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Post by stagebyte on Jun 13, 2022 20:14:01 GMT
Oh dear.
But I think some of his followers are deluded quite frankly.
(Posted here as it’s on a public forum of Twitter)
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Post by stagebyte on Jun 13, 2022 20:18:50 GMT
Also I think Phillippe (in the replies has a good point)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2022 20:40:06 GMT
He has said he intends to do a gig at Pizza Express no sorry he'll be waiting the tables during a gig there.
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Jun 13, 2022 20:41:13 GMT
^^^ This whole echo chamber on Twitter is why I decided to leave. In the end I got scared of this echo chamber which has only gotten worse. I have an account but only to tweet customer service departments on behalf of myself and family.
I can't stand ALW, I have no regrets not seeing this show. But the letter that was read out was just a hot mess and Laurence looked awkward.
Just hope this gets put to bed now. No producer in their right mind would pick this up.
Also - can we please stop with this snobbery about other jobs other than theatre? Tiresome and insulting. Pays the bills.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2022 20:43:48 GMT
This has been the new "Will Jessie be on tonight" we now only have the diverese recasting of the new version of Legally Blonde to go on about.
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Post by Mark on Jun 13, 2022 20:54:21 GMT
This has been the new "Will Jessie be on tonight" we now only have the diverese recasting of the new version of Legally Blonde to go on about. Jagged Little Pill can’t come quickly enough! |
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Post by mattnyc on Jun 13, 2022 20:58:01 GMT
This has been the new "Will Jessie be on tonight" we now only have the diverese recasting of the new version of Legally Blonde to go on about. Jagged Little Pill can’t come quickly enough! I’m getting offended and outraged just waiting to be offended and outraged by JLP. |
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Post by lolalou on Jun 13, 2022 21:25:52 GMT
This story just runs and runs
Lyricist David Zippel now weighing in.
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Post by lolalou on Jun 13, 2022 21:26:57 GMT
I’m here for it.
Think some of the cast clearly have their own agenda with ALW
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Post by stuartmcd on Jun 13, 2022 21:31:38 GMT
I need ALW’s next volume of his autobiography now please!
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Post by stagebyte on Jun 13, 2022 21:39:50 GMT
I need ALW’s next volume of his autobiography now please! Was thinking the same but the next one has to cover Evita, Sunset and Phantom, Think this will be Volume 3 all on its own |
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Post by chernjam on Jun 14, 2022 1:49:23 GMT
I need ALW’s next volume of his autobiography now please! Was thinking the same but the next one has to cover Evita, Sunset and Phantom, Think this will be Volume 3 all on its own honestly I was more interested in volume 2 (and now 3) than the initial one  |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 14, 2022 4:28:42 GMT
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Post by theatregod on Jun 14, 2022 7:03:59 GMT
Don’t understand the hate towards ALW.
He takes risks as a creative person yes, but how many people has he employed these last 4/5 decades or so.
He has helped thousands in the uk or abroad earn a wage from the musical theatre industry…. These tech staff, cast, box office staff, musicians etc. have gained not only a career, but benifited from the wage/employment. Many have gotten married, managed to invest in property, paid off their mortgages, put their kids through uni..etc. and leaped into further roles with other companies….so feels slightly unfair to rip him to bits and treat him like a criminal..!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 14, 2022 7:16:22 GMT
Don’t understand the hate towards ALW. He takes risks as a creative person yes, but how many people has he employed these last 4/5 decades or so. He has helped thousands in the uk or abroad earn a wage from the musical theatre industry…. These tech staff, cast, box office staff, musicians etc. have gained not only a career, but benifited from the wage/employment. Many have gotten married, managed to invest in property, paid off their mortgages, put their kids through uni..etc. and leaped into further roles with other companies….so feels slightly unfair to rip him to bits and treat him like a criminal..! I think when he released his autobiography a few years ago, and had several shows running concurrently in the WE he was pretty golden on here. There was a lot of positivity about him. Seems that Cinderella and the changes to POTO have undermined much of that good will. And we (as a society) do enjoy building people up and knocking them down if we think they’re getting too big for their boots don’t we? Sadly it’s got to the point where some of the arguments against him are just tired repetition. Some folk have taken against him and are apparently never going to give him a break on anything now. It’s a shame really. |
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Post by ladidah on Jun 14, 2022 7:49:38 GMT
I imagine blame is on both sides.
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Post by singingbird on Jun 14, 2022 7:57:14 GMT
Don’t understand the hate towards ALW. He takes risks as a creative person yes, but how many people has he employed these last 4/5 decades or so. He has helped thousands in the uk or abroad earn a wage from the musical theatre industry…. These tech staff, cast, box office staff, musicians etc. have gained not only a career, but benifited from the wage/employment. Many have gotten married, managed to invest in property, paid off their mortgages, put their kids through uni..etc. and leaped into further roles with other companies….so feels slightly unfair to rip him to bits and treat him like a criminal..! I think when he released his autobiography a few years ago, and had several shows running concurrently in the WE he was pretty golden on here. There was a lot of positivity about him. Seems that Cinderella and the changes to POTO have undermined much of that good will. And we (as a society) do enjoy building people up and knocking them down if we think they’re getting too big for their boots don’t we? Sadly it’s got to the point where some of the arguments against him are just tired repetition. Some folk have taken against him and are apparently never going to give him a break on anything now. It’s a shame really. Exactly this. From my armchair position, it seems like there's been some pretty shocking behaviour on both cast, management and creative sides, but I won't comment on any individuals because, honestly, no one who wasn't in the room actually knows - and those who are in the room are only in one of many rooms at a given point, so only know one side of a many-faceted story. We're being fed gossip by social media platforms, sometimes by people who are excellent at it, other times by people who are trying hard but use the platforms inelegantly or clumsily - and everyone is being whipped up into a frenzy. It's like gossip being passed around a school playground - enjoyable but ultimately just a lot of hot air. People just love to build folks up and then knock them down, forgetting every single one of these people is a person, with feelings, family and a private life. I honestly don't know how anyone - creative or performer - survives in showbusiness, and it's getting worse year by year. Can you imagine how Judy Garland, say, would have coped if social media had been around during her career? God knows, I have many problems with this show from an artistic standpoint, but it feels like the show itself has almost become secondary to every other consideration. But ALW is so interesting - he has almost no ability to gauge what's a good idea and what's a bad one - both in terms of his public persona and, certainly since the turn of the century, in as to what works on stage. He, and his shows, have veered between being critically reappraised in a very positive way, with him being seen as a semi national treasure, to being vilified, with him as the real-life equivalent of a pantomime villain. Someone people love to hate. The fact he brings it on himself is so strange - I wonder if he has the ability to sail through anything relatively oblivious and unscathed. If so, he's lucky! |
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Post by scarpia on Jun 14, 2022 9:24:47 GMT
Sadly it’s got to the point where some of the arguments against him are just tired repetition. Some folk have taken against him and are apparently never going to give him a break on anything now. It’s a shame really. I think it's only repetition because what ALW does when hyping up each show excessively with hyperbolic - and sometimes nonsensical - statements has become so tired, repetitive and predictable itself. We've seen this play out show after the show since Sunset, including before the age of social media. He writes a score and then hands it to a lyricist who will take orders but he won't collaborate with (so forget about changing any note of the score). He says it is the best thing he's ever done. The marketing/producing aspect post-Cameron is a bit dodge. People query/question it, and ALW gets defensive and lashes out. Then it opens cold in the West End without a proper try-out or series of workshops to improve the material, because ALW or someone at RUG is still convinced he's at the peak of his career and the 90s/00s/10s didn't happen and he still has the Midas touch of the 70s/80s. So then it opens cold in the West End and it's weak. People say so. ALW sulks and then does a rewrite and a re-opening and says that he was never happy with it to begin with. But the damage is done and the changes are superficial and don't address core structural problems. ALW says it's amazing and will go to Broadway and open everywhere in the world at once. The show closes a few months later. ALW gives a ridiculous hyperbolic statement and blames ever y single thing it is possible to blame (potentially including other creatives/cast) other than himself. ALW says Broadway is going to happen. It doesn't. Eventually it's forgotten about. Then 2-3 years pass and ALW says he was never happy with the show and he shouldn't have produced it and should have stuck to being the composer. Then the entire experience is forgotten and we go through this drama all over again. Nothing is learned. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2022 9:57:51 GMT
Then it opens cold in the West End without a proper try-out or series of workshops to improve the material I think that's a big problem with many shows. No matter how high your opinion of yourself or your work, there's no substitute for getting feedback from people who are seeing it for the first time. I get the impression that some creatives think themselves too important to open in the mere regions with all the nobodies. |
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Post by inthenose on Jun 14, 2022 10:00:15 GMT
I think it's only repetition because what ALW does when hyping up each show excessively with hyperbolic - and sometimes nonsensical - statements has become so tired, repetitive and predictable itself. We've seen this play out show after the show since Sunset, including before the age of social media. He writes a score and then hands it to a lyricist who will take orders but he won't collaborate with (so forget about changing any note of the score). He says it is the best thing he's ever done. The marketing/producing aspect post-Cameron is a bit dodge. People query/question it, and ALW gets defensive and lashes out. Then it opens cold in the West End without a proper try-out or series of workshops to improve the material, because ALW or someone at RUG is still convinced he's at the peak of his career and the 90s/00s/10s didn't happen and he still has the Midas touch of the 70s/80s. So then it opens cold in the West End and it's weak. People say so. ALW sulks and then does a rewrite and a re-opening and says that he was never happy with it to begin with. But the damage is done and the changes are superficial and don't address core structural problems. ALW says it's amazing and will go to Broadway and open everywhere in the world at once. The show closes a few months later. ALW gives a ridiculous hyperbolic statement and blames ever y single thing it is possible to blame (potentially including other creatives/cast) other than himself. ALW says Broadway is going to happen. It doesn't. Eventually it's forgotten about. Then 2-3 years pass and ALW says he was never happy with the show and he shouldn't have produced it and should have stuck to being the composer. Then the entire experience is forgotten and we go through this drama all over again. Nothing is learned. It is exactly as you say. "It is my finest work" he will announce to the press, shortly followed by the failure of the show and blaming everyone else; Jack O'Brien, Patti LuPone, the lyricist, the tea lady... this has happened about six times. That said, the sheer awfulness of the personalities of several cast members is making me root for him (somehow) simply because the opposite side are even worse. It's like choosing to be stung by a wasp on the nose or whether to be kicked in the nuts. Can't ever forgive what he has done to "Phantom" and he is, most of us agree, woefully incompetent at producing theatre - but three of his shows are in my top 5 ever, so I respect his brilliance at composing a book musical. Isn't it telling that the best performance in the cast (by miles) Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, has been the picture of professionalism, decorum and class. |
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Post by carriesparkle on Jun 14, 2022 10:14:38 GMT
I'm fascinated about the way Summer Strallen has become part of this, though; she was his Chosen One for a while (the whole Hollyoaks set-up before going into The Sound of Music, and then so much of the Love Never Dies promo was centred on her). She must know him pretty well.
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Post by inthenose on Jun 14, 2022 10:50:04 GMT
This really is magical stuff. Much more interesting than the show was.
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Post by cezbear on Jun 14, 2022 11:00:09 GMT
This really is magical stuff. Much more interesting than the show was. What... what is he doing?! Trying hard to imagine any of the talented, established performers I actually respect carrying on like this. Even CHF - God bless her - with her often problematic social media use, doesn't carry (hah!) on like this. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jun 14, 2022 11:11:48 GMT
Having looked a little more into the background of the person who is now dominating this thread (I know I said we should ignore him but it is hard to do) and a few things pop out.
I had assumed from his behaviour that he was someone newish to the profession. But no. He left Mountview 7 years ago and so has had the time to learn the ways of theatre.
He is in his early 30s yet carries on like a teenager. If he had been fresh out of drama school then some of this could be down to the folly of youth.
I don't want to play the amateur psychologist but it is tempting to see this desire for attention is perhaps driven by the realisation that opportunities for chorus boys in their 30s are only going to diminish and that if you haven't had your big break by now, the chances of it happening are also diminishing.
Either way, he is old enough to know better.
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Post by ladidah on Jun 14, 2022 11:13:23 GMT
That made me visibly cringe.
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