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Post by orchestrator on Jun 9, 2016 21:31:54 GMT
We went to the matinee last Saturday and really enjoyed it. What made us laugh though was that our fifteen year old daughter proclaimed at the interval that 'my school should do a production of this'! Her dad pointed out that they might have to cut rather a lot of references! A couple of days later when we were listening to a recording in the car (an old Ute Lemper version on cassette) she decided that any problems with profanity could be got round by the school (a state school not a million miles from Canning Town) presenting it in German! A few years ago I was tangentially involved in a production by a posh Catholic girls school. #justsayin'
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on May 25, 2016 23:46:07 GMT
First, are these the original keys? If so someone should have transposed everything down because it's all way too high for this cast. Even the amazing Rosalie Craig (star of the show) who sings like an angel sounds like she's at the top of her range. Haydn Gwynne, who we know has a beautiful voice, sings mainly in an uncomfortable head voice and sounds hooty and strange. Nick Holder, a natural tenor, does well with Peachum's songs but it's a bit of a struggle for Rory Kinnear who sings, perhaps, better than expected but not as well as the part requires. He flattens a couple of his lunging high notes. And Sharon Small as the iconic Jenny Diver is a disaster. She has three of the score's greatest songs - Surabaya Johnny, Tango and The Solomon Song - and she destroys each of them in turn. The Kurt Weill Estate have always been meticulous in not allowing transpositions of songs. Even though Mrs Weill (Lotte Lenya) used to sing Polly’s songs down an octave in later years. We have to wait 70 years after the death of Brecht before we can do what we like with the music. SURABAYA JOHNNY?? Are you sure this song is in 3PO at the NT? It’s from Happy End. Is “lunging” a typo? I don’t understand …
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on May 18, 2016 20:36:17 GMT
The lovey dovey "Sheridan's been so supportive" bit. Let's not forget the fan who promptly got blocked on Twitter by Sheridan for saying Natasha was good in the role. And apart from that I suspect that SS is hugely self-absorbed and not the supportive type. You only have to look at her tweets to see it's all about her. Are you saying that Sheridan saw a random tweet from someone saying Natasha was good in the role and then blocked them, or that this person tweeted ss that Natasha was good in the role and was blocked? If the latter then I think that’s absolutely fair enough—can you imagine someone tweeting @you that someone else was good in the job that you’d created? If the former then it might not be so clear cut what the reason for being blocked was, unless Sheridan tweeted the reason. Can you be a bit more specific?
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Apr 2, 2016 6:39:52 GMT
Not being a native speaker, I hadn't heard of the phrase "to be on the lam" before. Whenever I was watching Wicked, I heard the guard saying either "there's a goat on the lamp" or "there's a goat on the lamb". I only found out about the actual meaning when I happened to attend a subtitled show and read the phrase on one of the displays. Lam is the printed word but it’s a pun—we’re meant to hear “lamb” as well.
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Mar 22, 2016 21:55:02 GMT
Turns out this is from last December. Sorry if it was covered in depth before.
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Mar 22, 2016 21:19:07 GMT
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Mar 17, 2016 0:10:34 GMT
Yes Sheridan Smith has been a very reliable performer - a complete professional in all previous theatrical appearances. Missing the last shows of FG at the Menier must have added to her emotional stress. I'm sure you're referring to both on and off stage? “I’m sure” and your final ? are contradictory.
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Mar 12, 2016 20:23:12 GMT
You are welcome to turn two blind eyes to the racism and sexism of the show, just as everyone here is welcome to love and enjoy their favorite shows, but that gives you no right to insult others. I'm done talking about Miss Saigon and I'm out of this discussion. Good, you are welcome to turn a blind eye on history. Non sequitur.
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Mar 4, 2016 21:53:01 GMT
London, a city of more than 8 million residents and a large number of theatre-going tourists, can cope, I think. I like the Park Theatre but has it ever had an actual hit? I don’t know but the last time I went there, to see a medium-successful 4-hander American play, it was a full house.
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Mar 4, 2016 17:06:00 GMT
So the Park Theatre announce this just as the NT are doing the Threepenny Opera just as they have a Nell Gwyn play at the same time as the transferred Globe production. Their programmer really needs to look at Twitter occasionally London, a city of more than 8 million residents and a large number of theatre-going tourists, can cope, I think.
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Mar 2, 2016 19:24:33 GMT
Has ever an original show, The beggar's opera, been quite so tinkered with? Leave it alone, please. You could say the same about Romeo and Juliet, or The Tempest, or the original Passion Plays. In the case of Shakespeare the originals are rather good, as are many of the derived works. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen The Beggars’ Opera and it has certainly enjoyed major success at different times but I’m not sure it would feature in anybody’s list of top 10 shows. In the original the plot is arguably less important than the conceit of lampooning a fashionable art form. In some of the, to use your word, “tinkerings” the intentions have been very different. Brecht & Weill’s Threepenny Opera has some of the best songs ever written for the theatre; the plot is still a bit lame but useful to hang Brecht’s political moralising on. I say “Don’t leave it alone; keep messing with it!”
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Mar 1, 2016 14:41:01 GMT
Just because lip-syncing is part of the Bollywood style, it really doesn't play well in theatres. It looks like they cast people who can't sing - and I go to a musical to see singers sing - not mime (even if they are miming to a recording of their own voices) Whilst for traditional musicals I would completely agree I think it is impossible to set hard-line rules like this. If you don’t know the Bollywood style you aren’t* really going to “get” its presentation on stage but that doesn’t mean a Bollywood musical shouldn’t do Bollywood style. *Edit: might not get it [thanks to anita]
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Feb 28, 2016 15:19:42 GMT
I would welcome a return of this show. I was quite in awe when I saw all those years ago, the song 'Journey Home' is a favourite of mine. I agree, Journey Home is great. The show was “universalised” for Broadway removing difficult niche words like naan bread and popadum [not exactly those words but you get the idea]. It was also [re-]orchestrated to use the appropriate house minimum number of musicians. The overall effect was much weaker than the London version dramatically and having seen a preview I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t last long on Broadway. There had always been some slightly embarrassing bits in London which could have been improved quite easily but which didn’t stop it being a big success getting many first-timers into a West End theatre.
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67 posts
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Post by orchestrator on Feb 22, 2016 17:44:51 GMT
I wonder how big the orchestra will be. When it was last in the Palladium there were about 25; a whole string section, lots of wind and brass, two percussionists, harp. When it went on tour it was reduced to 14 then half way through the tour it was reduced further, to about 8! 14 was too few for this sumptuous score.
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