|
|
Post by gcbf on Mar 6, 2024 16:37:47 GMT
Rush sold out in seconds this morning. Couldn’t get one Same here. I don't understand how fingers could move much faster. |
|
|
|
Post by A.Ham on Mar 6, 2024 17:54:51 GMT
Is anyone there tonight? Having said that I might avoid this thread until after I’ve seen it tomorrow!
|
|
544 posts
|
Post by amp09 on Mar 6, 2024 18:09:22 GMT
Is anyone there tonight? Having said that I might avoid this thread until after I’ve seen it tomorrow! Yep, got lucky and checked the website for any last minute returns today and snapped up a ticket for the dress circle. |
|
|
|
Post by theatrefan2018 on Mar 6, 2024 22:41:18 GMT
Yep, got lucky and checked the website for any last minute returns today and snapped up a ticket for the dress circle. Can you let us know what the view might be like from the first few rows (centre stalls) of the theatre? |
|
|
|
Post by A.Ham on Mar 6, 2024 22:44:02 GMT
Yep, got lucky and checked the website for any last minute returns today and snapped up a ticket for the dress circle. Can you let us know what the view might be like from the first few rows (centre stalls) of the theatre? From reports during Old Friends it’s a high stage, but I’ll take a look tomorrow for you. I’m front row of the dress so should be able to see the front stalls fairly well. |
|
|
|
Post by theatreloverlondon on Mar 6, 2024 22:53:51 GMT
I sat front row at Old Friends a few times- had to look up and a lot of the time the performers are speaking almost above your head(they are always aiming to be heard in the gods after all). It would not my first choice seat (even two rows behind would be better) but seeing Bernadette Peters up close was unreal!! I would also sit that close for this as I love Sheridan.
|
|
|
|
Post by theatrelegofan87 on Mar 6, 2024 22:57:20 GMT
Have chewed my nails to the bone… whats the initial reaction? 😂
|
|
|
|
Post by greatauntedna on Mar 6, 2024 22:58:53 GMT
A bit of a disaster at the moment, but I’m hopeful they can iron it out!
|
|
71 posts
|
Post by samjane92 on Mar 6, 2024 23:02:32 GMT
Not good 🙈 Sheridan, Hadley, Nicola, Amy and the main love interest as good as they could be with poor songs, and a very dull story line. 2 hours 45 felt like 5. Few interval escapees and lots of moaning in interval. Orchestra looked bored out of their minds in second half. Video effects pretty cool but nothing new
|
|
|
|
Post by theatreloverlondon on Mar 6, 2024 23:02:56 GMT
A bit of a disaster at the moment, but I’m hopeful they can iron it out! Don’t say that🤣🤣😭 why? |
|
|
|
Post by theatreloverlondon on Mar 6, 2024 23:03:20 GMT
Not good 🙈 Sheridan, Hadley, Nicola, Amy and the main love interest as good as they could be with poor songs, and a very dull story line. 2 hours 45 felt like 5. Few interval escapees and lots of moaning in interval. Orchestra looked bored out of their minds in second half. Video effects pretty cool but nothing new Omg lol |
|
544 posts
|
Post by amp09 on Mar 6, 2024 23:08:44 GMT
This was not great at all. Music was boring, some decent performances but the book is absolute garbage… nothing really happens - no character development, no journey.
I went in with high expectations based on the great cast but it all just falls flat. They do their best with a poor story and basic music.
They use cameras throughout displayed on a big screen at the back of the stage. It opens with someone hoovering the stage that drags on and on behind a see-through red curtain. The red curtain is used throughout so you struggle to see the action taking place behind it including in a couple of the songs and you’re sat there waiting for it to open throughout the song but it doesn’t until the end of the song.
Quite a few empty seats after the interval. Can imagine their Closing Night will be sooner rather than later.
|
|
1,186 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by mattnyc on Mar 6, 2024 23:10:31 GMT
I....I have no idea what I thought of this. Whatever I THOUGHT it was going to be, it wasn't. Uniformly strong performances all around but when it ended (2 hours 45 min run time) I kind of just sat there staring at the stage and listening to reactions all around me which seemed mostly "what did we just watch".
Seeing "Dorian Gray" this afternoon I did come away with the thought that the screens onstage should take a break. I don't really know that they added much to this one. Maybe in a few parts they did but overall, I didn't want to watch the screen, I wanted to watch the actors and it's kind of impossible in that situation. Like I said, a few scenes the filming added to what was happening (and that was used for about 90% of the show) but otherwise, it served as a way to show the actors when they were strategically placed so they wouldn't be seen by the audience which is a silly reason to use them - Just have the couch face the audience and problem solved.
I'm going to have to see this again in a couple of days and hear the score again because I think there might have been some music in there I liked. I'm just not sure.
Yeah...weird evening at the theatre. I wish I had more cohesive thoughts lol
|
|
|
|
Post by greatauntedna on Mar 6, 2024 23:14:34 GMT
A bit of a disaster at the moment, but I’m hopeful they can iron it out! I liked the music and Sheridan was great, but it needs a lot of chopping and changing. |
|
5,795 posts
|
Post by mrbarnaby on Mar 6, 2024 23:16:22 GMT
Oh god it sounds horrible.
|
|
19,656 posts
|
Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 7, 2024 7:27:04 GMT
Poll added
|
|
5,795 posts
|
Post by mrbarnaby on Mar 7, 2024 9:55:06 GMT
Sheridan Smith will be black and blue or in hospital after doing this for 8 shows a week!Flung around like a rag doll! It never really recovered after the awful vacuuming carpet behind the curtain that became so annoyingly as the hours past. I feel sorry for the cast having to perform this till the end of July but I will be very surprised if it runs that long. I thought Shira Haas and Nicola Hughes gave the stand out performances of the night. Amy Lennox is totally wasted and Rebecca Thornhill is just a stand hand but is covering Sheridan Smith (Myrtle)along with Jennifer Hepburn. The songs are so awful apart from maybe Magic and Pantomime but can’t save this badly staged boring show which in my opinion is a complete Turkey! Van Hoves Lazarus was even crazier but at least it had great songs! This post makes me wish the West End Whingers were still going |
|
|
|
Post by ladidah on Mar 7, 2024 11:56:16 GMT
I'm still laughing at the idea of hoovering going on and on!
I'm a huge Rufus Wainwright fan - is the music not good?
|
|
1,186 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by mattnyc on Mar 7, 2024 12:04:56 GMT
I’ll defend the hoovering bit, at least. It’s done during the overture - something we don’t really get much of anymore in musicals. Is it needed? Not really. But it just symbolizes getting ready backstage.
|
|
|
|
Post by max on Mar 7, 2024 12:07:52 GMT
Though previews are for refinements, the thought of wrenching a show into a very different shape/state makes me feel a bit ill. I wonder how much workshop development this had to get it right. We got 'A Little Life' as a restaging of the original production that was in Dutch. Looks like Van Hove did a play version of 'Opening Night' in 2006, duration 2:20. Don't know if that included the interval.
|
|
|
|
Post by pinkrosecy on Mar 7, 2024 16:08:41 GMT
Just a bizarre show all round. Thought it might just be me, but there were lots of similar comments all around. Music too loud to make out the sung dialogue. Red voile curtain just annoying, and added nothing really to the staging. The camera work was poor, viewing the back of Benjamin Walker, crouched down and saying his lines, pointless. Shame the pre-recorded parts shown on the screen were out of sync with the live action too.
Overall, just don't bother. Waste of money and almost 3 hours.
I hope for the cast and venue's sake they make improvements, or it will be Closing Night sooner than they anticipated!
|
|
631 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by ncbears on Mar 7, 2024 16:50:43 GMT
|
|
84 posts
|
Post by theatremadhatter on Mar 7, 2024 17:29:31 GMT
I....I have no idea what I thought of this. Whatever I THOUGHT it was going to be, it wasn't. Uniformly strong performances all around but when it ended (2 hours 45 min run time) I kind of just sat there staring at the stage and listening to reactions all around me which seemed mostly "what did we just watch". Seeing "Dorian Gray" this afternoon I did come away with the thought that the screens onstage should take a break. I don't really know that they added much to this one. Maybe in a few parts they did but overall, I didn't want to watch the screen, I wanted to watch the actors and it's kind of impossible in that situation. Like I said, a few scenes the filming added to what was happening (and that was used for about 90% of the show) but otherwise, it served as a way to show the actors when they were strategically placed so they wouldn't be seen by the audience which is a silly reason to use them - Just have the couch face the audience and problem solved. I'm going to have to see this again in a couple of days and hear the score again because I think there might have been some music in there I liked. I'm just not sure. Yeah...weird evening at the theatre. I wish I had more cohesive thoughts lol Oh my god. I had the exact same feeling. It's taken me a while to formulate my feelings as I just left puzzled by the whole experience. I was looking forward to this primarily for the cast - Sheridan, Hadley, Amy Lennox, I thought with some great talent like that what could go wrong! Unfortunately EVERY thing. A lot of it was like watching paint dry. I found a lot of melancholy melodies that never really tell the story or connect. Then we are made to look through a curtain for lots of it further disconnecting the audience from the cast & story. I totally agree with the use of video in this too. For example in Sunset Boulevard I found it captivating, at moments astonishing, yet here I found it distracting, ugly and dull. I felt like in Sunset the cameras had purpose and direction where as in this they have a sequence when they project giant faces of the company sat around 'watching' the show (like we are with puzzled faces) from the supposed 'wings' while someone else is singing their heart out in the centre. It was such an odd choice, you can't but be pulled to the screen.. for no reason, so you miss the action. Also to compare again (one last one I promise it's just so recent) how they managed to walk around the block in Sunset and through a whole theatre without losing signal was clearly witchcraft as the signal dropped out a lot last night including when they were 5cm outside the side fire exit door (another odd choice). I totally agree with the above they could have cut 90% of it and the 10% that was effective would have been even better. I really hope they do a drastic re-write in previews. With a cast this good I hope they aren't locked into doing this every night. Such a waste. The hoovering was fine for 2min. Then the 5min ballet with the hoover and cable that followed was dreary. I like Rufus Wainwright but not a lot of the music here, maybe it needs to be heard more? But the book is its main drawback for me. Solid 1* for the show and 1* for the cast doing their best with what they have. |
|
|
|
Post by bobbievanhusen on Mar 7, 2024 18:35:25 GMT
I might have to go see this now. All these early reviews have got me far more interested than I was.
|
|
4,020 posts
|
Post by Dawnstar on Mar 7, 2024 21:51:46 GMT
I’ll defend the hoovering bit, at least. It’s done during the overture - something we don’t really get much of anymore in musicals. Is it needed? Not really. But it just symbolizes getting ready backstage. Does that mean as well as not being to hear the overture properly due to half the audience not bothering to stop talking, as is so often the case at WE shows, that you also can't hear the overture properly due to the noise of a hoover?! |
|
