4,361 posts
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Post by shady23 on Feb 11, 2019 18:37:39 GMT
Booking extended until 31 August, tickets on sale now.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2019 19:07:33 GMT
Does anyone know the musical numbers from the shows programme or anything? I'm intrigued.  |
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Post by Marwood on Feb 11, 2019 20:25:54 GMT
Does anyone know the musical numbers from the shows programme or anything? I'm intrigued. There’s a full list of all the songs in the programme but unfortunately I left my copy at work this evening but unless someone on here beats me to it, I’ll post the details tomorrow. |
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Post by Marwood on Feb 12, 2019 9:32:48 GMT
Does anyone know the musical numbers from the shows programme or anything? I'm intrigued. There’s a full list of all the songs in the programme but unfortunately I left my copy at work this evening but unless someone on here beats me to it, I’ll post the details tomorrow. And here you go... Prologue - O Fortuna His Name Is Derek Trotter Only Fools and Horses/Hooky Street Not Now Grandad That's What I Like Where Have All The Cockneys Gone? The Girl Mange Tout Bit of a Sort Raining For Grandad Being A Villain Lovely Day Marriage & Love West End Wendy What have I let myself in for? Gaze Into My Ball The Tadpole Song Holding Back The Years Margate This Time Next Year |
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1,254 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Feb 12, 2019 16:20:56 GMT
This whole thing is tragic. Thank god for the Broadway imports if this is the only ‘new’ homegrown musical we have opening anytime soon. Have you seen it, mrbarnaby? Have you seen it, mrbarnaby? |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2019 16:27:13 GMT
Bit of a Lionel Bart feel about those song titles; which wouldn’t be a bad starting point actually, if only a short hop across the river from the East End.
Never got the humour of the TV show, personally, but not a bad idea for a popular musical.
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1,210 posts
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 13, 2019 23:51:48 GMT
Have you seen it, mrbarnaby? Have you seen it, mrbarnaby? Has he seen it? |
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1,254 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Feb 14, 2019 0:20:13 GMT
Have you seen it, mrbarnaby? Has he seen it? Not sure. Has he seen it? |
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Post by Marwood on Feb 14, 2019 19:14:39 GMT
Not sure. Has he seen it? Have you seen it madam? Eh? Where’s me washboard? (Sorry, wrong Paul Whitehouse project - I’ll get me coat) |
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449 posts
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Post by SageStageMgr on Feb 14, 2019 20:12:21 GMT
Not sure. Has he seen it? Have you seen it madam? Eh? Where’s me washboard? (Sorry, wrong Paul Whitehouse project - I’ll get me coat) I think mrbarbaby is fixing a drainage problem in the lower field. |
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Post by Marwood on Feb 14, 2019 21:36:27 GMT
Have you seen it madam? Eh? Where’s me washboard? (Sorry, wrong Paul Whitehouse project - I’ll get me coat) I think mrbarbaby is fixing a drainage problem in the lower field. ‘I wouldn’t know about that, sir.’ |
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449 posts
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Post by SageStageMgr on Feb 14, 2019 21:39:15 GMT
I think mrbarbaby is fixing a drainage problem in the lower field. ‘I wouldn’t know about that, sir.’ Which-potato-is-turnip-just-fennel-as-garlic-well-because-carrot-I’m-broccoli-just-cauliflower-a-suede... hunka hunka burnin’ love! |
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5,795 posts
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Post by mrbarnaby on Feb 15, 2019 23:30:02 GMT
Yes I have seen it! Well half of it and thank god I didn’t pay.
Absolute dross.
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5,795 posts
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Post by mrbarnaby on Feb 15, 2019 23:31:25 GMT
There’s been a few snobby comments on here about the ‘sort of people’ that would be booking to see this, and I have to admit when the Chas & Dave songs (and Any Old Iron) were in full flow, the sound (and vibrations) of hundreds of people clapping along and stamping their feet was indeed something to behold: Sondheim eat your heart out 😂 You just have to look at a certain bitter gammon poster on the previous page to see why this board is many times quite frankly a pain in the arse, the ardent snobbery bordering on near pathological hatred of anything that doesn't match their exact standards is tiresome, tedious and highlights their exceptionally narrow weltanschauung. It’s called HAVING STANDARDS my darling. Try it. Bitter Gamon 🤣😘 |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 0:24:52 GMT
We expect more than two lines for a review. Many miserable gits here.
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5,795 posts
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Post by mrbarnaby on Feb 16, 2019 7:53:10 GMT
We expect more than two lines for a review. Many miserable gits here. You can expect all you want. Just because I didn’t like the show doesn’t make me a miserable git. I have better things to do with my time than critique this cynical cash cow of a show. If people are enjoying it.. good. At the least it’s keeping people in employment. Just a shame it’s wasting one of the west ends most beautiful and historic theatres. |
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Post by viserys on Feb 16, 2019 8:26:20 GMT
I honestly don't get why this is singled out as a "cynical cash cow of a show" when so many shows these days are either milking old movies with more or less success or milking known songs in the disguise of biography musicals or jukebox musicals.
What's worse about Only Fools and Horses compared to, say, The Bodyguard, which rips off both an existing movie and existing songs, Dirty Dancing, which doesn't even bother with an original score or, Thriller Live, Motown, Tina and the list goes on and on.
Sure, it would be wonderful if the world (or at least the West End) was full of fresh, innovative original shows like Jamie, The Grinning Man, Romantics Anonymous and The Clockmaker's Daughter along with new imports like Hamilton, Come From Away, Evan Hansen or Comet, but even most of these are leaning on books or other sources and aren't completely new.
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5,795 posts
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Post by mrbarnaby on Feb 16, 2019 9:18:02 GMT
Well let’s agree to disagree and move on shall we!
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2,242 posts
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Post by richey on Feb 16, 2019 9:32:24 GMT
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Post by Steve on Feb 16, 2019 11:58:49 GMT
Everybody is entitled to that little box in their head that says "tickle me here and I'm happy" and if Mr Barnaby needs tickling elsewhere, then it's great that something else out there makes him happy. And on a side note, I thank Mr Barnaby for his Beat-Baz-to-the-News insider knowledge. That said, I absolutely loved this. Some spoilers follow. . . Sure, it doesn't reinvent the wheel, or more specifically, it just patches up an old wheel with love and affection, and repackages it as musical theatre. But it works beautifully, because this show has a big heart and cares about everybody: (1) It cares about fans of the show: this show is packed with scenes and jokes and characters I remember from the show. The rendering of Rodney and Trigger and Boycie in this are nigh on perfect, and the other characters come close; (2) It cares about theatregoers generally, because this still all makes sense as a story that you can follow from beginning to end, which references both the beginning and the ending type storylines from the actual show. This is important because the first three seasons of the show were super jokey, and not conducive to a storyline, or characters, that could engage emotionally for two and a half hours. But after three seasons, one of the main actors died, his character died with him, remaining characters were deepened, and romantic story-lines for Del Boy and Rodney were introduced, expanding their horizons beyond provoking each other for laughs. And these expanded horizons inform the storyline here, and engage as a story; (3) It cares about musical theatre fans specifically, as in Raquel (Del Boy's girlfriend from the latter seasons of the show), this show finds a traditional "I want" character, someone modest and hopeful for a life beyond limited horizons, and her intro song "The Girl" is the perfect "I want" song, an utterly engaging and tender expression of the hope we all have for a life beyond our own lonely limits. Of course, her intro storyline from the show is thrown in for good measure, but this song strips that intro of it's inherent jokiness, and informs her progression through the story with the kind of deep emotional engagement that musical theatregoers tend to prefer; (4) It cares about fans of historical British music stylings, referencing in it's new compositions the cheeky chappy jauntiness of eighties style Madness, but also the cheeky chappy jauntiness of music hall and "Me and My Girl" decades earlier. Of course this cheeky chappy jauntiness was present too in John Sullivan's original intro and outro songs from the show, which become here a mash-up to form this show's principal theme: "Only Fools and Horses/Hooky Street." This bright cheeriness is balanced musically by more emotional original songs, like the aforementioned "the Girl," and well-placed covers like "Holding Back the Years" and "Lovely Day." (5) And for good measure, this show cares about human beings generally, about how short our lives are, how everything changes around us whether we like it or not. This show defies time while ultimately surrendering to it. SPOILERS. . . . It defies time by giving us a world where Lennard Pearce's Grandad can coexist with his brother Buster Merryfield's Uncle Albert, who in the show was drafted in after Pearce's death, both here played by Paul Whitehouse. It defies time by simply existing, if fact. But it surrenders to time in a glorious and poignant image of the characters overwhelmed by a backdrop of a future London they will never know, one which includes the Shard, which of course they instantly discount and disbelieve. The characters are framed in the past, they are part of that past, and they will stay there, just as we are framed in the soon-to-be-past for those who come after us. It's wonderful really. And so are many of the performances. Dianne Pilkington's sweet (and superbly emotive) Raquel is a catalyst for everything heartbreaking and meaningful about the show, her song "The Gift" as soft and soppy as anything in a Gary Barlow musical. Paul Whitehouse is at his beautiful best, muting his every mugging instinct to serve the characters of gentle dopey (yet sly) Grandad and boastful raucous (yet soft) Uncle Albert, and as a consequence he's terrifically funny. Equally funny are Ryan Hutton as whinging Rodney, Jeff Nicholson as brash Boycie and Peter Baker as single-minded Trigger who are all effortlessly accurate and funny in their portrayals. Baker is also inadvertently moving in the accuracy of his portrayal, given the show's underlying theme regarding the passage of time, as Roger Lloyd-Pack, whose comic perfection as Andrew Aguecheek at the Globe I was lucky enough to see, recently passed away, and Baker looks so very young as he brings Lloyd-Pack's Trigger back to us. There are flaws to the show. Sometimes the need to rehash old comic bits trumps story progression. For example, Boycie's sudden trip to a sperm clinic seems utterly unrelated to anything in the story, and is there simply to rehash an old laugh from the show, but ultimately, even that can be forgiven, as there is a hilarious Pythonesque image associated with this sequence. Also, many old laughs fall flat now as the plot can't pause enough to give them shrift. And Tom Bennett's Del Boy struggles to connect for the first twenty minutes just because Bennett has the impossible task of filling the shoes of Britain's best-loved actor in the prime of his comedy life. And though he doesn't have David Jason's instinct for a punchline, Bennett makes his Del Boy work as well as anyone could. All in all, this is a fabulous show that will run and run, as like a Jack of all trades, it may be the master of none, but its often better than the master of one. 4 stars from me. |
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Post by Marwood on Feb 16, 2019 12:45:42 GMT
Everybody is entitled to that little box in their head that says "tickle me here and I'm happy" and if Mr Barnaby needs tickling elsewhere, then it's great that something else out there makes him happy. And on a side note, I thank Mr Barnaby for his Beat-Baz-to-the-News insider knowledge. That said, I absolutely loved this. Some spoilers follow. . . Sure, it doesn't reinvent the wheel, or more specifically, it just patches up an old wheel with love and affection, and repackages it as musical theatre. But it works beautifully, because this show has a big heart and cares about everybody: (1) It cares about fans of the show: this show is packed with scenes and jokes and characters I remember from the show. The rendering of Rodney and Trigger and Boycie in this are nigh on perfect, and the other characters come close; (2) It cares about theatregoers generally, because this still all makes sense as a story that you can follow from beginning to end, which references both the beginning and the ending type storylines from the actual show. This is important because the first three seasons of the show were super jokey, and not conducive to a storyline, or characters, that could engage emotionally for two and a half hours. But after three seasons, one of the main actors died, his character died with him, remaining characters were deepened, and romantic story-lines for Del Boy and Rodney were introduced, expanding their horizons beyond provoking each other for laughs. And these expanded horizons inform the storyline here, and engage as a story; (3) It cares about musical theatre fans specifically, as in Raquel (Del Boy's girlfriend from the latter seasons of the show), this show finds a traditional "I want" character, someone modest and hopeful for a life beyond limited horizons, and her intro song "The Girl" is the perfect "I want" song, an utterly engaging and tender expression of the hope we all have for a life beyond our own lonely limits. Of course, her intro storyline from the show is thrown in for good measure, but this song strips that intro of it's inherent jokiness, and informs her progression through the story with the kind of deep emotional engagement that musical theatregoers tend to prefer; (4) It cares about fans of historical British music stylings, referencing in it's new compositions the cheeky chappy jauntiness of eighties style Madness, but also the cheeky chappy jauntiness of music hall and "Me and My Girl" decades earlier. Of course this cheeky chappy jauntiness was present too in John Sullivan's original intro and outro songs from the show, which become here a mash-up to form this show's principal theme: "Only Fools and Horses/Hooky Street." This bright cheeriness is balanced musically by more emotional original songs, like the aforementioned "the Girl," and well-placed covers like "Holding Back the Years" and "Lovely Day." (5) And for good measure, this show cares about human beings generally, about how short our lives are, how everything changes around us whether we like it or not. This show defies time while ultimately surrendering to it. SPOILERS. . . . It defies time by giving us a world where Lennard Pearce's Grandad can coexist with his brother Buster Merryfield's Uncle Albert, who in the show was drafted in after Pearce's death, both here played by Paul Whitehouse. It defies time by simply existing, if fact. But it surrenders to time in a glorious and poignant image of the characters overwhelmed by a backdrop of a future London they will never know, one which includes the Shard, which of course they instantly discount and disbelieve. The characters are framed in the past, they are part of that past, and they will stay there, just as we are framed in the soon-to-be-past for those who come after us. It's wonderful really. And so are many of the performances. Dianne Pilkington's sweet (and superbly emotive) Raquel is a catalyst for everything heartbreaking and meaningful about the show, her song "The Gift" as soft and soppy as anything in a Gary Barlow musical. Paul Whitehouse is at his beautiful best, muting his every mugging instinct to serve the characters of gentle dopey (yet sly) Grandad and boastful raucous (yet soft) Uncle Albert, and as a consequence he's terrifically funny. Equally funny are Ryan Hutton as whinging Rodney, Jeff Nicholson as brash Boycie and Peter Baker as single-minded Trigger who are all effortlessly accurate and funny in their portrayals. Baker is also inadvertently moving in the accuracy of his portrayal, given the show's underlying theme regarding the passage of time, as Roger Lloyd-Pack, whose comic perfection as Andrew Aguecheek at the Globe I was lucky enough to see, recently passed away, and Baker looks so very young as he brings Lloyd-Pack's Trigger back to us. There are flaws to the show. Sometimes the need to rehash old comic bits trumps story progression. For example, Boycie's sudden trip to a sperm clinic seems utterly unrelated to anything in the story, and is there simply to rehash an old laugh from the show, but ultimately, even that can be forgiven, as there is a hilarious Pythonesque image associated with this sequence. Also, many old laughs fall flat now as the plot can't pause enough to give them shrift. And Tom Bennett's Del Boy struggles to connect for the first twenty minutes just because Bennett has the impossible task of filling the shoes of Britain's best-loved actor in the prime of his comedy life. And though he doesn't have David Jason's instinct for a punchline, Bennett makes his Del Boy work as well as anyone could. All in all, this is a fabulous show that will run and run, as like a Jack of all trades, it may be the master of none, but its often better than the master of one. 4 stars from me. Well said, I agree with all of this - I thought the whole Boycie is a Jaffa storyline had been tagged on to ensure all of the favourites had their time in the spotlight and didn’t really add anything to proceedings. Glad you brought up the elephant in the room that is Uncle Albert, there was a lot of complaining about why Grandad was going to be in this rather than Uncle Albert from OFAH fanboys when this was announced, and there’s a bit of tip-toeing around the subject in the programme, but now the cat is out of the bag (SO much inner turmoil on my part wondering if I should mention his appearance when I posted my thoughts on this earlier in this thread 😂) |
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449 posts
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Post by SageStageMgr on Feb 16, 2019 16:09:45 GMT
Everybody is entitled to that little box in their head that says "tickle me here and I'm happy" and if Mr Barnaby needs tickling elsewhere, then it's great that something else out there makes him happy. And on a side note, I thank Mr Barnaby for his Beat-Baz-to-the-News insider knowledge. That said, I absolutely loved this. Some spoilers follow. . . Sure, it doesn't reinvent the wheel, or more specifically, it just patches up an old wheel with love and affection, and repackages it as musical theatre. But it works beautifully, because this show has a big heart and cares about everybody: (1) It cares about fans of the show: this show is packed with scenes and jokes and characters I remember from the show. The rendering of Rodney and Trigger and Boycie in this are nigh on perfect, and the other characters come close; (2) It cares about theatregoers generally, because this still all makes sense as a story that you can follow from beginning to end, which references both the beginning and the ending type storylines from the actual show. This is important because the first three seasons of the show were super jokey, and not conducive to a storyline, or characters, that could engage emotionally for two and a half hours. But after three seasons, one of the main actors died, his character died with him, remaining characters were deepened, and romantic story-lines for Del Boy and Rodney were introduced, expanding their horizons beyond provoking each other for laughs. And these expanded horizons inform the storyline here, and engage as a story; (3) It cares about musical theatre fans specifically, as in Raquel (Del Boy's girlfriend from the latter seasons of the show), this show finds a traditional "I want" character, someone modest and hopeful for a life beyond limited horizons, and her intro song "The Girl" is the perfect "I want" song, an utterly engaging and tender expression of the hope we all have for a life beyond our own lonely limits. Of course, her intro storyline from the show is thrown in for good measure, but this song strips that intro of it's inherent jokiness, and informs her progression through the story with the kind of deep emotional engagement that musical theatregoers tend to prefer; (4) It cares about fans of historical British music stylings, referencing in it's new compositions the cheeky chappy jauntiness of eighties style Madness, but also the cheeky chappy jauntiness of music hall and "Me and My Girl" decades earlier. Of course this cheeky chappy jauntiness was present too in John Sullivan's original intro and outro songs from the show, which become here a mash-up to form this show's principal theme: "Only Fools and Horses/Hooky Street." This bright cheeriness is balanced musically by more emotional original songs, like the aforementioned "the Girl," and well-placed covers like "Holding Back the Years" and "Lovely Day." (5) And for good measure, this show cares about human beings generally, about how short our lives are, how everything changes around us whether we like it or not. This show defies time while ultimately surrendering to it. SPOILERS. . . . It defies time by giving us a world where Lennard Pearce's Grandad can coexist with his brother Buster Merryfield's Uncle Albert, who in the show was drafted in after Pearce's death, both here played by Paul Whitehouse. It defies time by simply existing, if fact. But it surrenders to time in a glorious and poignant image of the characters overwhelmed by a backdrop of a future London they will never know, one which includes the Shard, which of course they instantly discount and disbelieve. The characters are framed in the past, they are part of that past, and they will stay there, just as we are framed in the soon-to-be-past for those who come after us. It's wonderful really. And so are many of the performances. Dianne Pilkington's sweet (and superbly emotive) Raquel is a catalyst for everything heartbreaking and meaningful about the show, her song "The Gift" as soft and soppy as anything in a Gary Barlow musical. Paul Whitehouse is at his beautiful best, muting his every mugging instinct to serve the characters of gentle dopey (yet sly) Grandad and boastful raucous (yet soft) Uncle Albert, and as a consequence he's terrifically funny. Equally funny are Ryan Hutton as whinging Rodney, Jeff Nicholson as brash Boycie and Peter Baker as single-minded Trigger who are all effortlessly accurate and funny in their portrayals. Baker is also inadvertently moving in the accuracy of his portrayal, given the show's underlying theme regarding the passage of time, as Roger Lloyd-Pack, whose comic perfection as Andrew Aguecheek at the Globe I was lucky enough to see, recently passed away, and Baker looks so very young as he brings Lloyd-Pack's Trigger back to us. There are flaws to the show. Sometimes the need to rehash old comic bits trumps story progression. For example, Boycie's sudden trip to a sperm clinic seems utterly unrelated to anything in the story, and is there simply to rehash an old laugh from the show, but ultimately, even that can be forgiven, as there is a hilarious Pythonesque image associated with this sequence. Also, many old laughs fall flat now as the plot can't pause enough to give them shrift. And Tom Bennett's Del Boy struggles to connect for the first twenty minutes just because Bennett has the impossible task of filling the shoes of Britain's best-loved actor in the prime of his comedy life. And though he doesn't have David Jason's instinct for a punchline, Bennett makes his Del Boy work as well as anyone could. All in all, this is a fabulous show that will run and run, as like a Jack of all trades, it may be the master of none, but its often better than the master of one. 4 stars from me. I’ve just booked off the back of this excellent review, thank you. |
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3,302 posts
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Post by david on Feb 16, 2019 16:22:33 GMT
Steve, Having read your review, I’ve just booked a Saturday matinee for my theatre week for my birthday in May. Thanks.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 16:50:10 GMT
This whole thing is tragic. Thank god for the Broadway imports if this is the only ‘new’ homegrown musical we have opening anytime soon. Shock, horror theatre decides to host production which will sell well and raise much needed revenue! |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 16:51:47 GMT
Steve, Having read your review, I’ve just booked a Saturday matinee for my theatre week for my birthday in May. Thanks. Massive fan of the series and was reluctant to book until I had read some reviews. Sounds as good as I hoped it would be so will have a look at my diary to see when I can get there. |
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