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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 12, 2019 14:47:38 GMT
Now they seem bland, each one forgettable after the show is over. They are awful! And it's so surprising, given that the London Underground is such a potentially great showcase for poster art. Photoshop did a good job killing it off for a generation, as digital music killed off record sleeve art, but there are some really interesting young illustrators doing their own posters on Etsy and things, so the talent is out there. The RSC posters from the 80s are fantastic: I've got Ralph Steadman's Mother Courage and great one for Mephisto by a Polish poster artist in my collection. Not that I particularly agree or otherwise with the attributed comment but the quoted post is from the deleted account of caiaphas. Quoting and snipping does that sometimes, something to do with how it deals with the tags.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 12, 2019 13:33:34 GMT
If you're looking for cast recordings on cd or (particularly) on vinyl, try Discogs. It started as a database aiming to record every record/tape/cd/78 etc etc release ever. Clearly that will never happen, but it's user generated so just keeps getting bigger. It's also now a marketplace for sellers around the world. Cast recordings aren't generally highly sought, so if you want original vinyl releases, should be (relatively) inexpensive. You should be able to find pretty much any cd version as well. (I do sell on there, but not really anything relevant to this forum) Discogs is good for the really obscure stuff. I was one short of a complete collection of Broadway cast recordings and finally got hold of it just after Christmas. It was never officially released and the creators seem to have destroyed most of those that did exist, a show about the My Lai massacre called The Lieutenant. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lieutenant_(musical)It now sits proudly alongside my copy of Clownaround (and maybe a handful of people in the world will realise the significance of that one!) Ebay is a decent source but bricks and mortar no longer. I used to have a handful of record stores that I would rgularly visit when in London but now all gone. Dress Circle, Dean Street, MVE’s separate stores in Notting Hill, the second hand stores on a side street off Chinatown and on Berwick Street. Even those that are still there are a pale shadow of their former selves.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 11, 2019 23:09:49 GMT
Well this King Crimson fan (and some of the others mentioned) would be up for it. So which period for you? Early (ITCOTCK etc), Mid (Larks Tongues in Aspic etc.), later (Discipline etc) or latest (Thrak etc)? The amazing variety is one of their great draws but, if pushed, I’d have to go with mid period. Like music arriving from another planet at times. Fripp is a downright musical genius. Wa-hey! It never occurred to me I'd get to discuss Crimson on this board. Come, let us sit upon the grass and lace daisies into each other's hair. Let me get the potentially awkward bit done first: I've never much liked In The Court. Yes it's meant to be this great classic and I do get that but it leaves me a bit cold. The incendiary USA version of Schizoid is my limit. Like you I'm very fond of the Wetton-Bruford phase. But the 80s phase is probably my favourite. I've seen them a few times since they started touring again and the Glasgow and Edinburgh gigs in November were mindblowing. My heart sinks a bit when they launch into Epitaph or Moonchild though. My highlight was a sublime Indiscipline. I'll be at two of the 50th anniversary shows at the RAH in June. Very much of its time the first album and a bit hippyish (blame Peter Sinfield for a fair bit of that, I think). One that I’ve always liked of the early albums is Lizard, if you have a surround setup then Lizard in six channel sound is a revelation, opening up the dense instrumentation amazingly. In fact, all of them in surround are great. Friends of yore were more into Led Zep, Hendrix, Tull, Genesis, Yes and so on (early teens, we diversified a lot later!) so any talk of KC was a curiosity at best. I’ve been dutifully collecting the mindblowingly complete box sets, which look to be completed for the 50th anniversary. An expensive year ahead!
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 11, 2019 19:45:04 GMT
I managed to miss this thread last year. As someone said, it's kind of nice to see fans of NIN, Mogwai, MBV etc on here, albeit just 2 or 3. I admit I've generally assumed people's music tastes here consist of showtunes and nothing else. But I suppose there aren't usually music threads on here, at least not that I notice. All the same is it too much to hope anyone's willing to discuss School of Seven Bells, Goldfrapp, St Vincent, Magazine and King Crimson?! While Rodgers and Chic weren't really my thing I admire them and it'll be interesting to see his selection. Well this King Crimson fan (and some of the others mentioned) would be up for it. So which period for you? Early (ITCOTCK etc), Mid (Larks Tongues in Aspic etc.), later (Discipline etc) or latest (Thrak etc)? The amazing variety is one of their great draws but, if pushed, I’d have to go with mid period. Like music arriving from another planet at times. Fripp is a downright musical genius.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 11, 2019 17:28:27 GMT
The 19th matinee has been on there for a while, I’ve been looking for returns for it a few times a day as it’s the only one I can still do. Now a note on the queue says it’s all sold out. Looks like I am down to booking a viewing in the archive now. Surely they can’t screw that possibility up as well?
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 10, 2019 19:42:19 GMT
in the same way that artificial light and the ability to manipulate it changed theatre we are beginning to experience a new change, where the artificial barriers between different media are broken down, merged, switched etc.
The advent of dimmable gas lighting led Wagner to wanting a darkened auditorium, with Henry Irving following a couple of years after. Both realising that it would enhance the illusions that they wanted to create. This separation of stage and auditorium changed plays and the acting too, allowing for realism and fourth wall as opposed to the overt theatricality employed previously. That never completely eliminated what came previously and there isn't any chance of what we have now completely disappearing yet, either.
Now, however, we have two artforms, able to inhabit the same space. Screens are no longer bleached out by more powerful stage lighting, digital media allows for instant projection at a very high resolution and, just as importantly, the audience are well versed in the differing languages of both screen and live performance.
It's an exciting time and, although I won't be around to see even greater changes to come, it's fascinating to see how theatre, playwriting, directing and acting are scrambling to catch up. The lack of critical vocabulary is an issue at the moment, the old specialisms and divisions of criticism are lagging behind. Directors like Van Hove and Mitchell are the vanguard, testing things out, succeeding, sometimes failing but they have made a start.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 8, 2019 22:15:57 GMT
If alienation aims to provoke an intellectual response how is that response the carried beyond the theatre, a problem we all know with Brecht’s work. Verfremdungseffekt is very poorly translated as alienation. It's been a weight around its neck ever since that mistake was made by Willett. A better translation is 'the effect of making something unfamiliar/strange'.
Brecht wanted the audience to see things in a new light, not to be 'alienated'. As such, it's never been about negation of emotion and an audience approaching it that way has been misled. The emotion is, instead, built from the audience's realisation of what they hadn't realised.
Brecht's work is very emotional, just one that is aimed at cause not effect. The emotion comes from a realisation of the truth, not a cynical manipulation of feelings. He would have been having a field day at skewering these 'post-truth' times.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 7, 2019 15:15:52 GMT
Following the 'advance members' sale this morning ANNA is now showing as completely sold out. Hopefully they've held back some seats for the public sale next week, as well as any for Friday Rush/day seats.
edit: Sorry, on further inspection it's not 100% clear. On the play page it's showing as sold out every day, but if you go to the actual individual day pages, it looks like June 6th and 12th have seats.
Yes, I was about 500 in the queue and there we only a handful left for Anna on my chosen date. Other productions seemed to have plenty.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 2, 2019 11:17:18 GMT
They used to do performances occasionally. I think it was where the Lost Musicals series started - pretty sure I saw a concert-style performance of Do I hear a Waltz? there once The series of lost West End musicals (unconnected to the Broadway one) performed concert versions in a room there for a number of years. Plenty of older performers turned up on stage or in the audience or at Q and As and they were all fascinating, The last one was done in a more theatre type space there but that’s about fifteen years ago (wow, time really has flown).
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Feb 2, 2019 11:05:37 GMT
Maybe next time she could choose her play to please you? A safe little Alan Bennett or Noel Coward perhaps? Something set in a drawing room with lovely music during the scene changes? Nothing too challenging for her or the audience. snip And a play can't challenge an audience when it bores them out of their minds, it has to engage them. Trying their patience is something different. The audience it has are not the audience it should have had. Part of this being because they were lured with a star and part if it because many didn't bother to find out what they were going to. The natural audience for this are liking and appreciating it much more (not completely but with a much more balanced and nuanced response). Partly you could blame Blanchett I suppose but moreso the press who hyped it (and the NT who colluded in that) are to blame. Audiences should not be above reproach either (often, and this is too often unsaid, an audience is part of the problem), why on earth were they going to something which is going to be uncommercial, challenging fare without knowing that beforehand?
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 31, 2019 20:15:11 GMT
Presumably it’s fictional because the case is sub judice but then what’s the point? It’s neither timely, being too late to be a warning nor a reflection on the reality as it’s too soon for that.
It’s just an opportunistic attempt to be ‘relevant’, just like Edfringe shows that try and piggyback on the latest cause celebre in a desperate gambit to sell tickets. The sort of thing that someone out of touch would think of as being a good idea.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 31, 2019 0:27:07 GMT
'The view from THE ground'? Really? 'The view from YOUR ground' maybe. And that's the point, isn't it? Differences of opinion, not sweeping statements of hit or miss. I shall let you continue to baffle me 😂 It’s a simple, yet important, distinction. Anyway, feel free to plough on as the self appointed ‘voice of the people’.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 30, 2019 21:23:24 GMT
'The view from THE ground'?
Really?
'The view from YOUR ground' maybe.
And that's the point, isn't it? Differences of opinion, not sweeping statements of hit or miss.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 30, 2019 19:41:49 GMT
And stating that opinion repeatedly in combative terms comes across, to me, as the same.
I saw it the theatre, however. Maybe the NT Live version gave it a different feel.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 30, 2019 18:46:50 GMT
With something like this with plenty of four star reviews and positive comments, if I didn’t like something I wouldn’t go on about how ‘terrible’ it was as, clearly, the opposite view is widely held. Do others not think about their reaction and rationalise it, and what stopped them from doing so. Or is that just me? I find it a way of learning more about your own failings and limitations and I think that sort of self interrogation is very helpful. Don't be so patronising. It's a theatre discussion forum in which people discuss, amongst other things, what they thought of things. I happened to hate this, but I'm perfectly well aware, without you having to tell me, that many, many others held a different view. That doesn't invalidate my opinion, nor does it tell me about my 'failings'. Jesus! I made no comment about you personally at all. Throw around words like ‘pretentious’, however, and the least you can expect is a general riposte from those who did like and understand what was being done. If I wanted to attack someone’s views personally I’d be much more direct. The letter writer, who I did comment on, is, however, just typical of a certain reactionary mindset and any self knowledge seems to be very much absent from their thinking. Following on from that, I do think that in any situation, that what we feel tells us about ourselves much more than it does about others. That’s not really controversial is it?
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 30, 2019 17:23:55 GMT
With something like this with plenty of four star reviews and positive comments, if I didn’t like something I wouldn’t go on about how ‘terrible’ it was as, clearly, the opposite view is widely held. Do others not think about their reaction and rationalise it, and what stopped them from doing so. Or is that just me? I find it a way of learning more about your own failings and limitations and I think that sort of self interrogation is very helpful.
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Brexit
Jan 29, 2019 21:34:38 GMT
Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 29, 2019 21:34:38 GMT
It’s a non-binding vote and frankly, the biggest indication we are heading for an actual no-vote. There are forces massing to stop that. Look at the headlines we are now getting every day, then imagine that times a hundred and that pressure will be applied to every single MP the closer we get. Either parliament caves or the actions taken against them will be quick and ruthless. n.b. there doesn’t need to be a no vote, all it needs for no deal is for no other option to be agreed by parliament and the EU.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 29, 2019 20:49:41 GMT
Okay.
Now’s the time for panic.
Parliament says it wants a deal but the only deal that can pass is one that has no chance of being agreed to.
Anyone any ideas as to how we can take back control from parliament?
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 27, 2019 23:50:35 GMT
New play by Lucy Kirkwood or Ella Hickson, something about truth and lies and our modern failing of confusing the two.
Modern classic as yet unrevived, Mother Clap’s Molly House by Mark Ravenhill.
Major classic with star casting, The Country Wife by Wycherly, take your pick for casting.
Rediscovery, Wedekind Earth Spirit/Pandora’s Box in new versions by Simon Stephens. Done in two parts.
Vainly trying to second guess but the sort of season I’d like to see!
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 27, 2019 0:01:18 GMT
I promise I am not JL Richards from Wales (who makes some pretty dodgy comments on the casting): Well, whoever it is, they’ve managed to make themselves look both reactionary in their opinions and lacking in any ability to understand theatre. No wonder the the director feels okay with posting it, if that’s the level of his critics.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 26, 2019 14:18:47 GMT
they seem similarly less confused/confusing. There's a similar one in the i but negative. It did use a word which sprung to mind when I read the synopsis and saw the photos - "fanfic". It's taking a pre-existing text/characters and an iconic star and sticking them in what in fic terms is a PWP scenario. (The Inheritance is basically a modern AU Howards End slash fanfic too. We are in the era of super-deluxe fanfic, it seems. I'm not complaining, but maybe we should call it what it is? I think fanfic's a fascinating phenomenon, though it's interesting that both these 'overground', 'respectable' examples are by men, not its prime originators, women.). Had to look the abbreviations up! Never really thought of how such theatre might be seen in that light, a sort of non-fan fiction (is that term a thing?). Makes sense though and fanfic metatextuality fits right in with postdramatic fiction. The whole negation of plot, for example, suddenly gains a wider context. Thanks, I must do some further research...
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 26, 2019 0:27:42 GMT
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 24, 2019 11:42:51 GMT
It depends. Mostly on the feeling in the company as to whether the reviews were fair or not. I know someone who was involved in a complete disaster and he knew it was totally deserved. It was a job, however, and you do your level best to do it well. When criticism is seen as unfair it can pull the cast and creatives together, though. Many’s the time when you hear of them going above and beyond to try and keep it running.
The worst would be when there are divisions in the company but there are a thousand and one reasons for that, not just reviews.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 24, 2019 0:28:27 GMT
Three stars - Guardian, Two stars - Stage.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Jan 23, 2019 23:51:31 GMT
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