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Post by SuttonPeron on Jan 17, 2024 16:20:22 GMT
Speaking of which, minimum ticket price is 33,5 incl. fees. Almost Lion King level. Isn´t it a tad bit ambitious?
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Post by Being Alive on Jan 17, 2024 16:21:40 GMT
Considering sightlines everywhere in the Barbican are pretty excellent - not really I'd say?
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Post by blaxx on Jan 17, 2024 17:25:52 GMT
If Sher directs then the show will be 4 hours long, with 15 minute set changes. |
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Post by damaskanddark on Jan 17, 2024 17:38:02 GMT
If Sher directs then the show will be 4 hours long, with 15 minute set changes. With everyone marching towards the audience slowly in the penultimate scene |
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Post by sph on Jan 17, 2024 18:52:31 GMT
The casting team and producers/director clearly have faith in his vocal abilities so...
I mean non-musical theatre actors have turned in some amazing performances before in the medium.
It'll be nice to see Block leading a show in London too. I'm glad that we've been pulling so many big MT names from New York to London in the last few years. No, they may not be well known or big draws to the general public in the UK, but it's nice for theatre fans to see them without having to make a huge trip abroad.
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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 karloscar on Jan 17, 2024 20:08:15 GMT
Stop Casting Great Actors In Musicals. We want Singers, not Actors. I want to sit and be able to close my eyes, for the whole show, and hear it sung beautifully. Perfectly. Breath control. The works. I do not go to a musical to see it acted well. I only go for the songs. There are so many of our musical theatre stars who can sing mightily, and act sort of. Why didn’t they check them? Jesus, Mary, & Joseph…and the wee baby donkey. This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this. That depends very much on the role and the show. Fred needs to be able to negotiate the tricky melody of So in Love, the bombast of Wunderbar and the patter of We Open in Venice just for starters. You need and accomplished singer, preferably one who looks good in doublet and hose! |
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Post by sf on Jan 17, 2024 20:36:15 GMT
Some of us might have seen Adrian Dunbar in the musical Lady in the Dark with Maria Friedman at the National Theatre in 1997... presuming it's the same person! I can't recall how much he sang in that - will have to dig the cast recording out later. He sang in it. That's why I find his casting in Kiss Me, Kate... questionable. Charley Johnson isn't a huge singing role, but he does sing, and Dunbar didn't - let's be kind - reveal the kind of voice that could easily negotiate a role like Fred in Kiss Me, Kate. You can talk-sing your way through his character's material in Lady in the Dark because the score is almost entirely made up of three mini-operas in which the chorus do a lot of the heavy lifting, but you can't take that approach to a song like Wunderbar and expect to get away with it. I suppose it's possible he's a much better singer now than he was twenty-five years ago, but it isn't very likely. |
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 17, 2024 20:53:54 GMT
I'm glad to see I0'm by no means the only person who read the casting announcement & went "Adrian Dunbar? What?". He seems very unsuited to the role. I'd expect the role to be cast with someone in his 40s or early 50s with an operatic or near-operatic voice, not a 65 year old with minimal musicals experience. I think I'll be sticking to my memories of the Broadway transfer in 2002, the Old Vic in 2012 & ON/WNO 2015-18, all of which had far more suitable leading men. I suppose it's possible he's a much better singer now than he was twenty-five years ago, but it isn't very likely. Since even most opera singers' voices are likely to be deteriorating in their mid-60s, I'd be amazed if Dunbar's voice could be better now at 65 than when he was in his 30s or 40s. |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 18, 2024 7:27:19 GMT
I wonder if Charlie Stemp might be considered for Bill
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Post by damaskanddark on Jan 18, 2024 7:57:00 GMT
I wonder if Charlie Stemp might be considered for Bill He strikes me as too boyish. We need at least one hunk in this show if Fred isn't going to be one. |
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Post by zahidf on Jan 18, 2024 8:28:12 GMT
If Sher directs then the show will be 4 hours long, with 15 minute set changes. With everyone marching towards the audience slowly in the penultimate scene Running time: approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes, including an interval |
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Post by nash16 on Jan 18, 2024 14:00:45 GMT
Stop Casting Great Actors In Musicals. We want Singers, not Actors. I want to sit and be able to close my eyes, for the whole show, and hear it sung beautifully. Perfectly. Breath control. The works. I do not go to a musical to see it acted well. I only go for the songs. There are so many of our musical theatre stars who can sing mightily, and act sort of. Why didn’t they check them? Jesus, Mary, & Joseph…and the wee baby donkey. This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this. I fear you may have misunderstood that I was taking the mickey… |
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Post by westendwhistledown on Jan 18, 2024 14:29:52 GMT
This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this. I fear you may have misunderstood that I was taking the mickey… thank goodness, I was severely concerned lol! |
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Post by MoreLife on Jan 18, 2024 16:50:44 GMT
This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this. I fear you may have misunderstood that I was taking the mickey… I am a firm believer that this craft is called musical theatre because both components need to be fully honed and honoured, musicality and vocal ability count only as much as acting skills. Great acting through song is definitely what I personally look for in musical theatre, that's what moves me more than a million riffs or notes held for - how long was it? 42 seconds? - but that kind of great acting through song can only come when the singing is solid and accomplished enough that the actor can comfortably "worry" only about telling the story and inhabiting their character. To make a concrete example, I believe Jonathan Bailey is a much better actor than he is a singer. But, thinking back to his performances in 'The last 5 years' and in 'Company' (both of which I loved), he still sang on pitch, didn't run out of breath, and had clear enough diction throughout, and that established a solid platform for him to act the proverbial sh*t out of those roles. Unfortunately, as far as Mr Dunbar is concerned, what I could infer from that video is that he is not an accomplished singer, and you may have "taken the mickey" out of me, but you did not quite provide evidence that he is a great actor who can, because of outstanding acting skills, make an audience forget his vocals are a bit on the shaky side. |
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Post by kyvai on Jan 19, 2024 7:51:46 GMT
Adrian Dunbar is on BBC Breakfast right now talking about how he’s been singing all his life.
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Post by ladidah on Jan 19, 2024 9:03:49 GMT
I've been singing all my life, doesn't mean I should be on the stage!
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Post by sf on Jan 19, 2024 12:12:52 GMT
Now on sale.
The seat that cost me £20 for A Strange Loop last summer is priced at £60 plus a £4 booking fee.
The seat that cost me £29.50 for My Neighbour Totoro this coming March is also priced at £60 plus a £4 booking fee.
This pricing policy seems... optimistic.
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Post by kyvai on Jan 19, 2024 13:11:43 GMT
Eh, there’ll be deals along the way. It’s a massive theatre to sell. I saw Anything Goes and Strange Loop both centre forward stalls for comfortably under £40.
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Post by emmy on Jan 19, 2024 14:16:28 GMT
They have some very good (but limited!) seats available through Young Barbican for £10 in case anyone is interested
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Post by Being Alive on Jan 19, 2024 14:24:09 GMT
It's a MASSIVE show - cast of 50, full orchestra, Catherine Zuber costumes.
I'm not surprised they've gone high to start with - Kiss Me Kate is Barbican bread and butter with the RSC connection so I think it'll actually do really well.
It'll be on rush, there'll be offers - there always is for everything...
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Post by mattnyc on Jan 19, 2024 14:52:54 GMT
I expected prices to be MUCH higher for this so I was actually pleasantly surprised.
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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 Jon on Jan 19, 2024 20:31:17 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. Cameron used the same marketing for Oliver! saying the company was over 100. |
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Post by alece10 on Jan 19, 2024 20:46:43 GMT
I think the last west end show that had a proper big cast was 42nd Street and An American In Paris.
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