660 posts
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Post by Oleanna on Feb 11, 2019 7:31:59 GMT
Ah, were you the rather handsome man in the grey hoodie? I was wearing a grey hoodie but I don’t match that description! 😂 That’s a matter of opinion. Single...? 😜 |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2019 7:34:10 GMT
...I kept thinking what would Sondheim have made of the story and wouldn't it have been great if it were treated with some of the bitter-sweet irony of 'A Little Night Music.' Interesting thought, as my thoughts after seeing this was that it seemed like an ALW attempt to be more Sondheim. |
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449 posts
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Post by SageStageMgr on Feb 11, 2019 8:45:37 GMT
I was wearing a grey hoodie but I don’t match that description! 😂 That’s a matter of opinion. Single...? 😜 😂😂 which one were you? |
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421 posts
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Post by Distant Dreamer... on Feb 11, 2019 15:09:38 GMT
I was there at the matinee too, it was quite a popular performance with members here it seems!
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1,345 posts
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Post by tmesis on Feb 11, 2019 16:53:24 GMT
I was there at the matinee too, it was quite a popular performance with members here it seems! ... and me! |
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214 posts
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Post by BoOverall on Feb 11, 2019 18:24:00 GMT
Really enjoyed Sat eve’s performance, even with the fire alarm a little way into the first act that stopped the show briefly to much bemusement all around. Much preferred it to the Menier production from years ago but yes, would have loved more of an orchestra at times.
I still giggle smuttily at the line “you’re girlfriend’s going to love that donkey”! Mind you, it’s practically the only thing young Alex hadn’t got round to. Well that and poor Elizabeth. 😀
And Anything but Lonely was worth the ticket price alone!
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421 posts
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Post by Distant Dreamer... on Feb 11, 2019 18:28:07 GMT
Anything But Lonely was incredible.
Hmm...Alex wasn’t a slag, I think he was just naive and needy.
I enjoyed my view from the cafe tables on the front row to really appreciate the amazing acting from Felix and Kelly.
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214 posts
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Post by BoOverall on Feb 11, 2019 18:46:17 GMT
True, very naive and needy. And I found Felix to be a very strong Alex.
I nearly grabbed a cafe seat but took the row right behind in the end.
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421 posts
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Post by Distant Dreamer... on Feb 12, 2019 8:02:02 GMT
I nearly grabbed a cafe seat but took the row right behind in the end. They were great fun, although I found the waiter service rather slow and lacking  |
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214 posts
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Post by BoOverall on Feb 12, 2019 20:51:43 GMT
I nearly grabbed a cafe seat but took the row right behind in the end. They were great fun, although I found the waiter service rather slow and lacking 😀 Even Elizabeth the normally reliable housekeeper couldn’t rustle up some cheese toasties and a mug of Horlicks to serve mid-song! |
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421 posts
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Post by Distant Dreamer... on Feb 13, 2019 7:52:26 GMT
They were great fun, although I found the waiter service rather slow and lacking 😀 Even Elizabeth the normally reliable housekeeper couldn’t rustle up some cheese toasties and a mug of Horlicks to serve mid-song! I believe Pancakes were on the menu, but I can't eat them sadly  |
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1,046 posts
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Post by jgblunners on Feb 13, 2019 21:08:40 GMT
Well I was at the final performance and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel. The things I'm certain of are:
- Kelly Price and Madalena Alberto were sensational
- Jerome Pradon was very weird but it somehow suited the character perfectly
- Whoever made the decision to cut the orchestration should be shot. There were some beautiful melodies in there that were begging to be swept up by a big string section, and I felt that much of the beauty of the score was lost in the fairly flat piano accompaniment.
- The plot is much more interesting than I expected - normal, flawed people making mistakes and screwing each other over is far better than the trite love stories I was expecting.
The things I'm not so sure about:
- Felix Mosse: his singing was good but he had this weird two-mode thing going on where he was either doing a very quiet head voice or a big full vibrato-heavy chest voice. There didn't seem to be much in between. I also wanted him to make Alex a little less likeable - his outbursts would be far more satisfying if they had some context and didn't just come from nothing.
- The score itself: as I said, there were some beautiful melodies, and Anything But Lonely is a showstopper, but Lloyd Webber really didn't use his leitmotifs effectively in this one, it's all a bit heavy-handed and not helped by the cheesy hammer-it-out Love Changes Everything chords.
- The staging: the direction was good (apparently previous productions have focussed on Alex, whereas here Rose is very much the centre of things, which I feel was a good move) but I could've done without the set twirling and didn't feel the cafe tables added anything. Perhaps it's less intimate without them but it just made the playing area even smaller, and there's not much space at SWP to begin with.
So on the whole a good production, but has left me slightly mystified and wishing I had seen the original production for some extra context. I shall keep my eyes open for future versions and see if I can find more clarity.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2019 1:11:20 GMT
I enjoyed this and the cast gave it socks but it’s a complex story.
And audiences were jittery.
I really hoped the stripped back meant into a 80 minute no interval piece but sadly the piece ran over 160 there’s a lot of editing could be down to the book and songs. Also the tabling dancing wasn’t a necessity I understand the concept of it being set in a cafe but that concept wasn’t realised.
I nearly always enjoy SWP productions that’s ive seen only a few and this was no difference those actors blasted it out perhaps more for a 10k seater than a 100 seater but I can’t fault them.
My first hope mill and hope to see them again soon.
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449 posts
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Post by SageStageMgr on Feb 14, 2019 20:01:01 GMT
So some thoughts...
I find the show enormously repetitive and it reminds me musically of some of ALW’s other (better) works, particularly Sunset Boulevard. I found the story largely watchable but the characters somewhat unsympathetic. The performances were fine. Jerome was indeed weird, as I hoped, but not laugh-out-loud bad. He actually had a certain odd charm to him and I thought he was very well cast. He really was the quirky, strange Uncle!
Elsewhere, I rather enjoyed the performances and the cast certainly left nothing behind.
I did not enjoy the plink plonking piano arrangement, which was wafer thin. Again, I understand it is purely financial reasons which force such decisions but it really hurt the score.
Truthfully I don’t think this show really has much going for it. It isn’t “marketable”, the characters are very hard to like. Having a flawed hero in Alex is all well and good, but despite the show’s length and recititive nature, I came away feeling only Rose and George’s characters had any sort of journey.
“Anything but Lonely” stole the show. A break from the tedium of constany leitmotifs perhaps, but that was clearly the big number of the show. Not “Love Changes Everything” which is repeated to the point of irritation. Brilliantly performed, it was my biggest take-away until I got a big take-away afterwards.
Despite the budget production, a lack of musical oomph and basic staging, it was the show itself I had qualms about. It’s just not to my tastes.
I’m no prude. I just truly didn’t give a toss about anyone except Jerome and even that was for purely fan-ish reasons. “Anything but Lonely” aside, there wasn’t much to remember.
I felt some moments were just plain weird in the storytelling too; time passing wasn’t adequately explained, for one. A character walks off, then a new scene starts and I have no idea if this is the next day, 2 years later, or why their relationship has changed. It felt like an adaption of a novel, despite the way too lengthy run-time.
I giggled at the mincing, twirling scene changes, which felt almost comically over the top. Like a wilful pastiche of the essence of theatre. They looked stupid, which made me laugh.
2*’s until “Anything but Lonely”, which made it 3*’s... but Jerome was in i, so 5*’s and a RAVE from me.
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608 posts
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Post by chernjam on Feb 16, 2019 1:22:58 GMT
I'm sure I'm in the minority here... As I've shared, Aspects of Love was the first musical I saw on Broadway - so it opened Theatre and ALW for me. So I have the entire score memorized as I've listened to it from beginning to end countless times. Even the melody of "Stop. Wait. Please" floats in my head from time to time - so it's kind of hard reading so many dismissing the score, save Anything But Lonely. Which makes me think that the stripping of the orchestrations was a terrible mistake. If you can find the Royal Philharmonic suites of Aspects, Joseph and Cats - I think you'll hear how strong the melodies from the score actually are - and when they are performed with a full orchestra, it is quite moving. I will agree that 1 - the story/plot is difficult to navigate. It was when it premiered and I would imagine audiences today would have even more varied and extreme reactions 2 - of all the songs, "Love Changes Everything" which was quite beautiful when it was first premiered has been destroyed by the pop and cover versions I've heard (most notably Michael Ball's pop version) so the fact that it gets repeated does take away somewhat from the score (Btw - did the revised lyrics to that stay in this production from "Hands and Faces /Earth and sky to Each Beginning / Each Goodbye"? Just curious) That being said, for those who just saw this for the first time, I'd recommend picking up the Original London Cast Recording and give it a second listen. It's sad that it's been so woefully under-recorded, and so there are so many changes to the score not reflected (most notably, Ann Crumb's triumphant finale to Anything But Lonely, which I do have recorded, but isn't on the original). "There is More to Love" remains one of my all time favorite ALW songs... I think it worked better as a duet between Rose and Giulietta - vocally and story wise. And now I have "A memory of a happy moment" floating in my head  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2019 13:08:22 GMT
Interesting reference to Aspects of Love in this interview with Jon Pertwee. Anyone know if there's any truth in him being offered a part? IMDB reckons he was approached after Roger Moore pulled out.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2019 13:28:11 GMT
Ask his son, Sean, on twitter. I bet he would know.
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1,995 posts
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Post by distantcousin on Mar 13, 2019 13:41:09 GMT
Yes, first I've ever heard on this. However I do know Kylie and Jason were approached to be in the Doctor Who stage play/show. I doubt they could have possibly afforded them!!!
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Post by danb on Mar 13, 2019 13:44:10 GMT
Theres some great clips of the Broadway production on you tube with Balls and Ann Crumb. Pretty awesome.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2019 16:07:33 GMT
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