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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 24, 2020 11:32:48 GMT
Molly Lynch. Brilliant
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Post by juicy_but_terribly_drab on Jan 24, 2020 12:24:29 GMT
Was Molly Lynch the understudy Clara in Light in the Piazza? I didn't get to see her but I remember people being positive about her performance so that's good if so.
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Post by stevej678 on Jan 24, 2020 12:34:04 GMT
Darn it. Another show I now need to book. Was hoping for Sarah Harding to spare my bank balance.
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Post by winonaforever on Jan 24, 2020 12:37:35 GMT
I was hoping it wouldn't be anyone I already disliked. Never seen either of these two before.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 12:39:17 GMT
Remember that tickets are £12 rather than £27 if you use the pay as you go option my usual top tip - the Pay as You Go ticket gets you 5 tickets for £60, you can use up to two per performance and they never expire. Since tickets for this are £27.50 you have almost broken even if you buy two tickets for this! |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 24, 2020 13:31:29 GMT
Ml was Katherine Jenkins in Carousel. She was amazing and the best aspect of that production. She was also understudy in Piazza, unfortunately Dove Cameron was on the night I went!
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Post by winonaforever on Jan 24, 2020 14:41:57 GMT
Ml was Katherine Jenkins in Carousel. She was amazing and the best aspect of that production. She was also understudy in Piazza, unfortunately Dove Cameron was on the night I went! I'm glad Dove Cameron was on when I went, she's the one I went to see! (although also like Rob Houchen) |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 24, 2020 14:48:36 GMT
Ml was Katherine Jenkins in Carousel. She was amazing and the best aspect of that production. She was also understudy in Piazza, unfortunately Dove Cameron was on the night I went! I'm glad Dove Cameron was on when I went, she's the one I went to see! (although also like Rob Houchen) I didn't mind Dove but I didnt leave the Royal Festival Hall thinking wow. |
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Post by jampot on Jan 24, 2020 15:01:42 GMT
I'm glad Dove Cameron was on when I went, she's the one I went to see! (although also like Rob Houchen) I didn't mind Dove but I didnt leave the Royal Festival Hall thinking wow. I saw ML and defo did leave the rfh thinking wow... |
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Post by alece10 on Jan 24, 2020 16:05:58 GMT
Don't really know either of them but that's not a bad thing.
I did think that we were going to have "bigger names" seeing that the cost of this musical is £27 and its a cast of 2 plus 4 in the band.
Whereas Operation Mincemeat is £22 with a bigger cast.
Im not complaining though as I booked both shows with the PAYG so they have hardly cost anything.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 26, 2020 14:49:43 GMT
Not entirely related, but here there is an interesting Twitter thread by JRB in which he answers the question of when does the audience realize that Cathy's and Jamie's narrative do not follow the same chronological order.
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Post by stevej678 on Feb 20, 2020 11:31:48 GMT
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Post by ABr on Feb 20, 2020 11:41:22 GMT
Not entirely related, but here there is an interesting Twitter thread by JRB in which he answers the question of when does the audience realize that Cathy's and Jamie's narrative do not follow the same chronological order. That was such an interesting read! |
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Post by Steve on Feb 28, 2020 22:51:16 GMT
I enjoyed this tonight, a unique take on the material that pays off half the time. Oli Higginson sings well, and Molly Lynch acts well, but their chemistry needs a little work before press night. Spoilers follow. . . The unique take here is to have two actor-musicians, who each take to the piano while their opposite number sings. This could be interesting in two ways: (1) if the pair directed all their passions, positive and negative, toward their love object on the piano; (2) if the pair expressly ignored their love object on the piano as a way of expressing alienation. As it happens, there is a lot more of (1) than (2), but there is even more of the Singer carrying on like their love object isn't even there, which feels alienating, to us, the audience, as we are very much aware of them, and expecting the actors singing to at least show awareness of the presence of their love object. It's like the director had a great idea, and then was unsure how much of that idea to incorporate into the show, and the result feels somewhat fuzzy and a little confusing. I've seen Molly Lynch before, at Southwark and at the Royal Festival Hall, and she's terrific at inhabiting a character completely. As a consequence, you really believe and relate to her comic mishaps that she sings about in "A Summer in Ohio" and "Audition Sequence," for example, and it's easy to fall in love with her impish and vulnerable character, despite the fact that the band sound levels drowned her out a bit in earlier songs. Oli Higginson had no such problems with the sound levels (typical of preview performances at Southwark, lol, where sound engineers struggle with loud instruments gobbling up all the decibel levels), as he has great belt and exquisite modulation, which made for a delicious "Nobody needs to know," for example. Unfortunately, his character is too muted for much of the early running time, as if all his effort has gone into his voice, rather than his characterisation. Where Lynch comes across as present and vulnerable and adorable, Higginson comes across like Zac Efron, who he resembles, affably dosed up on weed, amiable, but not fully present in the angst of it all. This reduces our ability to believe in the chemistry of the relationship. All Higginson needs, I believe, is a dose of Jonathan Bailey's nerviness and enthusiasm, from the previous production of this show, which was so key to his chemistry with Samantha Barks in that show! A little bit more Hugh Jackmanesque showmanship during the "Shmuel song" and the chemistry may yet click before press night. Another slight directorial faux pas occurred, for me, in the central critical song, "The Next Ten Minutes," where ten minutes of connection are reduced to one minute of connection (perhaps to make it even more precious), but which only the front facing audience have any chance of seeing. I mean, I was front facing myself, but I felt guilt that so many in the audience might be missing out on that pivotal moment. Anyway, this is not the wonder that Jason Robert Brown directed at the St James, but it unique, worthwhile, and possessed of many precious moments, and it has time to get even better before press night. I enjoyed myself to the tune of 3 and a half stars.  |
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Post by sf on Feb 28, 2020 23:07:29 GMT
OK. So...
I like the score a lot more than I like the show, but I enjoyed this very much. Molly Lynch and Olli Higginson are excellent, I mostly liked Jonathan O'Boyle's staging, and the set design and lighting are terrific. Whether it makes as much sense if you don't know the narrative gimmick going in, I couldn't say - this isn't the first time I've seen the show, though I didn't see the last London production. If you like the material, or if you like the music, this one is well worth your time - and Lynch and Higginson do a very impressive job at the piano, some of what they've been given to play is quite difficult, and keeping in time with the rest of the band, who are on a platform above the stage, must also be quite tricky even with the music director visible on a monitor.
One niggle: the free-sheet programme they gave out tonight credits music director George Dyer with the orchestrations. What you're basically getting is Jason Robert Brown's original orchestrations with the piano part split between the MD and the two actors and the bass part reassigned to the MD on keyboard. It's basically a cut-and-paste job; I'm sure it doesn't impinge on any contractual obligations to describe Mr. Dyer as the orchestrator, but it's more than a little disingenuous.
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Post by sf on Feb 28, 2020 23:09:57 GMT
Another slight directorial faux pas occurred, for me, in the central critical song, "The Next Ten Minutes," where ten minutes of connection are reduced to one minute of connection (perhaps to make it even more precious), but which only the front facing audience have any chance of seeing. I mean, I was front facing myself, but I felt guilt that so many in the audience might be missing out on that pivotal moment. I was sitting in one of the side blocks, and I got it - but I know the material very well. And actually, given the show's diverging timelines, I rather liked that they only connect in the middle of the song, and that IS more or less how it's written - the song begins with his half of a conversation, builds into a duet, and then ends in her half of the conversation he was having at the beginning, so it really shouldn't be any more than three or four minutes of connection between them at the very most. |
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Post by sf on Feb 29, 2020 0:11:49 GMT
Not entirely related, but here there is an interesting Twitter thread by JRB in which he answers the question of when does the audience realize that Cathy's and Jamie's narrative do not follow the same chronological order.
Tonight they were giving out a free sheet listing the cast and crew in lieu of a programme (which presumably isn't ready yet), and it includes a two-sentence statement at the end of the song list giving away the narrative gimmick:
"The action follows Jamie and Cathy's five-year relationship. Jamie's version told from the beginning and Cathy's version told from the end."
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Post by adrianics on Mar 1, 2020 8:32:35 GMT
We saw this last night.
I've been a fan of the material for many years, so it was great to finally see it staged.
Much like Steve, I thought the two lead performances (particularly Oli Higginson) were excellent and well worth the ticket money alone. The intimate space encourages more subtlety than you'd otherwise get, which makes the surprisingly complex material shine through.
The central gimmick of the other performer playing the piano during the other's songs is, again as Steve said, an excellent idea on paper that is occasionally brilliant and occasionally baffling but mostly doesn't add all that much. I loved the way that the piano playing symbolised that both Jamie and Cathy expected the other to exclusively support their own wants and needs without ever trying to make a true partnership, and one of my favourite subtleties from the directions and performances was that, as Cathy and Jamie are playing, they are portraying their state in their own timeline. Ie, as Cathy is singing the positive I Can Do Better Than That, Jamie's acting as he plays the piano is very distant and distracted as he's about to sing Nobody Needs To Know.
My wife and I differed on the amount of interaction between the performers - Maybe I'm a purist but I'm very much of the mind that the entire precis of the show rotates around the characters never interacting apart from the midpoint when their timelines intersect, so to me the interactions between the two just confused things, particularly the final moment as the lights went down.
Still, I greatly enjoyed it. Love a show at the Southwark and the audience was impeccably behaved. Definitely recommend popping along if you can.
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Post by stevej678 on Mar 5, 2020 11:25:41 GMT
Five star raves from The Stage and WhatsOnStage. Four stars from The Arts Desk.
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Post by westendcub on Mar 5, 2020 22:54:10 GMT
Wow this was just simply stunning this evening, this is such a brilliant take on the piece...go see!
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Post by Someone in a tree on Mar 6, 2020 7:36:17 GMT
I thought this was amazing. Stylish staging and top notch performers. What's not to love?
I want to go back.
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Post by theoracle on Mar 6, 2020 12:32:51 GMT
Completely agree with the above, both Oli Higginson and Molly Lynch delivered superlative performances in the intimate space of Southwark Playhouse. One of the most cathartic experiences in the theatre I've had. Very clever reinterpretation of Jason Robert Brown's musical with a simple set design that feels faithful to the writer's original intentions. For a piece which is so treasured, its really heartwarming to see the material so well looked after by a cast and creative team which clearly want to honour the piece rather than do everything they can to "make it their own". I'm still really stunned by how hard this hit me last night, it felt like a big awakening to how powerfully moving this show really is. Honestly, I can't recommend it enough.
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Post by alece10 on Mar 6, 2020 16:46:24 GMT
Going tomorrow. Can anyone who has been give me an idea on the running time.
Also going to try that Italian market place after the matinee to eat. Anyone tried it before?
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Post by FrontroverPaul on Mar 6, 2020 17:28:59 GMT
Going tomorrow. Can anyone who has been give me an idea on the running time. Also going to try that Italian market place after the matinee to eat. Anyone tried it before? Around 95 minutes with no interval when I saw it on Tuesday. |
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Post by winonaforever on Mar 6, 2020 20:03:39 GMT
It's supposed to be 90 minutes. Didn't notice what time it ended, though I know it started late when I saw it.
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