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Post by MrBunbury on Oct 10, 2023 12:25:51 GMT
Has anyone been to Riverside recently? The last time I was in the main space was Happy Days back in 2021 and I am pretty sure the floor was flat, no rake, with laid out chairs - much like the header picture on this page. riversidestudios.co.uk/studio-2/I was there on Tuesday and the first six-eight rows (I did not count them) are on a flat floor (I was in third row and I felt lower than the two rows in the front, actually, but it must have been self-suggestion). But maybe that changes with the production. I could not find £30 tickets when I checked so I left it there.
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Post by MrBunbury on Oct 3, 2023 11:15:22 GMT
Very easy booking (for once).
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Post by MrBunbury on Sept 9, 2023 22:03:02 GMT
Today I completed a survey for the National Theatre (one of those on theatre habits with a potential prize at the end) and among the questions there were some questions on how much I would spend for potential future productions with actual examples. A couple were things I had not seen mentioned before so I was wondering if someone else had heard about them:
"Hamlet" with Idris Elba "West Side Stories"
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Post by MrBunbury on Sept 5, 2023 9:10:14 GMT
Priority booking is open. Number of users in the queue ahead of you: 20398 Your estimated wait time is: more than an hour Ah, I feel better. I have only 11576 people ahead of me :-)
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Post by MrBunbury on Aug 4, 2023 15:45:20 GMT
Could it have a non White cast this time? The Young Vic has been very attentive to have a more diverse cast under Kwame Kwei-Armah.
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Post by MrBunbury on Aug 2, 2023 10:41:41 GMT
Count me in. I love 'Spirited away'!
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Post by MrBunbury on Jul 31, 2023 10:04:17 GMT
I was there on Saturday night as well and I confirm the positive impression. There was a very nice atmosphere (maybe due to the relief that the weather was nice) and the performances are excellent. I particularly liked how believable the affection and connection between Georges and Albin was. It was my first time seeing this musical: the songs overall did not impress me (I intend the type of song, the performers were very good), but I found Carl Mullaney great and his rendition of "I am what I am" was really moving in its wounded dignity.
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Post by MrBunbury on Jul 18, 2023 12:01:56 GMT
I would love to see Ruth Wilson in this. I read the play when I was 13 and I found it shocking, but then all actual productions I have seen left me cold so hopefully this new one will make me feel uneasy!
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Post by MrBunbury on Jun 26, 2023 14:11:46 GMT
I am interested in all three plays they just announced. And it seems that there will be less competition to get a ticket from the reactions above :-)
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Post by MrBunbury on Jun 20, 2023 10:52:26 GMT
Not for me unfortunately.
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Post by MrBunbury on Jun 6, 2023 12:15:53 GMT
It sounds rather exciting. Not the best period for me because I will be abroad for a good part of the run but I hope to catch the "tail" of the booking period.
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Post by MrBunbury on May 21, 2023 9:38:48 GMT
I was there last night too and I thought it was fantastic as I remembered. I took a friend who did not know the movie and she loved it as well. Sincerely I did not notice any major difference due to lack of the revolve. My only personal note is that I feel Carlyss Peer brought more warmth in Rita's role in the original production compared to Tanisha Spring and the ending was less moving for me than the first time for that reason. But it remains a wonderful clever musical. For a moment I thought that the first "doctor" was Tim Minchin...
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Post by MrBunbury on Apr 19, 2023 15:33:40 GMT
Jonjo O’Neill was amazing in the original production (it was like falling in love in real time) so it is a hard act to follow. But the play is a great one so I will be there.
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Post by MrBunbury on Mar 22, 2023 14:09:09 GMT
I saw it last night. I was a bit disappointed I did not see Kathryn Hunter in the lead role because I think she would have brought a different quirkiness and credibility to the role (Amanda Hadingue was good, but she did not look like a 65-year old woman and is rather tall, which undermines a bit the fact that Janina is overlooked by all the men around her). I have not read the book or seen the movie so I cannot compare the play to anything, but I found it a bit slow (three hours is a long time after a full day of work) and I did not feel particularly engaged despite I liked the theme. Olga Tokarczuk was in the audience.
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Post by MrBunbury on Mar 15, 2023 8:57:16 GMT
I saw it last night. I think it is really good. I admit it was a bit strange for me, as an Italian, to see the play in English and set in an English context (because in my mind is strongly linked to the real 'accidental' death of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli in a police station in Milan in 1969), because some Italian parts have been kept. Nevertheless, the adaptation has updated the play to include many references to current events. Some shocking real statistics are shown at the end of the play so there is also an advocacy element.
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Post by MrBunbury on Mar 14, 2023 14:20:11 GMT
Patience got rewarded. I was 4500th in the queue and I managed to get three tickets for Saturday 20th as I wanted.
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Post by MrBunbury on Feb 22, 2023 11:57:20 GMT
Has anyone who has signed up for priority got the link yet? No, I have not received anything.
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Post by MrBunbury on Feb 15, 2023 10:19:55 GMT
Interested in getting a £25 TodayTix standing ticket but would be going alone. Has anyone done this before? Usually no issue going theatre alone when seated and watching a show but would it be awkward to be part of the immersive standing element as a single party? I was alone when I went to see 'Julius Caesar' there and it was perfectly fine. You are part of the crowd and you can move around freely so you should not feel uneasy to go alone. I will go and see 'Guys and dolls' on my own too and I am just excited.
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Post by MrBunbury on Feb 15, 2023 8:36:25 GMT
It lasts about two hours and fifteen minutes: first act (one hour and fifteen minutes), second act (fourty-five minutes). Lule Rackza was sitting just in front of me and Rupert Goold at my left so I felt I needed to clap with some energy at the end, but overall I did not like the play. I think it is really unclear what it is meant to be: a tragedy? A farce? Alison Oliver is good but her character is almost impossible to decipher; she seems an empty vessel of others' dreams with no real clear goal of her own. None of the potential interesting readings (class: nobles vs servants; gender: female empowerment; religion vs dark arts; history) is really developed. Leo Bill is hilarious as the dim lord of the house but somehow his scenes jar with any serious concept; there is one scene between him and Oliver in the second act that is funny but at the same time on the other side of the stage something truly horrible happens so I did not know where I was meant to focus. The ending is abrupt and I could not understand what was the point of the play (hopefully Steve will explain that to me when he reviews the play :-))
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Post by MrBunbury on Feb 14, 2023 16:51:43 GMT
It is a bit late to put out the question because I am going to see it tonight, but has anyone seen it? It is not the most romantic play for Valentine's Day but I thought that compared to the devil, I might look like a good catch :-)
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Post by MrBunbury on Feb 10, 2023 12:15:39 GMT
Going on the 25th of February!
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Post by MrBunbury on Feb 8, 2023 13:14:56 GMT
I just wish they were a bit more clear about when the tickets will go on sale because 'coming soon' is very vague and in the past I missed shows at the Young Vic that were branded as such.
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Post by MrBunbury on Feb 8, 2023 12:37:00 GMT
[pbr] The blurb seems to suggest that you can stay for 20 minutes or 24 hours. Anyone know how they plan to ticket this? I remember when David Walliams did 24 hours of comedy straight that they ticketed it in 2 hour blocks (tickets were free from the BBC). I attended a late night block, but then stayed for another block when they told us we could stay if we wanted to cos the early morning block wasn't filled. But if someone can stay for the full 24 hours, doesn't that really limit the (live) audience for this? And if someone does leave after 20 minutes, can someone else come straight in and fill the seat? Anyone know lol? I had a ticket for this in 2020. There were tickets based on time slots (if I remember well every 4-6 hours). I had a ticket for 8 AM on the Saturday morning. It seems indeed unclear. If those going at 4 pm on the Friday decide to stay for the whole 24 hours (I might try), then is there room for others? I think they count on the limited resistance of the audience.
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Post by MrBunbury on Feb 8, 2023 11:46:18 GMT
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Post by MrBunbury on Jan 30, 2023 16:54:41 GMT
I saw it on Saturday night with two friends. Although it is not the kind of music I listen to normally, I liked the hip hop/funk sound score (I remember liking it also when I saw the doomed embryonic production at the Old Vic years ago). Sharon Rose and Beverly Knight are great and the choreography is amazing. It still feels rather long and I guess they could cut something at the beginning to reduce the length because in that first part, the songs sound a bit the same and the story does not progress much. In the first part, I struggled to understand some of the lyrics (I was sitting in the grand circle). But I loved the idea of the 'suffrajitsu' and it is now part of my vocabulary (although I don't know in what context I will be able to use the word...).
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Post by MrBunbury on Jan 12, 2023 12:10:21 GMT
I saw it on Tuesday as well. I hope Anjana Vasan recovers soon and it is nothing serious. I admit I had gone with some prejudice about the suitability of Patsy Ferran for the role of Blanche but her performance was just great and made my concerns vanish. She is really inhabiting the character and I remember a similar intensity (pardon the awkward comparison) when I saw Helen Mirren in "Phedra" at the NT years ago. The bare stage did not affect the credibility of the story, although I struggled a bit with imagining where the separation between the two rooms in Stanley and Stella's apartment was from time to time. My only reservation is that the rape scene is so subdued that I only understood it happened because I knew the story. A solid four star production: sometimes it is good to go with preconceptions so there can be nice surprises :-)
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Post by MrBunbury on Dec 14, 2022 16:45:51 GMT
Arriving late to comment (I was in Rome for work which sounds like a good reason to absent :-)), but the casting of Patsy Ferran goes so against my idea of Blanche that it is very exciting to imagine what she will do. I feel sorry for Lydia Wilson because being cast for a major production of Streetcar in London does not happen very often. Hopefully she will recover soon and be in another wonderful production elsewhere.
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Post by MrBunbury on Nov 25, 2022 8:27:40 GMT
I went to see it last night. First thing, I am Italian so I always struggle with the language in Shakespeare and that might detract from my experience. I had only seen Othello once at the Globe with Mark Rylance as Iago. The play was about three hours long with an interval. It was a bit a mixed bag for me: in terms of positives, Paul Hilton, as expected, is great as Iago (pure unrepented evil. Just hearing his voice brought me back to Walter's monologue in The inheritance). When he is in the scene, the atmosphere is electric. The relationship between Iago and his wife Emilia is interesting and given an undertone that might in part explain why Emilia gets involved in the plot of the handkerchief (fear and desire to please him). The three hours passed quickly so the pacing is good. The rather stark staging and the monochrome costumes might help to focus on the text, although there is little suggestion we are in either Venice or Cyprus (it looks more like an asylum in Vladivostok). Giles Tereira, whom I really liked in previous plays, grows in the second part but I must say I never believed he was a valiant general and seemed to lack that kind of authority that I would associate to the position. And I did not remember that jealousy would turn into epilepsy. Rose McEwen is a modern Desdemona quite good. But looking at what the director said about his intention to refocus the play on Othello and articulate the black experience because previous directors were not comfortable with that, in his opinion, I don't think it worked out. As written by Shakespeare, Iago remains central to the story and the most interesting character and apart from the overt racism in the Venetian characters, I did not get much of Othello's point of view.
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Post by MrBunbury on Nov 22, 2022 15:55:20 GMT
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Post by MrBunbury on Nov 17, 2022 9:54:21 GMT
I saw it last night and I am afraid I am in the minority that was not enthused by the show. Katie Bryben is phenomenal but the second Act was rather flat and I did not feel much wiser after seeing the show. Maybe the entire story and reality of televangelist is too far from my experience (I am Italian).
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