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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2017 10:46:43 GMT
 I went with a group of friends to this last night in Milton Keynes, following an offer of 50p tickets from the MK50 50th birthday celebrations. First of all, I really don't think this was for me. Whilst the staging was wonderful, and the music very beautiful, I couldn't help but feel that the story was somewhat lacking. Gelsomina and Zampano's relationship was a complicated one, and it was clear that by the end when he discovered that she had died, to the audience, we could finally see that he genuinely did care for her. In spite of this, I found the main piece was drawn out, and I was hoping for more circus performances - I couldn't help but feel that they missed a (if you'll pardon the pun) trick by not making more of the meta theatre scene. The biggest shame for me I think though, despite its flaws in my opinion, was how poorly this had sold. Even with said MK50 offer, the theatre was probably only 10-15% full. It was terribly noticeable as I could hear the unwrapping of a werther's from the stalls when sat in the Upper Circle, the auditorium was so empty you could hear it. For a Friday night, with such cheap tickets on offer, I felt terribly sad for the show. How this translates across the rest of the tour and in London remains to be seen, but I hope that sales improve. |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 16, 2017 11:55:18 GMT
Is this a play or a musical?
Or the dreaded. "Play with music"?
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Post by Marwood on Mar 16, 2017 11:58:53 GMT
It was terribly noticeable as I could hear the unwrapping of a werther's from the stalls when sat in the Upper Circle, How could you tell it was a werther's they were unwrapping from up there?  |
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La Strada
Mar 16, 2017 16:55:23 GMT
via mobile
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2017 16:55:23 GMT
Is this a play or a musical? Or the dreaded. "Play with music"? A play, with music. It was terribly noticeable as I could hear the unwrapping of a werther's from the stalls when sat in the Upper Circle, How could you tell it was a werther's they were unwrapping from up there? I took creative license with that one, admittedly. It could have well been a Fox's Glacier. |
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La Strada
Mar 24, 2017 13:14:23 GMT
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Post by Someone in a tree on Mar 24, 2017 13:14:23 GMT
Has anyone seen this? The reviews are really positive.
I think I will book for the London theatre with a silly name aka The Other Palace! Are rows A&B off sale? The front row appears to be row C - I'm guessing that's good but maybe looking upto crotches and groins?! I was row C last night for Wild Party. View was great but we did have two rows in front of us - please and ta :-)
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 24, 2017 13:57:13 GMT
Merged threads and moved to musicals.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Mar 25, 2017 9:13:33 GMT
They put rows in during previews, it's a chance you take. If C is the front row, then usually it means it is stage level, so you are not looking up. TM. thank you. you are a legend and are my favourite board member :-) |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2017 11:06:27 GMT
I found this utterly mesmerising from beginning to end. Audrey Brisson is especially stunning but it's an ensemble and company show with every element integral to the impact throughout - music, movement, text, lighting, circus, song, etc., etc.. This show lives vibrantly in every moment, and the only downside for me was that I found it dissolved afterwards, like a dream, where I can recall the sensations of experiencing it but can't quite grasp exactly what was presented.
Definitely a play and not a musical!
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Post by moelhywel on May 9, 2017 15:59:40 GMT
I saw this last night in Birmingham and agree with every word Honoured Guest said. Audrey Brisson reminded me a little of a young Leslie Caron and had a very sweet voice. There is one scene where Tatiana Santini sings and she has a really strong and clear voice. Out of all the scenes I found the one in the convent really affecting, you could almost have believed you were in a church. Unlike in Milton Keynes the theatre was about three quarters full which was good to see.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 9, 2017 18:20:41 GMT
Moving to plays. Again. 
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2017 22:30:24 GMT
I haven't seen the film, so I went into this blindly knowing what it's about (and to be honest, wasn't even even sure it would be my sort of thing) but I thought it was a very good piece of theatre. Brilliant cast and use of props, lighting and sound. Now I see what the hype is about Sally Cookson's directing. May have to catch the NT Live recording of Peter Pan now. But I found La Strada funny, enjoyable, sad and moving.
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Post by stevej678 on May 20, 2017 18:07:30 GMT
I had high hopes for this and certainly wasn't disappointed at The Lowry this afternoon.
I absolutely adored the staging and the inventive ways in which the ensemble were brought into the action, conjuring scenes around them. As the central protagonist, Audrey Brisson is absolutely captivating (and at times quite heartbreaking) as Gelsomina. Such beautiful, haunting vocals too. It would be remiss not to also mention Stuart Goodwin who's thoroughly convincing as the menacing, imposing Zampano.
The often maligned actor musician format here works like a dream and very much adds to the experience and vibrancy of the production, however this is a play with music rather than a musical regardless of what the flyers may tell you. I agree with the earlier comment that they could have made a bit more of the meta theatre scene at the start of act two, particularly as the show is only running at just under two hours including the interval, but I guess when your only regret is not being able to have watched these characters for longer, then I guess that indirectly that's a compliment.
In short, I can't recommend this enough if you're thinking of booking for The Other Palace. It has charm, heart and poignancy by the bucket load. Utterly enchanting.
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Post by tal on May 30, 2017 22:27:34 GMT
I saw this tonight and really enjoyed it. It was beautiful, poetic, and it has great choreography.
They told us to leave the auditorium during the interval for technical reasons. As the sets remained unchanged for act 2, I wonder why we had to leave.
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Post by mallardo on Jun 1, 2017 10:51:50 GMT
I saw this last night at the Other Palace and was overwhelmed. The sorcery of theatre has never been more vividly demonstrated. Fellini's 1954 film, La Strada, shot on location in an Italy still desperately war-ravaged, was a classic of gritty, almost documentary-like Realism. Apart from its leading actors its people were real people. Its power was in its undeniable truth.
And yet, with a bare stage and a few props - a collection of wooden crates, three motorcycle tires, two strategically placed telephone poles - director Sally Cookson has conjured up something that captures and transcends that Realism to find the essential soul of the piece. The narrative unfolds in brief, sometimes disconnected scenes through a series of landscapes and towns wonderfully conjured up and heightened by the fluid and ingenious staging, by the music and the songs, by the endlessly versatile cast of 13 actor/musicians and by a leading lady who might have been born to play her role. Her name is Audrey Brisson and she embodies the waif-like Gelsomina with a sensitivity and power that compels our complete involvement with her.
Stuart Goodwin is also excellent as Zampano, the brutal strongman who buys Gelsomina from her impoverished mother, and Bart Soroczynski is equally fine as the acrobat and high wire man known as The Fool, who brings light into Gelsomina's world of darkness. But, as Honoured Guest said above, it's truly an ensemble and company show, every actor and every element fitting perfectly into Ms Cookson's inspired conception.
I don't know when I've been as affected by a show as I was by this one.
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Post by MrBunbury on Jun 1, 2017 11:57:12 GMT
I saw this last night at the Other Palace and was overwhelmed. The sorcery of theatre has never been more vividly demonstrated. Fellini's 1954 film, La Strada, shot on location in an Italy still desperately war-ravaged, was a classic of gritty, almost documentary-like Realism. Apart from its leading actors its people were real people. Its power was in its undeniable truth. And yet, with a bare stage and a few props - a collection of wooden crates, three motorcycle tires, two strategically placed telephone poles - director Sally Cookson has conjured up something that captures and transcends that Realism to find the essential soul of the piece. The narrative unfolds in brief, sometimes disconnected scenes through a series of landscapes and towns wonderfully conjured up and heightened by the fluid and ingenious staging, by the music and the songs, by the endlessly versatile cast of 13 actor/musicians and by a leading lady who might have been born to play her role. Her name is Audrey Brisson and she embodies the waif-like Gelsomina with a sensitivity and power that compels our complete involvement with her. Stuart Goodwin is also excellent as Zampano, the brutal strongman who buys Gelsomina from her impoverished mother, and Bart Soroczynski is equally fine as the acrobat and high wire man known as The Fool, who brings light into Gelsomina's world of darkness. But, as Honoured Guest said above, it's truly an ensemble and company show, every actor and every element fitting perfectly into Ms Cookson's inspired conception. I don't know when I've been as affected by a show as I was by this one. I completely agree. I saw it on Tuesday and it was really moving. I am not objective because I am Italian but the story and the background of a poor Italy really came through. I was mesmerized by Audrey Brisson and only later I realized that she was the lead in one of my favourite shows last year "The flying lovers of Vitebsk". Highly recommended! |
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Post by Steve on Jun 3, 2017 18:06:44 GMT
Saw today's matinee, and LOVED this. Better than the movie! Some spoilers follow. . . This is the first Sally Cookson production that I've unreservedly loved. "Jane Eyre" was too twee for Charlotte Bronte's dark and romantic vision. While the ending scenes with Rochester neatly made overt the covert sadomasochism in the text, and the singing of the Mad woman beautifully evoked that character's vanishing humanity, characters jogging on the spot were a twee turn-off, and the comic yapping human dog upstaged the text; "Peter Pan" skillfully brought out the degree to which male infantilisation is at the core of that story, with it's apron-hugging baby of a Mr. Darling acting as Peter Pan's juvenile mirror, while Wendy mothered the boys, and Mrs. Darling's mature femininity demonised as Captain Hook, but the magic of the piece was lost amid exaggerated caricatures, with Tinkerbell particularly screechy, and the children as adults a shade too creepy. Like Mike Leigh, Cookson plays a dangerous game, working without a script, albeit with an original underlying work that acts as a stabilising crib sheet, and her bravery is commendable. But previously, I have found her style, in which music and her malleable ensemble morph their way into a story's dna, to be at odds with the mood of the story they were telling. Here though, moods meld. The ensemble are a human wave telling a human story as old as the sea, of isolation and companionship. Fellini's "La Strada" is massively improved by Cookson's interventions, in which Cookson finds her inner Emma Rice, and brings music, theatricality, community and wonder to bear on the story threads, banishing sentimentality, and bringing out instead the beauty, magic and universality of the underlying fable. In the movie, Fellini was manipulatively sentimental, presenting us with an overacting super-frowny super-lonely clown-faced underdog, repeatedly beaten, literally, as well as buffeted by fate. The movie is saved by Anthony Quale's brutally realistic performance and astonishing shots of a very real war ravaged Italy. Cookson rejects the exaggerated loneliness, the overacting, and the excessive brutality at the heart of the film's manipulative sentimentality. The loneliness she replaces with a communal ensemble, who sing, and dance, and commune, and relate with the principal characters. This injects a joie de vivre into the story that reflects a humanity at the heart of the principal characters, bonding them and the story to the hopes and dreams of the audience. Giuletta Massina's overacting in the film is replaced by a far more realistic and convincing simplicity and innocence in the performance of Audrey Brisson. It helps that Brisson has a hauntingly direct and tender singing voice. Consequently, there is nothing overly forced about Brisson's natural Gelsomina, which she helped shape in rehearsals, under Cookson's supervision. Brisson, of course, is a graduate of Emma Rice's "The Flying Lovers Of Vitebsk," easily my favourite show that I've seen at the Sam Wanamaker. So Cookson's very Emma Rice approach would have been easy for Brisson to adapt to. I would describe Cookson as Emma Rice (the music, the ensemble, the collaboration, the wonder) with added precision and choreography. Stuart Goodwin is another Emma Rice graduate, having appeared in a number of Kneehigh productions. His Zampano is less brutal than Quayle's in the film, more gentle in his cadences, evincing more micro-expressions that suggest his character's potential, even as he acts out the full toxic masculinity of the generally inexpressive Zampano to perfection. It is through Goodwin's efforts that Cookson moves beyond the animalistic constraints of Fellini's Zampano, and allows us to see the yearning for love that even the character can't fathom. In addition to the two principals, Bart Soroczynski gives one of the best supporting performances I've ever seen, as the Fool. It is through him that the theatre of the circus (one of Fellini's perennial motifs) comes alive for us. He can unicycle like an acrobat. He can make us laugh like a clown. He is so truthful and alive in every moment on stage, and he even crosses the fourth wall with grace, addressing the audience at moments without setting off any internal interactivity fear alarms. He is the embodiment of magic and music in a play about magic and music. If this show has a weakness, it's that Cookson never really found a way to end it elegantly. Around me, audience members who had not seen the film expressed some confusion about the turn of events. But overall, this is the most magic Emma Rice piece not to have been directed by Emma Rice. It is a triumph for Cookson and everyone involved. It is magical. 4 and a half stars  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2017 20:08:44 GMT
You write so beautifully, Steve. Not a word wasted. I always look forward to reading your posts. |
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Post by tmesis on Jun 10, 2017 21:31:13 GMT
This is REALLY good. Although a play with music rather than a musical the music is absolutely integral to the production and concept. It grows really organically out of the drama in a way that the music in many quite revered musicals doesn't. Cookson creates so many powerful effects with such economy of means. Her trade mark style of 'lets put the show on the road right here' works more successfully here than in any of her other productions that I've seen.
A totally committed cast; great actors, movers and musicians made one of the most memorable and moving evenings in the theatre I've had for a while.
Go see!
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Post by liverpool54321 on Jun 10, 2017 21:59:13 GMT
We saw the matinee today and found it captivating. Agree totally with what others above say. I could watch Audrey Brisson all day long.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 24, 2017 21:21:59 GMT
First 20 minutes I hates this, I am not one for violence against woman, but then I succumbed to a complete transformation - Well this show yanks you completely out of your comfort zone, theatre that I absolutely relish, this is the raisin d'être for theatre. This show achieves so little, but says so much and really punches above its weight. Everyone is extolling the virtues of Audrey Brisson on here, with good reason, I couldn't keep my eyes off her, she sandy also with great beauty and passion. But also Bart Soroczynski was superb as the fool also, anyone who can ride a uni-cycle like he could deserves a mention. Stuart Goodwin as the brutish performer who I loathed, so therefore to achieve this great acting chops again on display. {Spoiler - click to view}
Only misgiving, I was hoping Zampano, would have got his come up hence.
5 Stars |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 8:00:27 GMT
Well. In the words of that great philosopher, Carrie Pipperidge, this is a queer one. There are so many fabulous bits but yet I didn't love it quite as much as I wanted to. Steve above is right, it's such an Emma Rice show and this would have been glorious at the Globe on a summer night as the sun dies away. The whole cast are wonderful but for me, the show only truly comes alive when Bart Soroczynski is on as Il Matto. It's a wonderful performance as good as anything you'll see in London's glitzy West End. And this is coming from someone who finds clowns a bit too disturbing. His unicycle work deserves an Olivier all by itself. |
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Post by showgirl on Jun 30, 2017 6:40:20 GMT
Nothing to add but I echo all the positives and I, too, would never even have considered this but for all the rave reviews here. Good to try something different sometimes and to leave your theatre comfort zone.
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Post by jek on Jul 1, 2017 18:54:38 GMT
Saw this this afternoon with my partner and teens and really loved it. And, as a fan of the movie, I was frightened that I wouldn't. Would certainly recommend booking - it only has one week to run.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2017 22:23:14 GMT
Just got back from seeing this tonight and I also really loved and enjoyed this. I have never seen the movie so was blind going in but was looking forward to it from the positive thoughts on here. The staging was really good as well as the choreography and I really loved the music and the story as well as emotion in it. All the cast were great esspecilay Audrey Brisson and Bart Soroczynski. Yeah I would recommend everyone try and see it before it ends.
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Post by japhun on Jul 8, 2017 11:09:16 GMT
Watching this afternoon and haven't seen this mentioned anywhere on the boards!
Anybody been? Looking forward to it!
This show starred Bernadette Peters in its original Broadway run in 1969...and was one of the shortest ever Broadway runs...ONE PERFORMANCE (and 14 in previews!)
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