Closer to Heaven - Turbine Theatre

[richey]

I'd been trying to find a way to get down to see this but having just seen the West End live performance I don't think I'll bother.
That did not promote it well at all.

[alece10]

Jun 23, 2024 12:11:01 GMT richey said:

I'd been trying to find a way to get down to see this but having just seen the West End live performance I don't think I'll bother.
That did not promote it well at all.

No didn't inspire me to go either. Think ill stick with my memories of the original production at the Arts Theatre.

[bobbievanhusen]

Jun 23, 2024 12:11:01 GMT richey said:

I'd been trying to find a way to get down to see this but having just seen the West End live performance I don't think I'll bother.
That did not promote it well at all.

It didn't come across well at all. But it wasn't far off from what they were like in the show

Frances Ruffelle is all over the place. Fair to say it not her at her best

[nancycunard]

Saw this last night and was deeply nonplussed. The script is just dire and while there’s some lovely songs, PSB’s lyricism is delivered best in Neil’s tone which is inherently droll and I think quite a lot is lost when they’re sung straight.

None of the cast apart from Ruffelle and maybe Bowman really acquitted themselves. Central love story just didn’t come over at all because it was so shallowly written and poorly performed. There’s still sound issues too, even at this point in the run. Significant problems with the mic in the build up to Friendly Fire. Venue was swelteringly warm, but staff very friendly.

[Steve]

Jun 20, 2024 12:50:46 GMT distantcousin said:

I liked it. I didn't think it was going to be so "low fi" - having never been to the Turbine.  It was an improvement on the last version I saw (at the Union) from a production/direction aspect.

Frances was worth the ticket price alone. An absolute tour de force performance. She fits the role like a glove.

The guy playing Mile End Lee would have been far better as Straight Dave. 

It works well as a period-piece now. It captures the 90's hedonistic/DGAF attitude and the pre-9/11 positivity of the club/gay scene. 

I forgot how amateurish the book is. It has excellent jokes and one liners, but little else going for it.

I agree with all of the above. I also LIKED it, and thought it an improvement on the Union Theatre version.

Some spoilers follow. . .

I also thought Frances Ruffelle was great fun as Billie Trix, playing the role with shameless and infectious abandon. Its different from Frances Barber, with an accent that sounds like Marlene Dietrich spent 10 years in Wales and 10 years in Buenos Aires, but it's brilliantly funny and bonkers fun and the standout thing about the show.

The problem remains the lack of danger in the book, which is very undramatic. I'm sure Jamie Lloyd could make it all feel suitably dangerous and exciting without altering the book (ala Sunset) but really it needs a Cabaret style rewrite, so that the Cabaret-style licentiousness of the playing feels perpetually under threat.

The only time I felt a frisson of genuine passion or danger was when Kurt Kansley's Vic Christian performed "Vampires:" the sheer unrestrained self-hatred behind his passionate scream-singing (while remaining impressively in tune) of the lines "Brother it don't matter, Sister don't worry" made me feel a chill like suddenly it all did matter and I should worry lol.

Further, this devastating emotional palette cleanser of a song perfectly set up a moment of poignant desolation wonderfully filled by a gorgeous duet of "Closer to Heaven" between Connor Carson's excellent but underused Mile End Lee and Glenn Adamson's Straight Dave.

If only moments like that were in the book from start to finish, Ruffelle's comic relief would feel more useful and the whole show might zing.

Overall, 3 stars from me for Ruffelle, Kansley and that duet.

[n1david]

Performances cancelled Friday and Saturday due to “unforeseen circumstances”. I think I will count this as a dodged bullet.

[d'James]

Jul 11, 2024 21:41:17 GMT n1david said:

Performances cancelled Friday and Saturday due to “unforeseen circumstances”. I think I will count this as a dodged bullet.

Why?

[n1david]

Because of the mixed responses to the show on this board and elsewhere. I saw the original production at the Arts three times, including the first preview and closing night. I also saw the Union revival which I thought was flawed but ok, but from what I have heard about this production I was concerned that it may have been such low quality that I may not have enjoyed it. I'm very happy for people who saw this and liked it, but after booking it I worried that I might not, and so I'm glad the decision has been taken out of my hands, as I can't reschedule, so I will miss this production. Given that the production has been papering heavily, I'm quite glad to get back my £85 (for two tix)

[d'James]

Patronising, much.

[n1david]

Who or what am I patronising? If the show hadn't been cancelled I'd still have gone along and maybe I'd have loved it. But word of mouth and the reviews have been mixed to say the least. I don't have time to fit it in again before the end of the run so I'll take a chance Saturday night on a show where the prospects of my enjoying it are higher.

[BVM]

Frances Ruffelle has apparently fractured her ankle and is out of the show.

From next week Billie Trix will be played by Jenna Lee James.

[d'James]

Jul 13, 2024 23:29:36 GMT BVM said:

Frances Ruffelle has apparently fractured her ankle and is out of the show.

From next week Billie Trix will be played by Jenna Lee James.

So devastated for her.

[sph]

Jul 14, 2024 0:57:06 GMT d'James said:

Jul 13, 2024 23:29:36 GMT BVM said:

Frances Ruffelle has apparently fractured her ankle and is out of the show.

From next week Billie Trix will be played by Jenna Lee James.

So devastated for her.

She'll be alright. She only has to do two weeks.

[n1david]

What a shame that the Turbine Theatre has not yet managed to update their website or tweet this information to their potential audience.

[erik24601]

Jul 14, 2024 19:35:08 GMT n1david said:

What a shame that the Turbine Theatre has not yet managed to update their website or tweet this information to their potential audience.

And yet, bizarrely, it was posted on their Facebook and Insta yesterday. You'd think they'd do all of them at once. 

[n1david]

Thanks for that, I guess I was being a bit mean but I thought it was odd there was no mention of it in either of the places I looked. Hope they will get around to it soon, particularly the website which is still featuring Frances Ruffelle extensively.

[ruggerlad]

Bit of a bummer.
Just booked this morning for next Wednesday evening

[n1david]

Jul 18, 2024 9:47:29 GMT ruggerlad said:

Bit of a bummer.
Just booked this morning for next Wednesday evening

That’s a shame. Unfortunate that they still haven’t managed to find the time to update the website.

[greateststarofthewe]

Saw this the other week. Left almost no impression on me apart from a couple of cast members (Courtney Bowman as Shell mostly). Cannot understand why this was ever revived in the first place without any substantial rewrite.

[billy]

I saw this tonight on an extremely cheap ticket offer which as mentioned is becoming quite common now, looks like it’s worked as it was a pretty full house on a hot Thursday evening. As I’d never seen the show before I can’t compare any of the cast so didn’t get to see Frances’s portrayal, but Jenna Lee James seemed to do a really fun job and got all the laughs and high notes in the right places, even though given the circumstances she performed much of the second half with a very un-period iPad in her hands with the script on screen - she was given a special shout out by the cast at the end for only having two days to learn the role, so fair play to her. As already mentioned Bowman is astonishingly good and I hope more great roles follow for her, although it looks like she has a really decent West End career already which is good to hear.

I’m a fan of both the PSBs music so knew a couple of the songs already (mostly the title track and the brilliant Shameless) and just that general era in time, as although I was far too young to go clubbing the various references did take me back to the days of starting secondary school. Glad I sat on a cabaret table too as I got a free shot!

[Distant Dreamer...]

Isn’t Frances hoping to return for the last week?

[BVM]

Jul 21, 2024 17:19:37 GMT Distant Dreamer... said:

Isn’t Frances hoping to return for the last week?

Apparently she’s back for the evening shows this week.
JLJ for matinees!

[jacob]

Frances was back on last night although she’s been told to not continue due to the injury. crutch in hand as she came out after…

As for the show, nothing could’ve prepared me for this.

It’s incredibly dated, cringe, camp, laughable, naff, dire etc. feeling bad for the very talented cast that have to work with material that genuinely just feels like a fever dream. It’s aggressively 2000s. Jokes were not landing, audience were NOT clapping after certain songs. It’s supposed to be a nightclub, so the bass is cranked up for the majority of the songs. Not to mention that they’re just cheap instrumentals too, it felt like a karaoke session.

Saw Hello Dolly matinee before (straight pride) and to come to this after was insane. The (barely soft-core anymore) gay porn onstage was cute though.

[jay78uk]

Jul 25, 2024 12:34:03 GMT jacob said:

Frances was back on last night although she’s been told to not continue due to the injury. crutch in hand as she came out after…

As for the show, nothing could’ve prepared me for this.

It’s incredibly dated, cringe, camp, laughable, naff, dire etc. feeling bad for the very talented cast that have to work with material that genuinely just feels like a fever dream. It’s aggressively 2000s. Jokes were not landing, audience were NOT clapping after certain songs. It’s supposed to be a nightclub, so the bass is cranked up for the majority of the songs. Not to mention that they’re just cheap instrumentals too, it felt like a karaoke session.

Saw Hello Dolly matinee before (straight pride) and to come to this after was insane. The (barely soft-core anymore) gay porn onstage was cute though.

Sad to hear you didn’t enjoy C2H. I’m also sad it’s dated so, and feel it’s the book that lets the side down… as funny as some parts and characters are, the fine score deserves so much better. The sound in this production also doesn’t help, with the bass and poor speakers bludgeoning the pre-recorded score. If you haven’t listened to it, worth seeking out the original cast recording produced by Trevor Horn to hear the score as it deserves to sound.

[ruggerlad]

I think it was Stephen Hague who produced the 2001 cast recording album along with the Pets.

I saw it Wednesday night and enjoyed it overall.
It's not a great musical by any means but it's an entertaining show.
Cast all good to excellent and certainly threw themselves into it.
Frances was extremely limber on stage, and I thought vocally was pretty good.
We were directly by my stage and my friend had lots of up and close and personal interactions with various members of the cast.
Sounds seemed okay, no issues with mikes, obviously pre recorded music but I wouldn't say they sound cheap or out of keeping with the original show.

Anyone going I'd imagine would know what to expect, you're not getting great art.