Backstairs Billy - Duke of York's

[bimse]

Nov 4, 2023 14:45:10 GMT @original9 said:

Nov 4, 2023 13:41:54 GMT karloscar said:

Does anyone else still expect the QM to sound like Beryl Reid from the original Spitting Image series? It was heard far more often than her actual voice by the general public.

There was a rumour she sounded more like Les Dawson in real life but that might have been something started on maybe Have I Got News For You.

This is a rare clip of her talking in a fairly informal setting for her 90th birthday if people want to know what she sounded like.  :-

I apologise if this takes this thread off course. Thinking about how the Queen Mother sounded made me recall that Barry Humphries, as Dame Edna did an advert for Advocaat in the Netherlands, because Edna apparently sounded just like either Queen Juliana or Wilhelmina , I can’t remember which . Mind you Beryl Reid speaking Dutch might have done just as well .

[lonlad]

Saw this last night and liked it a lot. Some of it is pretty silly - think Joe Orton on the props front - but then there are shafts of genuine emotion and it's beautifully acted down the line. (And the design is gorgeous as might be expected.) After the spate of West End debacles of late, here is a play and production that more than earns its place on the West End and how lucky is Marcelo dos Santos to follow this play up with an opening a week later at the Bush that comes feted already.

[adamkinsey]

Am planning on booking for this in the run up to Christmas as Dame Penelope is pretty much the only dame I've never seen on stage so interesting to see the varying opinions. I'll generally see anything that the Great Simkins is in, too (although too often he's wasted).

[drowseychap]

Saw this tonight Row AA omg 😱 it’s close says high stage but wasn’t too high for us I’m 6ft lots of leg room under the stage overhang but you face is literally next to the stage lol ….

Great view you could see every nook cranny and crease I’m not saying where either 🤔😊 but omg 😱

A fun evening I agree with all other comments Luke and Penelope have a great connection a couple of stumbles over lines from both tonight but we can forgive them anything

Some of the one liners made me think of Margo / Audrey Forbes Hamilton …. A few real laugh out loud moments quite a few chuckles and some more poignant moments

One ruined by the women behind ooo ing and coooing at the corgis awwww how cute awwww bless look at his face … totally ruining Penelope’s lines ..

I see what people mean about that scene. Did seems a bit extreme compared to the rest of the evening but I get what it means

A really great supporting cast. Lovely set. Great theatre staff too which really helps an evening out

Looked like a full house and standing ovation 👏 for final bows
I’d go again 4/5

[greenandbrownandblue]

Saw this last night as a replacement for the cancelled Lear. I enjoyed it (though didn't enjoy the awful rake in the Duke of York's stalls!). It's a nicely constructed play with moments of hilarity and tenderness. I wasn't too sure about the flashbacks - or at least the staging of them. This is very different in style to Dos Santos' Feeling Afraid… (which is amazing and you should book to see at the Bush), and I look forward to seeing what he writes next.

[emilytemple]

Anyone try ticket rush for this? I was 👀on this show but i was waiting for soma reviews. They've come and i look at website and all cheaper tickets are gone on stalls (in like theater but 95 pounds for ticket is too much)
For all these 3 shows i was 👀 this is the most costly one

[greenandbrownandblue]

Nov 5, 2023 10:24:57 GMT emilytemple said:

Anyone try ticket rush for this? I was 👀on this show but i was waiting for soma reviews. They've come and i look at website and all cheaper tickets are gone on stalls (in like theater but 95 pounds for ticket is too much)
For all these 3 shows i was 👀 this is the most costly one

I was too late for Rush yesterday but I got a discounted stalls seat at the box office. It's also been on tkts. 

[BurlyBeaR]

Poll added.

[A.Ham]

Yes I saw there were discounted tickets for last night’s performance on TKTS so definitely worth a look if no luck with rush!

[A.Ham]

Nov 4, 2023 23:52:40 GMT drowseychap said:

Great view you could see every nook cranny and crease I’m not saying where either 🤔😊 but omg 😱

Haha, I was in BB on Thurs, I know exactly what you mean!!

[emilytemple]

Nov 5, 2023 15:53:08 GMT A.Ham said:

Yes I saw there were discounted tickets for last night’s performance on TKTS so definitely worth a look if no luck with rush!

 I hope maybe some discount will be show up soon er of date perf. I looked at week before date i can go and same seat seem in different price "box". Cheap one.  Never been at tkts 😐


(I wake up and 3 weeks before London trip and i had only 2 show ticket 😶) 

[greenandbrownandblue]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
Odd question this, but when the new footman (Gwydion) runs on in his initiation, is he meant to be nude? Yesterday he was covering his private parts with his hands and Billy screamed when he lifted his hands, yet he was wearing pants the whole time... just seemed a bit odd.

[alece10]

Nov 5, 2023 16:54:15 GMT greenandbrownandblue said:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
Odd question this, but when the new footman (Gwydion) runs on in his initiation, is he meant to be nude? Yesterday he was covering his private parts with his hands and Billy screamed when he lifted his hands, yet he was wearing pants the whole time... just seemed a bit odd.

Don't want to frighten the corgis do they.

[parsley1]

I found this a pitifully sad endeavour

Again another poor piece of writing straight to the WE

Utterly bizarre

I wonder if actors are genuinely this desperate for work

This Lear and Lyonesse all playing close to each other

It’s like a Theatrical Triangle of Turd

[mrbarnaby]

Nov 6, 2023 20:50:37 GMT parsley1 said:

I found this a pitifully sad endeavour

Again another poor piece of writing straight to the WE

Utterly bizarre

I wonder if actors are genuinely this desperate for work

This Lear and Lyonesse all playing close to each other

It’s like a Theatrical Triangle of Turd

Yes Parsley ! 🤣

[parsley1]

Nov 6, 2023 22:32:39 GMT mrbarnaby said:

Nov 6, 2023 20:50:37 GMT parsley1 said:

I found this a pitifully sad endeavour

Again another poor piece of writing straight to the WE

Utterly bizarre

I wonder if actors are genuinely this desperate for work

This Lear and Lyonesse all playing close to each other

It’s like a Theatrical Triangle of Turd

Yes Parsley ! 🤣

I suppose Michael Grandage has to pay for Christmas costs

Needs must

[mrbarnaby]

I’m wondering if I dislike anyone enough to buy them tickets to see this?

[parsley1]

Joking aside

I actually found some of the jokes and caricatures with respect to gay characters incredibly offensive

We are in 2023

Homosexuality remains illegal in 64 countries

7 still have the death penalty in place

I don’t need to see a pantomime version of perceived historical hardships

For some people this remains a dangerous reality

The whole project smacks of a back slapping exercise for the playwright, director and actor

[Deleted]

There were a lot of homophobic jokes around in that period, if it is a drama set in that time do you use words which now are found offensive, the same about BAME issues or wider LGBT issues. I'd hope that offensive comments in the play made about Billy's sexuality or anyone else's to their face would then have been balanced out by Billy commenting about them maybe not to the person's face or shown to have been hurt by the comments.

[mkb]

As someone normally sensitive to dialogue or characterisation about which lurks something with an unpleasant whiff of homophobia, I had not the slightest problem with this piece. Perhaps also worth noting that the lead is openly gay himself.

[Jon]

I liked it, it's not going to win any awards but it's well acted and funny. Considering Luke Evans hasn't been on stage for quite some time, I thought he was very good and I enjoy Penelope Wilton's Queen Mother as well.

I agree that the scene at the end was a bit out of place but I wonder if it was

SPOILER: Click to show

done to prove the QM wasn't some dotty old lady and to show that Billy didn't get away scott free

[capybara]

Just seen this and thought it was OK. It was more a constant smattering of low level laughter than any big set piece comedy moments.

A pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours, no real belly laughs but it kept an energetic tempo throughout under Michael Grandage’s directorship.

But, as suited to the role as Evans was, Penelope Wilton stole the show with her gentle - yet at times less kind - depiction of the Queen Mother. A genuine privilege to see her perform.

Marcelo Dos Santos’ Backstairs Billy won’t have any sort of lasting impact. But it’s an enjoyable snapshot of particular snapshot inside Clarence House and immortalises Billy’s unlikely story.

I agree it did feel rather 1970s sitcom style. Which is fine if done well and this was executed reasonably well, unlike the pretty poor comedy play The Unfriend earlier this year.

Three stars.

[lonlad]

Reviews so far are all over the map from 2 stars (Grauniad) to 5 (Telegraph) and all other options along the way. Not a royal flush but a lot better than some other recent West End openings have managed .....

[midge]

I found BB rather charming and actually really funny. Of course it's a snapshot rather than a deep dive into the people and their relationship, but I enjoyed that aspect. I thought there were interesting comments on gay men in service, and how while the QM was probably rather jolly and whimsical, she was still a woman who looked at many of the people around her as spectacle and for her amusement. Loved the performances from all.

[mkb]

From Arifa Akbar's two-star Guardian review, her line "the epitome of theatre as light entertainment" could probably be borrowed as a publicity quote.  Of course, it depends on whether you consider there is a place for light entertainment in theatre, or whether it always must have some more worthy or intellectual ambition.