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Post by n1david on Jul 12, 2018 14:54:17 GMT
Loving this tweet...
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Post by woobl on Jul 12, 2018 15:00:16 GMT
I don't think I could really get away from the fact that every time Zubin Varla came on he kept making me think of Eugene Levy. YES!!! That’s who it was. I knew he reminded me of someone but couldn’t work out who it was. Thanks for insticking my mental block. For me it was Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs... |
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Post by sf on Jul 12, 2018 16:01:47 GMT
Or, What I Did Yesterday Afternoon.
I loved it - it's beautifully written and staged (and I think, based on production photographs, not precisely a reproduction of Sam Gold's earlier not-in-the-round stagings of it at the Public Theater in New York and on tour), quietly subtle triumph. It creeps up on you, and the last half-hour or so is very, very moving indeed. Lovely music (though relatively few "takeaway tunes" if that's important to you), and superb performances. Kaisa Hammarlund is as right for this as she was wrong for Sweet Charity, Zubin Varla is a revelation (except his accent seems to be closer to Boston than anywhere in Pennsylvania), and Jenna Russell's Helen is a masterpiece of restraint. Her big scene is devastating, all the more so because she's so buttoned-down. As far as I'm concerned it's an exceptional piece of theatre (though I think Caroline, or Change is probably Jeanine Tesori's masterpiece), and I'm very glad I get to see it again before it closes.
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Post by latefortheoverture on Jul 12, 2018 16:55:32 GMT
Has there been any hints or news about this transferring?
I’m desperate to see it but I don’t think I have the time to get round to it- which is why I have everything crossed at a transfer!!
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Post by argon on Jul 12, 2018 17:39:23 GMT
With all the awards this won I was slightly surprised @ how much I didn't take to this. Maybe it's a case of fluid in my ears but vocally,I thought a few of the cast wrestled with the score. It seemed like it was more difficult to sing than one might think.
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Post by bordeaux on Jul 13, 2018 12:14:21 GMT
I really enjoyed this. Superb production and lovely performances, and I had listened to the CDs four or five times, so was into the music already. I always do this as no music is as good on first listen as it is on fifth or tenth; the editing was clever enough so that there were major plot points that were new to me when I saw the show which I hadn't picked up from the recording. I do agree with those who say there are only three or four really good songs there, but in performance the whole thing works well. For me the standout song is 'I'm changing my major to Joan', which is the one I'm humming today. One difficulty with the recording is that a fair amount of it is for American children's voices, which can grate (it can be an issue with parts of Caroline too), but that wasn't an issue on stage for me.
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Post by Mark on Jul 13, 2018 21:00:57 GMT
This is such a great production and a very special show. Saw it in New York three years ago and really loved it, and so was very excited to see it again.
Got very lucky with lucky dip and a great seat about 6 rows back. Everyone on lucky dip got a seat it looked like.
Worked very well end-on having seen it previously in the round. The reveal of the house when Joan enters is quite something and drew gasps from the audience. It was that feeling of being invited into someone’s house for the first time.
The performances were excellent. I really got into the show again and just the way it is constructed is extremely clever and works so well. I love the way there are three Alison’s.
Telephone Wire - my favourite part - so simple yet so effective.
I really hope this gets a limited transfer, it will be extremely well deserved if it does.
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Post by zak97 on Jul 13, 2018 22:24:18 GMT
Would the Ambassadors be a good transfer location for this? If Bank Robbery closes, the Criterion, but I haven’t seen the production yet so such venues may be inappropriate.
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7,052 posts
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Post by Jon on Jul 13, 2018 22:30:50 GMT
Would the Ambassadors be a good transfer location for this? If Bank Robbery closes, the Criterion, but I haven’t seen the production yet so such venues may be inappropriate. The Garrick would be good as it did hold the last Young Vic musical The Scottsboro Boys, they need to be big enough to be able to make any money but small enough to keep the intimacy. |
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 14, 2018 7:10:14 GMT
For me it was Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs... glad it wasn't just me. I was waiting for him to say "Was she a really big fat person?" |
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Post by nash16 on Jul 14, 2018 14:47:00 GMT
Would the Ambassadors be a good transfer location for this? If Bank Robbery closes, the Criterion, but I haven’t seen the production yet so such venues may be inappropriate. This is definitely transferring as they've staged it Proscenium arch at the Young Vic. If they weren't going to move it they'd have kept it's in-the-round/square staging from New York, which I feel worked better than this format as it was less distancing. Ambassadors would be a great choice for the move. |
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Post by squidward on Jul 14, 2018 15:40:18 GMT
I wonder about how well a transfer would fare.It’s definitely a niche musical. Somehow I find it hard to imagine it finding a wide audience. I could be wrong but I think anything other than a limited run could be a hard sell (I’m thinking of what happened with Spring Awakening as a parallel).
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Post by david on Jul 14, 2018 16:04:50 GMT
Having watched this at today’s matinee. All I can say is after waiting for a year to see this and not having read the graphic novel before hand, I LOVED IT. The whole production for me was faultless. It struck a great balance of both of humour ( the FUN HOUSE / funeral parlour scene with the kids was so funny with how it was staged and the way the kids did the song) and emotional heartache with Jenna Russell’s rendition of Days and Days which really breaks your heart.
Of the 3 Alisons, it took a while for me to warm to the medium version, though by the time she sings Changing my major, she had won me over.
I loved the non-linear time line aspect of the story allowing you glimpses into her changing relationship with her Dad over the years. The fact that there was no clear conclusion for me wasn’t an issue and I felt the ending of the show really was just part of a much longer journey for the real Alison and how she comes to terms with her relationship with her Dad.
The use of the cartoon/ animation was both simple and effective. While I would of liked to have seen more, the simplicity of using a solo cartoon was far more effective in conveying the emotions of Alison at the end rather than a montage.
With respect to the musical score, upon first hearing it I was unsure on how I felt about it. Some songs I loved like Days and Days, but others like Telephone Wire, it took a little longer to get into. It was only after watching the show and being able to put the score into some context within the show like Telephone Wire, it gave me a much greater appreciation for the score as a whole.
The reveal of the house was very impressive. If it wasn’t on stage, I could happily live there myself to be honest.
Overall, a great afternoons entertainment, and it was one of those shows that lived up to its hype. A 5* production without question. I’m definitely going to purchase the graphic novel now which surprisingly wasn’t on sale at the theatre as far as I could see.
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Post by nash16 on Jul 14, 2018 16:15:00 GMT
I wonder about how well a transfer would fare.It’s definitely a niche musical. Somehow I find it hard to imagine it finding a wide audience. I could be wrong but I think anything other than a limited run could be a hard sell (I’m thinking of what happened with Spring Awakening as a parallel). It will definitely be a limited run. As you say it wouldn't survive anything open ended. 8-10 weeks. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2018 20:57:05 GMT
Just finished listening to the OBC for the first time. Honestly, I think I got more out of that than the actual show. Somehow the characters on the CD are reverberating more deeply with me than on stage. May be the absence of visuals or something, but the music and lyric just seem deeper and more significant on disc. Odd. Maybe it's because you know how they fit in within the context of the show. Now you can really hear and listen to the lyrics and think about what they mean now you've seen the show on stage. |
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Post by shady23 on Jul 14, 2018 22:03:51 GMT
I wonder about how well a transfer would fare.It’s definitely a niche musical. Somehow I find it hard to imagine it finding a wide audience. I could be wrong but I think anything other than a limited run could be a hard sell (I’m thinking of what happened with Spring Awakening as a parallel). It will definitely be a limited run. As you say it wouldn't survive anything open ended. 8-10 weeks. Jake Gyllenhaal was in tonight and had his photo with the cast. That's got to be good for business! |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2018 22:40:11 GMT
Jake Gyllenhaal was in tonight and had his photo with the cast. That's got to be good for business! What would be good for business?
Jake playing Bruce in the West End transfer |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2018 23:07:13 GMT
Jake Gyllenhaal was in tonight and had his photo with the cast. That's got to be good for business! What would be good for business?
Jake playing Bruce in the West End transfer Interesting to contemplate. After seeing his Seurat, I think he could pull it off. |
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Post by nash16 on Jul 14, 2018 23:49:08 GMT
What would be good for business?
Jake playing Bruce in the West End transfer Interesting to contemplate. After seeing his Seurat, I think he could pull it off. Ryan said he could pull it off too, if I remember rightly... |
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Post by stagebyte on Jul 15, 2018 0:45:22 GMT
.[/quote]Jake Gyllenhaal was in tonight and had his photo with the cast.
That's got to be good for business!
[/quote]
I was there too. He must’ve been very discreet sneaking in and out or in disguise. Never saw him. DAMN!
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Post by stagebyte on Jul 15, 2018 0:49:50 GMT
Just finished listening to the OBC for the first time. Honestly, I think I got more out of that than the actual show. Somehow the characters on the CD are reverberating more deeply with me than on stage. May be the absence of visuals or something, but the music and lyric just seem deeper and more significant on disc. Odd. The Monkey has articulated my feelings exactly! Saw this tonight and really really enjoyed it but couldn’t quite put my finger on why I wasn’t more moved as I had been when I listened to the CD. The CD I feel is similar to a radio play and your imagination fills in the blanks. Perhaps that’s it? Very strong cast although I did feel Medium Joan whilst encapsulating the awkwardness of youth perfectly struggled with the vocals a little at times. |
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Post by frankubelik on Jul 15, 2018 7:23:20 GMT
Nobody in the London cast is a patch vocally on their New York counterparts. I remain amazed that no reviewers picked up on the poor musicality of this, well, musical.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2018 9:05:27 GMT
Nobody in the London cast is a patch vocally on their New York counterparts. I remain amazed that no reviewers picked up on the poor musicality of this, well, musical. I would agree with this with the exception of young Alison. I thought she did a fantastic job and was on a par with those on the OBCR. I concur with all of the positive responses on here, the house reveal was everything. The story deeply moving, especially for those of us who are lucky enough to be our true selves today. Despite listening to the song repeatedly over the last few months, I welled up during Ring of Keys as Alison’s “coming of age” moment when she finally recognised her sexuality. What a fantastic show, I pray this finds itself a (fun) home in the West End soon. |
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 15, 2018 15:17:44 GMT
This is definitely transferring as they've staged it Proscenium arch at the Young Vic. If they weren't going to move it they'd have kept it's in-the-round/square staging from New York, which I feel worked better than this format as it was less distancing. Ambassadors would be a great choice for the move. The original staging at the Public was how it's being staged at the YV. The US tour was the Public staging. The Circle in the Square Broadway staging is the anomaly, not the other way around and doesn't mean anything when it comes to transferring it or not. |
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Post by jgblunners on Jul 15, 2018 15:43:48 GMT
I saw this at the matinee yesterday, and while there were moments that were absolutely brilliant and brought me to the verge of tears, I felt that there was something missing. Firstly, I love Jeanine Tesori's style of composition - I'd heard snippets of the score beforehand and didn't really 'get' it, but as was the case with Caroline, Or Change I found that in the context of the show the music is genius. In particular, numbers like 'Ring of Keys' and 'Telephone Wire' that are all about the unspoken are brilliantly written. 'Come to the Fun Home' was hilarious and great fun, but the Partridge Family-style number was less convincing. The acting was for the most part very good - Cherelle Skeete pitched Joan perfectly and Jenna Russell did very well as Helen. Eleanor Kane was hilarious as Middle Alison, but seemed to keep returning to her hunched-over-grasping-at-the-air stance a little too often. The vocal performances were good but not outstanding - annoyingly, I felt that the strongest voice on stage was Ashley Samuels, who only got one number.
For me, the piece worked extremely well up until the last couple of scenes. All of the commentary on sexuality and familial relationships was presented excellently, but then there was no real conclusion. I understand that the whole point of the show is to examine the lack of closure that Alison has regarding her relationship with her father, but still I feel that for a stage show it needed something more concrete to finish on. Also, I loved the house reveal, but why did we need it? And why at that particular point in the show? Every scene up until that point has used the set to suggest environment rather than creating it explicitly, so why do we suddenly need to see it for real? I suppose that scene represents a very significant moment for Alison, but I'm still struggling to understand the reasons behind that particular choice.
3.5 stars from me.
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