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Post by Marwood on Mar 5, 2016 23:57:44 GMT
Went to the first night tonight, I don't know if it was just me (I'm not particularly a fan of farces, last one I saw was probably See You Next Tuesday, based on Le Diner Des Cons, also written by Francis Veber and that must have been at least 10 years ago) but I didn't think this was particularly great or that funny (certainly not helped by the two pissed up women sat next to me in the third row stalls, whooping it up after every line, along with shouts of 'that's hilarious!' and the like, one of them even stomping their feet at one not particularly hilarious bit) - I think I laughed about 3 times during the whole play (about 90 minutes, no interval) which is pretty poor - I think even Photograph 51 had more laffs than this.
Branagh and Brydon seemed to be enjoying themselves, and everyone seemed to know their lines and hit their marks but I was left feeling totally uninspired by this at the end- it's easy to see why no farces are put on in the West End these days going by this. Oh, and those that might still be hmming and aahing over booking for this - no dogs, some mid league swearing, and no nudity, although both Branagh and Brydon strip down to their pants during the play.
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Post by DebbieDoesDouglas(Hodge) on Mar 9, 2016 10:25:08 GMT
Entered towards lottery for the matinee.......
I'm quite soft for farce although I tired with Judi's constant asking if I love it. Yes, Judi, for the millionth time yes.
i hope I win so I can continue my fantasy love affair with Kenny. He's very handsome in the flesh and the first time I've ever fallen for a more mature man.
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Post by DebbieDoesDouglas(Hodge) on Mar 9, 2016 13:25:44 GMT
Didn't win. Just read online that KB is smelling pretty bad today so maybe a lucky escape
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Post by Marwood on Mar 9, 2016 13:33:40 GMT
Is he dead? You're not missing much, honestly - you'd be better off watching an episode of Are You Being Served, pretty much the same level of humour, and a lot cheaper. A few 'has anyone seen my pussy''s would have livened up this show no end. |
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Post by DebbieDoesDouglas(Hodge) on Mar 9, 2016 14:31:23 GMT
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Post by mallardo on Mar 9, 2016 15:50:21 GMT
few 'has anyone seen my pussy''s would have livened up this show no end. Try the Noel Coward Theatre round the corner, dear...
TM, you really should have resisted. Although given that setup...
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Post by DuchessConstance on Mar 10, 2016 1:13:32 GMT
The Bush Theatre has a pair of theatre cats (adopted for them by Catherine Tate, weirdly) but they're both boys.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2016 9:43:45 GMT
It's quite funny. About 10 minutes too long though. Ken is great in the first half (and looks quite hot) but really overeggs the pudding in the second where his accent is all over the place. Something that annoyed me was that one moment he can't stand up properly and the next he's beating someone up. The cast are great but all play variations on what we've seen them as before.
For those with a fondness for Ken and Rob, you get to see them topless and in their pants.
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Post by mallardo on Mar 10, 2016 11:33:02 GMT
I was just waiting.
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Post by DuchessConstance on Mar 10, 2016 13:11:45 GMT
The Bush Theatre has a pair of theatre cats (adopted for them by Catherine Tate, weirdly) but they're both boys. Kinda appropriate the Bush would have a pair of... but boys? Clearly P.C. and inclusive of the pre-op trans community. Nice. Yep, Mallardo, I struck again. Soz. Well one of them is disabled too. |
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Post by lynette on Mar 10, 2016 18:58:33 GMT
Topless and in pants...hmmm.. Nah. The play's the thing with me.
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Post by David J on Mar 12, 2016 21:46:00 GMT
Well, I admit I had a whale of a time
Okay maybe after The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary and I am Thomas' attempts at 'comedy', I would have been glad something at least chuckle-worthy, and I was on the edge of tears at one point.
I cringed at the fact that Sean Foley was directing, but apart from the occasional milking of the physical comedy, it was a tight 1 hour and 30 minute show in comparison to A Mad World My Masters and I Can't Sing
The fight choreography could do with some serious improvements. I could clearly see Branagh and the black guy's fists swing by each other by miles
Kenneth Branagh is great as the straight man, and Rob Brydon does what he knows best as a comedic actor.
Oh and I tested out the seats at the back. Geez, its like looking at a far away stage through a letter box, and I could imagine what it would be like if someone tall sat infront of me.
I've got tickets for Romeo and The Entertainer back there but since I am 6 foot 1, I think I'll try getting lottery tickets or see the broadcasts out of consideration of the poor souls who have seats behind me. |
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Post by n1david on Mar 13, 2016 0:21:16 GMT
I also had a very good time tonight.
No, it's not perfect. It goes a bit 0-60 in the first few minutes and many aspects of the story don't really hang together but I loved the acting and in particular I really enjoyed Kenneth Branagh's performance - an incredibly physical performance and it must be exhausting, but I think he did a great job. Brydon is essentially playing Brydon which he does very well and very solid performances from the supporting cast.
Your enjoyment of this may depend on your initial mood; I'd had a rubbish week and 90 minutes of great actors being silly served me very well; if I were in more critical mood I could pick holes - but I can't deny that I did laugh tonight, quite a lot, and so did most of the audience.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2016 0:14:49 GMT
I thought this was great fun tonight.
Sure, it took a little while to get going (I couldn't tell if this was because some of the jokes were a bit obvious, whether the actors hadn't quite hit their stride or if the audience just weren't sufficiently warmed up), but by the time John/Ralph had been shot up with ketamine, we were all well away.
The Alan Sugar-esque accent thing didn't bother me at all - I took it to mean this was the background Branagh's character had really come from and the posh bloke stuff was just a veneer he needed in his job. It sounded pretty consistent to me tonight.
Brydon ideal casting as Brian, who although hugely irritating as a character, also has to come across as lovable.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who sees this from a cheaper seat. I went for H23 behind the pillar, but it meant I missed some action in Branagh's room on the far left of the stage, including the 'accident' that kicks off the more frantic action in the play. Perhaps O7 and its friends behind might afford a better view for this production...?
Oh, and DDDH: if you ever win that front-row lottery, you might have to exercise supreme self-control. Let's just say that as far as Branagh's costume is concerned, I haven't seen a pair of trousers fit a rear so snugly since Bertie Carvel's in Bakkhai. ;-)
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Post by Steve on Mar 19, 2016 10:10:36 GMT
I liked this too, and if you like farce, you probably will too. The plot has an assassin (Kenneth Branagh) take the hotel room next door to a suicidal man (Rob Brydon). Shennanigans ensue. For me, in reverse order of hilarity, humour is mined from the following veins: (3) The Suicide that Goes Wrong: I find suicide upsetting, so comedy skits based on suicide have to be stupendously brilliant to get laughs out of me. As the suicidal Brian Dudley, Rob Brydon wallows in just the right amount of exaggerated self-pity and self-importance to remove the sting from these threads, but for me, this material is smile territory; (2) What the Bellboy Saw: Mark Hadfield was the comic highlight of Made in Dagenham and Jeeves and Wooster, in my view, and here again, he enlivens every scene he's in. Whatever is happening in one of the two hotel rooms, when Hadfield's over-involved bug-eyed bellboy enters the room, everything is twice as funny; (1) The Assassination That Goes Wrong, (aka Ken on Ketamine): For half the running time, Kenneth Branagh's assassin is doped up on ketamine. The deflation of his super-cool killer into floppy, confused, desperate shambling is by far the funniest thing about this farce. Branagh is a far better comedian than I would have taken him for, and for me, and for the audience around me, he was the funniest thing in this show. His are the take home memories you'll still be chuckling about a year from now. 3 and a half stars (4 stars when Ken is on ketamine)  |
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Post by rumbledoll on Mar 19, 2016 16:16:50 GMT
Give me Ken on ketamine any day! )) I actually always regarded Branagh more as a comedian, at least he impressed me more in that kind of roles rather than epic drama performances like Macbeth which I couldn't care less for.. I thought he was pretty hilarious in Harlequinade as well |
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Post by kathryn on Mar 19, 2016 19:35:36 GMT
Loved this. Last night I was watching a violent Ballardian dystopia and this morning I woke up with a sore throat, so was in the mood for something light and undemanding, and this proved to be an appropriately-named tonic.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 22:32:13 GMT
Branagh is a far better comedian than I would have taken him for, and for me, and for the audience around me, he was the funniest thing in this show. His are the take home memories you'll still be chuckling about a year from now. I think his crotch-rubbing dance is the most gloriously funny thing I've seen since Peter Pan Goes Wrong. |
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Post by Nicholas on Mar 20, 2016 3:24:20 GMT
Loved this. Last night I was watching a violent Ballardian dystopia and this morning I woke up with a sore throat, so was in the mood for something light and undemanding, and this proved to be an appropriately-named tonic.
I saw that violent Ballardian dystopia last night as well! I thought it was a terrifying vision of an ignorant elite redistributing and stealing resources from those who most need them, looking down on the poor and expecting them to clean up the mess left for them, and eventually tearing themselves apart from within.
Inevitable punchline ahoy, George Osborne’s budget and Ian Duncan Smith’s departure made for quite a watch. And unless Ashcroft and Oakenshield were telling porkies in their biography of Cameron, the violent Ballardian dystopian theme of sex with inanimate objects with which you shouldn’t have sex also comes into this too.
Moving swiftly on, actually thought the film was fab, barking mad (forgive the pun) and often hilarious, passed the six laugh test even when I was appalled and/or bamboozled by the full-on depravity. Thoroughly recommended, and for a violent dystopia, surprisingly fun. And given that Sir Chuckles (does he chuckle in this? If he doesn’t I won’t bother) really launched Hiddleston into the mainstream, what with Ivanov then Wallander then Thor, a quite suitable double bill with this play. I wasn’t prioritising The Painkiller, but on the basis of these comments I think I’ll be entering the ballot on every available opportunity, so fingers crossed!
(Also, on an interesting theatrical sidenote, the voice of Thatcher at the end of High-Rise isn't Thatcher (unless I misunderstood what the credits meant by "Voice on Radio"), but Fenella Woolgar giving us her best Thatcher after Handbagged!)
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Post by kathryn on Mar 20, 2016 15:49:06 GMT
I don't recall any actual chuckles, but there's certainly everything else - silly voices, silly dancing, people falling over and trousers falling down. I'm sure it's very hard work really but they definitely looked like they were having a whale of a time!
If you like farce, you should definitely see it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2016 16:53:44 GMT
No audience members were harmed/assaulted by soft furnishings the night I went...
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Post by stefy69 on Mar 24, 2016 7:00:15 GMT
Saw yesterday's matinee ad thought it was excellent very very funy indeed and KB displays a deft comedic touch. Certaily one to make you come out smiling. |
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Post by wickedgrin on Mar 26, 2016 13:13:33 GMT
I enjoyed this but then I like farce.
Farce used to be staple fayre in the WE back in the day! Run For Your Wife and No Sex Please We're British ran for years and there always seemed to be a farce by Ray Cooney on Shaftesbury Avenue. But generally of late farce seems to have gone out of fashion.
Certainly the Garrick was packed for this but I did wonder if it was more to do with the star casting than the piece itself! Given everything else being the same (set, direction, script etc.)would it be so packed if say Les Dennis and Bobby Davro were starring?
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Post by djdan14 on Mar 26, 2016 17:14:56 GMT
I've got a £15 grand circle ticket for the matinee on the 16th April that unfortunatly I can't make. DM me if anyone is interested.
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Post by moelhywel on Apr 24, 2016 8:29:46 GMT
I saw this yesterday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the different accents Kenneth Branagh used were supposed to be a result of the injection he was given. I did think he was a bit over the top at times but it didn't really matter as I came out of the theatre with a smile on my face and feeling happy, if that doesn't make the play a success, regardless of how good it is or not , I don't think it matters. Sometimes critical judgement can be suspended!
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