A View From The Bridge-Ustinov, Bath/Theatre Royal Haymarket

[theatre22]

Is the running time of 2hours 20mins on the website accurate?

[marob]

May 25, 2024 18:37:27 GMT theatre22 said:

Is the running time of 2hours 20mins on the website accurate?

It is about that yes, but starts 5 minutes late. Was out of the matinee just before 5 ‘o’clock.

[aloysius]

I'm just out from this, was up in the gallery and you get a perfect view from that if you don't mind the steep angle. The staging is very similar to Long Day's Journey Into Night - table in the centre, rocking chair stage right, no set changes - and sat in the rocking chair is a veteran British actor giving a loose approximation of the TV character they conquered the States with. Long Day is the stronger production though - the acting is far superior for a start. I liked Dominic West giving us his McNulty but Callum Scott Howells was dreadful and I had no idea what accent Kate Fleetwood was attempting. It's a shame - a play looking at attitudes towards migration feels very pertinent at the moment but this was all just a bit of a mess.

[thistimetomorrow]

If anyone's under 25 (and note that you have to be under 25, not 25 and under) they offer fantastic seats for £20 if you call the box office!

[A.Ham]

May 25, 2024 18:07:23 GMT marob said:

A.Ham I went on a rush ticket from todaytix and got row J of the stalls.

Great, thank you! That sounds like much better value.

And ref the post above, sadly I’m long past ‘under 25’ so can’t use that offer!

[ruperto]

I saw this last night. I'm with marob and Dave B on this - it was fine, solid, perfectly OK. I can't put my finger on why, but it just didn't get my blood racing. Maybe it's just that it's a very traditional production, and simply staged. The previous thing I saw was The Cherry Orchard at the Donmar, which was the opposite of traditional! Dominic West was good, I thought. Nia Towle really lifted things as Catherine - she's one to watch...

A couple of takeaways:

I can't remember the last time I was at the theatre when there were so many Americans in the audience! It was a packed house.

The front row of the stalls is great. I picked up my seat for £45 on TodayTix, and when I looked just now, there were still some available for that price, though for most dates they seem to be much more expensive. The stage isn't too high, and the action generally doesn't take place right at the front of the stage, so it's a great view.

[A.Ham]

Thanks for the front row stalls tip - I’ve had a look at TodayTix but row A seems to be £83 on all the dates I’ve checked, am I missing something?

[ruperto]

So yes, I'd just randomly checked a couple of dates next week where there are still some for £45, but you're right, the other dates seem to be £83. Hopefully there may be some more deals!

[A.Ham]

May 29, 2024 10:46:57 GMT ruperto said:

So yes, I'd just randomly checked a couple of dates next week where there are still some for £45, but you're right, the other dates seem to be £83. Hopefully there may be some more deals!

No problem - thanks for replying, you’re right - they’re showing for next week. I will keep checking for the dates I can do!

[Steve]

Saw yesterday's matinee and LOVED it.

My friends loved it so much they said it was the "best thing" they'd seen "in years!"

I saw the Van Hove Mark Strong version of this play, so I wouldn't go that far lol, but I thought this was great.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Reading the above reviews, I conclude that its imperative to have Pierro Niel-Mee on as Marco, as he's such a highlight of this production for me.

He was on at yesterday's matinee, and his super solid, snail-like, slow-moving, Marlon-Brandon-quizzical, slow-thinking, juggernaut of a Marco, seems to exude a kind of tangible macho smoke, emanating like invisible macho fumes from his every pore, such that you just know his aura of utter politeness and decency will absolutely explode in violence if he's crossed lol.

Its Niel-Mee's brooding presence of a Marco, his ever-present, lurking, stock still threatening principal antagonist, that puts the fear into the audience as they witness Dominic West's strutting Eddie Carbone get wired, get weird, and get so wonderfully convincingly animated by his thinly veiled, unacknowledged perversity.

The whole cast master their accents beautifully, bar Callum Scott Howells and Kate Fleetwood, who slip. I didn't care about the accent slips, because Fleetwood, while never as threatening as Niel-Mee, observes West's swaggering Carbone with a similar bemused stillness, increasingly stained with scorn, and Scott Howells gets irritatingly animated, in just the way he must.

As the catalyst for West's Carbone to get very very weird, Nia Towle, as his wife's niece, Catherine, is the most winning, girlish, sparky, infectious, excitable, and loveable Catherine imaginable. And Martin Marquez brings an immense sense of warmth, wariness and wisdom into the proceedings as the old narrating lawyer.

So, this isn't the 5 star Van Hove production. There's no stylistic showers of blood, or "Good the Bad and the Ugly" style slow-motion standoffs, there's no girlish Catherine, legs akimbo, inappropriately jumping into a psychopathically obsessed Mark Strong's arms. No, this all plays much more straight, an inexorable straight arrow aimed at unflinchingly steely old-fashioned masculinity in the person of Niel-Mee's Marco, and Dominic West gives his most exciting UK stage performance since the wacky Butley, as a physically imposing, forceful, witty, wired and weird man who has no idea how weird he is, and has no idea what he's dealing with with Niel-Mee's Marco.

The set, a box of exterior walls containing furniture, as if they are interior walls, beautifully melds the worlds of inside and outside in a most compellingly claustrophobic way.

This was terrific, to the tune of 4 and a half stars, for me.

[Rory]

Has Pierro Niel-Mee left Machinal early, because according to the Old Vic's website, he's in that as well.

Edit: Sorry, I see this has been raised earlier in the thread. He must be juggling both until tomorrow.

[aspieandy]

May 31, 2024 15:53:58 GMT Steve said:

and Dominic West gives his most exciting UK stage performance since the wacky Butley, as a physically imposing, forceful, witty, wired and weird man who has no idea how weird he is, and has no idea what he's dealing with with Niel-Mee's Marco.

Well, that's a surprise. Perhaps I dun  him wrong.

Bonus point for the use of Wire/d.

[Always@thetheatre]

Front row for next week is selling for £20 on todaytix at the moment. I just got one for next weekend

[merrilywereadalong]

This was definitely a tale of two halves for me.

I found the first act to be pretty spectacular. The tension perfectly wound and mounting with each scene. An across the board terrific cast (with a stand out performance from Towle) I loved the simplicity but effectivness of the set and light cues.

and then I don't know what happened but while it doesn't completely fall apart in the second half, the staging, particularly when the action finally kicks in got super sloppy for me and muddled and after that the play lost all sense of momentum that it had been building. And it showed even in the performances which I felt all lost a bit of the laser sharp focus they had in the first half. Accents got wobbly as mentioned above. There was no crescendo like in the Van Hove or other productions I've seen. It just felt...idk, clunky which was such a bummer and I feel a total let down to the actors on the director's part for what had up until then been a total 4.5/5 star evening.

[A.Ham]

Has anyone spotted any more of those £20 front row stalls seats pop up on TodayTix? I’m still checking for the dates I can do but at the moment I’m not seeing anything under £45.

[prefab]

I saw the matinee of this yesterday and loved it. My expectations were pretty low, since I've seen my share of midcentury American plays mangled on the West
End stage. But thankfully there was no Jeremy Herrin involved with this one, and I thought this was well-directed and well-acted; Miller's play could so easily tip over into overheated melodrama, but they manage to humanize the characters enough that the overwhelming sense of tragedy comes through. Dominic West in particular does tremendous work as Eddie, especially in those initial scenes where he warmly portrays Eddie's genuine love and concern for his niece, a positive quality that slowly metastasizes into something ugly in the later scenes. And even with my £15 "severely restricted view" ticket (Upper Circle B26), I could see everything aside from a few moments where West sat on the far left side of the side.

[Mark]

Very good. We got tickets from Seatplan for £20 each, row G dress. Rush was only offering me one row infront so we went for the £5 cheaper a ticket.

[greenandbrownandblue]

Remind me not to book a show at the Haymarket on the day of Pride - a pulsating beat from the parade outside underscored this afternoon's matinee!

Still, I thought this was very good. I loved the Van Hove production at the YV/Wyndham's, and this isn't quite up there, but it's a solid revival. Dominic West superb, as is Nia Towle. As others have mentioned, Kate Fleetwood's accent wanders, slipping back into British, but then I started to think maybe it's deliberate and Beatrice is an immigrant too?

The boxing scene is superbly done, but it's true the final scene is a bit more clunky in its staging.

£20 front row stalls through Todaytix - excellent value!

[iwanttix]

Ive got a ticket for this week - they seem to reduce the front row to £20 the week before so kept an eye out and booked a ticket as soon as it went down.

[A.Ham]

Jun 30, 2024 19:09:25 GMT iwanttix said:

Ive got a ticket for this week - they seem to reduce the front row to £20 the week before so kept an eye out and booked a ticket as soon as it went down.

Nice work. I’m checking back regularly for the date I’m after!

Would be good to know once you’ve been if you’d agree with the opinion/s further up this thread that the view is fine from there.

[theatrefan77]

They also tend to reduce the extreme sides of the front row in the Dress Circle. I got A4 for £20 and the view was great.

[A.Ham]

Jul 1, 2024 11:07:12 GMT theatrefan77 said:

They also tend to reduce the extreme sides of the front row in the Dress Circle. I got A4 for £20 and the view was great.

Thank you. Theatremonkey had rather put me off those but good to know they’re fine for this production.

[A.Ham]

Thanks all for the TodayTix £20 front row advice - they’ve just marked down the performance I wanted so centre front row purchased (and it only cost me £16 as I apparently had £4 of perks to use - thank you very much TT!)

[dlevi]

I found this production to be pedestrian and often boring. The only tension was in the second act. The performances all felt under-rehearsed or or under directed, all broad strokes, no detail or complexity. The design felt cheap and the lighting was downright bad. Mr West seemed to be having a good time which is an odd take on the part. Kate Fleetwood gave solid support but I have no idea what that accent was. The odd thing for me about the evening was just how many Americans were in the audience and their overall sense of entitlement - lots of people checking their messages throughout, a fair number of bags of malteasers being opened and consumed as well as plastic water bottles snapping and popping. What the hell was going on last night? One fun thing was spotting Debra Messing in the center stalls.

[mattnyc]

Saw this today and thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the things I loved the most was the no frills, basic “old school” staging. No cameras, no buckets of blood, no projections, just got to focus on the exceptional acting. And now off to “Romeo and Juliet” for the polar opposite lol