19,670 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Apr 19, 2019 13:03:22 GMT
Not seen this and no plans to. I have seen Sweet Charity a fair few times over the years and never seen a truly great production. I have come to the conclusion it's a difficult show to pull off. Great score, very iffy book and the whole show doesn't really hang together - for example "The Rhythm of Life" which is a great number really doesn't belong in the show at all and is ridiculously shoehorned in! The role of Charity too (like Sally Bowles) is a difficult one. Reading the comments it does strike me that the lead’s vocal inadequacy might have been a deliberate choice. She works in a cheap strip joint after all. Is it another case of #thejudifactor? |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2019 14:04:57 GMT
Not seen this and no plans to. I have seen Sweet Charity a fair few times over the years and never seen a truly great production. I have come to the conclusion it's a difficult show to pull off. Great score, very iffy book and the whole show doesn't really hang together - for example "The Rhythm of Life" which is a great number really doesn't belong in the show at all and is ridiculously shoehorned in! The role of Charity too (like Sally Bowles) is a difficult one. Reading the comments it does strike me that the lead’s vocal inadequacy might have been a deliberate choice. She works in a cheap strip joint after all. Is it another case of #thejudifactor? Most definitely, Verdon was a great performer but an adequate singer at best, more character than notes. The show was never a massive hit, it ran a year and a half when the big hits were running upwards of five years. Even the darker Cabaret (which should also have a not great singer as Sally) ran twice as long. The problem is, as has been mentioned, the very sketchy book and that the score doesn’t really fit the sourness of the story. That’s baked in already. You can try and glitz it up but that just doubles the shallownesss; all jazz hands and ‘tart with a heart’ characters (I found the Southwark production of Coleman’s ‘The Life’ fell into that trap, too). In 2019 that won’t wash anymore, so looking back at the source material, finding a good period match and roughing up the aesthetic is a good choice (as the nearly all four star reviews have pointed out). Warhol is a great fit but (it appears from some quarters) that his fifteen minutes hasn’t reached them, so they maybe the designed roughness and looseness isn’t seen, as it should be, as a feature not a bug. There’s the problem, you make it work for one audience and you lose another (I disliked the Menier version, too clean too light). That dichotomy is what made it a niche hit rather than a blockbuster. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2019 14:58:38 GMT
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7,059 posts
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Post by Jon on Apr 19, 2019 15:07:07 GMT
Not seen this and no plans to. I have seen Sweet Charity a fair few times over the years and never seen a truly great production. I have come to the conclusion it's a difficult show to pull off. Great score, very iffy book and the whole show doesn't really hang together - for example "The Rhythm of Life" which is a great number really doesn't belong in the show at all and is ridiculously shoehorned in! The role of Charity too (like Sally Bowles) is a difficult one. Reading the comments it does strike me that the lead’s vocal inadequacy might have been a deliberate choice. She works in a cheap strip joint after all. Is it another case of #thejudifactor? The official term is taxi dancer, in the original source material, she was a prostitute! |
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632 posts
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Post by jek on Apr 19, 2019 15:15:37 GMT
The more I think about this, after seeing it last night, the more I wish that I could be a fly on the wall at one of the Friday night young+free performances. I suspect that, especially if there are teenagers like my daughter and her friends present, there will be quite a strong reaction to the material. Just as there was when I saw The York Realist at a school's matinee.
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1,046 posts
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Post by jgblunners on Apr 19, 2019 15:31:28 GMT
That made me chuckle as there is actually a sink with functioning taps used in the production 😂 |
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5,147 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 19, 2019 20:10:00 GMT
Interval.
Wow.
This is an experience.
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5,147 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 19, 2019 22:44:17 GMT
Firstly, let’s start of with some positives - lovely to meet @happysooz tonight and share out bewilderment at the interval!
So look, I went in with really low expectations - critics liked it, my friends hated it (lots left at interval) and I completely see why.
It’s a very weird production, that not a lot makes sense in. And the main thing that doesn’t make sense is Anne Marie Duff as Charity. Because she cannot sing. Like, AT ALL. and I’m the first to give people a change or find a positive, but it is a musical, and she cannot sing (and she also can’t dance). But what she can do it, is act. And my Christ she’s a phenomenal actress. Like, moments of the second half I was sat there going ‘you’re actually ok!’ And then she’d start to sing again and it would go wrong. It’s frustrating - Charity doesn’t need to be a fantastic singer, but she needs to be able to put a number across. And she can’t. 🤷🏻♂️
The choreography is atrocious (like one bit gives the fish in Eugenius a run for their money for ‘most bizarre thing on stage’. It just doesn’t work well enough without Fosse’s iconic moves.
And Josie Rourke has basically chucked everything but the kitchen sink on the stage (and we’re only missing the sink cuz she couldn’t rip it out!). It was all just a mess!
That said, loved Adrian Lester coming on dressed as a disco ball and belt out Rhythm of Life and then run off again. Debbie Kurrup was fabulous as ever - although they had her unpacking a box like one of those Russian dolls at one point and I wanted to scream at the ridiculousness of it. The song tells you what’s happening, you don’t need to spell it out.
Oh and I liked the revolve.
Generous 2 stars. (1 of those is for Adrian’s outfit)
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Post by FrontroverPaul on Apr 19, 2019 23:31:32 GMT
I was so looking forward to seeing this and I still am to some degree but feel distinctly apprehensive. I really want to like it but I'm a traditionalist when it comes to my musicals and from what I've read this has been "re-imagined" far more than I was expecting.
I saw a five star amateur production of Sweet Charity in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Their Charity looked and acted just how ( I feel) she should, the whole cast sang and danced beautifully, plenty of laughs, spectacular Rhythm Of Life and the whole show was exactly what I expected and hugely entertaining.
Maybe I'll like it at the Donmar just as much, will go with an open mind and I am generally about as uncritical a theatre-goer as you can get so fingers crossed.
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382 posts
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Post by stevemar on Apr 19, 2019 23:43:17 GMT
I was there this evening too. Firstly, let me declare that I have loved some of Anne Marie Duff’s performances - way back to Saint Joan and Husbands and Sons. She brings real vulnerability and pathos to this role, but also inner strength as a woman, optimism and believability. The second half particularly was moving and more than I remembered (having seen the Menier’s version with Tamsin Outhwaite). So, I am pleased to see her in a different role.
She can hold a tune and she can certainly move, but of course not at the level most musical lovers would hope for or what we’d normally expect to see on the London stage. I don’t agree that she cannot sing or dance though. I think it is quite brave and risky casting, and she mostly pulls it off. You can see her really trying though! I really liked Arthur Darvill’s Oscar, actually believable too in his actions, particularly well played by both of them in the restaurant/diner scene.
It was a ragged show - the band (playing from the first floor bar) sound great, some of the moves are quite rather angular (and not very dancey), but the crazy Andy Warhol dance was good as well as the group numbers. The low tech look worked in places - but if you are going to use an overhead projector, or weird neon Coney Island models you could actually be more inventive with them. NOT going for a full on song and dance spectacular actually worked for me. Rhythm of Life was too short though. Wanted an Adrian Lester reprise!
4/5 from me, but not as good as Josie Rouke’s stylish direction of City of Angels.
PS Thanks to Ryan for the hairy chest spot, very nice indeed. Glad you have been of service!
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Post by theatresnob on Apr 20, 2019 11:27:27 GMT
What do I do with my 4 standing room tickets for tonight that I can’t use?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2019 11:34:23 GMT
What do I do with my 4 standing room tickets for tonight that I can’t use? I presume the Donmar might be able to give you an answer to that question? Otherwise there is the noticeboard for selling/giving away. |
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Post by winonaforever on Apr 20, 2019 11:40:48 GMT
I was there last night, Row B of the stalls, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I've never seen Anne Marie Duff before (except about 10 times in The Magdalene Sisters!) so didn't really know what to expect, but her voice was stronger than I'd been led to believe (she's not your average MT performer of course) and her acting more than made up for it.
I wouldn't have enjoyed watching someone I disliked/couldn't care about as Charity, but I found her very loveable.
I loved Lizzy Connolly as always, and it was nice to see Lauren Drew and Charlotte Jaconelli, haven't seen either of them since Heathers. Adrian Lester went down VERY well with the audience too!
I'm going again in a few weeks, unfortunately sitting in the circle next time, but it will be interesting to see it from a different angle...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2019 12:14:01 GMT
What do I do with my 4 standing room tickets for tonight that I can’t use? If it’s sold out the Donmar may take them as returns and refund you if they sell. Worth popping in or calling them to ask |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2019 15:42:25 GMT
What do I do with my 4 standing room tickets for tonight that I can’t use? If it’s sold out the Donmar may take them as returns and refund you if they sell. Worth popping in or calling them to ask I’d do it sooner rather than later. I had a spare but I didn’t get there until 6.50pm and they didn’t sell it. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2019 20:22:39 GMT
Seeing the show this week reminded me of this one. If Anne-Marie had done this version, the show would have been sensational. I've been singing this song all day. In this arrangement.
It will become my first single release.
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8,103 posts
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Post by alece10 on Apr 20, 2019 20:29:50 GMT
Seeing the show this week reminded me of this one. If Anne-Marie had done this version, the show would have been sensational. I've been singing this song all day. In this arrangement.
It will become my first single release.
Thank you so much for digging that song up. I've not heard it for so long. It was a big hit when I was a holiday rep in Greece and for 3 minutes I was back there in my youth. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2019 23:34:08 GMT
The least charitable part of me wants to be all sorts of scathing about the tiny fairground and the LED gloves, someone rinsing their suspender belt on stage and an overhead projector used as a lift. AMD hit some of the notes and not always in the right order. But she made me tear up out of nowhere when she got to ‘To think the highest brow which I must say is she/ Should pick the lowest brow which there's no doubt is me’ in the middle of ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now.’ Did not see that one coming. Pretty much every criticism on here is valid. And every bit of praise is true. AMD sells it like the rent is due and I am glad I saw it. What an odd show. Very lovely to meet my first ‘live’ theatreboarder in the interval Being Alive. You were right to stay in the circle. I thought I was going to lose an eye when she got that ribbon twirler out. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2019 7:28:30 GMT
I thought this was great. Seemed to me the concept (similar to the Donmar Shakespeare trilogy) is we are watching the Exploding Plastic Inevitable production of "Sweet Charity" put on by the denizens of Warhol's Factory one day.  This is made clear by what's going on pre-show with them sitting around listening to the Velvet Underground, watching "Empire State", until one writes the opening title card up and they kick off the show. I think perhaps they could have made a bit more of this to be clearer this is key to what is happening rather than just the ensemble hanging around on stage. So we have the set based on the Factory  various Warhol artworks - the paintings of Vittorio, the Brillo pad boxes etc  everyone in Andy wigs, stripy t-shirts etc. Plus the staging is done using the type of technology they would have had available - particularly the OHP elevator which I thought was brilliant. And Anne Marie Duff isn't the greatest singer but she's playing Edie Sedgwick playing Charity, so this is fine  Has anyone been sitting in Circle A5-6 for this production already? I am really worried about the sightlines. Never been in the Donmar's Circle Sat in the equivalent seats on the high-numbered side last night - it's absolutely fine. Most of the action is staged in the middle of the stage and you have a clear view. Only thing you'll miss is that in some of the big ensemble numbers you wan't see all of the dancers, but that's only brief moments. |
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1,083 posts
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Post by andrew on Apr 21, 2019 8:55:21 GMT
Just to continue my grump about this, the overhead projector thing everyone's commenting on would have been really cool in my view if they'd actually done it. Instead they have a prop projector and hung up on the edge of the circle they use a digital projector to fake the image on the screen. I presume with the other elements of lighting the OHP wasn't bright enough to be seen, although I would have thought that would be a surmountable problem.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2019 12:23:23 GMT
This is an inspired interpretation @xanderl
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Post by winonaforever on Apr 21, 2019 14:26:46 GMT
AMD hit some of the notes and not always in the right order. But she made me tear up out of nowhere when she got to ‘To think the highest brow which I must say is she/ Should pick the lowest brow which there's no doubt is me’ in the middle of ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now.’ Did not see that one coming. Me too. I've heard that song hundreds of times and it's never made me cry before! |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2019 8:19:46 GMT
Just realised that one of the chorus (Jo Eaton Kent) is also in Don’t Forget Your Driver. Multi-talented!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2019 10:12:01 GMT
Just realised that one of the chorus (Jo Eaton Kent) is also in Don’t Forget Your Driver. Multi-talented! I didn't realise till afterward that the dancehall manager is played by Ian from The Archers. |
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632 posts
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Post by jek on Apr 22, 2019 10:22:22 GMT
Anyone who is interested in Warhol might enjoy the exhibition currently on at the House of Illustration in King's Cross. It about the work of Corita Kent, a Catholic nun and educator who was inspired by Warhol. I have a longstanding interest in her work and have quite a few of her prints around my house (from over a decade ago when they were cheaper to get hold of) and so may be a bit biased, but they are just so optimistic. www.houseofillustration.org.uk/whats-on/current-future-events/corita-kent-power-up/ |
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