay home right now for their own safety. For someone with those health issues, Covid-19 would be a death sentence.
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Post by sf on Jul 14, 2020 13:56:31 GMT
Out of interest does anybody have any solutions to wearing masks with glasses? As soon as it's on my glasses fog up and there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done. I can do without my glasses for shopping but if masks became mandatory everywhere then I would struggle! And I'm not complaining about having to wear a mask, I;m all for it, just if I can figure out a solution it would help. My glasses basically only come off when I'm asleep or in the shower. Nothing is 100% effective. Google and you'll find lots of different tips; they're all worth trying, and most of them are hit-and-miss for me. What is reasonably effective is making sure the top line of the mask conforms as closely as possible to the shape of your nose. Single-use paper masks have a metal strip running along the top edge of the mask which you can use to shape the mask around the bridge of your nose. If you're using a cloth mask, and particularly if you're making them yourself (I haven't because my sewing skills are less than minimal, but I have friends who have) you can achieve a similar effect using something like a pipecleaner. And some of the latex masks are also effective - since they're stretchy anyway, they get a better seal around the bridge of your nose than the cotton ones.
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Post by sf on Jul 14, 2020 11:41:08 GMT
Great to see the Donmar opening up for an installation if not a performance. I can't understand this part: This hour-long ticketed installation for a limited number of visitors will run four times a day, with seating arranged 2m apart in accordance with social distancing guidelines in a transformed Donmar Warehouse. Social distancing is 1m so why are the Donmar going with 2m? Social distancing isn't 1m. Or at least, not precisely. The recommendation is still 2m, and where that isn't possible 1m is permissible with additional precautions (masks, not sitting face to face). The government's messaging is deliberately confusing, and is designed to protect ministers rather than to promote public safety.
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Post by sf on Jul 14, 2020 11:34:54 GMT
Excuse me - " decent areas of England"? I come from one of the towns on the list of places at risk of a local lockdown, although I no longer live there. Are you suggesting that the more-than-200,000 people there, including members of my family and most of my oldest friends, are somehow worthy of your scorn simply based on their postcode? That's a thoroughly offensive turn of phrase. Shame on you. I meant decent in a sized based module not decent in a "social standing" or value of the housing. Happy to clear this up and sorry if my original message was taken that way. Ironically some of the more affluent areas were the first affected by this virus which shows no distinction between the wealthiest places in the country and the most deprived. Thank you.
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Post by sf on Jul 13, 2020 21:51:32 GMT
Good for them for putting up a programme. 1,200 people in the audience on Friday at the Philharmonie de Paris (with the required one empty seat between booking groups and agreed COVID precautions) to watch the 67-piece Orchestra de Paris perform. It's a tragedy that audiences in UK are still locked out of theatres. I can feel a trip to Paris coming on....
There are still postponements, though, including some major ones. The revival of Starmania that was supposed to open in October at La Seine Musicale has been pushed back 13 months to November 2021.
(Yes I'm intending to go.)
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