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Post by jek on Aug 17, 2018 9:14:41 GMT
For those who haven't had enough of a proms West Side Story fix we were at the late night National Youth Jazz Orchestra prom last night which was advertised at the time of booking as being Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and also 'showcases the popular side of Bernstein'. The latter turned out to be a 40 minute energy filled performance of the Stan Kenton take on West Side Story. Well worth a listen to on the iplayer: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bf47fn
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Post by jek on Aug 16, 2018 9:09:35 GMT
Saw the Guildhall School of Music version of this, performed by their graduating students, last month. It was enjoyable - especially as the granny of the lad playing Motel the tailor was sitting behind us and, understandably, was completely thrilled at everything, but I can't imagine wanting to see it again so soon unless the cast or production promises something extra special.
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Post by jek on Aug 3, 2018 15:12:59 GMT
I didn't enjoy this much at all. Having given up paid employment (as a postdoctoral research fellow) when I had my eldest child twenty years ago I am keenly aware of the issues around financial dependency, isolation, finding meaning through the domestic etc. but I just didn't think this play addressed them in an interesting, novel or entertaining way. Interestingly (and not for the first time at the National) I thought the programme notes - specifically the essay by Victoria Smith - were much more insightful and better written than the play. It wasn't terrible - and clearly there were some good performances but I could have spent my Thursday evening more productively and enjoyably.
Funnily enough when I came home I checked my bookshelves and found that I have a copy of Kay Smallshaw's 'How To Run Your Home Without Help' (the 2005 Persephone edition, not the 1949 original). It is clear from both the flawless state of the book and the less than flawless state of my home that I have never read it!
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Post by jek on Jul 21, 2018 17:19:19 GMT
I'm afraid I am with Mr Snow on this. Really disappointed. Maybe I love the film too much. There was just something wrong about the tone for me. It's interesting because in her programme notes Emma Rice is really insightful about the film, the desperate longing at its heart, but this didn't seem to translate to the actual piece. But while my party (of three) didn't enjoy it there was certainly a lot of love for it in the theatre today.
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Post by jek on Jul 20, 2018 8:12:23 GMT
Thank you @baemax . That's really helpful. This is one of those reasons why this board is so great.
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Post by jek on Jul 20, 2018 7:58:57 GMT
Having missed this first time round (my kids were then of an age then when going out meant complex babysitting arrangements) I have been prompted by the closure notices to book tomorrow's matinee. Have seen mention on here about the advisability of getting to the theatre early for the pre show entertainment. Any suggestions as to how early this starts? Many thanks.
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Post by jek on Jul 14, 2018 16:44:21 GMT
I went this afternoon too and noted the absence of billiard balls - that must have been cut. Really enjoyed this and it zipped along. Wonderful movement (choreography) and Es Devlin set. And appropriately beautiful tailoring. My only problem with it was that I thought the final act was a bit rushed and whereas the rest had been easy to follow I got lost in the 21st century stuff. Well deserved good reviews.
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Post by jek on Jul 13, 2018 7:28:26 GMT
Hard to categorise this. There is music, dance, enormous projections - all in the Tate turbine hall and all telling the story of Africans in the First World War. You can get a flavour of it from this video: www.1418now.org.uk/commissions/the-head-and-the-load/gallery/#item-1It's a short run (I saw it last night) and is completely sold out but it is going to be viewable online on the 1418 now website from 21st July. It made me really sorry to have missed the Kentridge directed Lulu at the ENO. The turbine hall has proper raked seating for this which given it is 90 minutes long was a blessing after having recently stood through the LSO Stockhausen/Messiaen at the same venue. The piece positively vibrates with righteous anger for what befell hundreds of thousands of African carriers. The 1418 programme has been a real commissioning powerhouse. I feel really lucky to have seen this.
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Post by jek on Jul 7, 2018 14:29:55 GMT
We went to see a student production of Fiddler on The Roof at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama last night. It turned out to be an audio described performance. The first I knew of this was when I got an email yesterday setting out the facilities available (touch tour etc.) and inviting anyone who needed an aisle seat or was bringing a guide dog to call the box office for help. The email came from the audio describer, a recent graduate of the Guildhall, and had a really nice welcoming and reassuring tone. I only saw a couple of people with headsets in the audience - one just in front of me - but it seemed such an obvious service to provide. I am sure it takes a bit of organising but the benefits are obvious.
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Post by jek on Jul 4, 2018 8:39:48 GMT
My teenage daughter insisted we book for this as soon as booking opened (last July) and last night was our night to finally see it. She had loved the cast recording to excess. I'm so glad she did make me book - I really loved this. In fact this morning I am the one playing the cast recording. Lovely engaged audience which looked like London (young, multi ethnic) but I wouldn't say this is a production exclusively for the young. I have to admit that as someone who has stayed at home raising kids for the last twenty years the mother character felt relatable and I'm sure for anyone who has ever had a difficult relationship with a parent there is something to identify with. I like the way that Jeanine Tesori describes it in the programme as 'the story of how we continue to reach for our parents at every age'. Lovely performances all round - I realise from the programme that I previously saw Harriet Turnbull (small Alison) in Young Marx.
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Post by jek on Jul 4, 2018 7:41:21 GMT
I am really grateful that we have a recycling collection every other week which acts as my 'deadline' for the previous two weeks newspapers, showgirl. But there is so much thrown away here that I never get round to reading. I do, however, always make time to glance through the extremely funny or obscene (depending on mood) 'How To Spend It' supplement! Who knew that things could cost so much?
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Post by jek on Jul 3, 2018 16:27:41 GMT
lynette Get the impression from the article that that is not going to happen! Rather it is all about the gesture or how someone sits. I'm going in about ten days and am now properly intrigued by it.
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Post by jek on Jul 3, 2018 14:51:23 GMT
Big article about this in the Financial Times at the Weekend (front cover and inside page of the Life and Arts section),'Making A Drama Out of A Crisis' by Sarah Hemming. I have the actual physical paper but I guess it will be online behind the FT paywall. It is in part a survey of the sort of drama made from stories of financial affairs - Glengarry Glen Ross, World Factory, Serious Money and Enron are all mentioned. But it also mentions how the Lehman Trilogy has morphed from having a cast of twenty in earlier productions to just three in the current one with those three actors conjuring up multiple characters with - among other things, Adam Godley playing a billiard ball and Simon Russell Beale an 18 year old girl in nineteenth century Alabama. Must admit that having read the article I am now more pleased that I booked tickets.
Still think that the FT has among the best arts coverage of any UK paper - hence why I buy a physical copy of it at the weekend.
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Post by jek on Jul 1, 2018 13:20:57 GMT
Just back from seeing this at the Barbican Cinema (it is also showing at some Picturehouses and Curzons). Its focus is the decision to move the Met from its 19th century built home in downtown Manhattan to the planned Lincoln Center. There is much about the wrangles among architects and planners but also much about the first production - Samuel Barber's Anthony and Cleopatra directed by Franco Zeffirelli. There are union troubles, a recalcitrant revolve and a pyramid that refuses to do what it is meant to. The 'talking heads' in the documentary are superb - biographers of the architects, the once young who were cleared from the site of the new opera house by slum clearance, people who have worked at the opera house quite literally man and boy. And over all of this, causing the cinema audience to laugh out loud on more than one occasion, is the magnificent, charismatic Leontyne Price - now in her 90s but still able to carry a tune and tell a great story. Would recommend anyone to see this, but if you love opera then you'll love it even more. Hopefully it will get a TV outing at some point - can imagine it in something like the Storyville strand on BBC4.
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Post by jek on Jun 22, 2018 8:46:29 GMT
What sort of drinks do they serve at this marriage bar? A cocktail of resentment, anger and poverty!
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Post by jek on Jun 22, 2018 7:40:26 GMT
Don't think it is a spoiler to mention - as is related in the programme - that we are talking about a time when the marriage bar was still very much a thing. Women in teaching, the civil service and much else were not allowed to continue working after marriage. Strange to realise how recently this was the case.
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Post by jek on Jun 20, 2018 12:49:42 GMT
I don't know how old your nieces are peggs but taking them to War Horse strikes me as one of the best things an aunt could do. It is over a decade since I took my eldest son to see it (he is now 20!). We won tickets to the original National production via a competition in our local newspaper (the prize also included a backstage tour and a signed copy of the book) and it was a totally memorable night. I wouldn't worry about the trauma aspect. Kids are fed such a diet of Michael Morpurgo with all its glorious emotion - I remember we once had to pull off the road while listening to his Adolphus Tips on audio book so overwhelming was the weeping. And teachers at my kids' primary told me they could never get through Kensuke's Kingdom without tears. Good luck with getting cheap tickets. At least there are half price tickets for the under 18s.
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Post by jek on Jun 20, 2018 11:24:43 GMT
My 17 year old daughter who enjoyed Follies last year asked me, on seeing the casting announcement, who Joanna Riding is. When I said that she is the woman who handed her a piece of chocolate at Romantics Anonymous at the Sam Wanamaker her face lit up. That was such a lovely production and Riding was fantastic in it. As I remember she was in the Pajama Game some years back. Her casting is certainly tempting me to make a return visit to Follies.
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Post by jek on Jun 18, 2018 6:53:05 GMT
Disappointed to hear that this isn't coming to TRSE. I would certainly have walked around the corner to see it. However, I do wonder if Nadia Fall is, understandably, eager to establish some clear blue water between herself and the previous regime at the theatre. And given the financial problems which the theatre has clearly found itself in, is that perhaps a consideration? I can't imagine the theatre opting out of anything that might encourage some footfall to their doors. I wonder how successful booking for the new season is? I didn't get round to seeing the most recent production there (Cafe Society Swing) but there were still plenty of seats available when I was looking at buying tickets there last week. I would love TRSE to do well so am keeping fingers crossed that it will.
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Post by jek on Jun 15, 2018 9:07:25 GMT
Just over a week ago we went to a concert at St Paul's Cathedral featuring the work of Nico Muhly and also pieces by Steve Reich and Philip Glass. It was a lovely experience sitting under the dome listening to great music (one of the performers, alongside Muhly, was the wondrous Timo Andres). The concert was part of a series 'New Worlds' celebrating the 60th anniversary of the American Memorial Chapel at St Paul's. The next concert in the series (on July 11th) 'For The Common Man' features Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms alongside, obviously, Copland and others performed by St Paul's Cathedral Choir and organists. Tickets from £10-25. www.stpauls.co.uk/worship-music/music/concerts-and-events/new-worlds
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Post by jek on Jun 15, 2018 7:01:55 GMT
I enjoyed this too yesterday afternoon. Not much to add to what has already been written here except to say that I thought Angus Wright was particularly impressive as Gordon Lowther - much less a ridiculous figure than I remember him being portrayed as by Gordon Jackson in the film. Good also to see one of the 'Derry Girls' doing something different. And - as a fan of Spark and with an interest in her religious ideas - I enjoyed the framing device.
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Post by jek on Jun 1, 2018 8:26:55 GMT
I was a fan when they first arrived on the scene. I spent many an hour huddled over my sewing machine making New Romantic style clothes for myself! I had a school friend whose mum made Tony Hadley's suit for his wedding and the rest of us were consumed with jealously at the access this gave our friend to the star. I'm afraid that for me Spandau Ballet without Tony Hadley just isn't Spandau Ballet but I guess that a younger audiences will just enjoy the music as part of the 80s revival and will be happy to see a young man take the place of a 50 something. No doubt it will help with the pension pots of the other band members and bring some pleasure to many people.
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Post by jek on May 23, 2018 16:19:42 GMT
I really like the Barbican Cinema. If you are a Barbican member it isn't too expensive (and there are cheap tickets for Young Barbican members which includes anybody under 26). A member of staff sits in on every film so that if anything were to kick off there is someone to deal with it.
I also like the Curzon at Aldgate which has very comfortable seats and a nice atmosphere but isn't cheap.
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Post by jek on May 23, 2018 8:53:14 GMT
I've spent quite a bit of time in Stratford East for school events (like other schools in Stratford the ones my kids go to/ went to use it sometimes for prize givings and the like). It is certainly the case that the first four or five rows of the stalls have much more leg room than those a bit further back. But I'm afraid I don't know about the front row
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Post by jek on May 22, 2018 12:48:36 GMT
I didn't have a problem booking for Noye's Fludde first thing this morning. But a bit later when I tried to get in to the website to check something the whole system had clearly crashed.
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