61 posts
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Post by junet on Jul 25, 2017 1:25:10 GMT
We were in Ireland last week and on Saturday evening went to see Angela's Ashes the Musical in Dublin. It was both funny and moving in equal parts with a great cast and very catchy tunes. Usually after seeing a new musical or something I'm not familiar with I can't remember any of the songs but with this one I'm still humming them days later.
This started last week in Limerick where Frank McCourt grew up then moved to Dublin and later Belfast. I hope it makes it across the water to the West End because I'm sure a lot of people would love it.
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858 posts
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Post by duncan on Aug 8, 2017 11:52:28 GMT
25 - Rhinoceros - Royal Lyceum
Its the Edinburgh International Festival and here we have the Lyceum in collaboration with the DOT Theatre of Istanbul.
It’s a pleasant Sunday morning in the town square when a Rhinoceros runs past and then a few minutes later another rhinoceros goes past. Where have they come from and why are they here? Are they European rhinos or are they Middle Eastern rhinos?
With the world being over run by an increasing amount of Rhinos, Berenger discovers that its people that are changing into the Rhinos and as friends, colleagues and more and more of the population conform with the new norm Berenger finds himself trying to hold onto his present whilst deciding what his future holds - will he become part of the collective or is being an individual enough?
A director and writer in love with their concept and deciding to highlight how Berengers world is continually becoming smaller by effectively having the stage layered so that from the first act being set across the whole stage he ends up alone in the new world atop a small table in the plays final moments.
But whilst they clearly love how clever they are being with the diminishing stage and on stage transformations they forgot that they actually have to move the story on - whilst its nice to see characters jumping into the under stage area and have a giant and very life like cat head on display the issue is that these minor flourishes are what people will remember, they have not put any fizz into the actual onstage action and thus the play meanders along for 110 interval less minutes.
It also suffers that none of the characters are very likable and when Berenger finds himself alone at the end of the play having to decide his future you don't feel involved in his decision, its just not been entertaining or interesting enough for us to decide if individuality or conformity is better for him and indeed all of us.
Its moderately amusing from time to time rather than outright funny and the message of racism, community, conforming with society and belief is lost amongst bird poo jokes and at least one poor performance where its clear that the actor is struggling with the rhythm of the language and sadly its a central performance that throws the main relationship off kilter.
6/10 - could do better. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2017 19:05:12 GMT
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Post by crowblack on Sept 26, 2017 19:15:23 GMT
Our Town at the Royal Exchange I'm off to see it next week from onstage seats, so avoiding reading anything about it for spoiler reasons, but I'll add comments when I do. I'm seeing Kneehigh's Tin Drum preview this weekend, too. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2017 19:23:19 GMT
Our Town at the Royal Exchange I'm off to see it next week from onstage seats, so avoiding reading anything about it for spoiler reasons, but I'll add comments when I do. I'm seeing Kneehigh's Tin Drum preview this weekend, too. Oh defiantly avoid spoilers- I went in totally cold to the production and that was defiantly an advantage! |
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Post by crowblack on Sept 30, 2017 23:13:59 GMT
I've just been to see Kneehigh's production of the Tin Drum at the Liverpool Everyman - a very vivid, atmospheric production. The closest things I've seen to it recently are Life of Galileo (with whom it shares Little Angel theatre puppetry and the excellent, fox-like Bettrys Jones) and Girl From the North Country, and, like that, I'm not sure whether you'd call this a musical or a play with songs, but I think it was more sung than spoken. I have to admit I didn't get far with the book and was about 12 when I saw the film, and maybe plotwise it would have helped if I'd read it, but it's still very enjoyable even without. The audience seemed rapt and some gave it an ovation.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2017 9:36:42 GMT
I read the book as a teen schoolkid and am looking forward to the Kneehigh show in Bristol next month.
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Post by showgirl on Oct 1, 2017 14:03:54 GMT
I'd be interested if this version made Gunter Grass more accessible as whilst I know he's revered, I've never been able to get through anything he wrote and was bored witless as an A-Level pupil taken by my teacher to hear him give a talk somewhere in London.
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Post by crowblack on Oct 1, 2017 15:01:27 GMT
I'd be interested if this version made Gunter Grass more accessible It's hard to judge as I haven't read the book so can't really compare. I think I'd have got a bit more out of it if I had. On stage, it's a series of events covering a period of years rather than a conventional play (a bit like Life of Galileo), but it's always interesting. |
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Post by crowblack on Oct 1, 2017 22:10:46 GMT
Btw, at the Everyman, seating is on three sides but I think you get the best view from the central block. The new Everyman can be a theatre in the round. It has the same designers as the Dorfman and is a bit like the current Mosquitoes configuration, but with banked seating on three sides so you get a good view over the person-in-front's head.
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Post by crowblack on Oct 2, 2017 20:30:05 GMT
Our Town at the Royal Exchange Darn it, I think the Tory conference has snagged up Manchester, closed Deansgate till Friday (my route in) and means I'll probably have to cancel my tickets! Shame if so, though my companion wasn't looking forward to the onstage seats I'd booked! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2017 7:30:30 GMT
Our Town at the Royal Exchange Darn it, I think the Tory conference has snagged up Manchester, closed Deansgate till Friday (my route in) and means I'll probably have to cancel my tickets! Shame if so, though my companion wasn't looking forward to the onstage seats I'd booked! Just when you thought the Tories couldn't get worse they mess with Theatre too! (BTW the on-stage seating isn't too scary, from the looks of it and i say that as an interaction-averse audience!) |
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Post by crowblack on Oct 3, 2017 9:14:23 GMT
Yes - shame, but never mind - got the touring productions of Rita, Sue and Bob Too in Liverpool and How to Win Against History in Manchester the week after. Jubilee is coming up next at the Royal Exchange - I love the film, so I'm curious to see what they do with it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2017 11:16:16 GMT
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61 posts
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Post by junet on Oct 10, 2017 15:22:26 GMT
Saturday evening at the Orchard Theatre Dartford we saw the DAODS Singing in the Rain. They were very good as always and there was a lot of tap dancing in this show. Made me realise that I have to see 42nd Street again really soon.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2017 15:42:15 GMT
I saw this last night and I absolutely loved it. Didn't know the play at all, never been to the Royal Exchange, so it was all quite an experience. I loved the staging, and the whole thing was just extraordinary and very moving. The last act was really painful, and I cried quite a bit, which I never do in the theatre and as I was in the front row it was all a bit emotional. I had to run afterwards to catch the last train and thank goodness it was dark and raining outside because the crazy sobbing woman in the street would have looked a bit bonkers. |
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Post by crowblack on Oct 12, 2017 22:34:33 GMT
Rita, Sue and Bob Too at the Liverpool Playhouse (touring) was great - the three leads were really strong, simple but effective staging and very good, almost Dennis Potterishly nostalgic use of 80s music (and thankfully no Black Lace!). I'm very familiar with the film but have never seen it on stage before, and think I prefer this version.
Good soundtrack playing in the foyer/house beforehand, too - 80s pop, but the good stuff.
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Post by showgirl on Oct 14, 2017 3:52:54 GMT
As mentioned elsewhere, I went to see Richard Bean's Harvest, (saw it when it originally opened at the Royal Court in 2005) on the Guildford stop of the touring revival by New Perspectives theatre company. Curiously this was not only the sole full week's stay listed but also the single theatre; the rest were other types of venue and for one night: newperspectives.co.uk/?idno=1184&s=55Having seen it again, I think the play itself isn't one of his best (though I'm not sure which I would say fell into that category as Richard Bean is quite prolific and has done a lot in the intervening years, with mixed results), but it was a very good production and worth catching if you haven't seen it and/or live in an area without easy access to theatres and can reach one of the venues. There are some reviews online if anyone is interested - 3 and 4 stars, to give you an idea. |
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Post by crowblack on Oct 15, 2017 20:11:41 GMT
How To Win Against History is great fun and well worth catching in its travels.
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Post by duncan on Oct 17, 2017 11:31:41 GMT
28 - What Shadows - Lyceum
Its 1967/8 and Enoch Powell is tired of being ignored, he wants to be Prime Minister but no one is listening to what he has to say - when the editor of the Wolverhampton local newspaper gives him some coaching on how to get the media interested in what he has to say a chain of events are set in motion that will make Powell one of the most famous people in the country - but at what cost to the local community?
1992 - a black historian sets out to interview Powell to discover if his views have mellowed over time....
It doesn’t have any courage - is Powell racist? Are we all racist? Its platitudes and liberal handwringing without actually going anywhere - the final confrontation is a damp squib of blustering rhetoric which doesn't seem to want to say anything controversial or indeed new.
We spend the first half in the build up to the rivers of blood speech and the second is 25 years later looking at the impact. Using a black historian to look into the story of Powell seems a reasonable approach to take but then we veer off into her being an alcoholic for 5 minutes and then nothing, its never mentioned again - yes we are led to understand that the impact of the Birmingham speech is what has made her the woman she is today but it’s a cul-de-sac that doesn’t need to be gone down when you are just blatantly going to ignore where you have arrived at.
Ian McDiarmid is doing an impression of Powell and is doing it very well, even if it does come across as Brian Walden meets Ken Livingstone, and he says a lot by not saying anything but does sadly veer into Palpatine a couple of times during his final speech and there is some solid support from Paula Wilcox, Ameet Chana and Nicholas Le Provost but sadly for such a relevant topic its all so inconsequential.
A 7/10 for the production.
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Post by duncan on Oct 17, 2017 11:34:29 GMT
29 - How the Other Half Loves - Theatre Royal
Bob and Fiona attempt to cover their affair by saying they have been supporting the Featherstones through marriage difficulties - Bob saying he has been out supporting William over the affair Mary is having and Fiona saying that she has been out supporting Mary over the affair William has been having. Bobs wife decides to invite the Featherstones round to dinner but they cant come till tomorrow as they are having dinner this evening with Fiona and her husband and William and Bobs boss Frank) - things are about to get complicated.
A new production of the Alan Ayckbourn 1969 comedy - new as in, being a tour of a version that played London last year.
This takes an AGE to get going, it’s a very laboured 45 minutes until the Featherstones arrive and things actually get started in terms of the comedy but even then its not actually that funny - amusing moments, yes, but the funny has been forgotten.
Those first 45 minutes must be the must turgid piece of theatre I've seen in years, NOTHING interesting at all happens and that it doesn't even raise a titter is almost criminal for something that's supposed to be a comedy.
William and Mary being onstage are when things perk up but it is a long slog to get there and Sara Crowe and Matthew Cottle are giving it their all as the boring and timid couple who are unwittingly caught in the middle of other peoples lies but they cant pack a punch big enough to lift this show from the torpor of the majority of the first act.
By setting the entire thing in one set and having that set act as the houses of both couples we can see how things are going on in 2 locations at once and this leads to the supposedly hilarious two dinner parties at one time scene as William and Mary swivelling in their chairs to face in a specific direction indicates which party we are currently at and whilst this is an interesting concept it doesnt work in this production - its stilted here, it needs to be far pacier and the dialogue delivered snappier but this version has been dragged out to over 150 minutes.
Another problem is that no one is actually very likeable at all - of course we are supposed to think we should be rooting for William and Mary but as we discover as the comedy goes along he's just as controlling in his relationship as Bob is in his but in a far more subtle fashion.
The cast are all fine, Robert Daws and Caroline Langrishe can play these parts in their sleep.
It says a lot that the biggest pop of the night was Leon Ockendon coming on stage in just his Y-fronts.
A disappointing 4/10
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Post by duncan on Oct 17, 2017 11:35:29 GMT
34 - The Comedy About a Bank Robbery
After escaping from jail Mitch plans to rob the bank of his girlfriends, Caprice, father - but Caprice has fallen in love with Sam, a pickpocket whilst Mitch has been in jail. Soon there will be three Mr Freeboys in the bank trying to steal the loot whilst Officer Shuck tries to ensure nothing happens on his watch but who cant understand what keeps happening to Mr Freeboys pants.
Consistently amusing and some funny turns in something that can best be described as a return to the days of farce - trousers are lost, people are hiding above and below beds and there are some seriously annoyed seagulls on the go. I found The Play that Goes Wrong and Peter Pan GW to both fade dramatically in their second acts but this kept the interest up for the full length as its not a "Goes Wrong". Its a 100 minute comedy about some inept bank robbers that harks back to the films and productions of yore - 50 years ago Terry-Thomas would have been Mr Freeboys and George Cole in support as Mitch.
There is an amazing scene where the crooks go though the ventilation shafts at the front of the stage whilst we watch the goings on in the bank with the set having been moved to vertical so we are seeing them against the back wall, some great wire work here.
Consistently amusing 8/10
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Post by duncan on Oct 17, 2017 11:37:29 GMT
30 - Fox - Old Red Lion Theatre Pub An evening out in glittering Islington, in a pub theatre, above a pub, showing a Norwich game on the telly and full of Canaries! Stefan and Rachel are young and in love. Stefan and Rachel have split up. The beginning and end of the relationship followed by the middle bits. He's shy and cant believe his luck, she is a drunk. A non chronological look at the relationship of two young people in the 21st century - the first scene is them meeting for the first time and the second scene is their final ever meeting and we jump back and forwards across their relationship from the times that those annoying little habits are endearing to the arguments about behaviour and all the time we have strewn through the show snippets of what has led up to their final split. I enjoyed it - it is a bit repetitive, she comes home drunk every night and he starts to argue with her. It leaves unanswered questions, are there voices in her head and are we supposed to feel sympathy for him when he effectively rapes her when she passes out one night after initiating sex ? An interesting fringe production in a new to me location, will it ever go beyond above a pub? Probably not. Its not brilliant and its one of many productions about relationships that doesn't have enough to stand above many other similar shows but its an engrossing 100 minutes. 7/10
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Post by duncan on Oct 17, 2017 11:38:55 GMT
31 Othello - Ambassadors Theatre
Verily tis the tyme to partake of that old forsoother Shakey.
Othello runs his gang from the pub but Iago has designs on being the leader of the gang and sets out to poison Othellos mind about the fidelity of his wife Desdemona - it wont end well
Its Shakey, its Othello so you know what you are getting but here we have a modern version set in a pub - and to be honest that means we have about 10 minutes of gyrating (faking fights etc.) to a techno soundtrack with the battles that Othello wins being fights against other pub based gangs. The staging makes use of the minimalist setting that they are using and whilst the sets look like they have come straight from BBC Sitcoms circa 1978 it makes sense later on when as the world comes crashing down for Othello the roof is lowered and we discover that the fake looking pillars are actually rubber or somesuch and bend to allow the roof to cave in.
It’s a very breezy run through of the text and its certainly never less than entertaining but it lacks that certain oomph - not sure if it’s the bomber jackets and pool queues or the limitations of the original play (I'm not a big Shakey fan and here you cant help but wonder why Othello is so bloody stupid and why nobody talks to each other normally - everything could be cleared up in 5 minutes if they did) but still worth a trip if you are looking for something cheap and cheerful 7/10
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Post by duncan on Oct 17, 2017 11:40:05 GMT
33 - Kinky Boots - Adelphi
Charlie inherits a failing shoe factory from his father - with closure around the corner inspiration for a new range comes from an encounter with Lola, a transvestite, who is about to turn the world of the factory and Charlie upside down.
I'll admit I've never seen the film but this is just a joyous show. In times of troubles its nice to see something that is uplifting and sassy whilst wearing its heart on its sleeve about treating people in the right way despite the differences you may have. Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein have turned out a winner here - throw in a couple of show stopping moments from Simon-Anthony Rhoden as Lola being oppositeed with an understated performance, when required, from Jordan Fox as Charlie.
Sure the characters and story are cliched and you'll have seen it all before and be able to guess the ending from about 10 minutes in but this sweeps you along in a wave of feel good contentness like a warm blanket on a winters day. 9/10
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