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Post by ruthieh on Jun 29, 2019 14:34:32 GMT
Final two performances cancelled today in Oxford 'unforeseen circumstances' Not been a good week. I was supposed to be going Monday, Tuesday that was cancelled too. So basically Wednesday Thursday and Friday only in oxford. Not good. Can’t help think I’ve not missed out! |
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Post by Dr Tom on Jun 29, 2019 18:04:31 GMT
To be fair, it was already announced on Twitter that Spin was on in place of Marcus this week. He did Wednesday, but no idea why he wasn’t on on Thursday.
But the end of week cancellations rather sound like a bug going around.
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Post by paulbrownsey on Jun 29, 2019 18:10:26 GMT
To be fair, it was already announced on Twitter that Spin was on in place of Marcus this week. He did Wednesday, but no idea why he wasn’t on on Thursday. But the end of week cancellations rather sound like a bug going around. It's very irritating when they don't have the decency to say exactly what the problem was that mucked up the audience-to-be's plans. "Unforeseen circumstances" could cover virtually anything. |
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Post by xanady on Jun 29, 2019 18:18:18 GMT
paulbrownsey,totally agree..,MT in the regions is already suffering and this kind of thing will alienate audiences.Where’s the transparency from production companies?
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Post by ensembleswings on Jun 29, 2019 18:20:56 GMT
To be fair, it was already announced on Twitter that Spin was on in place of Marcus this week. He did Wednesday, but no idea why he wasn’t on on Thursday. But the end of week cancellations rather sound like a bug going around. Spin wasn’t on Wednesday, Louise made her debut that night (I saw Wednesdays show) there was a piece of paper saying she was on on the box office desk but that was the only notice I saw. |
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Post by Dr Tom on Jun 29, 2019 18:47:51 GMT
To be fair, it was already announced on Twitter that Spin was on in place of Marcus this week. He did Wednesday, but no idea why he wasn’t on on Thursday. But the end of week cancellations rather sound like a bug going around. Spin wasn’t on Wednesday, Louise made her debut that night (I saw Wednesdays show) there was a piece of paper saying she was on on the box office desk but that was the only notice I saw. Interesting, he’d announced it on his Twitter only earlier that same day. |
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Post by ensembleswings on Jun 30, 2019 12:19:47 GMT
I can only assume it was last minute illness/injury that kept him off the show Wednesday. Seeing as yesterday’s shows were cancelled because of company illness I’m more inclined to think he was also just too ill to perform.
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Post by musicalfloozie on Jul 2, 2019 21:07:51 GMT
I went last night in Sheffield to see this. I must admit it wasnt my choice to go as my other half booked, I dont know many of the songs so didnt know what to expect and wasnt particularly looking forward to it. Marcus wasnt on but Louise in his place,(2nd musical meant to have seen him in but he wasnt on!!) some stand out vocals especially Natalie Green and was surprised by how great Jake Quickenden was. Glad to have seen it to tick it off but not one would rush back to see.
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Post by drowseychap on Jul 5, 2019 0:56:25 GMT
Half price tickets offered for Wolverhampton encore radio and travel Zoo
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Post by grannyjx6 on Jul 6, 2019 23:30:58 GMT
I went last night in Sheffield to see this. I must admit it wasnt my choice to go as my other half booked, I dont know many of the songs so didnt know what to expect and wasnt particularly looking forward to it. Marcus wasnt on but Louise in his place,(2nd musical meant to have seen him in but he wasnt on!!) some stand out vocals especially Natalie Green and was surprised by how great Jake Quickenden was. Glad to have seen it to tick it off but not one would rush back to see. I saw it Tuesday night and wasn't overly impressed although agree most of the cast were very good singers. The sound was so loud that half the time I couldn't understand a word and only knowing the more popular songs. it didn't make a lot of sense. Or is it not supposed to? |
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Post by musicalfloozie on Jul 8, 2019 14:10:56 GMT
I went last night in Sheffield to see this. I must admit it wasnt my choice to go as my other half booked, I dont know many of the songs so didnt know what to expect and wasnt particularly looking forward to it. Marcus wasnt on but Louise in his place,(2nd musical meant to have seen him in but he wasnt on!!) some stand out vocals especially Natalie Green and was surprised by how great Jake Quickenden was. Glad to have seen it to tick it off but not one would rush back to see. I saw it Tuesday night and wasn't overly impressed although agree most of the cast were very good singers. The sound was so loud that half the time I couldn't understand a word and only knowing the more popular songs. it didn't make a lot of sense. Or is it not supposed to? I'm not entirely sure it made much sense to be honest. I enjoyed some of the songs but not a huge storyline more an overall theme (although quite possible I missed a storyline though!) It felt very much like cats to me, a lot of songs some good some not so good and leaving thinking huh. As I said not one would rush back to but least ticked it off my list!! |
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Post by a12la on Jul 10, 2019 23:59:24 GMT
I saw it in Dartford with an understudy on for Berger and it was absolutely fantastic. My one complaint was the addition of the song "Hippie Life" during the curtain call. Let The Sunshine In is an dark and emotional song (despite the popular radio version) and following it with a mindless and fun song kinda kills it's emotional impact. Plus, this might just be because I'm an American, but I thought Daisy Wood Davis (Shelia)'s accent was awful. 90% of the time it sounded like she wasn't even trying to not sound British. Compared to the rest of the cast, it really stood out. I also thought it was pretty funny how for a show called Hair, there was very little during the nude scene. I saw it again last night in Brighton (with a different understudy for Berger) and I liked it even more a second time. Daisy's accent was much better (though it still noticeably slipped a bunch during Easy to be Hard). Forgot to mention this last time but Natalie Green's voice is incredibly impressive. Everyone sounded great but she was on another level. As I said before, Hippie Life still really bothers me. It's a fun song, but it belongs in Act I. Let The Sunshine In is literally a song about how the real point of the hippie movement wasn't the sex or the drugs, it was the fight for peace. And how that fight is a hard and exhausting fight that not everyone survives. Following that directly with a song about how much fun being a hippy is because you get to f*** and smoke is just dumb on so many levels. Despite never having actually seen it with Jake Quickenden, I can't help but feel like Tom Bales (the understudy I saw in Brighton) is a much better choice for the role, since he actually looks like a kid. Berger is supposed to be high school aged and he is literally introduced by singing a song about how he wants to f*** a sixteen year old. I've heard his performance is great, but Jake just seems way too old for the role. It's the same problem I had with Will Swenson in the role on Broadway back in 2009: Donna is really creepy when it's sung by someone in their thirties. On the topic of understudies, I'm incredibly intrigued by how this production basically has a modular cast. It seems like every actor knows every part incredibly well and can not only jump into any other role in the cast, but combine their role with the role of the absent actor, who's role is then eliminated entirely from that night's performance. It's seriously impressive. For example, when I saw it in Dartford last month, Bradley Judge (who normally plays Woof) played Berger, David Heywood (who's normally the ensemble role of Jackson) played Woof, and Spin (who's normally the ensemble role of Taj) didn't appear at all. Since there are no swings, nobody filled in for Jackson or Taj, instead any solo lines/choreography each of them had were split up and given to the rest of the actors, and I never would have noticed that there were two roles completely missing from the show if I didn't look at the program. Then, in Brighton last night, Tom Bales (who normally plays Margaret Mead) played Berger, Bradley Judge played both Woof and Margaret Mead, and David Heywood was completely absent. This is all really impressive and the actors are all on top of their game being able to fill in for people so quickly and smoothly but I've seen several posts here about how performances have needed to be cancelled because a few actors got sick and it makes me wonder why they didn't just hire dedicated understudies/swings like most plays. Is it a money thing? If so, how does the salary of understudies/swings compare to the cost of all those lost ticket sales? |
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Post by Dr Tom on Jul 11, 2019 12:07:41 GMT
I’m beginning to question if it is always sickness, or if they’re giving people time off to cut the costs.
It would be great to know when the understudies are due to go on, but they don’t tend to be advertised in advance.
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Post by Dr Tom on Jul 16, 2019 17:44:56 GMT
Made the trip to Milton Keynes last night to see the first show of the week there.
It's a modern theatre, probably too large a stage for this. But the seats were comfortable and the front row (where I sat) is close to the stage. Decent size crowd, although first shows of the week tend to be as there are always lots of TheatreCard discounts. A few people dressing up too. And the sound was good.
Programmes were back up to £4 here.
All of the cast were there apart from Marcus, with Hud covered by "Mr Spin" (as he was referred to on the cover sheet pinned up). Interesting, as he was meant to be on when I saw this in Oxford a few weeks ago. Pleased to have finally seen Spin cover a main role, having seen him many times in this and in In The Heights. He was decent enough, but more a dancer than a singer.
They seemed to be having a lot of fun for Bradley Judge's birthday as well. He was definitely getting kissed and touched a lot more than usual. A few line changes as well, like Margaret Mead (Tom Bales) saying "sexual experience" instead of "sensual experience" to describe why the hippies grow their hair long.
All good fun and, whatever you think about the plot, I think it's hard to argue against this having some of the best musical theatre songs of all time in it.
Only three weeks of the tour left (and one of those is Cologne). I may get to Wolverhampton, but if not, I'm booked for the close of the tour in Glasgow, hopefully with a muck up matinee too. And maybe there's still a chance this could still get a return engagement in London? It would fit perfectly in the Ambassadors.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 16, 2019 17:46:30 GMT
WHERE IS MARCUS COLLINS?  |
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Post by viserys on Jul 16, 2019 17:58:36 GMT
I will report back if all the first casts seized the opportunity for a paid trip to Germany  |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 16, 2019 18:05:21 GMT
I get the feeling Mr Collins might be present for that.
Has anyone actually seen him for the last month? And I mean performing in Hair and not partying at some festival somewhere.
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Post by Dr Tom on Jul 16, 2019 18:30:20 GMT
I get the feeling Mr Collins might be present for that. Has anyone actually seen him for the last month? And I mean performing in Hair and not partying at some festival somewhere. They had a different poster at the venue, showing almost all of the cast and I notice Mr Collins wasn't on that poster. Of course, the photo could just have been taken recently when he was away. The cover notice pinned up makes it look like he was expected. |
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Post by xanady on Jul 16, 2019 19:07:23 GMT
Me and my friends and fam will be all over this when it reaches Wolves...just love the message of this show especially with all the garbage behaviour from the politicians/leaders going on all over the world.Let the sunshine in...fgs!
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Post by confessor on Jul 17, 2019 8:44:00 GMT
I get the feeling Mr Collins might be present for that. Has anyone actually seen him for the last month? And I mean performing in Hair and not partying at some festival somewhere. I saw Hair in Brighton last Thursday and Mr Collins was present on stage for that performance! |
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Post by Dr Tom on Jul 29, 2019 12:01:13 GMT
A quick report from Saturday in Wolverhampton (as I'd made the journey there, I stayed around for both shows).
A good venue for the show with more audience interaction than usual, especially dancing with the audience during the Hair song. It helped that the stage was close to the audience too. Still a few ad-libs in the performance, especially in the afternoon.
Neither show was all that full, made worse by the Grand having the first rows as Gold tickets, meaning a big gap in where people sat before the standard price tickets started. The view from the front row for the matinee (and second row in the slightly fuller evening performance) was excellent.
Marcus Collins was back and on from as Hud. Only 12 actors on in the afternoon (no Spin or Laura Sillett - interesting as Spin was still in Wolverhampton until shortly before the show, but looks like he was released to head back to London). It's a small stage, so it seemed full. All the leads were on.
Talked to an interesting retired chap in the interval who had also been to a few venues and had the pleasure of being Hubert in Birmingham, an odd choice as he was gay. Also mentioned Wednesday evening in Wolverhampton had been cancelled, so the same challenges here as at other venues. Don't know how they handled the usual jokes about Hubert being with a woman. There was also a first for Hubert here, who disappeared part way through the song, returning only afterwards, prompting a few line changes and the use of Berger to take the photo instead.
The evening show was done to 11 actors, with Natalie Green absent (the first time I think I've ever seen the show without her, as the only cast member who did Hope Mill, the Vaults and the tour). Kelly Sweeney was on as Cassie/Mum (and looked to be having a great time). Louise Francis was on as Crissie (fab rendition of Frank Mills).
Incredible really how everyone adapts to make the show look completely fluid regardless of who is available. The only times you'd know it's a different combination was the couple of times the correct microphones were turned on late.
(the cast cover sheet also claimed David Heywood was on Margaret Mead and Woof, which wasn't the case as both Bradley Judge and Tom Bales were there - almost a shame as I'd have liked to have those roles covered)
The Jake Quickenden fan club were there in the evening and rather loud, lots of cheering. Impressive really as there were only a few of them and I notice Jake didn't get too involved with them during the audience interaction. It did prompt a great line from Margaret Mead about the "noisy ***kers".
Hope the week in Cologne goes well. I should be there for the closing two shows in Glasgow (assuming the threatened BA strike doesn't result in my flights being cancelled).
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Post by viserys on Jul 31, 2019 5:08:50 GMT
Happy to report that your show made it safely to Germany and that Marcus Collins was indeed present. The show was stopped just after the cast began to sing Aquarius because the flimsy curtain that was hung across the stage wouldn't come down, but after 15 minutes they had fixed it.
I hadn't seen Hair since I first got into musicals about 30 years ago when it felt far more "contemporary". It's an odd show to be sure and dragged at times, but it's still THE show of that generation/period and I thought this version was great and the ending still packed a punch. Cast was universally great and the audience (most of them clearly of the 68's generation) lapped it up. Glad I could see it here for relatively little money.
Question: Is there an inlay with the cast photos and bios around in the UK? They were selling what passes for a souvenir brochure here (all in English) but it contained zero info on the cast.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 8:03:51 GMT
Happy to report that your show made it safely to Germany and that Marcus Collins was indeed present. The show was stopped just after the cast began to sing Aquarius because the flimsy curtain that was hung across the stage wouldn't come down, but after 15 minutes they had fixed it. I hadn't seen Hair since I first got into musicals about 30 years ago when it felt far more "contemporary". It's an odd show to be sure and dragged at times, but it's still THE show of that generation/period and I thought this version was great and the ending still packed a punch. Cast was universally great and the audience (most of them clearly of the 68's generation) lapped it up. Glad I could see it here for relatively little money. Question: Is there an inlay with the cast photos and bios around in the UK? They were selling what passes for a souvenir brochure here (all in English) but it contained zero info on the cast.Click on a photo for their biog. |
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 10, 2019 21:25:51 GMT
A sad closing night in Glasgow, where I recognised a load of the super fans who’ve been following the show (and have seen it a lot more times than me). Lots of people dressed up (or down, depending how you class hippie clothes).
I’ve never seen the stage so full at the end with the audience joining the cast to dance! And most stayed until the band had finished playing.
All 14 actors were on, which I don’t think has happened since opening the show opened in Wimbledon. Felt great to be in the front row for both the very first and last nights of the tour. And got some hugs from some sweaty hippies as well (as did a lot of people), but as someone who doesn’t stage door, that was nice.
Fab Muck-up Matinee in the afternoon as well.
I’ll post some more thoughts, but let’s end with some big news which I heard from several people. The tour is expected to continue in Germany next year, so it’s not the end. But it may not be the same cast.
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 10, 2019 22:51:39 GMT
So, sounded liked quite a few people had gone to Glasgow for the whole week and seen all the shows. I travelled Friday evening and was very lucky to get there with the electricity outage, bad weather and cancelled flights. As it was, I didn’t make it to my hotel until the early hours, but that was better than it could have been, as at one point my flight was cancelled, then later reinstated.
Return journey tomorrow is by train, which doesn’t look promising, but hope things clear up overnight.
Apparently there was something of an incident at the theatre on the Friday night with a roof leak and the first two rows of the Stalls (where most of the super fans were sat) being put out of action. The fans were then redistributed into seats all over the building, many undesirable, prompting arguments with the staff. Not handled right by either group by the sound of things, but no idea why they didn’t just move everyone two rows back. None of the nights were close to sold out (but both Saturday shows were reasonably busy).
By Saturday, they took two of three second row seats off sale and had a bucket there. I was told that, if it had rained more, people would have been moved again. Can’t imagine how that would have gone down on closing night.
There were spare seats in the first and second row for the matinee, then for the second row in the evening. I was in the second row for the matinee as the front row was meant to be full. But I had no one in front or either side, so it was a good view and comfortable seat.
The Saturday matinee was mostly the ladies afternoon out crowd. It’s obviously considered normal in Glasgow that you just talk whenever you want. I tried to ignore them.
In the evening, behaviour was otherwise excellent, but there was an incident with someone near me on the front row trying to take photos of or film the nude scene. He wasn’t very good at it as his flash went off. He went out at the interval, coming back at the end, where he was summoned to see the tour manager. I didn’t hear the conversation but he was allowed back to his seat. Now, he may well have uploaded whatever he took during the interval, then deleted it from his device.
One thing that looked really odd, there was no smoking in the show. At the start, the hippies just light matches. In the second half, the joint is held, a lighter struck, but it is never lit and so there’s no smoke blown. A bit of smoke machine smoke appears. I know smoking on stage is illegal in Scotland, but it looks really weird with a show like this.
As I said, two excellent shows, one very funny. It’s sometimes difficult to tell which the muck-ups are as they’ve changed things around at each venue, even up to the final week. And you get different combinations of actors, there’s a lot of touchy-feely stuff and characters improvise all the time. But I’ll post some of the more obviously muck-ups later.
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