Preludes - Southwark Playhouse

[musicalmarge]

The reviews for this have been sensational! 4 and 5 stars from all!

[ftfadia]

I was torn about this one, there was a lot to appreciate about the work and the interpretation of the story. None of the performances were bad and some were really powerful (Georgia Louise's voice is like heaven!).

At the same time, I didn't actually *enjoy* watching it from moment to moment and after it was over I felt like I could take it or leave it, it just didn't do anything for me. Forget who called it "GCSE-edgy" in this thread but that was spot on for me.

Glad I saw it as I was very curious ahead of time but I wouldn't see it again, wouldn't recommend it, and would probably be dissuaded if I saw some of the auspices announced in something else 

[JJShaw]

Sept 16, 2019 15:16:51 GMT ftfadia said:

I was torn about this one, there was a lot to appreciate about the work and the interpretation of the story. None of the performances were bad and some were really powerful (Georgia Louise's voice is like heaven!).

At the same time, I didn't actually *enjoy* watching it from moment to moment and after it was over I felt like I could take it or leave it, it just didn't do anything for me. Forget who called it "GCSE-edgy" in this thread but that was spot on for me.

Glad I saw it as I was very curious ahead of time but I wouldn't see it again, wouldn't recommend it, and would probably be dissuaded if I saw some of the auspices announced in something else 

I think it was me who described it that way, not meaning to be an aggressive insult with it but just couldn't get the right articulation in my words to describe it.

Sounds like you had a similar response to it, I too felt very take it or leave it. Glad it's getting positive reviews though because it is nice to have new works push the boundaries on art, and good reviews will encourage others to go and try it. Just a shame that its not across the board enjoyable for those... well across this board..!

[Mr Snow]

Sept 11, 2019 9:09:12 GMT jampot said:

Can anyone inform me who the masked red caped character was? Think in second half....

One of Chaliapins most famous roles was playing the title character in Boito's Mephistopheles.
That's what it looked like to me and as with the rest of the 'facts' presented, the author took off from there.



We enjoyed the production in many ways but found the new music entirely unmemorable.  Which of course is a problem when there some famous bits woven in. As someone above, said no attempt was made to allow us to emphasize with "Rach"(sic). Overall it seemed a very interesting fail.

Last night's show just about half full.

[araminta18]

So I got tickets for Six tomorrow night, at 6:00pm. I really want to see Preludes, but to get from Six to Preludes seems like at least 20 minutes. Does Preludes do late seating? Would I miss a ton if I came in 10 min or so late?

[Mark]

Sept 18, 2019 17:55:34 GMT araminta18 said:

So I got tickets for Six tomorrow night, at 6:00pm. I really want to see Preludes, but to get from Six to Preludes seems like at least 20 minutes. Does Preludes do late seating? Would I miss a ton if I came in 10 min or so late?

I doubt Southwark would allow late seating as the audience entrance is also used by the cast. No way you'd get there in time, probably not even in a taxi.
 

[lonlad]

Mark is right. Not remotely possible. You'll have to see PRELUDES another night, I guess.

[intoanewlife]

Not gonna happen x

[araminta18]

Bummer. Tomorrow’s our last night in town and I was hoping. Oh well!

[lonlad]

Tonight's performance has been cancelled -- illness in the cast.

[TallPaul]

There you are then, araminta18. Unfortunate, but dilemma solved. You can enjoy Six without wondering what might have been!

[juicy_but_terribly_drab]

Oh God I hope they're all better by Saturday. This is meant to be my last show before I go back to Uni on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it.

[Deleted]

Sept 19, 2019 12:44:33 GMT juicy_but_terribly_drab said:

Oh God I hope they're all better by Saturday. This is meant to be my last show before I go back to Uni on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it.

They said this on twitter so looks like you should be OK

Also - the post-show talk scheduled for tonight will now be on Monday

[juicy_but_terribly_drab]

Sept 19, 2019 13:52:27 GMT @xanderl said:

Sept 19, 2019 12:44:33 GMT juicy_but_terribly_drab said:

Oh God I hope they're all better by Saturday. This is meant to be my last show before I go back to Uni on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it.

They said this on twitter so looks like you should be OK

Also - the post-show talk scheduled for tonight will now be on Monday

Thanks, that's comforting.

[intoanewlife]

Going on Monday now. Hope everyone is ok x

[Rukaya]

[juicy_but_terribly_drab]

I'm here right now so fingers crossed she's been given enough preparation! It's a shame because I was looking forward to seeing Georgia Louise who looked really good in the few clips on YouTube but I'm sure Hannah will be brilliant as well and I'll report back in a bit with my opinions (which will hopefully be good because I've had a couple of disappointments this week and this is my last show before moving back to uni).

[juicy_but_terribly_drab]

At the interval and so far she's really great. She had a couple of tiny mistakes in her song before the interval but they wouldn't be noticeable if I hadn't already listened to the cast recording so many times. Other than that I'm in love with this show which is such a relief as I wasn't sure considering the mixed reception on here and this may in fact be one of my favourites this whole year if the second act keeps things up (and some of my favourite parts are in the second act so I don't see this getting any worse). I'm so pleased!

[juicy_but_terribly_drab]

All I can really say is wow. I struggle to articulate what made me fall so in love with this musical but something about the music just speaks to me and this production completely fulfilled all my expectations for it and even blew them away! The lighting design, sound design, vocals, acting, direction - everything was perfect. I might have to come back and see it again. Maybe this can be my birthday treat. I'll feel guilty coming down after only a couple of weeks but this was so good it might just justify it.

[AddisonMizner]

I too saw today’s matinee.

Unfortunately, I did not have the same experience with the material as the poster above. I am all for experimental theatre, but this for me was just plain weird! Can someone please explain to me what that awful devil “loop” number was at the beginning of Act Two? It was probably one huge metaphor, but was completely lost on me I’m afraid. It felt like a very long afternoon, and would have worked better as one act.

Also, this isn’t really a musical. Yes, there is lots of music, but the songs do not thrust the story or characters forward. If you took out the songs, and just left in snippets of Rachmaninov’s music, it would have worked just as well if not better.

Yes, I thought the set, lighting and performances were mostly impressive, but these alone cannot hold a performance together, as I found it neither musically or dramatically engaging.

Apologies, I feel like I am being a bit of a “Negative Nelly” at the moment, but this just wasn’t for me. Maybe GHOST QUARTET later in the year will fair better.

[juicy_but_terribly_drab]

Sept 21, 2019 17:36:35 GMT AddisonMizner said:

I too saw today’s matinee.

Unfortunately, I did not have the same experience with the material as the poster above. I am all for experimental theatre, but this for me was just plain weird! Can someone please explain to me what that awful devil “loop” number was at the beginning of Act Two? It was probably one huge metaphor, but was completely lost on me I’m afraid. It felt like a very long afternoon, and would have worked better as one act.

Also, this isn’t really a musical. Yes, there is lots of music, but the songs do not thrust the story or characters forward. If you took out the songs, and just left in snippets of Rachmaninov’s music, it would have worked just as well if not better.

Yes, I thought the set, lighting and performances were mostly impressive, but these alone cannot hold a performance together, as I found it neither musically or dramatically engaging.

Apologies, I feel like I am being a bit of a “Negative Nelly” at the moment, but this just wasn’t for me. Maybe GHOST QUARTET later in the year will fair better.

I think Loop is just supposed to demonstrate the type of dance that Chaliapin spoke of in the dialogue prior to it and the trance that it and other repetitious activities can put your mind into as discussed with Dahl, like how she gave the example of washing dishes which is then mentioned in the song. I don't think it's meant to be extremely deep, just a little silly (it's more apparent on the cast recording where the actor utilises different funny kind of voices). It also builds atmosphere and sort of gets you in the head space of a hypnotised person. I think it helps that I knew and loved the music before seeing it but the lighting, sound design and direction I found were able to completely envelope me in the piece and I felt as if I was totally immersed in Rachmaninoff's mind which is why it was so effective for me and left such an impact. It's a shame it couldn't achieve that for you but it's very obviously not for everyone or by any means a conventional musical. Ghost Quartet isn't either I must warn. It's non-linear and weird and hard to comprehend and again heavily relies on atmosphere and feeling rather than total understanding of the story but it's much more comedic and silly so if you're willing to give yourself over to that then hopefully you'll enjoy it. Still, so far Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is definitely Malloy's most conventional musical, at least of his main works anyway (I've not listened to anything beyond these three and a few clips of Octet that are available), so if you're waiting for anything of his it should be that (God I hope it comes soon!).

[AddisonMizner]

Thanks for the clarification.

I really wanted to love it. I was really excited to see something by Dave Malloy going in. I did appreciate a lot of the themes it was discussing such as depression, creativity, success or lack thereof, whether we have already achieved what we are going to in our lives and legacy. I also had a moment of emotional connection during the wedding scene in Act 2 due to the music, but assumed that was Rachmaninov’s?

It just wasn’t a unified whole for me sadly.

[intoanewlife]

Sept 21, 2019 17:36:35 GMT AddisonMizner said:

I too saw today’s matinee.

Unfortunately, I did not have the same experience with the material as the poster above. I am all for experimental theatre, but this for me was just plain weird! Can someone please explain to me what that awful devil “loop” number was at the beginning of Act Two? It was probably one huge metaphor, but was completely lost on me I’m afraid. It felt like a very long afternoon, and would have worked better as one act.

Also, this isn’t really a musical. Yes, there is lots of music, but the songs do not thrust the story or characters forward. If you took out the songs, and just left in snippets of Rachmaninov’s music, it would have worked just as well if not better.

Yes, I thought the set, lighting and performances were mostly impressive, but these alone cannot hold a performance together, as I found it neither musically or dramatically engaging.

Apologies, I feel like I am being a bit of a “Negative Nelly” at the moment, but this just wasn’t for me. Maybe GHOST QUARTET later in the year will fair better.

My interpretation...

The Red Devil is just a character his friend Chaliapin is playing in an opera.

Before he takes to the stage, the 2 have a conversation about Chaliapin's recent trip, the different types of music he heard there, the feelings he experienced while listening to it and how the drums and rhythms seemed to create a looping sound.

By that point Rach's mind is in such chaos and is so fractured (the next scene is his big revelation and final unravelling with the doctor) it is looping recent events with current events. It is fusing the conversation he'd just had, with the experiences his friend had and his own experience watching the opera.

Chaliapin is performing as normal, but we see it through the fractured mind of Rach.

You're right it's not really a musical, it is a play with music in it.

[intoanewlife]

Sept 21, 2019 15:04:12 GMT juicy_but_terribly_drab said:

At the interval and so far she's really great. She had a couple of tiny mistakes in her song before the interval but they wouldn't be noticeable if I hadn't already listened to the cast recording so many times. Other than that I'm in love with this show which is such a relief as I wasn't sure considering the mixed reception on here and this may in fact be one of my favourites this whole year if the second act keeps things up (and some of my favourite parts are in the second act so I don't see this getting any worse). I'm so pleased!

Sept 21, 2019 17:20:05 GMT juicy_but_terribly_drab said:

All I can really say is wow. I struggle to articulate what made me fall so in love with this musical but something about the music just speaks to me and this production completely fulfilled all my expectations for it and even blew them away! The lighting design, sound design, vocals, acting, direction - everything was perfect. I might have to come back and see it again. Maybe this can be my birthday treat. I'll feel guilty coming down after only a couple of weeks but this was so good it might just justify it.

Sounds like it we had a very similar experience  

[intoanewlife]

Sept 21, 2019 17:36:35 GMT AddisonMizner said:

Maybe GHOST QUARTET later in the year will fair better.

Just a warning Ghost is not a musical AT ALL!

It is 4 extremely talented musicians performing songs that you have to piece together yourself into a somewhat cohesive story after the show.

The 'enjoyment' factor of the show (for me) was in watching the kind of atmosphere and sounds these amazingly talented people could create using a multitude of different instruments, phenomenal vocal talents and brilliant lighting effects.

It is very much a 'gig', not musical theatre. It has some great songs in it, but it also has far more TWF moments than Preludes does.

Dave does not make traditional musicals and each of them are very different.

Even with Comet the first time I saw it, at the interval I was like, right this is amazing, possibly the best thing I have ever seen in my life, but I have absolutely NO idea what is going on beside the obvious main storyline. Then in the 2nd act it all fell into place and by the end I was a MESS! 

For me he is kind of like what would happen if David Lynch or Darren Aronvosky wrote musicals.

They're very abstract, metophoric and often puzzles that you need to figure out for yourself.