1,826 posts
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Post by Dave B on Oct 28, 2024 12:24:40 GMT
who do you contact to get booking fees refunded? Select ATG membership at the top and just fill the details in on the form, one of the fields will give you the option to select "Add my booking / refund fees", or just use a generic membership benefits if it does not show up and submit away. |
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1,826 posts
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Post by Dave B on Oct 29, 2024 17:10:19 GMT
I had to pay fees with my lottery ticket last week, I put a refund request in last Monday. It was only acknowledged yesterday. I expect I'll get my fees back but will update whenever I hear back. ATG have emailed me back to say
But there is absolutely nothing about this in the ATG+ T&Cs so I'm a bit annoyed by this response and have queried it further.
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Post by billy on Oct 29, 2024 17:26:01 GMT
Absolutely not the case when I won the Mincemeat lottery in 2023 while I was still an ATG member. Two £25 tickets were £50, no fee.
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Post by A.Ham on Oct 29, 2024 19:23:04 GMT
I had to pay fees with my lottery ticket last week, I put a refund request in last Monday. It was only acknowledged yesterday. I expect I'll get my fees back but will update whenever I hear back. ATG have emailed me back to say
But there is absolutely nothing about this in the ATG+ T&Cs so I'm a bit annoyed by this response and have queried it further.
Sounds like ATG! When £3.95 is almost 16% of the ticket price (at £25) and you’ve already paid your membership they are somewhat taking the proverbial with this. Good on you for challenging it. |
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1,826 posts
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Post by Dave B on Oct 30, 2024 9:04:00 GMT
So the show itself. Front row seats are great value at £25. The stage is normal height, I didn't miss a thing and some key points are mere centimetres away. Note they have added AA and BB so don't expect the front row to come with legroom. No issues with the ATG+ Free programme for this week, just flash your membership card. Lily Collins is decent, Álvaro Morte is very good and not just at silently smouldering. I only know him from the first season of Money Heist and was not expecting quite such a presence but he really brings it. It will be a little hard to talk about without spoilers. They do have pretty good chemistry, oddly enough it stops almost immediately at the curtain call with the two of them looking very unsure of each other and what they should be doing.
The time setting of 2009 is important as it's just after Obama's inauguration and there is a lot spent on Iraq and American imperialism and those lines really just wrote themselves. Old and dated and says nothing new or interesting, they get cheap laughs at the expense of the dumb American (Collins does well on this) who ticks all of the expected boxes, there are even repeated jokes about pretending to be Canadian. What does work is Morte here, his reactions are gold and his muttering in Spanish is the funny part (there is a good chunk of Spanish, I don't feel like I missed anything as the intent is very very clear but any speakers will get a little more laughter I suspect). It also talks about events in Spain of roughly the same era which are important, it probably tells you enough to follow along but it isn't just 11 September and Iraq and a US context although it is very very American - and tries to be too knowing, too cute about it all.
When it moves into the personal, their own lives and relationships, the writing really rockets all over the place The blurb says:
Here be SPOILERS.{Spoiler - click to view} Which oh boy it does not do! I didn't need the two women in the second row loudly expressing their guesses as the show went along, anyone paying attention had gotten there a few minutes before them but they were still right each time. She's getting married, his daughter is dead... it's all just right there. Nothing to guess, nothing to twist - just weak writing. It lacks any subtly which is a real shame as there is potential, the decor of the apartment lets us know his daughter was a dancer and so the subtle projections on the wall work really nicely but then they have to become so unsubtle and so thrown up - yes we got it but sure, go ahead and hammer it in anyway. If you'll forgive a stereotype usage like I mention above - so American!! It's disposable entertainment but it is funny. Some of it is forced funny but there are some properly funny moments (Diaz/Hilton is great) but most of all I think it really only works because of Collins and in particular Morte, it becomes his story and I think he carried it really well. £25 front row - bargain. Anything else... ooof. I could see it reviewing badly, I think there might be good notices for the cast and not so good for much else, perhaps even a couple of 2 stars. I'll go with 3 stars myself. As ever I could be wrong and just one opinion. A fairly warm reaction at the end but the usual performative jumping up (delighted to be received with a direct reaction..) and a huge rush for stage door. A youngish audience so it is clearly bringing something. Funny yes, sexy yes, surprising - not one bit.
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1,475 posts
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Post by Steve on Oct 30, 2024 13:56:12 GMT
Maybe Dave B is right and this will review badly, but I hope not because I LOVED this. Yes, unlike Bess Wohl's previous two-hander at the Old Vic, "Camp Siegfried" (which considered how Nazis are made), this doesn't address big topical questions, but it's very entertaining. DO NOT OPEN DAVE'S SPOILER COMMENT UNLESS YOU'VE ALREADY SEEN THIS THOUGH, AS IT REVEALS THE BIG TWISTS. And, yes, as every well written two hander demands, there are big twists which, in my opinion, are very well done. This show reviewed poorly previously, and I think I know why: the female character is very difficult to like. Lily Collins is peerless casting for this role, as making unlikeable likeable (watch any episode of Emily blundering through Paris) is her wheelhouse, and she does brilliant comic work here to redeem this character for the audience. Alvaro Morte is also terrific, as Dave B suggested, in more dramatic ways Some spoilers follow. . . The set-up is that Lily Collin's character meets Alvaro Morte's Manuel in a tapas bar and goes back to his place right away. She may or may not be in danger as not only doesn't she know him from Adam, but his apartment has no running water and is cluttered with boxes. So far, so sinister. And then she proceeds to be very unlikeable: calling Manuel Manolo continuously, dissing Canadians, mistaking Italian for Spanish, bragging about being American and waving away 100,000 dead in Iraq like they're nothing. . . This stuff grated on me. Anyway, Bess Wohl intends you to like, or learn to like this character, and my guess is that Lily Collins is the first actress to play the part who can actually pull off this seemingly impossible alchemical transition. How she does it is by physical comedy, falling and pretending not to, giggling in unpredictable well-timed comic waves, dancing to Usher's "Yeah" with sudden abandon while inappropriately encroaching on the pensive Morte's space (he is more into Puccini than Usher, anyway lol). It was her Usher dance that made me start to like her, as it made me laugh. . . Anyhow, Collins succeeded in getting me to like her character enough to worry about her, and from then on, the comedy and the drama worked an absolute treat for me, with Morte's gravitas an absolute marvel (I felt his emotions very deeply when he expressed them). Lynette Linton completely succeeds in milking every laugh and every deep emotion out of the material in this production by creating sparks between the two characters. Wohl has a wonderful ear for dialogue, and the way two very different characters speak, and these actors embody all of it. A very entertaining show. 4 enthusiastic stars from me, whatever the critics say lol.  |
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Post by dillan on Oct 30, 2024 22:08:12 GMT
Saw this yesterday, also in the front row - an absolute bargain for £25, the stage is actually fine (it felt higher during R&J but maybe because a lot of the play is done so up close so your neck strains.. and the screen being close).
Really enjoyed this, both stars are great and gave a strong performance. I really didn’t know what to expect or where the storyline was going to go but I laughed, felt a bit sad at parts and left kind of wanting more. A wonderful 90mins!
I hope it doesn’t get bad reviews but even if it does, both of them have enough star power to keep this a success until January I think.
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Post by alessia on Oct 31, 2024 6:36:12 GMT
I've just spotted a few 2 stars (guardian, stage, timeout currently doesn't show stars but the review is pretty negative) but then also a few 3 stars and a 4 stars.
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Post by parsley1 on Oct 31, 2024 14:53:36 GMT
iNews 5 stars
WOS 4 stars
ES 3 stars
FT 3 stars
Telegraph 3 stars
Guardian 2 stars
Independent 2 stars
The Stage 2 stars
Times 2 stars
Time Out very negative
Yet ANOTHER star vehicle flop
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Post by matthew90 on Oct 31, 2024 15:06:30 GMT
iNews 5 stars WOS 4 stars ES 3 stars FT 3 stars Telegraph 3 stars Guardian 2 stars Independent 2 stars The Stage 2 stars Times 2 stars Time Out very negative Yet ANOTHER star vehicle flop The Time Out review wasn't even a review, it read like a catty mean blog post on a forum. |
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Post by Being Alive on Oct 31, 2024 15:31:51 GMT
iNews 5 stars WOS 4 stars ES 3 stars FT 3 stars Telegraph 3 stars Guardian 2 stars Independent 2 stars The Stage 2 stars Times 2 stars Time Out very negative Yet ANOTHER star vehicle flop The Time Out review wasn't even a review, it read like a catty mean blog post on a forum. Perfectly fine review I thought - and he's usually who I agree with the most so I figure I'll come out of this thinking something similar...! |
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Post by theatreloverlondon on Oct 31, 2024 19:13:02 GMT
Critics just enjoy being snobby because it wasn’t anything groundbreaking or deep or intellectual but it was so FUN. Sometimes things can just be entertainment and entertaining it was (subjectively of course!!!). So happy I saw it before reviews came out. I’ve recommended it to all my friends who enjoy Emily in Paris lol. Lynette, Lily and Alvaro couldn’t have done anymore with the material.
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Post by parsley1 on Oct 31, 2024 20:03:05 GMT
Critics just enjoy being snobby because it wasn’t anything groundbreaking or deep or intellectual but it was so FUN. Sometimes things can just be entertainment and entertaining it was (subjectively of course!!!). So happy I saw it before reviews came out. I’ve recommended it to all my friends who enjoy Emily in Paris lol. Lynette, Lily and Alvaro couldn’t have done anymore with the material. Eating McDonalds is fun And eating cakes and sweets Doesn’t mean they are good for you And that we should drop standards and turn a blind eye In a society which thinks a Percy pig and a Colin caterpillar cake Is some sort of treat I am not surprised theatrical standards have followed suit to plummet new depths You used the word snobby first! What is a shame is that famous actors obviously have no concern for credibility or quality and take fame and popularity over both It’s easy to mock critics but they see almost everything and therefore have a good perspective on things Unfortunately they have to also see so much rubbish and pass some sort of comment on it |
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Post by theatreloverlondon on Oct 31, 2024 22:55:10 GMT
Critics just enjoy being snobby because it wasn’t anything groundbreaking or deep or intellectual but it was so FUN. Sometimes things can just be entertainment and entertaining it was (subjectively of course!!!). So happy I saw it before reviews came out. I’ve recommended it to all my friends who enjoy Emily in Paris lol. Lynette, Lily and Alvaro couldn’t have done anymore with the material. Eating McDonalds is fun And eating cakes and sweets Doesn’t mean they are good for you And that we should drop standards and turn a blind eye In a society which thinks a Percy pig and a Colin caterpillar cake Is some sort of treat I am not surprised theatrical standards have followed suit to plummet new depths You used the word snobby first! What is a shame is that famous actors obviously have no concern for credibility or quality and take fame and popularity over both It’s easy to mock critics but they see almost everything and therefore have a good perspective on things Unfortunately they have to also see so much rubbish and pass some sort of comment on it Eating McDonald’s etc is all ok in moderation  But seriously I hear what you’re saying, especially as critics see tonnes of shows. But I haven’t seen a piece of theatre so straightforward, easily digestible and entertaining in a while (if ever) so I am hyped yet bummed by some reviews!! 2 stars is just evil!!!!! |
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Post by Steve on Oct 31, 2024 23:42:30 GMT
Critics just enjoy being snobby because it wasn’t anything groundbreaking or deep or intellectual but it was so FUN. Sometimes things can just be entertainment and entertaining it was (subjectively of course!!!). So happy I saw it before reviews came out. I’ve recommended it to all my friends who enjoy Emily in Paris lol. Lynette, Lily and Alvaro couldn’t have done anymore with the material. Yes, I agree it's moment to moment fun from start to finish. You can talk about having "standards" all you like, but what standard? Is it a pleasure standard, is it a you-learn-something standard, is it a topicality standard, or is it an originality standard? I didn't learn anything from this, I admit, and it isn't very original, I admit, and it's not particularly topical, I admit, but since I had a great time, laughing at a comedy actress performing brilliant comedy and a dramatic actor getting deeply dramatic (and funny as well), in some well-written character clashes, with well-timed effective twists, I rated this 4 stars for the entertainment. I enjoyed myself more with this than with a lot of more original, topical or revelatory things. There's a place for fun. |
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