College Productions

[FrontroverPaul]

Dec 13, 2023 16:26:57 GMT fossil said:

Arts Ed:

The Drowsy Chaperone
23 - 27 January 2024
Booking Opens 8th Jan 2024, 1pm

Rent
6 - 10 February 2024
Booking Opens 15 Jan 2024, 1pm

Booking now open for Drowsy Chaperone. Arts Ed shows usually sell out quickly, helped no doubt by the very reasonable ticket prices, eg £10 for the Friday matinee which I've just booked.

[Mr Snow]

Wonderful thank you. Seeing the Drowsy Chaperone which I previously enjoyed in a cut versioni at the Ed Fringe a few years ago.

Also have never seen The Caucasian Chalk Circle and looking to change plasn to take my mum to the wonderful She Loves me.


Very happy I looked in and thanks for the updates.

[raiseitup]

Central are doing Merrily We Roll Along in March (booking available 'soon') – www.cssd.ac.uk/events/merrily-we-roll-along

[Dr Tom]

Rent (Arts Ed) is on sale now, but I'm stuck in the ticket queue. Hopefully it doesn't sell out before I get to the front of the line.

[Dr Tom]

Well, I got the Thursday and Friday matinees, so (work permitting) will hopefully get to see both casts. Very few seats left now and most shows sold out, so anyone who is at all tempted by Rent may want to get onto the Arts Ed website now.

[danb]

I managed to bag a ticket to the Thursday matinee of Rent. Really looking forward to it.

[topaz]

Jan 12, 2024 16:43:54 GMT raiseitup said:

Central are doing Merrily We Roll Along in March (booking available 'soon') – www.cssd.ac.uk/events/merrily-we-roll-along

This is also onsale now, I've just booked!

[capybara]

Thanks for the heads up on these. I’ve booked Rent and Merrily, as well as She Loves Me at Mountview.

GSA on sale tomorrow. I like the look of Violet and Carrie.

As someone who has never seen a student production before, what should my expectations be in terms of the quality of the overall pieces?

[thistimetomorrow]

Jan 15, 2024 14:36:27 GMT capybara said:

Thanks for the heads up on these. I’ve booked Rent and Merrily, as well as She Loves Me at Mountview.

GSA on sale tomorrow. I like the look of Violet and Carrie.

As someone who has never seen a student production before, what should my expectations be in terms of the quality of the overall pieces?

I think it's very school and production dependent! Almost everything I've seen at Mountview, ArtsEd and RAM have been very good. The ones I've seen at other drama schools have been a bit more hit or miss (although I do blame this a bit on watching straight acting students do musicals which wasn't going to compare to mt students tbf).

[Dr Tom]

Jan 15, 2024 14:36:27 GMT capybara said:

As someone who has never seen a student production before, what should my expectations be in terms of the quality of the overall pieces?

Mountview, Arts Ed and GSA will all be high quality. CSSD, I don't know so well, but I've also booked for Merrily so I'm keen to find out.

GSA I find a bit tricky to get to, but they're doing The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I've never seen.

[capybara]

GSA productions on sale today. Booked Violet and Carrie.

[max]

ARTS ED - THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
This was spectacular. On par with and sometimes way ahead of standards of performance, production values, and directorial invention of anything I've seen in the West End for quite some time.

3 roles are double cast. On opening night I saw Alex Gavin as ‘Man in chair’ - superbly charismatic, charming, & with that bit of acid the script needs. The audience loved him. Ella Foster as Janet, & Aislin Olivia as her Drowsy Chaperone both also brilliant. But all of the cast perform brilliantly well, stunning vocals, dance & characterisation going to all the extremes of the (pastiched) vintage musical comedy genre.

This isn't my kind of musical but completely won me over, & almost convinced me of its thesis that perhaps, after all, daft escapism from a horrible world are what musicals are for. Almost!

Any producer could pick this up & put it in the West End quality-wise, but of course that would be an outlandish musical comedy storyline in itself. Productions of this scale are rarely stageable/viable in ‘the real world’. Hence drama schools are often the best place to see musicals these days - certainly at Arts Ed where the musical theatre department is absolutely top tier

[Dr Tom]

The Drowsy Chaperone - Arts Ed

I was also there for the performance yesterday. You can't fault this. Excellent performances all around, great singing, big dance numbers.

They had the stage set to open up its full depth, which really worked for the bigger production numbers.

Alex Gavin is on the stage almost the entire show and really holds everything together. Harrison Langham stood out to me too with his excellent tap dancing. He would make a perfect Mormon.

Now, I'd never seen the show before. Having seen it, I can tell why it was not a hit when first staged in London. The audience at Arts Ed is always going to be more forgiving, especially with all the musical theatre references. I also notice the show has changed a bit from the description on Wikipedia, but perhaps it's one of those shows with multiple versions floating around.

What Arts Ed always do well is they structure their shows so that everyone gets their featured moments. Even the ensemble get the chance to dance at the front of the stage. There are a couple of people who they've put in very similar roles across the two productions I've seen them in, which I don't think best suit their style, but I do appreciate how difficult it is to find the right production that has a perfect role for everyone.

This could easily transfer to a fringe theatre (although some roles would be better cast with someone older). It won't, purely because you can't have this level of production and this size of cast, and run this in a profitable way. I'm also not sure that this show will draw in an audience. So this production of the Drowsy Chaperone is as good a production as I'd expect to see in the UK anytime soon.

[theatrefan77]

I will be there tomorrow. Looking forward to it. I always enjoy shows at ArtsEd.

Saw The Drowsy Chaperone in the West End and found it entertaining, but nothing special. Summer Strallen was excellent and had me in stitches in the number Show Off. John Partridge was just ok, but I thought Elaine Paige was quite bad. Her acting was very OTT and her singing voice had deteriorated, unless she was having an off day.

[Someone in a tree]

Paige was also terrible when i saw it also. The piece was fun but i can see why it hasnt taken off.

[fossil]

I agree with the previous reviews of the The Drowsy Chaperone. A wonderful faultless production. I was in the second row and I did cringe somewhat when the lady in front of me started waving to presumably her son when he came on stage! Fortunately she stopped after about 15 seconds.

[Mr Snow]

Another vote for The Drowsy Chaperone.

Very high standards pretty much accross the boards!
I saw the other, "Gin Martini", cast and Al Knott as Janet was tremendous singing, dancing, acting. Stevie Millington, Chaperone, has a lovely voice and I had tears of joy running down my face at the 'dropping cane' business. Emily Takman another fine comedienne.

Initally I felt it took a time to find the right tone but I'd frogotten there was no interval and the 2 hours sped by.

The theatre is excellent, good sight lines, comfortable and easy to get to.

will keep an eye out for more performances.

The Drowsy Chaperone is a delightfully frothy and silly confection and when played like this, a pure dellight. I read that Fred Schepsi was going to do a film that never happened. Shame because I think its at least in spirit also pastiching the silly plots of the Fred adn Ginger movies (which of course built on the shows of the 20's).

[Dr Tom]

I did get to see the Gin Martini Company as well Max James Hodge was totally charming as Man in Chair. I can't pick one cast out as being better than the other, that just isn't fair. As with so many shows, I enjoyed this more on the second viewing. It helps to know the music and what to expect.

Otherwise, not much to add to my previous comments, other than I feel that almost everyone in this class is ready for a place in a West End ensemble. Unfortunately, there's no enough work about for all of them. The show I was at, incidentally, had several of last year's graduates in the audience. I don't think anyone has picked up on Joe Simmons yet, so I'll just note him as my pick to watch out for in the future. I'm sure an agent has already signed him up.

[VodkaStinger]

Jan 28, 2024 22:27:52 GMT Dr Tom said:

Otherwise, not much to add to my previous comments, other than I feel that almost everyone in this class is ready for a place in a West End ensemble. 

Indeed! I never attended a student production as was very pleasantly surprised with how professional the actors were. I'm sure we'll be seeing people from this cast in West End productions soon.

[FrontroverPaul]

Guildford School Of Acting has a musicals double bill from Thursday 22 - Saturday 24 February. High Spirits is based on Blithe Spirit, Candidates is a brand new musical based on Much Ado About Nothing.

Unusually each show has 5 performances, including two matinees, all starting at the same times (2.30/7.30) so presumably the same set up as Mountview.

There are also 4 plays scheduled between 7 February and 2 March - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tartuffe, Lambs and Violet. Full details on their website under Events.

I've booked the two musicals on the Friday. The campus is about a mile from the station and town centre.

[FrontroverPaul]

Nov 15, 2023 10:18:52 GMT Dr Tom said:

Some more productions I've spotted.

Italia Conti are presenting Grease this week (Thursday to Saturday) and Elf next week. Both now in Woking (near the station). Grease is one of the Burger Palace Boys versions. They do have a 10:30am Saturday matinee, which is useful for anyone aiming for a three show day. I may well have gone on Saturday, but I have a 13:30 matinee in London, so the timing doesn't quite work.

They're also advertising R&H Cinderella and Legally Blonde, but no dates yet, so presumably those are the next set of productions. Various plays too.

I also got an email today advertising the UCL Musical Theatre Society production of Chess which runs 30/11/2023 to 02/12/2023.

 Italia Conti's  Legally Blonde (14-16 March) and Cinderella (21-23 March) are already shown as completely sold out at the 228 seater Rhoda McGaw Theatre in Woking.

 They weren't even on sale when I last checked for Cinderella. With six performances of each including a Saturday morning matinee that's quite an achievement if it's really the case.

[capybara]

Jan 30, 2024 13:43:53 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

Nov 15, 2023 10:18:52 GMT Dr Tom said:

Some more productions I've spotted.

Italia Conti are presenting Grease this week (Thursday to Saturday) and Elf next week. Both now in Woking (near the station). Grease is one of the Burger Palace Boys versions. They do have a 10:30am Saturday matinee, which is useful for anyone aiming for a three show day. I may well have gone on Saturday, but I have a 13:30 matinee in London, so the timing doesn't quite work.

They're also advertising R&H Cinderella and Legally Blonde, but no dates yet, so presumably those are the next set of productions. Various plays too.

I also got an email today advertising the UCL Musical Theatre Society production of Chess which runs 30/11/2023 to 02/12/2023.

 Italia Conti's  Legally Blonde (14-16 March) and Cinderella (21-23 March) are already shown as completely sold out at the 228 seater Rhoda McGaw Theatre in Woking.

 They weren't even on sale when I last checked for Cinderella. With six performances of each including a Saturday morning matinee that's quite an achievement if it's really the case.

I’m not sure they’ve actually gone on sale yet.

[FrontroverPaul]

I hope you're right. Very poor form by ATG and not good for ticket sales to display a sold out message if not the case.

[FrontroverPaul]

University College London's Musical Theatre Society is staging The Producers at The Bloomsbury Theatre London from Thursday 22 - 24 February with a "unique spin... gender and colour-blind casting,

camera-action and all sorts of other tricks and twists along the way "

Should be fun, I've booked.

[Dr Tom]

Pippin - Mountview

This is an abstract production even by Pippin standards, but enjoyable, held in the Mountview Backstage Theatre.

I saw the Saturday matinee (note 14:15 advertised start, although this started late - I think it was the first performance). Unusually, almost all the seats were marked as reserved, so there were only 10 or so seats left. There are only three rows (seating on three sides of the performance area), so even in the back row, the view was fine.

This is performed with a non-male cast (all students using she/her or she/they pronouns), with a minimal set. The pronouns used to describe characters change regularly during the show, but that all adds to the mystique of Pippin. There are plenty of line changes and apparent ad-libs, I certainly don't remember this much swearing in previous productions of Pippin. The sound and vocals are very good. Thankfully I know Pippin well, but it was obvious at the end that there people who had no idea what they'd just witnessed.

The singalong section is present, but the angle makes it very difficult to read the words, so do learn these in advance if you want to take part.

Definitely worth seeing in this intimate setting if seats are available. Everyone does a great job with the material. Running time is about two hours, including the interval.