Ballet Shoes - NT Christmas

[cirque]

Here it is

Ballet Shoes
NT Christmas
from Noel Streatfield book

[Dave B]

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/ballet-shoes/

Opens 23 November.

Public booking Thursday 02 May

[Being Alive]

Have a feeling this might need to move to musicals based on what I'd already heard - the debate of 'musical or play with music' starts here

[theatrenerd]

Apr 19, 2024 10:26:25 GMT Being Alive said:

Have a feeling this might need to move to musicals based on what I'd already heard - the debate of 'musical or play with music' starts here

Until it opens I suppose we won’t really know, but to me it looks like a play as they would explicitly say if it was a musical and include writing credits for music, lyrics and book. There is a composer credited but that could just be the underscoring like many plays do.

[Being Alive]

True - choreography by Ellen Kane (eh) and a composer might suggest play with music though.

[galinda]

Apr 19, 2024 11:20:24 GMT Being Alive said:

True - choreography by Ellen Kane (eh) and a composer might suggest play with music though.

I guess it needs a choreographer and composer for the ballet scenes as the kids in the story go to a ballet school?

[solangelafitte]

One of my favourite and most read books as a child. Looking forward to this!

[oxfordsimon]

I may be wrong, but I had never heard of this book probably because ballet was not a part of growing up for me.

There will be those who do have fond memories of it but it probably doesn't have universal appeal.

[sf]

I see that after previews end the £20 tickets creep up to £25.

[alicechallice]

Apr 19, 2024 12:30:20 GMT oxfordsimon said:

I may be wrong, but I had never heard of this book probably because ballet was not a part of growing up for me.

There will be those who do have fond memories of it but it probably doesn't have universal appeal.

I'd never heard of it until the BBC did an adaptation back in 2007, with Emma Watson as one of the girls. 

[n1david]

Apr 19, 2024 12:39:24 GMT sf said:

I see that after previews end the £20 tickets creep up to £25.

Ouch. Losing that Travelex sponsorship has really hurt.

[oxfordsimon]

Avoiding Emma Watson is something I am always keen to do....

[Jon]

I remember the TV adaptation, it was fairly good. I assume they’ll cast older so they don’t have to have sets of kids

[FairyGodmother]

My profile picture is from Ballet Shoes. It's a lovely book, definitely a comfort read for me still.

[aspieandy]

If it's a musical with ballet there are people the other side of The Strand - on Bow Street - who are quite good at that already.

My guess is it's a play, maybe sprinkled lightly with dance moves.

In the Olivier for 10 weeks over the hols.

[nottobe]

Well the TV adaption has a particular fondness to me and when I last watched it I did think it would make a great stage production. I even did think the NT should stage it so maybe I am a bit psychic? It is really such a wonderful story and it's so great younger generations will see it, count me in!

[max]

Apr 19, 2024 16:40:46 GMT aspieandy said:

If it's a musical with ballet there are people the other side of The Strand - on Bow Street - who are quite good at that already.

My guess is it's a play, maybe sprinkled lightly with dance moves.

In the Olivier for 10 weeks over the hols.

Rambert is even closer, just a few doors down from the National Theatre.  Would be good to see them tie in with one of the ballet schools.

[max]

Apr 19, 2024 16:40:46 GMT aspieandy said:

If it's a musical with ballet there are people the other side of The Strand - on Bow Street - who are quite good at that already.

My guess is it's a play, maybe sprinkled lightly with dance moves.

In the Olivier for 10 weeks over the hols.

Should do well in a 10 week run.  A lot of young audiences will be in love with the world it conjures up.  'The Swish Of The Curtain' is another of those old children's books that would sweep you away to the performance world and young people in it.  

[showgirl]

I always wondered why Noel Streatfield seemed to have been forgotten or overlooked as I recall her books from my childhood (along with everything by E Nesbitt & other authors popular at the time), though as reading chosen for me by adults rather than my own choice once I was let loose in the library. Had no idea, naturally, that any of her work had been adapted for tv, but this should be interesting as long as the adaptation isn't a travesty of the book.

[nick]

Apr 19, 2024 12:30:20 GMT oxfordsimon said:

I may be wrong, but I had never heard of this book probably because ballet was not a part of growing up for me.

There will be those who do have fond memories of it but it probably doesn't have universal appeal.

Its pretty popular. Enough to have had two TV versions - 1970s and 2007 (the latter one written by Heidi Thomas with Emma Watson, Emilia Fox and Victoria Wood - Boxing day special). It's certainly high on my radar and I'm not a ballet buff.

[kyvai]

Oh I’m excited for this! I wore out the VHS of the 1975 tv version as a child. Loved it. I think there’ll be a LOT of nostalgia for this.

[max]

I've just seen that Noel Streatfield wrote a load of follow up books to this, so there's Tennis Shoes, Circus Shoes, Theatre Shoes, Movie Shoes, Skating Shoes, Traveling Shoes, and more! More shoes than Imelda Marcos.

'Tennis Shoes' was the follow up, but after that it was actually the USA publisher who retitled her books to pull lots more under the marketable 'shoes' banner.

[Jan]

Apr 19, 2024 20:37:43 GMT max said:

Apr 19, 2024 16:40:46 GMT aspieandy said:

Should do well in a 10 week run.  A lot of young audiences will be in love with the world it conjures up.  

Actually it seems more like one of those NT children's shows that is aimed squarely at the parents and grandparents who remember the book from their own childhoods rather than at a young audience who have never heard of the book (I base this on a quick straw poll). This is sensible marketing as it is the parents who buy the tickets. The NT have had quite a few clunkers along these lines over the years, Emil and the Detectives for example. 

[aspieandy]

Olivier. 10 Christmas weeks. I wonder if they're hoping for a similar trajectory to the fantastical Ocean at the End of the Lane. Maybe with the feintest reference to Billy Elliot.

[jek]

Noel Streatfeild's (that spelling is so counterintuitive) The House in Cornwall is about to be reissued by the excellent Manderley Press who publish beautiful new editions of old books with interesting contemporary introductions. I heartily recommend the Helene Hanff 'Letters from New York' to anyone who loved 84 Charing Cross Road.
www.manderleypress.com/