4,155 posts
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Post by kathryn on Mar 23, 2019 16:29:19 GMT
I didn’t like any of the male characters - none of them felt ‘real’ to me. All too charicatured. And I found the diner bequest to be particularly out of the blue and annoying . What I wanted was for her to actually enter the competition and take some control over her life. But I might be being exceptionally grumpy about this because I spent the evening smelling delicious pie that I can’t actually eat. |
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Post by anthem on Mar 23, 2019 17:29:37 GMT
Some use of the ‘Spolier’ function might be good for some of the plot points in the thread.
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Post by danb on Mar 23, 2019 17:38:17 GMT
I didn’t like any of the male characters - none of them felt ‘real’ to me. All too charicatured. And I found the diner bequest to be particularly out of the blue and annoying. . I suspect you may be joking about the most transparent bit of foreshadowing currently gracing a west end stage? The guy took an interest in her every day and made her earn it! It was obvious on first interaction that this relationship would be important. No? Guys? Guys? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? |
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Post by sparky5000 on Mar 23, 2019 17:40:22 GMT
From speaking to a friend who works at the Adelphi, presales and bulk bookings were enough to make them extend till October in the first place, but the anticipation is that it will close then and be a limited engagement, there's no talk of a tour or extension. I love the show and saw it three times on Broadway, no one will ever touch Sara as Jenna for me, and Jason Mraz as Dr P was a highlight too. I get the Ogie 'creepiness' that feels more prevalent in the West End, but the idea is that he is so unthreatening, he's described as a 'dwarf' in the book, geeky, who has never done anything like this before but who sees something in Dawn - and her friends can sense that from her description that they are kindred spirits so push her into it. In the film, he's far, far more creepy and socially awkward and I am not really sure what Adrienne was trying to say with his character - so the musical has developed the character a lot. He's almost the opposite of Earl in many ways - Earl is a complete and utter bastard, whereas Ogie's misguided creepiness almost seems romantic and endearing so you root for him more. However, let's not pretend that all of the men in Waitress aren't problematic to an extent - and maybe that is part of the point - none of the characters are perfect. Ogie stalks Dawn, which is off-putting, but he's a genuinely nice guy who has fallen deeply in love with her after chatting and a 5 minute date; Joe is a sexist pig, but sees how Jenna has been downtrodden and leaves her the diner; Becky is cheating on her disabled husband with her boss; that very boss, Cal, is cheating on his wife who he believes is a lesbian; Jenna is downtrodden but decides to have the baby of a man she doesn't love; Dr. Pommater is cheating on his wife with a patient. Maybe part of the charm is that all these people are intrinsically flawed and yet you find yourself rooting for them - the tagline 'Everyone deserves a slice of happiness' is quite appropriate. Waitress has a huge heart and when the Adelphi is full, as it has been on the times I've been to see it (I went opening night, first night of previews and have been once a week midweek with different friends since it opened), it is electric. I've seen Katharine get a standing ovation mid-show after She Used To Be Mine on multiple occasions. If ticket sales aren't strong, I don't get why they aren't doing more dynamic pricing - the cheapest seats, right at the back and far sides of the upper circle, which were crawling with mice when Kinky Boots was ending, are £19.50 during the week and £25 during the weekend. There's no TodayTix lottery or rush sales, TKTS are charging more than the box office. I was able to secure second to front row for Kinky Boots during its initial opening for £50; Waitress has no front row lottery, so it's row AA and it seems to be a minimum of £69.50. Yeah I think what this show does well is present people who aren’t perfect, but who you can still really root for. Life IS messy and so I think people can really relate to that. I don’t think they actually need to do discount / dynamic pricing yet. The show isn’t flopping by any means. There’s not many shows other than the long running blockbuster hits or Hamilton that would be able to sell out 1,500 seats 8 times a week. For sure the economics might not work long term given the theatre size and advance sales etc, and it may well close later in the year, but it’s not like it’s been playing to half empty audiences, even early in the week. Right now there’s only about 80 seats left for tonight, so over 1,400 sold. Depending on how sales are going forward I’d love for them to consider moving to a smaller theatre if the Adelphi proves too big, but I can’t imagine that’s likely. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2019 18:07:35 GMT
Every single male character in the musical Waitress is a garbage man. In this essay I will
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4,155 posts
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Post by kathryn on Mar 23, 2019 18:21:45 GMT
I didn’t like any of the male characters - none of them felt ‘real’ to me. All too charicatured. And I found the diner bequest to be particularly out of the blue and annoying. . I suspect you may be joking about the most transparent bit of foreshadowing currently gracing a west end stage? The guy took an interest in her every day and made her earn it! It was obvious on first interaction that this relationship would be important. No? Guys? Guys? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? He orders breakfast from her and they have a 2 min conversation, mainly about his horoscope. I used to spend that long talking to the guy that owned the station coffee shop when I bought my tea on the way to work every morning.
Yes, once he mentioned going to hospital it was obvious he was going to die. But the bequest didn’t feel earned. It was just a convenient way to tie everything up into a happy ending without requiring Jenna to actually do anything herself.
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Post by danb on Mar 23, 2019 18:32:33 GMT
I found him to be the most convincing male character in the whole thing. I felt a real warmth between him & Jenna which was my main reason for thinking what would happen would happen. The whole thing was paper thin, so I’m not claiming to have guessed the plot of the next Dan Brown. Just that I found it heartwarming & very lovely, however slight.
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Post by esteveyb on Mar 23, 2019 19:41:41 GMT
I suspect you may be joking about the most transparent bit of foreshadowing currently gracing a west end stage? The guy took an interest in her every day and made her earn it! It was obvious on first interaction that this relationship would be important. No? Guys? Guys? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? He orders breakfast from her and they have a 2 min conversation, mainly about his horoscope. I used to spend that long talking to the guy that owned the station coffee shop when I bought my tea on the way to work every morning.
Yes, once he mentioned going to hospital it was obvious he was going to die. But the bequest didn’t feel earned. It was just a convenient way to tie everything up into a happy ending without requiring Jenna to actually do anything herself.
I get that, but ultimately this is a person (let's not forget Joe has been a woman in the Broadway version) with no family left, no friends, and who obviously visits his diner every single day and eats a pie created by one of his employees and whom he sees connection with and recognises what an awful plight he has. He could have left the diner to Cal, but he probably knew Jenna wouldn't have fired him from the diner (and he also had other businesses - what happened to those?). The connection/earning that leads to the bequeathing is very obvious at the wedding, when he sings Take It From An Old Man. |
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Post by esteveyb on Mar 23, 2019 19:46:27 GMT
From speaking to a friend who works at the Adelphi, presales and bulk bookings were enough to make them extend till October in the first place, but the anticipation is that it will close then and be a limited engagement, there's no talk of a tour or extension. I love the show and saw it three times on Broadway, no one will ever touch Sara as Jenna for me, and Jason Mraz as Dr P was a highlight too. I get the Ogie 'creepiness' that feels more prevalent in the West End, but the idea is that he is so unthreatening, he's described as a 'dwarf' in the book, geeky, who has never done anything like this before but who sees something in Dawn - and her friends can sense that from her description that they are kindred spirits so push her into it. In the film, he's far, far more creepy and socially awkward and I am not really sure what Adrienne was trying to say with his character - so the musical has developed the character a lot. He's almost the opposite of Earl in many ways - Earl is a complete and utter bastard, whereas Ogie's misguided creepiness almost seems romantic and endearing so you root for him more. However, let's not pretend that all of the men in Waitress aren't problematic to an extent - and maybe that is part of the point - none of the characters are perfect. Ogie stalks Dawn, which is off-putting, but he's a genuinely nice guy who has fallen deeply in love with her after chatting and a 5 minute date; Joe is a sexist pig, but sees how Jenna has been downtrodden and leaves her the diner; Becky is cheating on her disabled husband with her boss; that very boss, Cal, is cheating on his wife who he believes is a lesbian; Jenna is downtrodden but decides to have the baby of a man she doesn't love; Dr. Pommater is cheating on his wife with a patient. Maybe part of the charm is that all these people are intrinsically flawed and yet you find yourself rooting for them - the tagline 'Everyone deserves a slice of happiness' is quite appropriate. Waitress has a huge heart and when the Adelphi is full, as it has been on the times I've been to see it (I went opening night, first night of previews and have been once a week midweek with different friends since it opened), it is electric. I've seen Katharine get a standing ovation mid-show after She Used To Be Mine on multiple occasions. If ticket sales aren't strong, I don't get why they aren't doing more dynamic pricing - the cheapest seats, right at the back and far sides of the upper circle, which were crawling with mice when Kinky Boots was ending, are £19.50 during the week and £25 during the weekend. There's no TodayTix lottery or rush sales, TKTS are charging more than the box office. I was able to secure second to front row for Kinky Boots during its initial opening for £50; Waitress has no front row lottery, so it's row AA and it seems to be a minimum of £69.50. Yeah I think what this show does well is present people who aren’t perfect, but who you can still really root for. Life IS messy and so I think people can really relate to that. I don’t think they actually need to do discount / dynamic pricing yet. The show isn’t flopping by any means. There’s not many shows other than the long running blockbuster hits or Hamilton that would be able to sell out 1,500 seats 8 times a week. For sure the economics might not work long term given the theatre size and advance sales etc, and it may well close later in the year, but it’s not like it’s been playing to half empty audiences, even early in the week. Right now there’s only about 80 seats left for tonight, so over 1,400 sold. Depending on how sales are going forward I’d love for them to consider moving to a smaller theatre if the Adelphi proves too big, but I can’t imagine that’s likely. And the weekend seats are more expensive! I'd personally have liked them in the Gielgud Theatre, on that glorious strip near Soho - feels a bit closer to the Brooks Atkinson to me, although from memory the Brooks Atkinson only has two tiers compared to the three of most West End theatres. Seeing Sara as Jenna was fantastic, especially as Jenna's situation sort of resonated with me as at the time, my marriage was also ending, but I think nothing will top the memory I have from the London opening night of Sara getting us all to sing Sugar, Butter, Flour with her in a three-tier harmony. |
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Post by esteveyb on Mar 23, 2019 19:46:44 GMT
How wonderful, the moms were introducing their children to the theatre and they would share the experience together. That was not the case. As we approached the door the mom's left. I asked them where they were going and they said dinner and drinks. If they didn't spend on dinner and drinks, they could have bought tickets? and welcome to the board esteveyb . Thank you! |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2019 22:28:29 GMT
Regarding how this show isn’t selling and whilst listening to the US CD whilst ironing this afternoon (my happy place is Sunday ironing with showtunes...sad but true!),I came up with some observations-
The music has a real country/western feel to it and not sure that that genre sells well in the UK compared to the States.Also only a couple of ‘bangers’ in the score arguably?
The Adelphi is too big.The Savoy would have been ideal.
No recognised names in the cast for the casuals and no name recognition for the “brand”. Was the movie even such a big smash in this country? People will go and see naff bilge such as OFAH because it’s a safe bet with name recognition.
No discounts? Empty seats therefore no momentum and lack of word of mouth because media marketing has been limited.
A real shame.
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Post by sparky5000 on Mar 24, 2019 23:06:05 GMT
So this is really lovely. This Irish girl’s sister was desperate to see Waitress because she loves it so much, so the girl surprised her sis for her 16th birthday with surprise tickets and a trip to London with her and her friends to see the show, and posted a video of it on twitter. All the Waitress cast saw it and were responding to her, and Kat McPhee then arranged for them all to go backstage afterwards and meet everyone. Same night RuPaul was at the show so they all got to meet him too! Then, looking at this girl’s twitter Kat McPhee also booked the girls into her fave restaurant the next night, and paid for their meal! 🙌
I love stories like this 😍 Except now every waitress fan is gonna be posting vids like this hoping for the same treatment 😆
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Post by juicy_but_terribly_drab on Mar 25, 2019 8:29:41 GMT
Regarding how this show isn’t selling and whilst listening to the US CD whilst ironing this afternoon (my happy place is Sunday ironing with showtunes...sad but true!),I came up with some observations- The music has a real country/western feel to it and not sure that that genre sells well in the UK compared to the States.Also only a couple of ‘bangers’ in the score arguably? The Adelphi is too big.The Savoy would have been ideal. No recognised names in the cast for the casuals and no name recognition for the “brand”. Was the movie even such a big smash in this country? People will go and see naff bilge such as OFAH because it’s a safe bet with name recognition. No discounts? Empty seats therefore no momentum and lack of word of mouth because media marketing has been limited. A real shame. I don't think the film was big anywhere. It was a small indie film by an unknown director who was sadly killed before it was even released. Looking up the box office or did decent for its budget bur its budget was so small that it was almost guaranteed to. |
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Post by rachpywell on Mar 25, 2019 11:07:01 GMT
I certainly have never met anyone else in person who has seen the movie before, and I only watched it because I was watching my way through Nathan Fillion's back catalogue back when the Castle tv show was still on...
That being said, I've been out of the country (and away from any theatres) for 2 months and this is the top of my list as soon as I get back to London (along with Come From Away). Any advice for best seat to get on a budget?
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4,361 posts
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Post by shady23 on Mar 25, 2019 11:39:54 GMT
Sara Bareilles is on the Ken Bruce show on Radio 2 all this week choosing "the tracks of my years"
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781 posts
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Post by latefortheoverture on Mar 25, 2019 15:32:10 GMT
Just looked into getting group tickets with a few friends as it can often work out a big saving when there's a few of you.
Shocked to find that you have to have 15+ people to qualify!!!! Come from away are charging the same price, £45, for just 6+ people!!!!
Tickets prices are slowly killing this sadly....
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821 posts
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Post by ensembleswings on Mar 25, 2019 19:03:13 GMT
They’ve closed the Upper again tonight. I’ve been moved from the back row of the upper to row n in the stalls. As sad as it is to see a theatre have to close a circle (and I’d rather have a full theatre) I can’t pretend I’m not happy about being moved.
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Post by andrew on Mar 25, 2019 23:52:50 GMT
If you want to try the trick of booking the cheapest upper circle seats and get upgraded, I've heard they only do it in the weekdays.
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Post by rachpywell on Mar 26, 2019 1:40:48 GMT
If you want to try the trick of booking the cheapest upper circle seats and get upgraded, I've heard they only do it in the weekdays. Thanks for the tip! I live in London so usually go during the week anyway. |
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Post by songbird on Mar 26, 2019 15:10:00 GMT
Any good deals on this show for April? I cant seem to find many online, dont want to spend too much based on the mixed reviews
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Post by MrsCondomine on Mar 26, 2019 15:35:39 GMT
(let's not forget Joe has been a woman in the Broadway version)
Oh that's really interesting - I wonder how much of the script was affected, and if they kept that frankly disgusting line about Joe {Spoiler - click to view}
being glad that his girlfriend miscarried - would they be as short-sighted to change it to something like "I lost [the baby]... dodged a bullet there!". I found that line quite upsetting, coming from what is meant to be a genial supporting character. |
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Post by danb on Mar 26, 2019 15:43:10 GMT
Oh that's really interesting - I wonder how much of the script was affected, and if they kept that frankly disgusting line about Joe {Spoiler - click to view}
being glad that his girlfriend miscarried - would they be as short-sighted to change it to something like "I lost [the baby]... dodged a bullet there!". I found that line quite upsetting, coming from what is meant to be a genial supporting character. People may find it distateful, but it’s his truth. Surely it’s important to represent diverse opinions in art rather than just ‘the right on’ ones. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2019 15:45:31 GMT
For some reason,the producers don’t want to do deals.This is killing off the possibility of multiple repeat visits by theatre geeks like myself or passing trade(walk-ups) who would ‘spread the word’.Todaytix has been great at doing £25 dayseats for Company so I have seen it a number of times,but Waitress seems to be pricing itself out of the market.
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Post by MrsCondomine on Mar 26, 2019 16:51:38 GMT
Oh that's really interesting - I wonder how much of the script was affected, and if they kept that frankly disgusting line about Joe {Spoiler - click to view}
being glad that his girlfriend miscarried - would they be as short-sighted to change it to something like "I lost [the baby]... dodged a bullet there!". I found that line quite upsetting, coming from what is meant to be a genial supporting character. People may find it distateful, but it’s his truth. Surely it’s important to represent diverse opinions in art rather than just ‘the right on’ ones. I dunno. I've known a couple of people go through that, and to hear it talked about so lightly (and designed to get a laugh, which it did when I saw it - wtf??), it just jars with me. It's not a huge deal in terms of the production but {Spoiler - click to view}
when he died I didn't feel anything in particular. |
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Post by LaLuPone on Mar 26, 2019 19:57:01 GMT
The London Theatre website says that Kat and Jack will be leaving on the 25th of May, confirming what we all guessed. Don’t know how reliable it is though? www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/waitress |
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