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Post by princeton on Aug 5, 2024 13:30:46 GMT
Assuming it is quite short with a 8pm start time? The Hollywood Reporter reviewer described the 2016 Geffen Playhouse production as "clocking in at a long 80 minutes" !!
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Post by princeton on Jul 1, 2024 11:26:15 GMT
At the performance I saw there was no one sitting in the stage left front rows. The view there would be extremely limited due to the angle of the set and a desk placed towards the front of the playing area.
I was further back in the 'high numbers' and whilst there was no restriction I felt distant and quite alienated from the acting because of the angle of the set.
I quite enjoyed the play - but suspect I would have liked it much more if I'd been sitting at the other side of the auditorium (my usually spot but my favourite seat had gone - so I went for its equivalent in the high numbers!)
There didn't really seem to be a need for the angle of the set - certainly any aesthetic pros were outweighed by the impact on a swathe of audience members.
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Post by princeton on Jun 19, 2024 22:47:03 GMT
Reminds me of the production at the RSC back in the dark ages when Sly pulled down the entire set at the start and the good burghers of Stratford didn’t know what was going on. Best production I’ve seen of this play. 😂 I think that was the first Shakespeare production I ever saw when I was in my early teens, and has stayed with me to this day. From what I can remember it began with Jonathan Pryce (as Sly) dressed in contemporary clothes having a drunken rant in the auditorium then jumping on stage and completely destroying a very attractive typical Italian set and leaving just the backstage scaffolding. He then collapsed on stage. The rest of the play was framed as Sly's dream/nightmare - with Sly/Pryce taking the role of Petruchio, in modern dress on that almost bare stage. A truly great production directly by Michael Bogdanov (although I had very little to compare it to those days). I read an interview with Pryce several years later in which he said that on several occasions audience members urged ushers to call the police to have the drunken man removed. Thank goodness it was in the days before mobile phones (yes- there was such a time). Beyond that moment of getting someone from the audience - there are very few similarities between the two productions!
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Post by princeton on Jun 19, 2024 12:48:14 GMT
Make no mistake this production is a mess. There's some interesting ideas and some ridiculous ideas all thrown together to produce an ill-thought through whole.
The Shrew is considered a problematic play these days, but this production layers other problems on top which muddy rather than clarify matters.
Worth saying, however, that the script in hand has nothing to do with the actor (who is one of the best things about the production) not being across her lines, rather it's one of the many directorial conceits. In the prologue, Christopher Sly pulls a seemingly random punter from the audience and makes her take the part of Katherine - complete with script. As both Kate, and the 'audience member' who has been forced into playing Kate, gain confidence she refers to the script less often (and occasionally steps out of the Kate character to make asides as the 'actor' - confusing - you bet). What is clear is that Thalissa Teixeira is completely on top of the text and is using the script as a prop and not an aide-memoire, she couldn't do all the extra stuff she's expected to do without being word perfect.
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Post by princeton on May 23, 2024 22:49:51 GMT
The Aldwych production of Earnest was not a happy experience for many of the people who worked on it.
Maggie Smith was deeply unhappy and spoke to almost no one in the cast or crew. Margaret Tyzack and Richard Pearson as Prism and Chasuble had both worked with her on Lettice and Lovage and had been cast at her suggestion - so escaped her ire. Alex Jennings, being someone who gets on with everyone, tried his best to provide a link between the younger cast members and Maggie - but to no avail. The actresses playing Cecily and Gwendolyn were in constant terror of getting on the wrong side of Smith - but she mainly just ignored them. Her specific loathing was for Richard E Grant who she openly referred to as Richard E Can't (and sometime pronounced differently!)
Grant gave an interview in which he said: "This was my worst acting experience of all time, because I was tortured by (co-star) Maggie Smith the entire time. We’d worked together previously on film Suddenly Last Summer, a Tennessee Williams play, with Rob Lowe and Natasha Richardson, and we all got on well. But Maggie was unhappy with the production, and I became the scapegoat, her victim. I’m still amazed that anyone can be so inventive in the ways they can demolish you, but she did. She’s a brilliant actress, but she has a history of doing this. I was told by someone that every single job she’s ever done, she’s done it to someone. And I suffered six months of it. I couldn’t resign because then I’d regard it as a terrible failure, and that she had won, but I often wished that they’d fire me. After the first three months, I no longer gave a f***, and finally started to enjoy myself. But before that, well, it was just horrible. Urgh!"
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Post by princeton on May 23, 2024 17:43:38 GMT
I suspect he was using the word 'adaptation' in a very loose sense, not least because he also referenced Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as well as Inside No 9: Stage Fright, which is going to be a mix of existing characters and stories alongside new material.
So it may not be a straight adaptation of the first 'Thursday Murder Club' book, rather a new story set in the 'Murderverse' (as Marina Hyde called it) with the main four characters in new situations. Time will tell.
Certainly involving Tom Basden, whose adaptation of Accidental Anarchist was a highlight of last year, is a very shrewd move.
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Post by princeton on May 19, 2024 23:19:39 GMT
This is what it currently says on the cast holiday section of the website:
Cara Delevingne is not scheduled to perform on Monday 20 May (evening), Tuesday 21 May (evening), Wednesday 22 May (both shows), Thursday 23 May (evening) and Wednesday 29 May (matinee). At these performances, the role will be played by our alternate Sally Bowles, Nic Myers.
So this is probably the definitive version - at least today!!
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Post by princeton on May 10, 2024 0:21:01 GMT
Emily Woof wrote, directed and acted in several very highly acclaimed solo pieces in the 1990 (most were seen at the Royal Court) which involved elements of gymnastics, dance and usually trapeze work. I recall that she broke her leg during the run of one of them so performed an Edinburgh festival season wearing a plaster cast. Since then she's appeared in films, television and written a couple of novels. She is a very singular talent and it's great that she's back on stage many years later.
She's definitely not a stand-up comic, rather she's a brilliant theatre maker. I'm very much looking forward to seeing this.
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Post by princeton on Apr 13, 2024 19:45:06 GMT
I believe that Pete Ashmore (who was in the Orange Tree production of The Circle) covered as Vanya earlier in the week. James Lance was back when I saw it on Thursday but maybe he's still under the weather so not doing both shows on a matinee day.
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Post by princeton on Mar 28, 2024 23:15:37 GMT
She's also worked with Jamie Lloyd previously. He directed her in Apologia at the Trafalgar Studios in 2017.
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Post by princeton on Feb 20, 2024 15:28:12 GMT
It is a brand new adaptation - by Rebecca Frecknall herself.
In 2016 she directed a production of Zinnie Harris's Julie at Northern Stage in Newcastle.
My understanding is that she's in Amsterdam at the moment but made a flying visit to NYC for the Cabaret company meet and greet/read-through etc and will be back there for rehearsals proper next week.
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Post by princeton on Feb 13, 2024 21:34:09 GMT
Carrie Hope Fletcher played Wednesday in the first tour (2017), Kingsley Morton played her in the second (2021/2).
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Post by princeton on Feb 8, 2024 18:59:22 GMT
Actually - it was in an interview as she was about to appear in Sister Act where she said: “It’s my last one. I will never do musical theatre again.”
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Post by princeton on Feb 2, 2024 17:18:29 GMT
We're veering away from the play to the Young Vic in general - so maybe a new thread.
I agree with Parsley that, disappointingly, I don't think Kwame has really made the expected long-term inroads at the Young Vic. I was excited about his appointment having admired many of the plays that he wrote in the early 00s (especially Elmina's Kitchen), and his direction of other people's work. Also he had experience as an AD elsewhere and people spoke highly about him as a collaborative leader. However, I've found his time at the Vic pretty patchy.
His initial announcements promised much, and often delivered, and I'm very sympathetic to any AD who had to navigate their way through the Covid-related closures. Since 2018 he's directed five productions there - one a year which seems a fair rate. However, three of those he also wrote, two of which he'd already directed elsewhere (and the third was mired in controversy about the authorship of the piece).
There's been work which I've seen during his tenure, particularly during the early years, which I've admired/enjoyed and there have been critical and box office successes (inc a very good streaming offer once the theatre re-opened). That said, almost all of the work which has had extended life: Death of A Salesman, Best of Enemies, Collaborators and Oklahoma, was brought to the Young Vic by other directors and/or commercial producers as a try-out. Also for a theatre which has three performances spaces it feels there should have been so much more (in 2016 there were c18 full productions across the three houses)
I can't help but think lately he's only had one eye on the Young Vic and stretched himself too thinly. His focus seems to have been elsewhere - developing, directing and writing films, writing a musical at New York's Public Theatre, last year he was appointed Artistic Adviser at Manhattan Theatre Club, and this year he's joined the board of the TV production company The Story Collective in what sounds like a fairly hands on capacity. All of this is, presumably, agreed by the Young Vic board but I do wonder how much of the current season was down to him and how much to the very experienced Executive Director Lucy Davies.
I think in many ways he was a very good appointment, and maybe he only intended to do five years in the role and Covid has meant that he feels he's needed to stay longer, but it's probably time for him to move on.
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Post by princeton on Jan 25, 2024 21:04:33 GMT
Presumably in her application for the job she made it clear that she intended to act rather than direct. Certainly in her first press interviews after her appointment was announced she said "I'm not going to direct [any plays], so nobody needs to worry about that, I think it's a skill that I don't have, I think it's a particular skill, and my passion is acting" and that she would appear in one production per season.
I don't remember similar criticism being levelled at Mark Rylance and I'm pretty sure he acted in one production per season as well as directing.
Dan Evans is appearing rather than directing in his first season at the RSC and I don't think he's acted in a stage production (other than as an emergency cover) for more than 10 years.
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Post by princeton on Jan 25, 2024 13:24:45 GMT
It's not a first season - It's actually the final season which Tim Sheader has programmed even though he's no longer Artistic Director. Drew McOnie is responsible for programming the 2025 season and beyond.
I seem to be alone in thinking it's not a bad season at all. A Shakespeare, a new dramatisation of a classic English novel (they've a long tradition of doing those) and a timely revival of a Broadway musical directed by someone who's worked on two of the most exciting recent musical revivals.
Also kudos to them for looking at the pricing structure and making over 33,000 tickets available at £15, and all Monday tickets at £15, £25 and £35.
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Post by princeton on Jan 23, 2024 12:24:06 GMT
Only running 22 May — 8 June 2024 (press night 29 May). 21 performances including two which are being filmed. Will be a very hot ticket.
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Post by princeton on Jan 23, 2024 11:58:57 GMT
I suspect the initial posting is a lift from the What's On Stage story. The Globe press release doesn't use the phrase 'center stage' and uses 'colour'.
Slightly surprised that Much Ado About Nothing which they only did in 2022 is returning so soon, albeit in a new production.
An earlier, one-person, incarnation of Princess Essex was co-commissioned by the Queen's Hornchurch and did a small scale tour of community venues in Essex in 2022 (same writer/actor and director). I'm assuming this is an expanded version with a full cast.
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Post by princeton on Jan 19, 2024 20:10:07 GMT
Don't expect a cast of 50 - what it actually says is: "a company of over 50 including a full-scale orchestra"
Trafalgar Entertainment are notorious for blithely talking about a 'company of 50', whilst having a very loose definition of 'company' which goes beyond the cast, normally including the musicians and sometimes others involved in the production.
For Anything Goes they said "Featuring a 50 strong cast and ensemble of the finest we have to offer on the London stage and a full-sized live orchestra" when there were around 32 in the cast, including understudies. I don't know how many musicians there were - but I think the orchestrations used on Broadway was for 16.
The King and I at the Dominion says "this gloriously lavish production will feature a world-class company of over 50 West End and Broadway performers" and whilst the full cast doesn't seem to have yet been announced even though it opens tomorrow (it's certainly not on the website) it's only going to be through the double cast of Siamese children that it will get anywhere near 50.
Don't get me wrong a cast of 30 plus a 20 piece orchestra would be great - but it ain't going to be a cast of 50 and may not even be 50 cast and musos combined. For info the most recent Broadway revival was a cast of c26 and c17 musicians.
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Post by princeton on Jan 19, 2024 19:00:02 GMT
There was also a very loose adaptation of Hecuba by Marina Carr done by the RSC in 2015. Didn't see it - though reviews were mixed.
The Donmar production in 2004 was great. Directed by Jonathan Kent with Clare Higgins in the title role and Eddie Redmayne and Tim Pigott-Smith in the supporting cast. Higgins won the Olivier for her performance.
The 2005 RSC version was, as Jan says, a car crash. There was, however, a great deal of off-stage drama.
The production was built around Vanessa Redgrave returning to the RSC after more than 40 years. It was due to open in Stratford then to London, Washington and New York. However the Stratford performances were cancelled to allow Redgrave to recover from an operation. During the rehearsals she and the director Laurence Boswell had an almighty falling out, to the extent that she refused to be in the same room as him. So whilst he continued to direct the company, she did her own thing. They pretty much only came together in the theatre and, not unexpectedly, there was a complete disconnect between leading lady and the rest of the cast. There were also rumours of Redgrave developing her own language for her own character and occasionally delivering lines which made no sense to her fellow actors or the audience. It opened to terrible reviews (most comparing it very unfavourably to the Donmar production). Once opened, and prior to the US run, Tony Harrison, who had written the, not very good, translation, stepped in to try and pull everything together.
By the time it got to the Kennedy Centre and BAM Boswell was no longer credited as director - in fact no one was - rather there was the strange billing of: "written by and developed for its U.S. engagements by Tony Harrison". The reviews were no better.
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Post by princeton on Jan 18, 2024 2:01:08 GMT
Naomi Wallace is in her 60s - and her work has been produced all over the world including the RSC, Public Theater, Young Vic, Bush, New York Theatre Workshop. I first became aware of her when her rather brilliant play One Flea Spare premiered at the Bush in the mid 1990s.
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Post by princeton on Jan 18, 2024 1:20:58 GMT
I think that the Hampstead report is a pretty even-handed document. It's sets out facts clearly and doesn't seek to apportion blame to any individual writer or director but acknowledges that overall the year saw very few commercial or critical successes (and even those which were still didn't break even) and that this led to a complete breakdown of the business model. It then outlines the work they did to put a buffer in place whilst they planned a new season, and how they intend to fund their work going forward. It's actually quite unusual to see a report which is quite so frank about the problems it has faced.
The Royal Court and Young Vic are slightly less candid but still outline the highs and lows, thought the Royal Court one in particular is irritatingly full of corporate speak and jargon. All three reports include full lists of the productions, writers and directors from that year. The reports can be found by searching the companies house website.
The Stage report on the other hand is by and large a cut and paste job of the three reports, with sentences and paragraphs taken out of context, to tell the Stage's own narrative - though with very little actually editorial copy or comment included. Presumably largely in order to generate clickbait headlines. Sometimes they are direct quotes - sometimes paraphrased - and sometimes, as noted above, direct quotes but with square brackets where The Stage has added unnecessary detail, like the name of the playwright and director. It also seems to slightly screw up the chronology of what happened at Hampstead Obviously they are completely entitled write what they want - but it's little wonder that none of the theatres wanted to engage with The Stage for the piece.
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Post by princeton on Jan 17, 2024 19:30:33 GMT
Bart Sher doesn't seem like the most obvious fit for this. He rarely demonstrates a lightness of touch or a natural gift for comedy (witness both iterations of Women on the Verge - when even in spite of great comic actors - the laughs just didn't come). He's great at pieces like Light In the Piazza, South Pacific and Oslo where he can play up the dark undertones - and he's normally pretty spot on with his casting (at least in the original companies). So let's hope he has a vision for this piece and someone other than Aaron Sorkin to tweak the book - because if it's not well sung and it's not funny - then there's nothing left other than some dodgy, dated sexism. Though arguably these days the secondary plots and ensemble work are actually more interesting and entertaining than the 'romantic' stuff between the lead duo.
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Post by princeton on Jan 12, 2024 17:31:19 GMT
The Grapes of Wrath at the National was 35 years ago, with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company cast. It only played for a couple of weeks as part of a season of productions from international theatre companies (which also included Moscow Arts and Ninagawa).
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Post by princeton on Jan 10, 2024 16:51:25 GMT
On Broadway, they cancelled performances when SJP got Covid, they weirdly didn't cancel when Matthew Broderick tested positive. Not quite the full story. Matthew Broderick missed three performances because of Covid, then SJP also tested positive with so they cancelled a week of performances, whilst they were both out He then returned to the show and did two performances before she returned. So each did some shows opposite a standby (who were Tony award-winner Michael McGrath and Tony nominee Erin Dilly).
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