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Post by viserys on Dec 3, 2022 13:52:51 GMT
Oh wow did I get lucky. I saw the performance on Wednesday night which I suppose was Katie’s final. Such a shame for them to not have a proper closing show.  Yea I saw it last Monday, really glad now I got to see it and what a shame for the cast |
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Post by vickyg on Dec 3, 2022 14:59:46 GMT
I’ve said a million times they had a transfer in place. Yes, and someone (can’t remember who) has also said that they will be waiting for Katie but her IG post is basically a farewell to Andrew Rannells and the creative team. Obviously an Instagram post which confirms nothing is not definitive but… things change. |
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Dec 3, 2022 15:39:39 GMT
I’ve said a million times they had a transfer in place. Beginning to look more like 'had' in the past tense rather than 'have'. They risk losing momentum if they do not announce something soon. It’s going to sell when (not if) it transfers regardless of what length of gap there is between runs. Best of Enemies didn’t announce their transfer for at least six months. Plenty of shows haven’t announced their transfers until after the original run ended. People get too hung up on the idea of momentum but it’s just how you market. |
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Post by shownut on Dec 3, 2022 15:55:55 GMT
Beginning to look more like 'had' in the past tense rather than 'have'. They risk losing momentum if they do not announce something soon. It’s going to sell when (not if) it transfers regardless of what length of gap there is between runs. Best of Enemies didn’t announce their transfer for at least six months. Plenty of shows haven’t announced their transfers until after the original run ended. People get too hung up on the idea of momentum but it’s just how you market. Hmm...4 words: Jerry Springer The Opera. They were the hottest ticket in town when they closed at the National then waited months to announce and by the time they moved to the Cambridge, few people cared and it struggled after it's first month. |
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Dec 3, 2022 16:27:37 GMT
No, that’s just not correct at all. Jerry Springer’s final performance at the NT was on 30th Sept and it started previews in the West End on 14th October. They announced and started selling tickets for the West End run in early July, nearly two months before the NT run finished. They could not have rushed it into the West End faster.
Besides Jerry Springer was a very controversial show, that started life as a small fringe show. Not sure if that’s a good comparison. Though JS still ran for a couple of years in the West End and won four Oliviers.
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Post by djdan14 on Dec 3, 2022 16:52:40 GMT
It's Spring Awakening all over again! I think I might be the bad omen for the almeida because I was due to go to this today and spring awakening on the last performance! |
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Post by shownut on Dec 3, 2022 16:57:59 GMT
No, that’s just not correct at all. Jerry Springer’s final performance at the NT was on 30th Sept and it started previews in the West End on 14th October. They announced and started selling tickets for the West End run in early July, nearly two months before the NT run finished. They could not have rushed it into the West End faster. Besides Jerry Springer was a very controversial show, that started life as a small fringe show. Not sure if that’s a good comparison. Though JS still ran for a couple of years in the West End and won four Oliviers. Perhaps your memory is better than mine but I remember quite a lull between the transfer, not to mention, next to zero publicity. I know you claim otherwise and I hope you are right that a transfer really is in place but until a theatre/dates are announced I will remain sceptical. This strategy of not maximising on the opening publicity/a mostly sold-out run is risky. If they announce before year's end, fair enough. But something seems odd here and most theatres now have tenants on the books between now and next autumn. Sad to feel so sceptical but there it is. |
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Dec 3, 2022 17:12:53 GMT
No, that’s just not correct at all. Jerry Springer’s final performance at the NT was on 30th Sept and it started previews in the West End on 14th October. They announced and started selling tickets for the West End run in early July, nearly two months before the NT run finished. They could not have rushed it into the West End faster. Besides Jerry Springer was a very controversial show, that started life as a small fringe show. Not sure if that’s a good comparison. Though JS still ran for a couple of years in the West End and won four Oliviers. Perhaps your memory is better than mine but I remember quite a lull between the transfer, not to mention, next to zero publicity. I know you claim otherwise and I hope you are right that a transfer really is in place but until a theatre/dates are announced I will remain sceptical. This strategy of not maximising on the opening publicity/a mostly sold-out run is risky. If they announce before year's end, fair enough. But something seems odd here and most theatres now have tenants on the books between now and next autumn. Sad to feel so sceptical but there it is. Are you getting it confused with another show? I just googled and found a ton of press releases and articles announcing the West End transfer published a couple of months before the NT run ended. |
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Post by mrbarnaby on Dec 3, 2022 17:23:02 GMT
I’ve said a million times they had a transfer in place. You are incorrect. They didn’t have any theatre lined up yet, so nothing was in place. They wanted to transfer it, but that’s all. I think they will by the way. They will only need Elton J to do some publicity for it and that will help a lot. They need time to work on the book, cut a few songs and improve the design. |
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pjw
Auditioning
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Post by pjw on Dec 3, 2022 17:54:15 GMT
James Graham has just used the phrase "bye, for now..." on his twitter page so I think you're right...
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Dec 3, 2022 18:00:13 GMT
I’ve said a million times they had a transfer in place. You are incorrect. They didn’t have any theatre lined up yet, so nothing was in place. They wanted to transfer it, but that’s all. I think they will by the way. They will only need Elton J to do some publicity for it and that will help a lot. They need time to work on the book, cut a few songs and improve the design. Happy to wait for the announcement.  |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Dec 3, 2022 19:41:49 GMT
If availability of one of the leads has delayed things then presumably the theatre they were planning to transfer to is now free for a period?
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Post by c4ndyc4ne on Dec 3, 2022 20:49:44 GMT
Assessing the wording with tin foil caps on - KB’s post has an air of finality, while others are more of “be back soon” vibe… so perhaps she isn’t transferring with it.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see!
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Post by vickyg on Dec 3, 2022 22:25:48 GMT
Assessing the wording with tin foil caps on - KB’s post has an air of finality, while others are more of “be back soon” vibe… so perhaps she isn’t transferring with it. Guess we’ll have to wait and see! Yeah this is what I’m getting from all the posts too. Understandable given the situation but I’m still really sad! |
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Post by bobbievanhusen on Dec 4, 2022 7:05:39 GMT
- KB’s post has an air of finality, while others are more of “be back soon” vibe… I don't get that from her posts. She said thats the end for Tammy Faye at the Almeida. Nothing to suggest thats the end for her. Having seen both in the role of Tammy Faye, they shouldn't transfer it without her. She elevated the material to a different level. Yes Gemma Sutton was OK, but she didnt have the same impact that KB did. Yes she was probably very under rehearsed, but she has been involved with the show far a few years now. |
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Post by kyvai on Dec 4, 2022 7:49:41 GMT
I loved KB’s performance, don’t get me wrong, she was brilliant, but absolutely no one is indispensable. If she’s tied up with another project for a little while, there will be another actor able to play Tammy Faye, I don’t think there’s anything about the role that only KB can sing/act it. She was bloody fabulous though.
I wonder if they managed that cast recording - there were heavy hints on social media and Andrew Rannells posted a video of abbey road?
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Post by theatremiss on Dec 4, 2022 13:21:02 GMT
It's Spring Awakening all over again! Memo to self: don't book first previews, and don't book last nights at the Almeida! I make sure I avoid the first previews and last night when booking any show. I’ve been caught out in the past and it’s such a faff to reschedule esp when you are at the theatre a lot |
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Post by mrbarnaby on Dec 4, 2022 14:59:47 GMT
Very much hoping that they do announce a transfer and cast recording for this soon. I really feel for the cast who didn’t get to end the run properly, and say goodbye in the way they’d have wanted.
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Post by mkb on Dec 5, 2022 13:20:44 GMT
I am belatedly posting my thoughts on this, as I was lucky enough to go to the Friday evening show on 18 November.
I enjoyed Tammy Faye a lot, and, somewhere here is a five-star show waiting to burst out. This isn't quite there.
Part of the problem is that the show lionises Tammy Faye, and for that to sit comfortably, we need to divorce this female evangelist/business woman from the ugly deception that parted the gullible from their cash. No amount of revisionism to transform her into a gay icon is going to pass muster frankly given the facts.
But this is musical theatre, so, with a sufficient sprinkling of glamour, let's suppose you can get away with that.
The next problem is that I enjoyed the drama a lot more than I did the music (- a bit like Dear Evan Hansen in that regard). There was nothing intrinsically wrong with the score; in fact, I imagine, I'll be buying a cast recording if/when it becomes available. I think it was the orchestrations and band-size limitations: we had imitations of country and gospel without embracing those genres fully to my ears. A larger stage with a larger band and better, louder sound would help. The lyrics too were merely functional. They didn't drive the narrative and lacked wit.
I had only the faintest memory of Jim and Tammy Bakker from the news when their fraud was exposed. Watching some archive video clips of the couple before writing this, I am struck by how well Andrew Rannells nailed Jim Bakker. Katie Bryden's performance is excellent, but she creates her own Tammy more than she impersonates the original. That's fine. The real Tammy Faye seems even more ebullient and larger than life than the script allows, with even bigger hair and outlandish make-up at times.
I attended a Bible Bapist, evangelical, American church in the UK for a couple of years in my early teens when I was on a mission to discover God -- I failed -- and one of the attractions was the joyful, uplifting gospel music (and also hanging out with the clean-cut son of the pastor who was the quintessential all-American boy, but that's another story). I quit the church, depressingly unshaken from agnosticism, but with an appreciation for evangelicals. I still do not understand how Christians, if they take the New Testament at face value, can stand idly by thinking that their unsaved family members are going to burn in the fires of Hades. Evangelicals do at least seem to care. Except when it's merely an angle for big business, of course.
I had never heard of the Praise-The-Lord tv channel. Tammy Faye the Musical makes it look a helluva lot of fun, and probably a must-watch for musical theatre fans. I imagine in reality it was a lot more "send us money to avoid eternal damnation" than Busby Berkeley.
I think I must be the only person on this board who enjoyed Act 2 more than Act 1, but there may have been tweaks by the time I saw it, and I was probably still coming down from the stressful working day during the first half. I hadn't read this thread beforehand, so I was unprepared when some people started clapping during the final song. It felt rude to do that while someone was singing new lyrics, so I held off until the end. Normally, bows with music occur during an instrumental piece or a reprise. This was most odd.
On whether this could transfer to the West End with a different leading lady, I am surprised by the overwhelming consensus that it couldn't. Bryden is very good, but it's a little insulting to other actresses to suggest we have no-one else in the UK (or available on loan from elsewhere in the world) who couldn't also excel as Tammy.
Four stars
Act 1: 19:35-20:53
Act 2: 21:15-22:23
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Post by shownut on Dec 5, 2022 14:28:33 GMT
"Part of the problem is that the show lionises Tammy Faye, and for that to sit comfortably, we need to divorce this female evangelist/business woman from the ugly deception that parted the gullible from their cash. No amount of revisionism to transform her into a gay icon is going to pass muster frankly given the facts." That's the thing about Tammy. She DID become (and still is) a gay icon in spite of the scandals. A lot of people (including gay ones like myself) saw her as a puppet in that scheme and not a manipulator. Despite what accusations that could be created against her, it felt impossible to believe that someone with such a huge heart and deep faith would intentionally screw people. That is part of what makes her so fascinating. She was a tied to that damningly illegal operation but it also took away everything she had...except her faith in God. And what did she do when the knives were out and the chips were down with a spotlight shining on her face? She sang. Loudly and proudly. Each and every time. I actually thought Jake Shear's lyrics were pretty spot on and both witty and heartbreaking...but more than a few lyric changes are needed to fix that very problematic second act. However, we do agree that somewhere within that 4 star show is a dazzling 5 star masterpiece waiting to burst out. I hope they do the work to dig it out. As far as the leading lady, KB was, as you mentioned, more her own creation of Tammy than an impersonation but it worked a charm. That said, there are at least 2 American actresses who I would pay good money to see in this role....Rachel Bay Jones would nail it and Kristin Chenowith has long been tied to a Tammy Faye project that we can only guess is now stalled for good. That's a pity because she was born to play this role. |
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Post by fossil on Dec 5, 2022 14:50:49 GMT
From WhatsOnStage
"......audiences shouldn't lose hope that this is the last we'll see of Tammy Faye – lyricist Jake Shears posted a comment saying: "See you after intermission kids" on social media – suggesting a future life is very much being courted."
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Post by mattnyc on Dec 5, 2022 15:02:46 GMT
Chenoweth had been attached to a Tammy Faye musical a long time ago, however I think it was a totally different project. RBJ would be spectacular, though.
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Post by bobbievanhusen on Dec 5, 2022 17:30:41 GMT
I think I must be the only person on this board who enjoyed Act 2 more than Act 1, but there may have been tweaks by the time I saw it, Apart from cutting a verse from 2 songs, the show stayed the same pretty much the entire run. There is a cheeky recording of the show out there. |
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Post by jacob on Dec 5, 2022 18:06:45 GMT
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Post by kyvai on Dec 5, 2022 19:17:25 GMT
Maybe if Chenoweth’s own project doesn’t have legs, she would take this to Broadway. I’d get on a plane for that.
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