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Post by musicalmarge on Apr 3, 2018 2:19:02 GMT
I’m not religious at all but am I the only one who finds this musical tasteless? I dunno, maybe it’s just because it’s a musical about torturing a man to death around 1985 years ago!
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Post by musicalmarge on Apr 3, 2018 2:14:36 GMT
Did anyone see Soul Sister? Was at the Savoy years back?
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Post by musicalmarge on Apr 3, 2018 2:11:27 GMT
Not sure if this is NEW news, but just listening to Lloyd Webber on Jonathan Ross' Radio 2 show from Sunday, sounds like there are plans to bring Starlight Express back to London (or possibly outside of London) in a purpose-built theatre, like the German production. No idea when. This was the news and the plan 10 years ago! Andrew always wanted the Bochum staging done somewhere in the UK. There were talks of Battersea Power Station at one point! I hope it happens one day.....
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 30, 2018 7:16:26 GMT
A lot of people around me thought this was going to be a tribute show and that they'd boogie from the minute the curtain went up. It's pretty serious as far as jukebox musicals go, and deals with domestic violence and racism from the get go, and I don't know if many of the audience members around me really signed up for that. I say so because of the combination of nervous giggles, or otherwise giggles in appropriate times when certain derogatory terms were used. The beginning felt a little bit Color Purple, and a little bit like Dreamgirls when Tina teams up with Ike. There is a montage well into Act I that shows Tina getting pregnant, Tina performing, Tina being abused, Tina becoming Buddhist, Tina performing, Tina giving birth on a bed and the baby shown to the audience (think the opening number of Wicked with the green baby), which needs to be tightened and streamlined. The LED screen in the background seemed unnecessary and slightly distracting, especially in the beginning. The images captured didn't really enhance the setting, and stylistically, it completely crashed with the rustic South, but was put to better use as we moved into urban settings and into the '60s. I had issues understanding all the lyrics when Adrienne Warren's sings, but they seemed to have been ironed out by the second act. I actually enjoyed the second act better as I really never knew what happened after the Ike saga ended as they've shown us in the Angela Bassett film. I think I enjoyed seeing Tina's struggle with her self and her own identity rather than her domestic issues with Ike. As for Adrienne Warren: simply the best. How this woman does this night after night is astonishing. I hope she sustains through the run and keeps her voice and body healthy throughout. Hahaga the baby scene was terrible!!!! Lol
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 29, 2018 6:48:18 GMT
How can they not include the title song Pretty Woman!!! Arerggghh
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 28, 2018 23:11:35 GMT
Saw the show tonight. Adrienne Warren dear god is sensational. Wow what a talent. That said they show is great but act 1 too long, the book is clunky and without the leading lady the musical is just another generic jukebox bio. I was a tad bored at times.... It should be funnier and smarter.
Still it has time and we all loved it 8/10
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 27, 2018 21:51:17 GMT
Mary Poppins 9.5/10 Aida 9/10 Lion King 8/10 (the first 10 minutes 10/10) Hunchback 8/10 Newsies 8/10 Tarzan 7/10 Little Mermaid 6/10 Pinocchio 5/10 I didn’t see Jungle Book in the US sadly
I’m seeing Frozen in November but at a guess it will be 8/10
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 25, 2018 21:54:45 GMT
AIDA... damn - my guilty pleasure. I ADORED it on Broadway and saw it twice.
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 23, 2018 10:33:35 GMT
I heard a rumour last week that this might transfer, with Grinning Man closure now confirmed for May 5th...I wonder... Wow well if true I’m please for them but I can think of another 7 shows I wish would have transferred from Southwark!
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 23, 2018 6:59:49 GMT
I’ve said if 1265 times. If they had a massive amazing hydraulic ice castle this show would have been a success. Without it just it’s magical enough. Seems the critics agreed.....
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 23, 2018 6:57:59 GMT
Reviews!!! Eek.....
Jesse Green, The New York Times: Forget girl power, sisterly love and the high-belt clarion call of "Let It Go." Anxiety over the handling of a precious gift is the theme that comes through loudest in "Frozen," the sometimes rousing, often dull, alternately dopey and anguished Disney musical that opened on Broadway on Thursday.
Matt Windman, amNY: The continued popularity of "Frozen" (which grossed $1.2 billion when it debuted at the movies in 2013 and has morphed into a phenomenon) probably explains why it has been adapted for the Broadway stage in such a straightforward, shallow and unimaginative manner, creating a disappointing and empty product.
Christopher Kelly, NJ.com: The Broadway version, though, is the virtual opposite: a play-it-by-the-book rendering of the story that, in refusing to take any real risks, ends up undermining the story's core message -- namely, that sometimes you've got to "let it go," and let your freak flag fly. For a show about magic and wonder, there's shockingly little on display here.
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times: "Frozen" likely won't have many repeat customers, but its agreeable competence will satisfy hardcore fans who are curious to understand more about the plucky, climate-meddling heroines who devise their own happy ending through sisterly solidarity.
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: Vastly improved from its rocky Denver tryout, director Michael Grandage's heavily sold production of Disney's "Frozen" is set to open here Thursday night, replete with richer storytelling, less extraneous comedy and with its crucial pair of sisters, who in Denver seemed all iced up in some chilly corner of the castle, finally letting go enough emotionally to thaw the center of their mutually dependent story.
Alexis Soloski, The Guardian: Broadway's Frozen is a good show. With its music, its dance, its flurry of likable leads, and snowball after snowball of son and lumière, some of it newfangled, some of it stretching back to 19th-century melodrama, it offers most of the pleasures that we count on Broadway musicals to provide. But even with the addition of a dozen new songs by the composers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, an enhanced book by Jennifer Lee, and the interventions of director Michael Grandage and scenic and costume designer Christopher Oram, it rarely feels like more than the movie and sometimes it feels like less.
Diane Snyder, The Telegraph: They play it safe. While the film was Disney's non-traditional take on the time-honoured princess tale - with spirited sisters finding their way back to each other instead of marrying handsome princes - this is not a daring reinvention of the material, but a repackaging of the film for the stage. It's the surest way to please the movie's faithful fans. Although darker than its predecessor in tone and design (sets and costumes are by Olivier winner Christopher Oram), this new Frozen is brisk and entertaining for most of its two hours and 20 minutes, with the same characters that won the hearts of filmgoers brought to three-dimensional life.
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Under the direction of Michael Grandage, Frozen doesn't entirely go wrong, but it does evince signs of the struggle to establish a consistent, unifying tone and to settle on a center in a story inherently bifurcated by having two heroines kept apart for most of the action. It ends up being merely adequate, a bland facsimile when it should have been something memorable in its own right.
Kelly Connolly, Entertainment Weekly: Grandage is a director accustomed to Shakespeare and therefore to people trapped by secrets - even in the midst of glittering sets and impressive snow tricks, the bond between the sisters effectively and literally takes the spotlight. Fans of the movie will be pleased to find Anna and Elsa safe in Levy and Murin's gloved hands, and doubters may just find their hearts thawed.
Joe Dziemianowicz, The Daily News: Disney powers-that-be, along with director Michael Grandage, have basically plopped the cartoon about two sisters estranged by and bound by magic onto the stage. Playing it so safe is like wearing boots for a spin at a skating rink. You won't fall down - but you won't dazzle either.
Johnny Oleksinski, The New York Post: For its new stage musical "Frozen," Disney should've heeded the sage advice of Queen Elsa: Let it go. Broadway should be the place to see what you can do, to test the limits and break through. No right, no wrong, no rules for thee - you're free! But that's wishful thinking. With "Frozen," the House of Mouse doesn't let us in, doesn't let us see. Stays the good Mouse it always has to be. Conceals, doesn't feel. Doesn't let us know. Well, here's what I know: "Frozen" is not a very good show.
Robert Hofler, TheWrap: In addition to Oram's monumental icescapes, Finn Ross' video and projection design gives the impression that the St. James stage, proscenium and beyond is freezing before our very eyes. Kudos, too, to Jeremy Chernick's special effects and Peter Hylenski's sound design, which, when it isn't blasting out Levy's high notes, manages to make us believe that a new ice age is upon us.
Greg Evans, Deadline: Directed by Tony-winning Michael Grandage (Red), the stage Frozen, opening tonight, doesn't consistently live up to "Let It Go," its book by Jennifer Lee (Zootopia) often feeling rushed, more concerned with hitting the movie's beats come hell or cold water than taking the time to just enjoy the characters that the audience is primed to love.
Peter Marks, Washington Post: Winning over the uninitiated, though, may be a tougher task for the eagerly anticipated musical that had its official opening Thursday night at the St. James Theatre. What may prevent "Frozen" from appealing to more sophisticated theater crowds is the unfulfilled promise of the plot. We're teased in this venture with the idea of an animated story wrought in three dimensions with more psychological subtlety than is the custom in Disney musicals. Because "Frozen" attempts to traverse the tender and intimate terrain of trauma and loss of love. But it never achieves that necessary climax - paradoxical in a show of this title - when a spectator's heart is able to melt.
Marilyn Stasio, Variety: The theater's legendary powers notwithstanding, there's no way that the all-too-solid stage of the St. James Theater can approximate the technical virtuosity of a movie setting. Rather, the magic of the theater comes from its power to open up the world of the imagination. Emerging from the dancing lights of the aurora borealis (as fashioned by lighting designer Natasha Katz) projected on the scrim (by video designer Finn Ross), Christopher Oram's sets are highly stylized and very theatrical, if not transporting.
Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: It would be one thing if Frozen's stiffness were in the service of a deeper take on the material, but its already shaky plot seems even less secure, too thin a rope to support the musical's dutiful climb up the narrative mountain. While the best songs from the movie-including "Love Is an Open Door," an ebullient duet for Anna and her dashing suitor, Hans (John Riddle)-still pop, the new ones are less strong; aside from an incongruous but zippy comic number at a sauna, they feel like heavy filler, especially in the busy and slushy finale.
Roma Torre, NY1: Full disclosure: "Frozen" is not my favorite Disney princess movie. Loved the message and the song, but the story seemed pretty convoluted even by Disney standards. As a musical, the plotting remains weak, but there is a special magic that only live theatre can produce, and it's working a charming spell on the Broadway stage.
Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast: There at the end are two women leading the company into their bows, playing two characters not needing men to complete them, who are confident in themselves and loving of each other. Elsa and Anna are leaders and examples. That exhibition of female power-still, sadly, a radical concept in Hollywood and on Broadway-is to be welcomed, and particularly for young girls and boys to see, but this musical feels oddly frozen in its delivery of i
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 22, 2018 10:06:22 GMT
I wonder when or if the West End or Broadway show will ever close?
Would love to take bets - 2037? 2025? 2050? Never?! Ha....
Mark Shenton from the stage famously said it will never close in his lifetime. Remarkable!
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 22, 2018 10:03:17 GMT
Well I loved Newsies and Aida. Plus Mary Poppins was great so yes. Even Lion King, though not my favourite is visually stunning and has wonderful music and puppetry.
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 21, 2018 22:36:44 GMT
I got meeeee blah blah blah blaaaaahhhhh
It’s the worst tune ALW has ever written. I’ll scream if they put it in.
And to think they cut Lotta Locomotion!!! GRRRR
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 21, 2018 22:24:12 GMT
I’ve been reading on the Broadway world and no one is saying it is amazing sadly. I haven’t read one rave. A decent show maybe but many seem to have issues with set, direction, new songs, Olaf, the sauna song for opening of act 2, the age of the leads, the lack of effects and general creativity and wow factor. It will run and run but really I think it’s just going to get 3/4 stars. It deserves to be so much better.... Shame. I’m happy to be proved wrong - I’m seeing it in November.
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 21, 2018 21:27:24 GMT
Revile? Revolve? Questions!!
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 15, 2018 21:24:27 GMT
Bed knobs and broom sticks .... come on bobbing along singing a song ..... Starts in Chicago this summer!!!! Screams!
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 9, 2018 10:15:03 GMT
New song Dangerous to Dream
I think it’s great! Monster too. Great choices musically.
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 9, 2018 10:10:20 GMT
New Kenwright tour for the 40th anniversary! Starts August in Wimbledon! Whoop whoop.
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 9, 2018 7:21:53 GMT
No... (((
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 8, 2018 23:26:09 GMT
I didn’t like the booing of Trump at Network. I despise the man and everything he stands for. But a bunch of metropolitan theatre goers booing a video isn’t going to change the world. It’s a knee jerk reaction. I thought the showing of the video at the end of the play was trite and undermined what had gone before. If he comes to London, I’ll protest. I have friends in the US actively working in the Democrats to chip away at the Reps. But booing at a video of him at the NT? I think he’d be rather pleased. Did you protest at the Saudi Prince visit? I will bet 1000 pounds you didn’t! Same with people loving Obama even though he invaded 7 countries was it during his time in office? The hypocrisy and double standards of people in the UK staggers me. I’m no lover of Trump but I didn’t like the childish booing at Network either.
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 8, 2018 8:50:58 GMT
Will this or Hamilton win best musical?
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 7, 2018 2:01:23 GMT
I find the music incredibly beige, like most of Paul and Pasek's work. All very lite-pop and nothing particularly theatrical. ERrrrrrrrr DOGFIGHT?
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 6, 2018 23:31:05 GMT
I ADORED tonight - one of the best things I’ve ever seen at the National. BC is a genius - he was amazing and gives a masterpiece in acting swapping from stage to screen within seconds. SURELY this has to have a second life or transfer? ??
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 2, 2018 20:48:12 GMT
Such a stunning piece of theatre! Downloaded!
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