A Monster Calls - The Old Vic / UK Tour

[jamb0r]

Seen a lot of well deserved good reviews come out this morning

The Times 5*
Guardian 4*
Telegraph 4*
Time Out 4*
WhatsOnStage 4*

[NeilVHughes]

Not surprised by the reviews because of the subject matter, saw it Monday and found it slow especially before the interval.

Personally would have reduced some of the rope and chair work, removed the interval and made it 90min straight through.

The interval and the slow pace diluted the ending for me.


In defence the music was excellent and found myself watching the musicians as the chairs and ropes were being moved around.

[Deleted]

I seeing this next week

Ticket sales are dreadful

Got good reviews

Weird

[Marwood]

I await the comp tickets emails with baited breath...

[foxa]

The seat prices for this are crazy - good reviews or not.

We got PWC £10 tix and thought that was good value, but if you look at some of the dates late July/early August almost all the seats in the stalls are available ....for £50 each (or £25 for children). Another performance still has a lot of seats showing at premium price - £100!
'
I didn't enjoy this nearly as much 'Fanny and Alexander' and that also had a better known cast and the Old Vic found it hard to shift those tickets. I think they may be banking on family groups coming as a summer treat, but given the sober subject I don't really see that.

I would be very surprised if offers aren't popping up soon.

[Deleted]

How come there are random seats in front stalls

In fact all over stalls

For £20

This week

[Deleted]

Dynamic pricing, pars. It's well known on this board that the Old Vic is one of the major players in the dynamic pricing game.

[dan]

I’m surprised by the mixed reception here, but everything can’t be for everyone. I saw this yesterday and absolutely loved it. The film struck me in a very raw emotional way, and the climax of this show got me in a similar way. Perhaps the impact of that moment (story 4) depends on personal experiences / work / life etc as well as how engaged in the show you are. I had tears streaming with the power of that moment. I wasn’t sure how they’d do the monster, and initially I wasn’t sure about it, but ultimately it worked really well for me. The stories were great, the school scenes are quite caricatured but I think some of that is the point... everything outside of the “fear” and “truth” is either mundane or caricature, in a good way (for me). I liked the staging, the music (which did feel quite Imogen Heap), the cast... but I did go in expecting to like it because of my love for the film, so completely unbiased. If it isn’t selling well, it’s a real shame. The matinee yesterday wasn’t sold out, but relatively full, and an immediate standing ovation. I really would recommend. It’s a real shame if the production or story doesn’t engage you, because I think you’d then miss the resonance and power of the climax.

[Lemansky]

We saw this on Saturday and I'm glad I saw it, but didn't love it. There was far too much faffing around with chairs & I think they could have just calmed down a little bit more. The ending was very well done though and lots of audience members around us were crying.
However, it's the emptiest I've ever seen the Old Vic, especially on a Saturday evening - the Lilian Baylis Circle was completely closed and both stalls and dress circle had spaces free + only about 4 people in the dress circle slips.

[bob2010]

They have tickets for the listening posts in the Upper Circe at £8.50 for future weeks. It's probably worth a shot for those that want to get in on the cheap as likelihood you'll be moved to Dress Circle.

[bellboard27]

The seats really are not going, are they? Looking at dates this week, they seemed to have closed the Lilian Baylis Circle and vast numbers of seats are available. For tonight, all seats in stalls and dress circle are either £16 or £20, so even with some bargains for later this week, I suspect major discounts for tickets bought on the day.

[showgirl]

I think the Old Vic continues to get the pricing wrong: they should start lower (not just a few £10 PWC tickets) and increase prices gradually in line with reviews, word-of-mouth and bookings - airline style pricing, but if justified. Doing the opposite, ie offering some cheaper seats for previews but then switching straight to the normal high prices, only to have to discount these drastically, destroys confidence as well as their business model. It smacks of desperation and risks scaring people off.

[foxa]

I agree with Showgirl. Also they may assume people know about their dynamic pricing, but a lot of people might look once weeks in advance, grasp their chests saying '£50 pounds!' and then never look again. I think they must have been hoping that this would have a 'Curious Incident' type success - but 'Curious Incident' didn't start in a big space - it was in the (then) Cottesloe when I saw it and it wasn't initially a super hot ticket, but the word of mouth grew. Despite 'A Monster Calls' having been a film before, so having some name recognition from that, and Patrick Ness is a well known children's author, I don't think this project ever had that sort of wide appeal. That they were attempting to charge Harry Potter/Hamilton type prices (albeit in a limited section) at all seemed crazy to me. A lot of people like to book their tickets in advance and if prices are only lowered a week or a few days before a performance it's already too late - especially for people who don't live in London.

With a space the size of the Old Vic unless you have a name (a Glenda, a Ralph, an Andrew) it's usually going to be a struggle to fill.

[ellie1981]

I have a half day at work tomorrow to meet my mum before I take her to Hamilton in the evening. Was wondering if we would be sweltering in the heat all day in shops and cafes so managed to get tickets to this for the matinee.

I loved the film but haven’t read the book.

[Someone in a tree]

I found the mother, son and grandmother scenes really touching but I was unsure of the rest. Every time the tree appeared I sighed. Also like this ‘review’ I found the writing to be uneven / not very strong.

[Deleted]

Jul 24, 2018 7:40:58 GMT foxa said:

I agree with Showgirl. Also they may assume people know about their dynamic pricing, but a lot of people might look once weeks in advance, grasp their chests saying '£50 pounds!' and then never look again. I think they must have been hoping that this would have a 'Curious Incident' type success - but 'Curious Incident' didn't start in a big space - it was in the (then) Cottesloe when I saw it and it wasn't initially a super hot ticket, but the word of mouth grew. Despite 'A Monster Calls' having been a film before, so having some name recognition from that, and Patrick Ness is a well known children's author, I don't think this project ever had that sort of wide appeal. That they were attempting to charge Harry Potter/Hamilton type prices (albeit in a limited section) at all seemed crazy to me. A lot of people like to book their tickets in advance and if prices are only lowered a week or a few days before a performance it's already too late - especially for people who don't live in London.

With a space the size of the Old Vic unless you have a name (a Glenda, a Ralph, an Andrew) it's usually going to be a struggle to fill.

This is precisely what I do and why I never go to the Old Vic (except it's more like £90) - and theoretically I do know about the dynamic pricing!

[Deleted]

I know how much you all love a cheap ticket so TodayTix are running a promotion of £15 tickets for this for 24 hours only.

Support the Old Vic before it closes down!

[Deleted]

Aug 6, 2018 14:27:08 GMT @ryan said:

I know how much you all love a cheap ticket so TodayTix are running a promotion of £15 tickets for this for 24 hours only.

Support the Old Vic before it closes down!

I just booked for the Wednesday matinee for this. I looked earlier and there were seats in all the tiers, but now just the back of the stalls.

[Being Alive]

Booked in on the TodayTix offer for the matinee on Saturday 18th. £15 for row J stalls is a steal and I'd wanted to see it anyway as everyone has raved about it.

[Deleted]

I’m glad I saw this although like many I could have done with a bit less chairography and Imogen Heap electronica.

It lacks the emotional heft of Curious (to which it owes a gigantica debt) but there was a lot of sobbing from the audience. I hadn’t actually realised the detail of the subject matter (knew it was about grief) and took my husband, whose mum died of cancer when he was nine. He wished he had been a bit more prepared....

I thought it tackled a universal life experience in a creative, sensitive, visually distinctive way. The ‘monster’ reminded me of the sort of people who used to rub tiger balm on people at raves though, so I struggled to connect with him.

I’m surprised they’re having to discount, given it’s the summer holidays this would be a great theatre trips for teenagers. I don’t think I saw it advertised as part of kid’s theatre month, which feels like a miss from the Old Vic marketing department.

[Phantom of London]

A play that confronts cancer, monsters, bullying and yes yew trees that make a great metaphor.

Well people choose to disappear in the interval and make a bolt for it because a play or musical is terrible, you will be excused if you did it for this play as you could see where the plot is going, Alas I stayed for the second half and wow, this is theatre at its most powerful, because it was such a heart wrenching piece, I loved every minute of it - even though I may need one or two Kleenex.

Great provoaking performances by Matthew Tennyson as the boy and Marianne Oldham as the mum.

Saw Translations this afternoon that had a great set design because of it complexity, this also had a great set design because of its simplicity,, sometimes less is more as your imagination fills in the grey areas.

2 five star plays in one day, does life get any better.

[londontheatrefan]

I saw this last night, so beautiful and for me just as emotional as the book. Ahead of seeing the play I wasn't quite sure how the ropes would work out for the tree, but I felt they worked really well. I'm afraid I may have caused a leak in the Old Vic though with the amount of crying I was doing by the end!

[orchidman]

Effective show, hadn't read the book or seen the film, worth seeing.

I am surprised that Arsenal are still letting Steve Bould star in this now the football season has started up.

[Boob]

I thought this was absolutely dreadful. I'm usually a fan of Sally Cookson's work, but here I found it all style over substance. She's much better when there's a story to tell, but instead is forced to do movement theatre for movement theatre's sake. Felt it was trying to be cool and contemporary, but ended up being empty and emotionless.

[Being Alive]

I knew the book and film well (both had devastated me). So I held off on the play, but gave in and got a ticket.

It’s brilliant. I can’t write a lot about it. I just thought it was pretty perfect. And I couldn’t actually get out of my chair at the end I was so affected by it. Really beautiful job by Sally Cookson.