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Post by lou on Nov 18, 2016 10:43:37 GMT
I see Flashdance is heading on tour. It's booking at the New Alexandra in Birmingham 4th - 9th December 2017.
From the website:
Dance like you’ve never danced before! FLASHDANCE-THE MUSICAL tells the inspiring and unforgettable story of 18 year old Alex, a welder by day and ‘flashdancer’ by night, who dreams of going to the prestigious Shipley Dance Academy and becoming a professional dancer. When a romance complicates her ambitions, she harnesses it to drive her dream.
Based on the Paramount Pictures film (Screenplay by Tom Hedley and Joe Eszterhas, story by Tom Hedley) Flashdance is an inspiring musical about the power of holding onto your dreams and love against all the odds.
Prepare to be blown away with an astonishing musical spectacle and phenomenal choreography to this iconic score including the smash hit Maniac, Manhunt, Gloria, I Love Rock & Roll and the sensational title track Flashdance - What a Feeling.
Produced by the award winning team at Selladoor Productions - producers of Footloose, Avenue Q and Little Shop of Horrors, FLASHDANCE-THE MUSICAL is not to be missed!
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Post by HereForTheatre on Nov 18, 2016 11:02:27 GMT
Oh good, i've wanted to see this on stage for a while and Selladoor produce good shows too.
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2,242 posts
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Post by richey on Nov 18, 2016 11:04:44 GMT
If it's going to be anything like the Footloose tour, I'll give it a wide berth.
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Post by boybooshka on Nov 18, 2016 13:57:38 GMT
If it's going to be anything like the Footloose tour, I'll give it a wide berth. thought Footloose was fine, apart from Garath Gates who felt like he was in a different show to everybody else. Not seen Flashdance so will definitely take this opportunity to do so. Wish i'd seen it with Victoria Hamiliton-Barritt though. |
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2,242 posts
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Post by richey on Nov 18, 2016 14:17:58 GMT
If it's going to be anything like the Footloose tour, I'll give it a wide berth. thought Footloose was fine, apart from Garath Gates who felt like he was in a different show to everybody else. Not seen Flashdance so will definitely take this opportunity to do so. Wish i'd seen it with Victoria Hamiliton-Barritt though. [br I didn't see it with Gareth but thought the whole production was lacklustre and miscast. The actor/musician thing didn't work either. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 14:26:59 GMT
Yes compared to the long running Karen Bruce Footloose tour which had the most incredible choreography and energy (it is meant to be about dancing) the recent tour was very disappointing. Cast gave it their all but looked cheaper than a Kenwright production.
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2,452 posts
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Post by theatremadness on Jun 22, 2017 10:53:53 GMT
Starring Joanne Clifton & Ben Adams from A1!
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Post by djdan14 on Jun 22, 2017 10:55:51 GMT
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2,452 posts
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Post by theatremadness on Jun 22, 2017 10:57:31 GMT
We TheatreBoard types are notoriously quick!  |
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Post by djdan14 on Jun 22, 2017 10:58:39 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2017 11:32:07 GMT
No wonder she quit Strictly then! I'm quite intrigued by this, and plenty of venues fairly close to London which also helps - might use it as an excuse for a day trip to Oxford!
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19,659 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 22, 2017 11:37:18 GMT
Bit old for this isn't she?
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Post by zsazsa on Aug 10, 2017 10:24:41 GMT
So caught the tour of 'Flashdance' at the matinee yesterday. Last minute decision as I had not seen the show before (don't think I have even seen the movie all the way through) and was clinched by the offer of a cheap ticket.
As a show it is certainly on a par with Fame and Flashdance with 2 dimensional characters, a few great pop songs and few forgettable songs to pad it out.
I liked Joanna Clifton in Millie and think she has enormous potential in musical theatre, with the right direction. She can sing and she certainly can dance but here I felt she was not hard enough as Alex.
The supporting cast has strong singers and dancers, particularly the male ensemble, but there was some very poor acting going on from some, particularly Gloria and her stand up comedian boyfriend.
I am glad I saw the show and wish I had seen the original with Victoria Hamilton Barritt. It will never be a great piece but entertaining enough and what's not to love about a mega-mix finale of 80's show.
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Post by Michael on Aug 10, 2017 10:30:24 GMT
Merged the above post into the existing thread.
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538 posts
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Post by WireHangers on Aug 11, 2017 9:05:50 GMT
So caught the tour of 'Flashdance' at the matinee yesterday. Last minute decision as I had not seen the show before (don't think I have even seen the movie all the way through) and was clinched by the offer of a cheap ticket. As a show it is certainly on a par with Fame and Flashdance with 2 dimensional characters, a few great pop songs and few forgettable songs to pad it out. I liked Joanna Clifton in Millie and think she has enormous potential in musical theatre, with the right direction. She can sing and she certainly can dance but here I felt she was not hard enough as Alex. The supporting cast has strong singers and dancers, particularly the male ensemble, but there was some very poor acting going on from some, particularly Gloria and her stand up comedian boyfriend. I am glad I saw the show and wish I had seen the original with Victoria Hamilton Barritt. It will never be a great piece but entertaining enough and what's not to love about a mega-mix finale of 80's show. I was there in the evening show! I'd love to bump into you finally. |
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Post by HereForTheatre on Aug 11, 2017 9:51:21 GMT
So caught the tour of 'Flashdance' at the matinee yesterday. Last minute decision as I had not seen the show before (don't think I have even seen the movie all the way through) and was clinched by the offer of a cheap ticket. As a show it is certainly on a par with Fame and Flashdance with 2 dimensional characters, a few great pop songs and few forgettable songs to pad it out. I liked Joanna Clifton in Millie and think she has enormous potential in musical theatre, with the right direction. She can sing and she certainly can dance but here I felt she was not hard enough as Alex. The supporting cast has strong singers and dancers, particularly the male ensemble, but there was some very poor acting going on from some, particularly Gloria and her stand up comedian boyfriend. I am glad I saw the show and wish I had seen the original with Victoria Hamilton Barritt. It will never be a great piece but entertaining enough and what's not to love about a mega-mix finale of 80's show. I was there in the evening show! I'd love to bump into you finally. What did you think of the show? |
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Post by WireHangers on Aug 11, 2017 10:07:34 GMT
The performance I was at was actually the press night! The show was very, very "meh". The audience were lapping it up and were extremely responsive and it was clear the cast were having a blast on stage but nothing felt particularly professional about this production. My date for the evening performed the show in Drama School and, honestly, her production was on par with this one. Everything just screamed CHEAP and BUDGET.
Firstly, Joanna Clifton. Jesus. That girl is a star in the making, I wish she'd drop the celebrity tag and just focus on becoming a bona fide leading lady because her voice and dancing are unbelievably refined. Her acting left a lot to be desired but she was doing the best with a bad script.
Ben Adams was as you'd expect. He was handsome, his acting was average and his singing sounded like a faded pop star throughout the show - constantly nasally with horrendous diction. I doubt he has a career in musical theatre past cheap shows like this one. Not that it matter because that man has aged extremely well so I'd happily just stare at him.
Apart from Joanna Clifton the only other actor on the stage who left an impression was a nurse who helped look after Alex's mentor, Hannah. She was a bit part who was on stage maybe three or four times but she had the audience in stitches every time. She was the living proof that there really aren't any small roles. Everyone else, especially Alex's friends, were complete let downs. The girls had no personality outside their great singing voices and were woefully miscast. I mean, characters aren't exactly well written anyway but there was so much comedy to be found in the dialogue and it was all wasted. Gloria was the biggest disappointment of the night - everything about her was amateur. Her acting was painfully dull, her singing was average and she rarely danced so can't comment on that.
Speaking of which the choreography came across forced and very vanilla, nothing spectacular or original and a lot of the dance numbers felt recycled. The direction was "safe" and a bit bland. The set was cheap but that's expected from Selladoor who produce shows that will distract everyone with nostalgia so that no one notices their cheap production costs.
The famous songs from the movie were great but the new additions were completely forgettable. I remember there was a song called "One In a Million" but I couldn't tell you about the rest of the numbers. Act One was full of energy and everyone seemed to be on top form. But Act Two dragged and my God, I've never seen so much filler in all my life. People's energy just seemed to die a death!
None of this particularly matters because 26 year old male performers aren't exactly their demographic. The people in the audience seemed to absolutely love the show and this was evident from the multiple standing ovations the cast got during the finale/curtain call/megamix. Flashdance is what it is. It's not a particularly good show but that's alright, not everything needs to be. It'll sell well and some middle aged woman will have a great night out when they see it.
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Post by christya on Sept 12, 2017 16:25:54 GMT
I saw this in Sunderland yesterday. It was terrible. I almost didn't go back in for the second act, and part way through I wished I'd followed my first instinct.
The dancing felt like most people were 'marking', with a few notable exceptions from the ensemble. In a couple of group numbers, they weren't even in sync. Joanne Clifton seemed incredibly pleased with herself, but was barely understandable during most songs and horribly, horribly nasal. She seemed to have two settings - quiet and shouting. Her voice was actually really pretty when she sang quietly, but the loud version was borderline unbearable from the circle. I'm not quite sure what she was doing with her acting, either - it was just horribly amateur, as though each line was disconnected from the others somehow. I wasn't even all that impressed with her dancing, which seemed almost formulaic - like "Now it's this move from the film...okay, next well known move from the film".
Perhaps some of it - the overall lack of energy, which they seemed to be trying to force, the apparent discomfort some of them showed onstage, the sound issues - was due to it being the first night in the venue. But this show was just so damn BORING.
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Post by shady23 on Sept 12, 2017 18:10:48 GMT
I was going to go yesterday but even half price tickets couldn't tempt me.
The photos they're sending out for publicity almost entirely consisted of the young woman wearing hardly any clothes and under some water streams. If I wanted to see all that I'd look on the Internet...
Even West End "everything is wonderful" Wilma only gave it three stars.
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2,775 posts
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Post by daniel on Oct 2, 2017 20:12:11 GMT
Good god this was bad. Worse than Wonderland (yes really).
Will try to post some more constructive feedback when I've got home and recovered with a large gin.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2017 8:29:50 GMT
So we've got two jukebox musicals currently running competing for the 'Worst Touring Musical of the Year Award', Flashdance and Son of a Preacher Man. Anyone seen both and able to give a verdict. Which is worse?
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Post by TallPaul on Oct 3, 2017 12:48:39 GMT
Good god this was bad. Worse than Wonderland (yes really). Will try to post some more constructive feedback when I've got home and recovered with a large gin. Did it go up on time? Jo Clifton is the choreography expert on It Takes Two this week. Even on the back of a motorbike it would have been a struggle to get to Wimbledon, and then get into costume. |
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Post by daniel on Oct 3, 2017 15:16:03 GMT
Started about 5 minutes late TallPaul. As a show, it was just so poor. There was absolutely zero energy coming from the stage. And Flashdance should ooze energy. The music didn't sound beefy enough, the set design was dire, the lighting design was like being at a school disco, endless sound issues. No sound from the mics for the first song. I think Joanne Clifton has a good voice in there somewhere. I could hear potential, but she sounded ropey in this. Pitchey. Lead guy also poor. General dire diction as a cast overall, couldn't hear half of what they were saying. Most awkward moment was during I Love Rock & Roll when the four or so cast members on stage were doing the whole "clap along with me" thing...no-one clapped along. Sadly a typical Selladoor production...cheap cheap cheap. |
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Post by theatremadness on Oct 3, 2017 17:48:29 GMT
Good god this was bad. Worse than Wonderland (yes really). Will try to post some more constructive feedback when I've got home and recovered with a large gin. Did it go up on time? Jo Clifton is the choreography expert on It Takes Two this week. Even on the back of a motorbike it would have been a struggle to get to Wimbledon, and then get into costume. I thought this too!! She's on right now, with just over 5 minutes until the half hour call for Press Night in Wimbledon! But then my Mum suggested that maybe they pre-record her Choreography Corner segment which does make a lot of sense... |
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Post by robertb213 on Oct 3, 2017 20:46:16 GMT
It Takes Two is always pre-recorded on a Tuesday. Never known why. The announcer at the beginning always says 'Live from London', except on a Tuesday when he just says 'From London'. If anyone knows why, please spill the beans 😁 I do like how Jo Clifton explains things though. Off topic, I know!
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