Once In A Lifetime - Young Vic

[theatrelover123]

Couldn't find a thread for this so I started one

www.youngvic.org/whats-on/once-in-a-lifetime

Have tickets to see this on Monday (but I am also seeing Candide, Dreamgirls and Side Show next week so I might be theatred out

Would be interested to hear what people think if they go.

The cast seems pretty good and it could be a fun comedy but I wasn't a huge fan of the director's The Trial or Annie Get Your Gun tbh.

[mallardo]

Annie Get Your Gun was a full out disaster. But every once in a while Mr. Jones gets it right. Fingers crossed.

[crabtree]

Ah I remember the gloriously giddy RSC production, running in rep with Piaf, as I remember, or at least alongside it. Epic design and a great tap dance to finish the show. I've seen a production since and was rather underwhelmed.

[crabtree]

Ah I remember the gloriously giddy RSC production, running in rep with Piaf, as I remember, or at least alongside it. Epic design and a great tap dance to finish the show. I've seen a production since and was rather underwhelmed.

[bellboard27]

Am sitting waiting for the first performance to start!

[Phantom of London]

Oh seeing this tonight.

[Phantom of London]

Nov 25, 2016 19:15:15 GMT bellboard27 said:

Am sitting waiting for the first performance to start!

Oh wow.

where are you sitting, I am upstairs in M7 a cheap £10 seat.

[bellboard27]

C32 - also cheap seat!

[theatrelover123]

I want full and unfettered reviews

[foxa]

Me too. I'm going tomorrow.

[bellboard27]

Theatreboard interval meet up with Phantom - great!

[mrbarnaby]

Jeez I hope it's not as dull as it was at the NT years ago

[Jon]

Nov 25, 2016 21:33:32 GMT mrbarnaby said:

Jeez I hope it's not as dull as it was at the NT years ago

Was that the one with David Suchet? 

[bellboard27]

Bit dull for me. Some funny lines & I'm sure it will tighten up as it goes along. But while I can see what a 1930s satire is trying to say, it does not bite like it may have done at the time. Seems a bit of an odd choice for the Young Vic.

Run time 2hr 20, with the interval 2/3 of way through- so don't worry it might be overrunning!

[showgirl]

I too am keen to hear reports; I had a £10 seat for Sat 3, on the basis that at that price, I would take a chance. However, due to rail engineering work subsequently announced, I had to change the date and pay more, so I hope it's worth it! Have seen it years ago but can't even recall when or where, let alone anything about the production, so happy to revisit it now.

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2016 5:10:53 GMT showgirl said:

Have seen it years ago but can't even recall when or where, let alone anything about the production, so happy to revisit it now.

Twice in a lifetime!

[Phantom of London]

Nov 25, 2016 21:12:04 GMT bellboard27 said:

Theatreboard interval meet up with Phantom - great!

I enjoyed meeting you too.

The second half picked up from a very dull and pedestrian first half, however Harry Hill didn't and his performances didn't really take off and all seemed to forced, but this could be reigned in during the previews.

interesting in the programme bio there was no mention of I Can't Sing under Harry Hill, this seems to be completely expunged from everyone's memory.

For a £10 seat I couldn't ask for a better view, it was perfect.

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2016 16:45:54 GMT Phantom of London said:

Nov 25, 2016 21:12:04 GMT bellboard27 said:

Theatreboard interval meet up with Phantom - great!

I enjoyed meeting you too.

The second half picked up from a very dull and pedestrian first half, however Harry Hill didn't and his performances didn't really take off and all seemed to forced, but this could be reigned in during the previews.

interesting in the programme bio there was no mention of I Can't Sing under Harry Hill, this seems to be completely expunged from everyone's memory.

For a £10 seat I couldn't ask for a better view, it was perfect.

Isn't it Harry Enfield in this?

Not Harry Hill?

[Deleted]

I totally thought Hill was in it. Gutted when my mate pointed it out and I wouldn't be able to get him to sign my ample breasts

[martin1965]

Nov 26, 2016 16:45:54 GMT Phantom of London said:

Nov 25, 2016 21:12:04 GMT bellboard27 said:

Theatreboard interval meet up with Phantom - great!

I enjoyed meeting you too.

The second half picked up from a very dull and pedestrian first half, however Harry Hill didn't and his performances didn't really take off and all seemed to forced, but this could be reigned in during the previews.

interesting in the programme bio there was no mention of I Can't Sing under Harry Hill, this seems to be completely expunged from everyone's memory.

For a £10 seat I couldn't ask for a better view, it was perfect.

Harry Hill??? Its Harry Enfield!

[Deleted]

I love the fact that someone forged a fake programme featuring Harry Hill and sold it to the unsuspecting PoL.

I wonder who got the copy with Harry Worth in it?

And Harry H Corbett? with no mention of The Sooty Show.

Perhaps the touts are branching out into associated theatre activities?

[Deleted]

Maybe he's trying to start 'buzz' around his next musical.

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2016 16:45:54 GMT Phantom of London said:

For a £10 seat I couldn't ask for a better view, it was perfect.

Did it face away from the stage?

[Phantom of London]

Harry Enfield can't act too!!!

[foxa]

Saw this last night and have been trying to hone the correct metaphor for what Richard Jones is like as a director of comedy. I'm struggling but....
1. Imagine someone scooped out the inside of a watermelon, threw the nice red fruit to one side, and then served you the rind with some wiggly etchings on the outside.
2. Imagine someone bought you a puppy, tied a bow around its neck and then pulled out its spine and told you to enjoy it as it flopped lifelessly onto the floor.
3. Imagine you were visiting Japan and went to see some traditional kabuki theatre. However upon arriving you discover it has been directed by someone who has not only never seen kabuki theatre, they have never been to the theatre or even Japan, and you are therefore presented with a strange show in which all the conventions, style and context have been thrown away.
That is what going to see a Richard Jones play is like. And maybe it works for some plays, but it is death to comedy.
The first scene is pushed right to the front on a little sliver of stage and harshly lit, so huge looming shadows follow the actors around. The actors perform in a depressed, dazed way (at the end, my daughter and I wondered if there was some Marat/Sade meta-concept that we had missed - that these people were being forced to enact an old comedy as a form of therapy.) The first two scenes are both cramped and awkward, raising barely a laugh. There is no comic timing, no sense of joy, not even the slightest bit of reality that these might be vaudevillians. Some lines are muffled - sometimes by poor diction, sometimes, in the train scene, by the noisy contraption which makes the scenery look like it's passing by.
Things pick up slightly when they get to Hollywood and there is one pleasing plot point which even this production cannot wreck.
The staging is very 'clever' - lots of revolves, minimal furniture, a bit ironic. The actors seem uncomfortable on it - awkward with the doors, not knowing how to navigate around the false cameras, perching precariously on the rare chair.
There was sporadic laughter towards the end of the first act and a few laughs in the second (I think I laughed twice - once because something was funny, once in disbelief.)
My daughter gave it 1 star. I'm slightly more generous and would say 2 stars - one for the one laugh and one for an impressive set change.
They say theatre has a role in education and I have finally learnt my lesson - I will never go to another Richard Jones' comedy.