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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jul 7, 2022 17:50:30 GMT
Hope you get home in good time!
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4,021 posts
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Post by Dawnstar on Jul 7, 2022 18:18:35 GMT
Now on the second train. Should be at Cambridge just before 8pm. Nearly 3h each way.
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Post by TallPaul on Jul 9, 2022 7:44:43 GMT
Just as well you went this week, Dawnstar. I'm expecting chaos on the network next week, with buckled rails and droopy wires. |
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Post by AddisonMizner on Jul 9, 2022 17:24:43 GMT
I was at the matinee of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC this afternoon. Whilst I know the score, this is my first time seeing this particular Sondheim. I have to say that I really enjoyed it!
The score really works in context of the show, and sounds glorious here. What an absolute pleasure and novelty to have a big orchestra with real musicians! A real difference from the keyboard and tin whistle that you usually get at shows nowadays. It is also very well sung and acted, which is not always the case when opera singers have dialogue to deliver.
The show itself is really clever. I didn’t expect it to be as funny as it is, and I laughed out loud numerous times. It very much bordered on farce. The humour was quite dry and biting so probably appealed to my sensibilities. However, it was also extremely profound about what life is all about, and ultimately rather moving. I had shivers down my spine numerous times, and tears filled my eyes in the last moments of the show. Sondheim’s music and lyrics in this, coupled with Hugh Wheeler’s book, really are a marvel!
Overall, I am really glad that I finally got to see this. Well worth a trip to Leeds if you can in its last week. I must now seek out SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT on which this is based.
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Post by inthenose on Jul 9, 2022 17:37:48 GMT
Just as well you went this week, Dawnstar. I'm expecting chaos on the network next week, with buckled rails and droopy wires.Sounds like many regional theatres I’ve worked in, to be honest… |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 9, 2022 17:49:03 GMT
Last year I was so emotional to be back hearing a large orchestra that I was crying at anything. Today I had bit more of a grip on things. The cast are all great and the ending is still powerful but yeah I was in tears by the end. @burlybear will be pleased to hear things are slightly reworked and the "Stooges" don't interact as much as previously. AddisonMizner we need badges! I hope they do another musical soon. |
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Post by Dawnstar on Jul 9, 2022 17:59:38 GMT
Just as well you went this week, Dawnstar. I'm expecting chaos on the network next week, with buckled rails and droopy wires. Quite apart from what the heat might do to the rails, I would not travel to Leeds - or indeed anywhere voluntarily - in 30 degrees. It was bad enough on Thursday at 24 degrees. |
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Post by danb on Jul 9, 2022 18:02:08 GMT
I think ‘The Millers Son’ is my all time favourite Sondheim song but ALNM is full of gorgeous moments, none more so than ‘Send in the Clowns’.
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Post by AddisonMizner on Jul 9, 2022 18:32:29 GMT
Yes, badges sound like a plan! |
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Post by crabtree on Jul 9, 2022 20:28:08 GMT
where were you sat Addison - on the front row. to me this is simply the best sondheim production I have seen, and Night Music is of course a masterpiece, here given a superlative production. Intimate, and big, sexy and sad, funny and profound, full of ideas all suggested by the text or score. Utter joy.
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Post by AddisonMizner on Jul 9, 2022 21:14:43 GMT
where were you sat Addison - on the front row. No, I wasn’t on the front row. I was sat centre of Row G. |
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Post by tal on Jul 9, 2022 21:19:52 GMT
where were you sat Addison - on the front row. No, I wasn’t on the front row. I was sat centre of Row G. I was sat on the front row this afternoon - a great view, by the way! |
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Post by tal on Jul 9, 2022 22:15:56 GMT
I had such a great time watching this.
It was also my first time seeing the show - this is the one I tried to avoid reading much about to save myself for seeing it live. And it’s paid off! It’s a very well written show, so funny and poignant at the same time. My only gripe was Desiree choosing to stay with Fredrik at the end. I could swear she wouldn’t, but maybe it was me expecting the show to be more modern than what it actually is?
In any case, I’m so happy my first contact with the show was with this production and this cast.
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Post by AddisonMizner on Jul 9, 2022 22:42:31 GMT
Yes, I saw it very much as a product of the time and period. Had this been written in modern times, Charlotte would (and should) have left Carl-Magnus, and Desiree would not (and should not) have had Frederik back.
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Post by crabtree on Jul 10, 2022 9:16:44 GMT
Well the text suggests that whilst Frederick and Desiree may have got back together, or at least rekindled their friendship, but the demands of a touring actress are going to get in the way as they ever did. Maybe they are wiser and can make it work.
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Post by karloscar on Jul 10, 2022 10:12:03 GMT
Why would you need to rewrite the plot which is beautifully written and makes complete sense? People are just as stupid when it comes to relationships now as they ever were. Charlotte may be trapped by her situation, she would be far worse off if she left him, but her "you became a tiger for me!" is a triumph in its own way. He won't change, but she has won this particular battle ( even though he doesn't know it). Frederick and Desirée's coherence after so many years of muddle is indeed the ideal outcome, even Mme Armfeldt admits it when she tells Fredericka about rejecting the Count with the wooden ring. Desirée might have to do her Hedda Gabler for a week, but I can't see her continuing to tour much afterwards, but it's an option that they'll decide together.
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Post by crabtree on Jul 10, 2022 12:35:10 GMT
Other activities will stop me going again, but otherwise I'd be there next saturday. In the matinee yesterday there was a lady in almost the front row who read her programme cover to cover during the show, whilst the two male leads were just feet from her. So rude to my way of thinking. I'm sure the singers were trying to earn her attention.
Still thinking how perfect this production is - so many fine details, and such a great use of space. Weekend in the Country was thrilling
Any american gent on the front row matinee - sorry our chat was so brief, but i hope you thought the journey from London was worthwhile.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jul 10, 2022 12:44:43 GMT
I take Frederik's declaration that he'll sit through all 8 performances of Hedda Gabler as him saying that he'll try to be more supportive of her acting than he was in their previous relationship, if she does choose to continue her career, because he's realised he loves her enough to do so, even if he's not exactly interested in many of the plays she's in. I had assumed that he'd lost his first wife some years earlier, when Henrik was a small child. That way he needn't have been cheating on his first wife when he had the relationship with Desiree that (probably) produced Frederika. But that may be me hoping he was more moral than he actually was! Harking back to my post from last year, I'd forgotten when I wrote it that Anne actually asks Frederik about women he'd had relationships with between his first wife & her, which I think supports up my suggestion that his relationship with Desiree happened when he was widowed & he wasn't cheating on his first wife. |
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Post by tal on Jul 10, 2022 16:19:38 GMT
Any american gent on the front row matinee - sorry our chat was so brief, but i hope you thought the journey from London was worthwhile. Yep, that was me, thanks for the chat! (I'm not from the U.S., though  ) |
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