Dorian - Southwark Playhouse

[fiyerorocher]

I couldn't find an existing thread so let me be the first to warn you: this is not worth a trip. Granted I saw the first preview, but it's an utter mess that I don't think can be salvaged.

The source material (The Picture of Dorian Grey) is not boring, and musicals are not usually boring (even if they are not always good), so to have created such a dull musical of this is almost impressive. The characters don't seem to agree what time period they're in - there are smartphones and social media, but the attitudes to homosexuality are 150 years out of date. They've done a poor job of trying to update the story, leaving it disjointed and tonally confused. Dorian is a 'rock and roll' music icon but also seems to live the life of a Victorian gentleman, and there's not a single song in the piece that could be classed as rock. Instead it's all just very bland.

There's no attempt to give any of the characters any degree of depth. It's hard to care when any of them die, when you've been given no reason to get invested. A couple of the actors are doing their best with the poor material, but there is no saving this one.

At least the costume designer seems to have had fun. And when a piece of set was accidentally knocked off a high platform in a frankly absurd blackout fight, the threat of falling debris onto those in the front row added a much needed injection of excitement.

[Talisman]

I didn't think it was quite that bad but I agree about confusion of period . The actor playing Victoria seemed to have no interest in her part and her singing was loud and harsh. The sound balance was poor making it hard to distinguish words. I did find most of the music bland. Baz and Henry delivered much of the dialogue in a rather flat way. I enjoyed the scenes with Sybil and liked the introduction of her younger sister. Dorian eventually gave a performance I could engage with but it took well into act 2 to get there.

Yes it was first preview but the inbuilt structure and quality of casting would not seem to provide the basis of needed development and improvement.

[hoopoe]

I'm glad there's a thread for this now, the West End Live performance left me confused and I wanted more info! I thought it seemed interesting to begin with, but then I couldn't really gauge what tone it was going for, Dorian seemed a much weaker performer than the guy doing the sort of introductory song before him, and then his song was really boring. It did unfortunately give the impression it might be a bit of a mess.

[Talisman]

I found the songs the weakest part of this. If they were meant to be an integral part of the story, better sound management was needed. There was little variety in the material and is was only in the last section that i found it effective..

[singingbird]

Thanks for all these updates. I was toying with going to this tonight but it's not the most convenient night to go out, so you've all helped me to decide!

[matttom0901]

Went to see this yesterday. I was so happy when it finished. Thought about leaving at the interval like many others who actually left but decided to give Act 2 a go. Wish I listened to my gut and saved myself the trouble.