From Here to Eternity - Charing Cross Theatre

[Someone in a tree]

The theatre don't sell programmes and icecreams on a Sunday?

- worried about becoming too nice or are they that finacialy settled ?

[interval99]

First time at theatre so not sure normal process but as poster for programs and posters on box office window presume sold there and it was closed by interval on Sunday.

[longinthetooth]

Was there this afternoon. No programmes to be seen, so I asked, and was told they were sold out! Not sure if they are restocking or not before the end of the run. What they are doing is providing a free A4 sheet with full cast and creatives, so better than nothing.

[xrea2000]

Just come back from this evening performance and quite enjoyed the show. It seemed to play slightly more towards seats L and up than the side I was on but perhaps you just notice it more when you have backs to you. Thinking of going back to see the other perspective. Programmes were back in stock tonight.

[cheri78]

Really enjoyed this tonight. Lots has already been said about the rewritten musical but I thought it worked and the flashback was an excellent premise for the storytelling that followed. It's the most technical show I've seen there and the projections were excellent and not easy to pull off in that auditorium configuration. Great lighting design too and I thought that the Pearl Harbor attack sequence was better than at the Shaftesbury. Having just seen Tammy Faye and scarcely heard a lyric from the sound design, it was great to hear everything tonight. 5* to tech crew,& 5* to cast. Go! No excuse with such great deals.

[david]

Thanks to Dr Tom for the info about the TKTS £20 day seats. Having kept an eye on the seat availability for tonight’s show over the last few days, I managed to get N9 this morning. I great seat (at a great price) in which to see the show and I wouldn’t have gone any lower than my seat purchase otherwise I’d have missed that wonderful balcony scene song in Act 2. I would agree that this side in my opinion got less of people’s backs than the shorter alt side.

Having never taken an interest in original WE run, the cheap ticket option was worth the punt and it certainly paid off. A really wonderful cast and 5 piece orchestra delivered a lovely score from Tim Rice and Stuart Brayson. I really couldn’t fault any of the vocals from the entire cast. I would have loved to have had a duet between Carley and Desmonda. Two great singers with their individual numbers. It would have been nice to hear just them on stage together. The closest was that emotional balcony number.

With respect to the book from Donald Rice and Bill Oakes,, whilst it was on the whole easy to to follow, the only criticism I would have with it is with the plot arc for Maggio. As others have mentioned, the bar scene and subsequent events come from nowhere. For me it would be of been better to have maybe have had a brief scene prior or two prior to help plant the seed for his story.

Whilst it was a very simple set, the use of projections to help with the tine frame of each scene was a great idea along with the beach scene protections. The Pearl Harbour attack scene was cleverly staged with a nice mix of lighting and sound design from Adam King and Chris Murray combined with choreography from Cressida Carre.

Overall, as my first trip on my Christmas theatre binge, a really great start. Rating 4⭐️

[Dr Tom]

I did catch this a couple of weeks as well too, with a day seat. Despite what the seating plan (on TKTS) suggests, there are only 10 seats in rows Y and Z. The first six (or so) are freestanding chairs next to the wall. The remainder are slightly further back, in an alcove I've seen used by the band etc before, with a low wall in front (almost like a box).

I think Z1 to Z6 would have the best view. Z7 was restricted with both the wall at one side and a slight slim pillar, although it is nice private place to sit. Z8, where I sat, you get rather a private show at times from the ensemble, but it's much closer to the side of the stage than you'd think from the seating plan. The chap in Z10 liked the extra leg room (as there's no wall in that position and it's further back).

As for the show, I think they did wonders with the space and it sounds excellent. I don't know the previous version well enough to compare it, but this version is very easy to follow. Would happily go back before this closes if I can free up an evening.

[Dawnstar]

After several weeks of dithering over the trigger warnings I went to yesterday's matinee. Being able to get a ticket for only £13 helped incline me to go. As it was, I thought the only warning needed was for army brutality: if the Japanese had held off invading for a couple more weeks G company would have probably all have finished each other off by then, given their rate of killing each other in the couple of weeks prior! I didn't mind any of the violence, killings, etc., in fact the only moment I really disliked was when the staff sergeant urinated into a bucket & that was not on the trigger warnings list. Maybe they should have a trigger warning for trigger warnings because I found it much more stressful worrying about them beforehand than watching the actual show! Though I should have checked the exact date of Pearl Harbour beforehand as every time a date was projected onto the set I thought "Was that the date of the attack?" which wasn't the most relaxing thing to think repeatedly.

I thought the plot was strong (I've neither read the book nor seen the film, just looked up the plot beforehand) but thought the music was okay rather than amazing. Only a couple of songs have stuck in my head & they were the ones Tim Rice played on his podcast a few weeks ago so it might be that they've stuck because they were somewhat familiar rather than necessarily being the best songs. As I didn't see the first version of the show I can't comment on what has/hasn't been cut.

I thought the production was pretty good, with a couple of downsides: one being that with no curtain to close the dead bodies kept on having to remove themselves from the stage & the other that due to there being no female ensemble the brothel scene was decidedly limited with there being only the one prostitute. (The ballet I saw in the evening had far more prostitutes!) Cast-wise I was particulary impressed by Jonny Amies as Maggio, who had great charisma & stage presence, Adam Rhys-Charles as Sgt Warden & Carley Stenson as Karen Holmes. I also enjoyed seeing Leonard Cook again, even if he was playing one of the nastiest characters. In the officers' party scene where he briefly plays a colonel he sounded exactly like he did as Freeboys in Bank Robbery - same moustache too!

[thistimetomorrow]

I went back for a 2nd viewing tonight and got to see Robin Hayward's debut as Prewitt! He sounded a little strained and his voice cracked on some of the higher notes in 'Fight The Fight', but otherwise I thought he did a lovely job.

[kz]

First ever post after lurking for many years! was there last night too (sitting on front of the woman who coughed for the entire performance...). Found Act 1 a bit bitty and struggled to really invest in the characters but enjoyed the second Act far more. My memories of the last production are a bit hazy but I think Act 2 had more of the songs I recognised which helped. I thought Hayward did quite a good job but really felt for him on the big notes on Fight the Fight. Overall, an enjoyable evening at the theatre.

[TallPaul]

Welcome to your first audition, kz. Wasn't too bad, was it?

[kz]

Thank you! Wasn't too bad at all (the show or the first post!). Quite a few empty seats which was a bit of a shame but one of the better things I've seen at this theatre.

[cezbear]

Had a return trip last night after seeing in previews, and I still think this is a great show, despite a few flaws. I noticed a few changes, the biggest being the reworking of the gay bar scene which confused me in previews and confused me again but differently this time. I do like the new way it's staged, with very effective use of lighting to dip in and out of the flashbacks, but it still seem to come out of nowhere.
The love story between Prewitt & Lorene also feels like it comes out of nowhere, which might be a more general but intentional issue I suppose... it feels very much like you're just dropped into storylines with no context or build up. And one minute Prewitt's just a client who has a thing for Lorene which clearly baffles her, the next she's decided ok she might love him and run off with him after all. It's beautifully performed particularly by Desmonda (surely a star in the making) so I don't mind it, if you don't think too hard about it!
Jonny Amies as Maggio remains the stand out of the soldiers for me, and I'll mention the lighting again purely because I am not someone who usually appreciates these things but I just thought it was used so effectively. For the most part I also really loved the songs in this too, the one exception being the song sung by Mrs Kipfer (not sure of the title) which is very dull.

I'd love this to have a further life but I'm guessing by the lack of talk on this, it's not on the table,

[ThereWillBeSun]

Unfortunately due to multiple cast illness, the venue have to cancel both the matinee and evening performance of “From Here To Eternity” today.

[G]

Dec 3, 2022 11:41:00 GMT ThereWillBeSun said:

Unfortunately due to multiple cast illness, the venue have to cancel both the matinee and evening performance of “From Here To Eternity” today.

Shame as I got a nice seat via the daily TKTS. Hoping the exchange will be similarly good.

[jampot]

Dec 3, 2022 11:42:47 GMT G said:

Dec 3, 2022 11:41:00 GMT ThereWillBeSun said:

Unfortunately due to multiple cast illness, the venue have to cancel both the matinee and evening performance of “From Here To Eternity” today.

Shame as I got a nice seat via the daily TKTS. Hoping the exchange will be similarly good.

Just got off the train from Salisbury grrrrr..

[G]

Dec 3, 2022 14:38:23 GMT jampot said:

Dec 3, 2022 11:42:47 GMT G said:

Shame as I got a nice seat via the daily TKTS. Hoping the exchange will be similarly good.

Just got off the train from Salisbury grrrrr..

That’s a shame I hope you managed to have a nice day in London anyway.

They refunded my ticket, I will retry with a solo day TKTS tomorrow in case the cast who were ill have recovered.  This has been most unlucky show so far: last time I got two daily TKTS but the phone maps took us somewhere else entirely and we showed up just after the 14.30 start time and were not allowed in; we were not given an exchange despite the so-so sales (very understandably, no criticism to the theatre here - our fault for being late).  Anyway, I hope my next post in this thread will be after seeing the show 

[interval99]

Thankfully the show has been playing again this week so hopefully some more board members can see it before it closes on the 17th

Got to see a midweek matinee last week from the other side of the auditorium in front row seat A10.

While the row k side seats may get a bit more front facing you certainly get many great views from the opposite side, the attack scene in particular played better and really sent the chills down the back with the lighting of the guys scrambling for cover and the female chorus on the balcony lamenting the boys of 41 proving truly haunting.

A10 is also on the route in for a lot actors as they come on or leave which can be interesting especially when the soldiers are stomping down the stairs in the early scenes. ( Downside you can't put your legs out as several guys cut the stairs and leap of the corner) You also get the wonderful moment when Mrs Kipfer the brothel keeper makes her entrance on the stairs and you hear her purr " I know what you came for, I know why you're in town" from just behind you.

Seeing it again was even more on awe of director Brett Smock new vision of the show and how he makes the action flows on and around the stage, everyone gets major scenes played in front of them.
Along with Cressida Carre choreography they have created a very clever reinterpretation of the show and for me works so much better than the 2013 version. as theatre monkey is quoted on the Charing cross theatre page this is the version we should have got in 2013, (although the 2013 version did give us Robert Lonsdale singing fight the fight to a level no one has come close to achieving)

Programmes, a bargain at £3 for A4 full colour one were on sale and allows you to fully see the members of this outstanding ensemble, and this really is a show which needs everyone to be full committed and this group are.

Yes too many story lines, the gay bar story could be indicated clearer so people know what con trick Maggio is setting up, (it's mentioned a couple of times pre scene but not very specifically)
And the song almost perfect lie is maybe just too sureal moment which doesn't carry the emotional impact it should but as a theatrical evening I found this show wonderful on many levels.

One possible bright spot even after the show closes is that Sir Tim and Stuart Brayson on twitter have indicated a likely soundtrack recording of the show so even if board members cannot see this stunning performance and staging they may get to hear the new version and the new songs.

[tmesis]

Unfortunately illness has struck again and tonight’s show is cancelled. Not having much luck with this - tried to see it at the weekend and the same thing happened.

[singingbird]

Having tried to see this on the Saturday it was cancelled, and then again on the Sunday when it was cancelled again, I thought it was unlikely I'd get to see this. I wasn't meant to be in London this week, but thanks to the snow my plans changed and I got a bargain ticket to see this tonight.

I'm so glad I did. I love Tim Rice's work - he's probably my favourite lyricist (so witty, so cynical!) - but this made almost no impression on me in its original version. Now, restructured and refocussed, it lands - and packs a powerful punch. The new songs are better than those they've replaced, and the original songs sound tighter, fiercer, more dynamic. The whole thing is a claustrophobic time bomb and as good an indictment of military life as you're ever likely to get in a musical. While not an absolute classic it has been revealed as a genuine triumph. Such a shame it hasn't managed to find an audience.

[SamB (was badoerfan)]

Dec 7, 2022 23:13:12 GMT interval99 said:

Yes too many story lines, the gay bar story could be indicated clearer so people know what con trick Maggio is setting up, (it's mentioned a couple of times pre scene but not very specifically)

I clearly didn't get it, even having seen it! Can you explain what you mean by his con trick?

[141920grm]

Was anyone at the final show last evening? Only other time I saw this was in previews, and

SPOILER: Click to show

I'm not familiar with latest stage combat/stage blood magic- but did Jonny Bentley actually get punched- blood all running down his face and vest during Fight the Fight! He seemed okay but god did I get a bit lightheaded trying to focus on his otherwise brilliant performance!

[thistimetomorrow]

He actually got a nosebleed one time (idk if that was the case at your show though)

[141920grm]

Dec 18, 2022 14:04:51 GMT thistimetomorrow said:

He actually got a nosebleed one time (idk if that was the case at your show though)

Hopefully it was just that (already too much realism for me)

[juicy_but_terribly_drab]

Dec 18, 2022 13:25:50 GMT 141920grm said:

Was anyone at the final show last evening? Only other time I saw this was in previews, and

SPOILER: Click to show

I'm not familiar with latest stage combat/stage blood magic- but did Jonny Bentley actually get punched- blood all running down his face and vest during Fight the Fight! He seemed okay but god did I get a bit lightheaded trying to focus on his otherwise brilliant performance!

I saw the matinee and it was pretty bloody as well so I assume it must be an effect that happens every time.