9 to 5 The Musical - Tour

[westended]

Sept 8, 2019 9:57:08 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

How’s Debbie McGee in it?

She’s not in the show!

[BurlyBeaR]

Oh! Did she bail or is she joining later?

[Dr Tom]

Sept 8, 2019 9:57:08 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

How’s Debbie McGee in it?

I know she was discussed at one point, but I haven't seen her advertised for any of the venues.

The tour cast is here:
9to5themusical.co.uk/cast-creatives/

From the West End cast, they have Amber Davies doing all the venues and Louise Redknapp doing most of them.

For some reason, Brian Conley and Caroline Sheen are doing leaving their West End roles to do one week of the tour each (when, presumably, you can catch the understudy in London).

I presume Debbie McGee was rumoured to play Roz (the Bonnie Langford role in London). That's being played to Lucinda Lawrence, who was really good, particularly in her solo number.

[TallPaul]

It dates back to 13 June (page 40 of t'other thread) when we learnt that Debbie McGee and Diane Vickers were in final auditions.

She (Debbie) is consoling herself by appearing in panto in Hayes. Oh yes she is!

[LaLuPone]

Caroline’s doing Cardiff only because she’s from South Wales and she loves performing at “home” in her favourite theatre.

Maybe Debbie McGee’s taking over from Bonnie in the West End come January, I think they’ve said there’ll be a cast change then.

[westended]

Well it seems like the show is perhaps returning for a 2nd Tour (Mayflower, Southampton in June 2020) so maybe she’ll join then?

[Deleted]

I'm sure that Debbie will be happy doing a lucrative panto and of course isn't short of money given who she married. RIP Caroline Aherne for one of the best jokes ever.

[shady23]

Sept 7, 2019 21:07:59 GMT xanady said:

Lot of £13 tickets have appeared for next week in Brum that weren’t there last night so snapped three up...also random blocks of cheaper tickets now cropping up...not sure what’s going on,but not complaining.

It's a new ATG "price promise" ticket erm... thing.

Seems to be happening in a lot of their venues and shows.

[Deleted]

Sept 8, 2019 19:09:50 GMT shady23 said:

Sept 7, 2019 21:07:59 GMT xanady said:

Lot of £13 tickets have appeared for next week in Brum that weren’t there last night so snapped three up...also random blocks of cheaper tickets now cropping up...not sure what’s going on,but not complaining.

It's a new ATG "price promise" ticket erm... thing.

Seems to be happening in a lot of their venues and shows.

I managed to get one of these at the Saturday matinee in Edinburgh at the end of the front row of the balcony. It’s probably a great deal considering how expensive all the other seats there are.

[xanady]

Going with the fam on Friday...am expecting every hen party within 50 miles to be there...am guessing bag checks on the door for vodka-smuggling will be the order of the day... once took my daughter to ‘The Bodyguard’ and the security people had confiscated more voddy than the local Smirnoff(other varieties are available) factory had in stock.

[xanady]

A wonderful performance tonight in Brum...packed to the rafters and surprisingly well-behaved patrons,whilst still being appreciative at the right moments...much more energy in the Alex audience than when I sat amongst a rather lacklustre bunch on my last visit to the Savoy...if jokes aren’t landing and applause is muted,as in my last London visit,the cast must wonder what’s going wrong...cast tonight seemed to really feed off the energy...Amber Davies is a force of nature...wow!...great production values and the choreography was terrific.
My next visit to the Alex is to see ‘Curtains’ which might be like pulling teeth...we shall see!

[richey]

Very appreciative and surprisingly well behaved crowd tonight in Manchester, including obligatory standing ovation (which we didn't take part in as didn't think it warranted it)
The leads were all pretty good though the diction was awful in places, couldn't hear a lot of the words over the music.
Other than that not a lot to say about it really, an ok evening's entertainment but nothing special.

[BurlyBeaR]

Sept 17, 2019 21:49:02 GMT richey said:

Very appreciative and surprisingly well behaved crowd tonight in Manchester, including obligatory standing ovation (which we didn't take part in as didn't think it warranted it)
The leads were all pretty good though the diction was awful in places, couldn't hear a lot of the words over the music.

Under. Whelming. 
Louise Redknapp was better in this than Cabaret (couldn’t have been any worse tbh) but I’m afraid she could not sell a big musical number if her life depended on it. That Act 2 song with the big dance routine was totally thrown away. 

Amber Davies totally meh for most of it, although I’ll give her credit for selling her own big number. Can’t act though. 

Georgina Castle as Doralee  was best of the three, obviously channeling her inner Dolly. Cute and funny. 

Sean Needham as Hart was excellent and stole every scene he was in from under the three women’s noses. 

Good supporting perfs, Roz was good, the drunk lady was funny and the love interest had a nice bum. Excellent energetic ensemble. Wasn’t my thing though. 

⭐️⭐️.5

[Deleted]

Sept 17, 2019 21:58:06 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

Sept 17, 2019 21:49:02 GMT richey said:

Very appreciative and surprisingly well behaved crowd tonight in Manchester, including obligatory standing ovation (which we didn't take part in as didn't think it warranted it)
The leads were all pretty good though the diction was awful in places, couldn't hear a lot of the words over the music.

Under. Whelming. 
Louise Redknapp was better in this than Cabaret (couldn’t have been any worse tbh) but I’m afraid she could not sell a big musical number if her life depended on it. That Act 2 song with the big dance routine was totally thrown away. 

Amber Davies totally meh for most of it, although I’ll give her credit for selling her own big number. Can’t act though. 

Georgina Castle as Doralee  was best of the three, obviously channeling her inner Dolly. Cute and funny. 

Sean Needham as Hart was excellent and stole every scene he was in from under the three women’s noses. 

Good supporting perfs, Roz was good, the drunk lady was funny and the love interest had a nice bum. Excellent energetic ensemble. Wasn’t my thing though. 

⭐️⭐️.5

I agree that Lucinda Lawrence as Roz was hilarious and also had a nice bum. Also Sean Needham was great as Hart and I thought he looked very much like Kevin Spacey especially in the painting/portrait of himself.

Amber has a very good voice but isn't the greatest actress would she have been better as Doralee I wonder as really she is too young to play Judy although Georgina is probably not much older and swapping them over wouldn't have made much difference.

[LaLuPone]

Sept 19, 2019 11:06:53 GMT @brexiteer said:

Sept 17, 2019 21:58:06 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

Under. Whelming. 
Louise Redknapp was better in this than Cabaret (couldn’t have been any worse tbh) but I’m afraid she could not sell a big musical number if her life depended on it. That Act 2 song with the big dance routine was totally thrown away. 

Amber Davies totally meh for most of it, although I’ll give her credit for selling her own big number. Can’t act though. 

Georgina Castle as Doralee  was best of the three, obviously channeling her inner Dolly. Cute and funny. 

Sean Needham as Hart was excellent and stole every scene he was in from under the three women’s noses. 

Good supporting perfs, Roz was good, the drunk lady was funny and the love interest had a nice bum. Excellent energetic ensemble. Wasn’t my thing though. 

⭐️⭐️.5

I agree that Lucinda Lawrence as Roz was hilarious and also had a nice bum. Also Sean Needham was great as Hart and I thought he looked very much like Kevin Spacey especially in the painting/portrait of himself.

Amber has a very good voice but isn't the greatest actress would she have been better as Doralee I wonder as really she is too young to play Judy although Georgina is probably not much older and swapping them over wouldn't have made much difference.

I saw the show last month in London and I swear there’s a line in the script that says Judy is 21? Which would make Amber fine to play her.

[sophie92]

Sept 19, 2019 13:12:11 GMT LaLuPone said:

Sept 19, 2019 11:06:53 GMT @brexiteer said:

I agree that Lucinda Lawrence as Roz was hilarious and also had a nice bum. Also Sean Needham was great as Hart and I thought he looked very much like Kevin Spacey especially in the painting/portrait of himself.

Amber has a very good voice but isn't the greatest actress would she have been better as Doralee I wonder as really she is too young to play Judy although Georgina is probably not much older and swapping them over wouldn't have made much difference.

I saw the show last month in London and I swear there’s a line in the script that says Judy is 21? Which would make Amber fine to play her.

As far as I know, that line was added into this production because of how it was cast
I personally think it works better when Judy is slightly older and so her having to go to work for the first time is more of a big deal.

[Deleted]

There is a line about Judy being 21 which I guess was added for Amber. Natalie Casey played the role back in 2012 when she was about 32 so she was a lot younger than Jane Fonda but could pass for older and didn't look so obviously young as Amber.

[theatre241]

Saw this today and I had Leah St Luce on for Judy and it was her debut! She was brilliant and she even added some riffs in Get Out And Stay Out. I would describe the show as meh, nothing special just good. Enjoyable and I loved the design of it for some reason, loved the use of the video screen and little pieces coming on and off. Thats all it needed and the production design had a cohesiveness. Wondering if there was any differences in this them London can anyone help?

[david]

Attended tonight’s performance at the Liverpool Empire. I was really dreading what sort of audience I would be sat with at tonight’s show (I was really dreading the hen party crowd tonight to be honest),Thankfully, there was. no bad behaviour to report and I was actually able to enjoy the show in peace (which is quite a rarity these days).

As a production, I enjoyed it. Staging wise, I thought the use of the video screen at the back of the set and the way Dolly Parton was integrated into proceedings was cleverly done (and did bring a big cheer whenever she appeared).

As for the cast, I have mixed feelings on this. On the 3 ladies themselves, Georgina Lea as Doralee was the standout for me. As for the other 2 ladies, I thought Amber Davies vocally was fine (her version of Get Out and Stay Out was good) was acting wise, I really couldn’t warm to her unfortunately. With respect to Louise Redknapp, I’m in totally agreement with BurlyBeaR on her performance in this production. Having previously seen her in Cabaret at the Lowry and was underwhelmed by her performance in that. Her role as Violet was certainly for me an improvement, but again, I couldn’t buy into her character or her big number in Act 2.

Where I think casting wise this production wins, is with the other cast members. Sean Needham as Hart Jr was absolutely fantastic and stole the stage whenever he was on. Lucinda Lawrence as Roz was just hilarious. Her number in Act 1 was just first class in its delivery. Laura Tyrer as drunk Margaret was another standout in this show.

Loved the choreography and the orchestra sounded great tonight.

[BurlyBeaR]

We are as one david

[anthem]

Dolly deserves better than the mess I saw in Dublin tonight. It was in a word, bad.
I quite like the score and I enjoyed an amateur production I’d seen before.
The three leads did their best and all sounded pretty good. Laura Tyrer was on for Louise; I imagine she’s a better singer and actress than Louise in any event. Amber Davies is very talented.
I hate to be mean but the ensemble seemed to be phoning it in- there was such a lack of energy and the choreography was poor.
I really disliked the sing along with Dolly at the start.
Sean Needham’s accent wavered quite a bit.
I thought the set was tacky.
The book is quite poor and worse than I remembered; so many cheap sexual references and a lot of it fell flat. What were they thinking putting on a guy with a fake erection?
It felt like something dreamt up in a hen night nightmare.
Some of the dialogue was inaudible.
So weird that a professional production could make me dislike something so much, considering I’d seen it before and enjoyed it. I remember finding it fun before and this just wasn’t.
Maybe I was tired, in a bad mood or just sober. Many seemed to enjoy it but it was a definite no from me and I would not recommend it.

[jvoom]

Nov 19, 2019 23:00:01 GMT anthem said:

It felt like something dreamt up in a hen night nightmare.

This really made me laugh.

Also caught the show in Dublin tonight. For what it is and for what I paid (the cheapest seat in the house), I suppose I was entertained? I don't think I was ever bored, at least though there were many times I wondered what was going on.

I'll admit I am a major Dolly fan and with not an ounce of insincerity, the score is the best thing she's done in years. It's been a while since I'd listened to the entire cast album and jeez, are there some absolute gems in there - "I Just Might" is especially beautiful.

The book is by far the weakest element of the show and it's surprising that given all the changes that have been made over the years from Broadway to licensing, the book remains practically untouched.

Overall the production felt quite cheap and the costumes very miserable -head to toe black for the most part with a little pop on colour on a cuff.

[theatregod]

It’s selladoor, can’t expect anyone in the production to care much when their paid so little.. from musicians to cast to stage management.

[cheesy116]

This tour is playing Glasgow again next September! Only a year after playing there.

[Theatre Fan]