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Post by max on Jun 28, 2024 19:43:56 GMT
Three actors/characters, and three acting styles. James Corden is excellent, drawing on the cadences of real life to bring the words to life with fresh and breezy realism. Anna Maxwell Martin probably has the more wordy speeches (I haven't looked at in on the page) and adopts that kind of 'listing/ticking things off' delivery that isn't completely unfamiliar from real life (middle class professionals), but is really most often heard in...plays, when there's loads of stuff to get through. Then the policeman is playing it for comedy. I wished they were all on Corden's page, and/or the writing had let them be there.
Every point where the drama ratchets up felt very engineered, with all the workings showing. The inciting incident - Corden's character simply suggesting his estranged wife is using the kids for 'control' - is taken as a dangerous outrage by the MP that could lead him into legal hot water. I've certainly learned something if that's the case, but the MP never passes through that moment where her much vaunted empathy is shown, before being more sorely tested later until she snaps. Without going into spoilers, if I'd been part of a chain of incidents that affected someone's life, on seeing them again I'd take a bit longer to check how they'd take being told they smell! In everyday life most people have better diplomacy and de-escalation skills when negotiating beggars on the tube or in the street. But other than Corden's performance it just doesn't feel drawn from life.
The long scene changes aren't needed - except it feels that the director does want us to hear the lyrics; as if knowing the play isn't enough on its own. That's a huge chunk of Billy Bragg's 'Between The Wars' we listen to. "And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage" sings Bragg. Yet the song isn't that relevant to the play - Corden's character isn't on the scrap heap of unemployment post army.
The music choices make the play feel dated. Neither The Smiths or Billy Bragg are without problems and detractors in 2024 - Morrissey for offensive racial comments and saying he gets his news from various conspiracy theorists and youtube grifters, and Bragg is hated on social media by those fiercely sceptical of gender fluidity and allies to that cause. Now that really is a divided and confusing world in the midst of which an ex-squaddie divorced from the comforting discipline and routine of the army might lose his grip.
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Post by bigredapple on Jul 7, 2024 14:53:21 GMT
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Post by nash16 on Jul 7, 2024 15:00:21 GMT
Corden comes first. Always. |
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Post by nottobe on Jul 7, 2024 15:00:37 GMT
Yes very very unprofessional. I'm sure lots of other people would have missed the football due to them working and would just have to deal with it and this is no different. At the end of the day he is being paid to be in a play, not watch the football and disrupt performance times.
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Post by greenandbrownandblue on Jul 7, 2024 15:23:17 GMT
Yes very very unprofessional. I'm sure lots of other people would have missed the football due to them working and would just have to deal with it and this is no different. At the end of the day he is being paid to be in a play, not watch the football and disrupt performance times. I'm no football devotee, but part of me would be slightly grateful for this, especially with this play's v short running time, as it wouldn't then disturb the opening of the play itself (like it did at Hello Dolly) |
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Post by parsley1 on Jul 7, 2024 17:40:03 GMT
The bbc footage
Shows the audience laughing
At this clown
Like sycophants
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 7, 2024 17:47:51 GMT
I didnt need another excuse to avoid this play |
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Post by leanne23 on Jul 7, 2024 17:51:31 GMT
I was in the audience last night and honestly, this was the right call. Much of the audience was already completely preoccupied at curtain up, watching the penalties on their phone. Not only was the mood brilliant - it was a completely unique and surreal experience - but it helped avoided any disruption to the opening of the play. It was still over by 9.15pm!
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Post by theatrenerd on Jul 7, 2024 18:54:48 GMT
I'm not much of a football fan, but I wouldn't have seen much issue at this if I was there, as long as the play started straight after.
I think it's better than having people looking at their phones during the show (which has been mentioned on the Hello, Dolly! thread and I imagine all over the country theatres would have had the same problem last night).
After all, it was only 15 minutes. Shows can be delayed by any number of reasons, at least this will have been a fun and memorable one. The videos and IG posts seem to indicate so.
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Post by richey on Jul 7, 2024 19:51:02 GMT
I would have been asking for a refund.
I pay to see the play, not have to wait until one of the actors think it's convenient for them to start.
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Post by Being Alive on Jul 7, 2024 21:03:29 GMT
Having spent the first 15 minutes of a different show on Saturday night unsuccessfully trying to get audience members to turn their phones off - from a front of house perspective what Corden did is WAY better than the chaos some of us had to sort out...
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Post by leanne23 on Jul 7, 2024 22:45:41 GMT
It was 10 minutes, tops. Had he decided to watch it in the wings himself and delayed the play by a few minutes, we’d all have been none the wiser. I’ve been at shows which have started much later with absolutely not explanation. Corden addressed the elephant in the room, and as such, had an attentive and captive audience moving forward. Phones off, no hassle.
Secondly, with football culture so frequently derided as working class, unlike ‘highbrow’ theatre, it was really quite refreshing to see those two worlds be celebrated at once. I do think there’s an element of snobbery to the faux outrage on social media…and I say this as someone who is normally VERY peeved by poor theatre etiquette.
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Post by sph on Jul 8, 2024 0:39:58 GMT
I get it - it was probably the right thing to do and made the situation far more manageable since it was only ten or fifteen mins. But I can't help but be slightly annoyed by the "everything must stop for the football" thing we have in this country. But I guess I'm in the minority.
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Post by Oobi on Jul 8, 2024 0:47:53 GMT
What kind of cartoon villain do you have to be to watch a theatre of people sharing a joyful communal experience and respond "UM, AKSHUALLY, JAMES CORDEN IS AN EMPLOYEE AND HE IS PAID TO START ON TIME."
FFS, just be happy that people are happy.
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Post by sph on Jul 8, 2024 2:39:01 GMT
What kind of cartoon villain do you have to be to watch a theatre of people sharing a joyful communal experience and respond "UM, AKSHUALLY, JAMES CORDEN IS AN EMPLOYEE AND HE IS PAID TO START ON TIME."
FFS, just be happy that people are happy. I don't think I'd begrudge anyone the experience and I'm glad it led to a situation where the play was able to be performed without the disruptions of phones in the audience. I think some theatregoers may respond negatively because, if you aren't interested in football, it can seem like you've spent your life having your interests pushed aside by things like football, which MUST apparently always come first. I still remember the partying in the streets during the pandemic. "Yes there's a global pandemic and we MUST ALL social distance and make sacrifices and stay indoors etc, except when the football's on, then we should all go out like there's no pandemic because that's the exception to the rule." I wouldn't have minded had I been in the audience at this performance. I'd have waited. It was only ten or fifteen minutes. But I wouldn't have been able to help but sit there and think to myself "Why is football always the most important thing?" |
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Post by claireyfairy1 on Jul 8, 2024 9:04:10 GMT
I see both sides. I passionately hate football and how it takes over everything. Over the years, when I've worked in an office, everyone would be permitted to stop work for England games and watch them with snacks and booze provided. I would continue working with headphones on because I don't want to watch football ever and it's not like I was allowed to just leave. Everything stopping for the football is a bitter pill for me.
On the other hand, it's SO pervasive in society that it's not even remotely surprising that people were being more annoying and disruptive in shows where there wasn't a delay and I would have found that 10 x more annoying. The Old Vic anticipated it and I say well done to them for recognising it would have been a disruption.
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Post by MrBraithwaite on Jul 8, 2024 9:55:28 GMT
Totally in character for him. Unprofessional, his "me first"-attitude and grabbing some (positive) headlines on the way, which BBC, WOS and others happily delivered.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 8, 2024 10:21:06 GMT
How does an actor prepare for a performance? Im guessing watching a penalty shootout is not the normal way to find your character.
Is that snobby? Perhaps but then i loathe the so called beautiful game
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Post by profquatermass on Jul 8, 2024 10:46:21 GMT
I would be absolutely amazed if a single person asked for a refund or complained to the box office. I bet 90% of the audience were excited to be part of an unscripted 'event'
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Post by leanne23 on Jul 8, 2024 10:58:57 GMT
I would be absolutely amazed if a single person asked for a refund or complained to the box office. I bet 90% of the audience were excited to be part of an unscripted 'event' They absolutely were. He read the room 100% correctly - everyone was buzzing. You just have to look at the videos circulating social media to see that. A unique experience that I'll remember for a long time. A special moment of cultural, coming-togetherness! |
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Post by mkb on Jul 8, 2024 11:32:42 GMT
While not good for anyone hoping to catch transport afterwards at the published finish time (which can never be guaranteed in any case), Corden did absolutely the right thing in the circumstances. Theatre, after all, is about drama, and this provided real drama of the sort that James Graham's Dear England could only dream of.
That this is being used as an excuse for Corden bashing, makes me wonder how much of the previous vitriol he's suffered was justified.
For contrast:
The start of my matinée this past Saturday was delayed by a longer time for unspecified reasons. No fuss made.
Whole shows were cancelled last Thursday evening because apparently they could not proceed concurrently with a general election.
Theatres shut down en masse when some royal dies or marries, even though there are large swathes of the population with no interest in the monarchy and in desperate need of some distraction from the media hysteria.
On Sunday 18 September 2022, a 19:30 theatre show I was at was delayed over half an hour without any prior warning it would happen, just so that the national anthem for the queen (who had died 10 days prior) could be played at 20:00. If we'd been told, we could all have arrived later, but, even on the day, the venue had been insisting that it would start promptly on time.
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Post by Jon on Jul 8, 2024 11:44:02 GMT
I suspect Corden wouldn't have done if it was in a play that 3+ hours but for a 90 minute play, what's 15 minutes to anyone especially since making connections after the show is easy peasy.
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Post by blamerobots on Jul 8, 2024 11:46:38 GMT
I'd definitely rather them acknowledge the elephant in the room than have a bunch of people on their phones for the first half hour.
At Next to Normal (NEXT TO NORMAL!!!) multiple people were sitting through the crucial first 15 minutes watching the football on their phones, much to the chagrin of FOH. Anything to prevent that. So I think he definitely made the right call. Plus it sort of fits in with his unprofessional persona.
I think the reality is that we're definitely a different type of theatre goer than the average. We go to see a show for the show compared to the Average Joe who goes to "see a show" in the evening, if you get what I mean. So a delay for something like this is not as big of a deal.
I do bloody hate the football though. The train home was DREADFUL. Never have I heard such vile discrimination normalised and spoken of so casually. But that's for another thread...
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Post by anthony40 on Jul 8, 2024 14:37:20 GMT
Surely it's up to the Stage Manager to approve and authorise this sort of behaviour?
For what it's worth I too hate football- in fact I don't like any sports!
"What!!!" I hear you all saying "But he's Australian!"- trust me. I heard it all before.
I have never liked sports and have always done what I can to get out of playing or participating. If it's televised, I turn the channel!
I also (genuinely) don't have full developed cognitive skills, which means that I struggle to catch a ball.
I also don't like amusement rides.
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Post by parsley1 on Jul 8, 2024 14:42:03 GMT
I wish more people would play football
Instead of sitting watching it
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