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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2016 17:09:56 GMT
A diary where every page is dated February 2nd? |
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Post by Mr Wallacio on Jul 16, 2016 18:30:15 GMT
And here we go again  |
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Post by jaqs on Jul 16, 2016 21:22:35 GMT
I love marmite but this wasn't for me.
Maybe I was too disconnected in the upper circle, maybe it's because it was really hot today or maybe it was the terrible sound mix and shrillness of the vocals (I know cheap preview get what I paid for).
It's aged badly and they didn't find a way to update the story. Having enjoyed the new ghostbusters yesterday I thought I was in the right frame of mind but I kept wondering why it was a musical when so many of the songs were so talky.
The random girl song was like their version of 'There are worse things I could do' but we don't care about her like we do Rizzo.
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Post by showgirl on Jul 16, 2016 21:34:42 GMT
Hah, I've just seen & enjoyed this but walked out of Ghostbusters yesterday as I was bored! This did take time to grow on me, though - not until the interval was I sure I'd be staying for the second half, and I was battling tiredness, but the show's energy woke me up eventually and won me over.
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Post by Mr Wallacio on Jul 16, 2016 22:26:05 GMT
Having watched tonight I would say the show is starting very strongly.
I found it really funny in the places it was supposed to be.
The illusions were well pulled off, and some great lines in the songs.
Some sound issues in the large numbers, but I find that in every show where I don't know the words I'm listening out for.
Standing ovation at the end I think well deserved.
I probably won't have a chance to revisit after official opening, but if the run was longer I would do.
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Post by westendcub on Jul 16, 2016 22:32:17 GMT
What an absolutely brilliant show, I must say sitting in row E and dead centre at £10 was something!!
I loved this show, the staging and design was a joy to behold. So much thought and creativity on that stage that it was a joy to witness.
Act 2 is solid and Act 1 just needs some tightening up but it's already in such good shape that any worry I had before the show was quickly gone!!
I do not agree with 'random girl' opening up Act 2 as a bad thing...I applaud when shows care about smaller characters and storylines that have a payoff and it totally worked!!
I love the cast for this and Andy Karl (whom I had seen twice on Broadway 'Altar Boyz') is just a West-End leading man.
I got the warm fuzzies from this and I think it's a hit, fingers are now crossed for an original London cast recording.
Loved it!!!
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Post by Jon on Jul 17, 2016 0:44:06 GMT
Can't believe there were so many Theatreboarders watching the show. I enjoyed it, it's a very different musical from Matilda but that was to be expected since Groundhog Day is a more adult story. I really liked Andy Karl as Phil Connors, considering that he's playing a character that starts off really unlikeable, he does pull it off very well.
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Post by catqc on Jul 17, 2016 1:21:37 GMT
Do we really think this will close and not transfer to a 'normal' West End Theatre at the end of the Old Vic run?!
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Post by Jon on Jul 17, 2016 1:32:39 GMT
Do we really think this will close and not transfer to a 'normal' West End Theatre at the end of the Old Vic run?! I think the plan is Broadway after the Old Vic run. There isn't any suitable West End theatres available that it could transfer to anyway. |
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Post by ali973 on Jul 17, 2016 3:25:55 GMT
Can't believe there were so many Theatreboarders watching the show. I enjoyed it, it's a very different musical from Matilda but that was to be expected since Groundhog Day is a more adult story. I really liked Andy Karl as Phil Connors, considering that he's playing a character that starts off really unlikeable, he does pull it off very well. TBH I VERY can believe that there are so many considering it's the only major non-theme park musical (I'm looking at you, Aladdin) that is' opening for a while in London. |
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Post by shady23 on Jul 17, 2016 7:37:57 GMT
When is this running to? After reading some of these comments I am very tempted to book. Loved the film, but that was probably Bill Murray's influence. He could read out the phone book and I would be enthusiastically applauding.
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Post by andrew on Jul 17, 2016 10:32:43 GMT
17th of September. It's just our luck that an original musical of decent quality is opening on the West End and apparently there's nowhere to put it.
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Post by zak97 on Jul 17, 2016 10:53:43 GMT
17th of September. It's just our luck that an original musical of decent quality is opening on the West End and apparently there's nowhere to put it. The Noel Coward would be free, I think, but it just seems like a Broadway try-out. |
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Post by Mr Wallacio on Jul 17, 2016 17:10:52 GMT
The show has not started selling tickets for Broadway yet though, so I suppose it could negotiate a short transfer somewhere whilst it awaits a Broadway run, however given the revolve it uses the theatre it goes to will need to be compatible.
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Post by showgirl on Jul 17, 2016 18:07:28 GMT
Yes, that revolve - others may know better but I don't recall ever seeing one used so much; it's almost as though they were aiming to set or break some sort of record! (And think how disastrous for the show the effect of any breakdown would be...)
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Post by Phantom of London on Jul 17, 2016 18:57:06 GMT
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jul 17, 2016 20:38:26 GMT
Erm you do realise that the revolve(s) aren't part of the old vic don't you? It was designed and built for this show.. It just needs a big enough stage. Anyway the transfer to NYC is currently in limbo. It was booked into the Bernard Jacobs theatre but now Scott Rudin has left- taking a ton of cash with him, it ain't happening... The show has not started selling tickets for Broadway yet though, so I suppose it could negotiate a short transfer somewhere whilst it awaits a Broadway run, however given the revolve it uses the theatre it goes to will need to be compatible. |
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Post by andrew on Jul 17, 2016 21:54:11 GMT
If it does alright here presumably there's no reason it won't find new investors and launch slightly late on Broadway?
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Post by Steve on Jul 17, 2016 22:48:25 GMT
I was there Saturday night too, and for the most part, loved it. The second half was stunning! Some spoilers follow. . . The first half struggles to justify itself as a musical. Music is the artform with a shortcut to the soul, and the lead character has no soul. He is the most flippant, least engaged lead character in a musical I can remember. His natural language is sarcasm, and music dilutes sarcasm. The egotism of Andy Karl's Phil Connors is so great that he denies other characters the breathing room to express their emotional truths, so for the first quarter of the running time, there is no reason for this show to be a musical. Somewhere in the first half, Andy Karl's Phil starts to panic (reflected by the song, "Nobody Cares"), later he starts to despair (reflected by the song, "One Day," the first half closer), and still later he starts to grow (reflected by the song, "Hope," in the second half). With each move from disengagement to engagement, from detachment to attachment, the musical picks up emotional steam, with each of these songs better than the last. If the theme of the first half is "Isolation," the theme of the second half is "Community." {Spoiler - click to view}
The theme of "community" is introduced by an emotionally wrenching song, "Playing Nancy," which speaks the truth of an invisible character, Nancy, played tenderly and mellifluously by Georgina Hagen. At the moment Andy Karl's Phil realises that other people matter, this song demonstrates the same thing for the audience, as well as providing the cue for Andy's Karl's tour-de-force manifesto of his newly discovered purpose, "Hope." Where music's ability to pull the heartstrings proves redundant for much of the first half, it is everything in the second half, which is where this musical comes into it's own, and trumps the movie. "Seeing You," which the programme tells us is inspired by Marcel's Proust's observation that the "real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes," is gorgeous. Andy Karl is pitch perfect as Phil Connors. Almost as adept at uncaring insincerity as the original movie's Bill Murray, he is more adept at scaling his character's emotional ladder, aided immeasurably by the songs "Hope" and "Seeing You," which, together with "One Day," are the best and most memorable songs in the show. To my mind, Carlyss Peer's youthful looks did not detract from her charm, or her gravitas, the latter quality particularly present in her delivery of the song, "One Day." The staging is terrific throughout, from drop down tv screens, to movable rooms and houses and sets, which characters effortlessly circle to create different locales, to be repeated again and again in subtly different Groundhog ways. Despite taking it's sweet time to get under my emotional skin, the journey this show took me on was more than merely funny, but delightful, moving and worthwhile. 4 stars, at this early stage of previews.  |
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Post by Mr Wallacio on Jul 18, 2016 5:50:43 GMT
Erm you do realise that the revolve(s) aren't part of the old vic don't you? It was designed and built for this show.. It just needs a big enough stage. Anyway the transfer to NYC is currently in limbo. It was booked into the Bernard Jacobs theatre but now Scott Rudin has left- taking a ton of cash with him, it ain't happening... The show has not started selling tickets for Broadway yet though, so I suppose it could negotiate a short transfer somewhere whilst it awaits a Broadway run, however given the revolve it uses the theatre it goes to will need to be compatible. Yes I am well aware the revolve is not part of the Old Vic thank you very much. I was merely referring to needing a stage big enough to fit the show on if it were to transfer to an empty house in London. But thanks for trying to undermine my knowledge of how theatre works. |
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Post by danielwhit on Jul 18, 2016 14:32:06 GMT
That said - the Old Vic is not actually that big a stage is it? It certainly never struck me as being any bigger than a lot of West End houses.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 14:42:23 GMT
Wouldn't it be easier to transfer it to another theatre, rather than to an empty house?
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jul 18, 2016 20:40:04 GMT
Ooh sensitive. Erm you do realise that the revolve(s) aren't part of the old vic don't you? It was designed and built for this show.. It just needs a big enough stage. Anyway the transfer to NYC is currently in limbo. It was booked into the Bernard Jacobs theatre but now Scott Rudin has left- taking a ton of cash with him, it ain't happening... Yes I am well aware the revolve is not part of the Old Vic thank you very much. I was merely referring to needing a stage big enough to fit the show on if it were to transfer to an empty house in London. But thanks for trying to undermine my knowledge of how theatre works. |
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jul 18, 2016 20:41:42 GMT
The old vic has some of the biggest wing space in London .. That may be an issue. Anyway it's ultimate aim is to go to NYC.. London is a try out for that so I don't imagine they want to transfer it to any other west end theatre. The Noel Coward stage is slightly bigger - roughly 11.5m wide, 9.6m deep, the Old Vic being 8.5m wide, 10.1m deep. Also, as those who remember "Oliver" well at the Noel Coward in the Albery days, it can take as many revolves as needed. |
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Post by Phantom of London on Jul 18, 2016 20:47:05 GMT
Erm you do realise that the revolve(s) aren't part of the old vic don't you? It was designed and built for this show.. It just needs a big enough stage. Anyway the transfer to NYC is currently in limbo. It was booked into the Bernard Jacobs theatre but now Scott Rudin has left- taking a ton of cash with him, it ain't happening... The show has not started selling tickets for Broadway yet though, so I suppose it could negotiate a short transfer somewhere whilst it awaits a Broadway run, however given the revolve it uses the theatre it goes to will need to be compatible. Thought that the Color Purple was doing steady business there, at the moment. I realise things change on Broadway quickly, especially if Ms Erivio were to depart. So theatre owners always plan ahead. Regardless Matthew Warchus has staked his reputation on both Groundhog Day and the Master Builder both transferring to Broadway, now both seem very unlikely, the problem when you set the bar too high, you are a sitting duck to get shot down. Under Matthew Warchus tenure the business model for the Old Vic has changed, with shorter runs with a big name, this creates demand so ticket prices sometime have been sky high, the production costs must also reflect this, but some shows haven't set the box office on fire, notable Future Conditional, The Hairy Ape and The Caretaker. Groundhog Day will sell out its entire run, which isn't surprising as it is so short, but I fear this production in its current state has bled a tonne of money, so needs to transfer, to either to the West End or Broadway to stand a chance of making some money back. Tim Minchin is a massive draw and if it does get good reviews, then that could be its impetus and I hope that this will happen. |
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