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Post by theatrelover123 on Apr 11, 2019 23:30:32 GMT
25th September 2019 to 11th January 2020.
Stephen Mangan and Kara Tointon return to the West End to star in the world premiere of the classic Ealing comedy THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, adapted and directed by Sean Foley.
When Sidney Stratton (Stephen Mangan), invents a fabric that never gets dirty and never wears out, manufacturers and trades unions are terrified by the threat it poses to their industry and their jobs. Only Daphne (Kara Tointon) the mill owner’s daughter, shows Sidney any support as the bosses and workers chase the Man in the White Suit determined to destroy them both. This fast-moving comedy reunites Stephen Mangan and Sean Foley who also created the Olivier award-winning production Jeeves and Wooster.
Stephen Mangan’s many stage appearances include The Birthday Party, Jeeves and Wooster and The Norman Conquests, for which he received a Tony nomination. His many screen credits include the lead as Sean in Episodes for the BBC, and for the Bafta winning Green Wing.
Sean Foley’s many productions include most recently in the West End, The Dresser, The Miser and The Painkiller. He is a double Olivier award-winner and has recently appointed as the next Artistic Director at Birmingham Rep. For THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, he joins forces with Designer Michael Taylor, with whom he also created The Ladykillers.
Kara Tointon’s stage credits include Olivia in Twelfth Night for the RSC, Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking, and Absent Friends, and as Eliza in Pygmalion.
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Post by rosmersholm on Apr 12, 2019 0:01:06 GMT
Who’s producing, please?
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Post by Rory on Apr 12, 2019 0:01:17 GMT
I guess this means Blithe Spirit from Bath is going elsewhere mrbarnaby? |
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Post by Jon on Apr 12, 2019 1:06:34 GMT
I guess this means Blithe Spirit from Bath is going elsewhere mrbarnaby ? Maybe the Pinter, Garrick or Duke of York's? |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2019 6:58:47 GMT
I'm very interested in Stephen Mangan, just generally, but I can't say that the presence of Sean Foley is sparking any joy whatosever.
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Post by Rory on Apr 12, 2019 7:21:03 GMT
He did a good job with the Ladykillers, I thought. I'd imagine this may be in the same style.
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Post by MrsCondomine on Apr 12, 2019 10:47:52 GMT
Stephen Mangan's hair should win an Olivier.
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Post by Rory on Apr 12, 2019 16:41:50 GMT
Jenny King, Jonathan Church, Matthew Gale and Mark Goucher by special arrangement with Studio Canal. |
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Post by mrbarnaby on Apr 14, 2019 16:33:12 GMT
I guess this means Blithe Spirit from Bath is going elsewhere mrbarnaby ? Maybe the Pinter, Garrick or Duke of York's? I’m afraid I don’t know- last I heard was that it was booked for the Wyndhams! |
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Post by alicechallice on Apr 14, 2019 21:02:38 GMT
Maybe the Pinter, Garrick or Duke of York's? I’m afraid I don’t know- last I heard was that it was booked for the Wyndhams! I suppose if there were any schedule clashes for the cast in the autumn, it could be headed there after White Suit in the new year? Wyndham's does seem to be TRBath transfer central now. |
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Post by lynette on Apr 20, 2019 11:05:06 GMT
A comedy you say? The film was v bleak.
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Post by wickedgrin on Sept 28, 2019 10:46:36 GMT
Attended the first preview of this last night thanks to a Today Tix rush - £20 for row D in the Dress Circle! Excellent seat!
For a first preview with a very technical show it went almost without a hitch. The set is the star of the show being very inventive and holding many surprises. Superbly designed. Great costumes too.
This is really a farce (if you like farce you will love it - if you don't you won't - I do and I did) accompanied by an onstage skiffle band for various musical interludes - enjoyable but superfluous.
Stephen Mangan is very good in the lead - a very energetic performance - on stage virtually throughout, although he starts off a little manic which doesn't leave him anywhere to go. Kara Tointon is very good and it is a pleasure to see Sue Johnston on stage although a little wasted in her role.
An enjoyable evening which finished around 9.40 - so a running time including interval of about 2 hours - so it did not overstay its welcome. Light and frothy - very much in the style of The Ladykillers and One Man Two Guvnors! 4 wickedgrin stars.
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Post by edi on Sept 28, 2019 20:22:05 GMT
I'm considering getting day seats but the stage was reportedly very high for starry messenger. Is the Man in the WS staged on a revolve? |
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Post by wickedgrin on Sept 28, 2019 23:45:19 GMT
I'm considering getting day seats but the stage was reportedly very high for starry messenger. Is the Man in the WS staged on a revolve? No revolve and the stage did not look to be built up at all. |
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Post by sf on Sept 29, 2019 10:03:59 GMT
There may still be rear dress circle seats for £25 (basically half price) as part of Today Tix's 25 for 25 promotion. I booked one on Friday for a performance about three weeks from now.
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Post by musicalmarge on Oct 1, 2019 22:31:53 GMT
I saw this tonight and LEFT IN THE INTERVAL!!!
What total nonsense. What a dreadful comedy!
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Post by nash16 on Oct 2, 2019 0:49:40 GMT
The trailer makes it look appalling*...
What ARE they doing?!...
*but maybe it is...
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Post by NeilVHughes on Oct 4, 2019 22:04:25 GMT
Not sure what to really make of this, not funny enough to be a farce, and not serious enough to be a critique on environmental waste and built in obsolescence at the heart of capitalism and the Brexit references lacked subtlety and were slightly embarrassing.
Stephen Mangan did just about enough to keep me entertained and most of the laughs were after the interval but glad I didn’t pay full price.
If tempted to see it in the stalls sit toward the rear as a couple of scenes were difficult to see clearly from the first few rows, especially the dancing scene which was most probably the best part of the play.
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Post by Steve on Oct 5, 2019 11:36:29 GMT
For me, this works better as a variety show, than as a comedy, with the skiffle band a highlight, as is the superbly choreographed "dance" between Tointon and Mangan. Some spoilers follow. . . The problem is that the approach of the original Ealing Comedy was so gentle (Alec Guinness walks through rooms doing experiments, unnoticed by anybody) that it would fall flat on stage today, yet the effortful attempts to gussy it up (crotch-grabbing, explosions, unimaginative wordplay in which the name "Stratton" is rendered pointlessly and ineffectually as "Strat-Strat" a million times) feel discordant and desperate. This is not like Ealing's "The Lady Killers," in which the very idea of multiple villains trying to off an old lady was the opposite of gentle, and thus gave Sean Foley something vicious to bite his comic teeth into. Foley's solution to the comic lulls is the same one that worked to cover Harry Hill's comic misfires in "I Can't Sing:" stage the whole thing as a never-ending Variety show. It's not just the skiffle band, which pumps sugary joy into sour comic moments, it's also the dancing (there is even a little tap), it's the singing (the entire cast often join in), and it's also the post-modern way Kara Tointon turns Rory Bremner style impressionist of posh accents, doing a little bit of Margaret Thatcher here, a little bit of the Queen there, but mostly doing early Francesca Annis, back when she played the posh and flighty, airy and above-it-all, Tuppence of the much-missed "Partners in Crime" Tommy-and-Tuppence Agatha Christie series. Tointon floats through scenes with such an air of faux concern that you lose complete track of her (boring) plot points and focus entirely on the pastiche of her performance. I laughed, and I laughed even louder when this ultra-fake character reprised her Strictly Come Dancing manouevres in a superbly choregraphed dance with an ultra-determined Mangan, hilariously attached to the plot. The plot actually kicks in when the villain, Richard Durden's Sir John, shows up in the second half. Frankly, it is only when he shows up, half Doctor Strangelove, half Ernest Thesiger in the Bride of Frankenstein, that the plot gets seriously funny. Everything the imperious yet wild and scatty Durden does vitalises the show, giving Mangan a foil to justify all his silly antics. For this reason, the second half is in fact quite funny. Overall, this show has enough elements in it to make for an entertaining variety show. 3 stars from me.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2019 12:24:09 GMT
Given the current situation surely a better bet for stage version of an Ealing comedy would be Passport to Pimlico. Borders, trade negotiations, post war austerity, could make it a timely re-examination.
EDIT: Just googled it and there was a version in 2000 by Giles Croft (who also worked on The 39 Steps and The Ladykillers).
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Post by wickedgrin on Oct 5, 2019 15:26:20 GMT
It will be interesting to see what the reviews are like for this. Press night is Tuesday I think. Not a must see and only at a discount in my view.
I enjoyed it for what it was - very light and frothy but can completely understand people not liking it at all.
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Post by edi on Oct 5, 2019 17:50:33 GMT
I enjoyed it very much yesterday. The background is that my other half is an Ealing Studios fun and we have a DVD collection of their movies. Passport to Pimlico is the favourite and this is the second best, in my opinion. Therefore we were very much anticipating this play and we didn't want to miss it.
I liked how it used a variety of tools to tell the story. It was very funny at times (second part more than the first, especially when the old industrialist comes into the scene). It also has some serious message in it, albeit tells it in a lighthearted way. They use a band, tap dancing, singing, breaking the 4th wall. There is also a unique way of telling the "mob chasing the character" part
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The cast is brilliant, they come across as if they were enjoying themselves very much.
So I had a great evening. I can imagine that it may not please everyone, maybe it is not serious theatre, too lighthearted. But I was thoroughly entertained.
We were sitting front row and albeit i love being that close to the action and seeing the actors' faces, it wasn't the best seat. The stage is not high at all but stage furniture sometimes blocked the view. Never too bad but worth mentioning. The famous dance scene is on a raised platform and it was very much restricted from our seats. I recon even punters in the first 5-6 rows struggled to see it properly. However it wasn't a big issue for us, the scene is short and the actors came to the front most of it, but it wasn't the best view.
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Post by dlevi on Oct 8, 2019 8:41:25 GMT
I saw this last night and had a terrific time. Great? no. But a slid evening of light comedy, broad farce and inventive staging. Stephen Mangan is terrific in the title role and I basically loved the farcical approach whic Sean Foley took to the material. The design elements are great fun as well. I'd easily recommend this to friends - though not worth a premium price, it is a good time.
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Post by theatrelover123 on Oct 8, 2019 12:37:53 GMT
I saw this last night and had a terrific time. Great? no. But a slid evening of light comedy, broad farce and inventive staging. Stephen Mangan is terrific in the title role and I basically loved the farcical approach whic Sean Foley took to the material. The design elements are great fun as well. I'd easily recommend this to friends - though not worth a premium price, it is a good time. Oh that's a shame. I prefer my comedy broad and my farce light so I don't think it will work  |
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Post by lonlad on Oct 8, 2019 21:59:01 GMT
Just back from opening night and it's as poor as I had been led to believe, if not worse. The whole thing feels padded, the music is unnecessary and obviously coasting on the style of ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS (which was incomparably better, needless to say), and there's the lamest Brexit joke imaginable. I love Stephen Mangan but he deserves so much better and the supporting cast is largely abysmal *Richard Cordery especially, poor chap, having just been rather good onscreen in JUDY. Oh well.
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