Bedknobs and Broomsticks - U.K. & Ireland Tour

[danb]

Perhaps a limited Summer stop at the Palladium? We don’t know the scale of it yet, and if they were happy to put Wind in the Willows in there all bets are off!

[HereForTheatre]

What great casting. I never even thought of her but of course she's perfect.

[firefingers]

Could the West End handle/would Disney want Lion King, Frozen, Poppins and Bedknobs all running at the same time? If not, but do want to bring Bedknobs into town, then it frees a theatre for it to go into.

[musicalmarge]

Well I’m worried about this. It won’t be the production standards of Mackintosh or Disney on Broadway. Even the casting video sounds and looks touring cheap if you ask me.

I think it will be a regional cheesy 8/10 standard and good attempt at the film on stage using a cherry picker type Chitty arm for the bed (they did that on tour). BUT.... as it’s not having millions thrown at it or staying in one location it won’t be the marvel or Harry Potter 10/10 it could be.

I hope I’m wrong!!

[fluxcapacitor]

Jun 4, 2021 11:06:03 GMT musicalmarge said:

Well I’m worried about this. It won’t be the production standards of Mackintosh or Disney on Broadway. Even the casting video sounds and looks touring cheap if you ask me.

I think it will be a regional cheesy 8/10 standard and good attempt at the film on stage using a cherry picker type Chitty arm for the bed (they did that on tour). BUT.... as it’s not having millions thrown at it or staying in one location it won’t be the marvel or Harry Potter 10/10 it could be.

I hope I’m wrong!!

I don't think you can read too much into that casting video.  MT video edits are notoriously badly done - just look at ALW's Cinderella, and that's not exactly on the cheap!  Plus the base animation is actually bespoke and quite nicely done.  I think it's just a matter of "make something quick with these headshots".

I'm actually very excited about this.  Casting is bang on (I would have liked Laura Pitt-Pulford, but Diane Pilkington is perfect) and I'm actually quite happy if it's being approached differently to other recent Disney musicals, with more creative approaches to the magic and sets rather than just throwing money at it.  As long as they leave the heelys with Little Mermaid...

I also think the movie is bigger than a lot of people realise.  It isn't Poppins, but it's a staple and certainly the nostalgia factor is going to push it, if nothing else.

[TheatreTwittic]

Jun 4, 2021 11:06:03 GMT musicalmarge said:

Well I’m worried about this. It won’t be the production standards of Mackintosh or Disney on Broadway. Even the casting video sounds and looks touring cheap if you ask me.

I think it will be a regional cheesy 8/10 standard and good attempt at the film on stage using a cherry picker type Chitty arm for the bed (they did that on tour). BUT.... as it’s not having millions thrown at it or staying in one location it won’t be the marvel or Harry Potter 10/10 it could be.

I hope I’m wrong!!

I will be honest....the music used in the promo clips really does grate on me. The 'organ' in particular 🙈

Hopefully it's something they knocked up for promo only and not the actual sound of the production.

[westendboy]

Jun 4, 2021 12:10:07 GMT kit66 said:

I wonder if this is in fact a glorified workshop production similar to what Disney did with ALADDIN when it was tried out orginally in Seattle (2011) before being turned into the bemoth it became. There's no point spending millions on a production if the concept just doesn't work.Unlike MARY POPPINS which was orginally staged in Bristol as a pre West End tryout currently - to my knowledge -there is no London theatre earmarked for it.

That is an interesting assumption! That could be the case, but not certain. 

[musicalmarge]

God I hope it’s good. You are right above that money doesn’t always work. I thought Frozen was average and lacked creativity.

[sph]

I feel it's going to be a lot less "literal" than Mary Poppins on stage. Maybe using more quirky theatrical techniques and the cast has a few experienced puppeteers in there too.

Something halfway between Mary Poppins and Peter and the Starcatcher (in case anyone caught it in New York). That's my prediction anyway. I doubt there'll be a bed flying over the audience.

[westendboy]

Jun 4, 2021 23:22:05 GMT sph said:

I doubt there'll be a bed flying over the audience.

Although that would be amazing to see! I can imagine the bed doing this, similar to 'Chitty' at the Palladium.

[robertb213]

As long as a little cockney kid says the immortal line 'what's that got to do with my knob?', they can take my money now.

[ThereWillBeSun]

Jun 6, 2021 17:52:27 GMT robertb213 said:

As long as a little cockney kid says the immortal line 'what's that got to do with my knob?', they can take my money now.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

[robertb213]

Leaves me giggling like a teenager, every single time.

[Figaro]

Looking at the cast, it looks like one of the children characters has been cut.

[fiyero]

Jun 7, 2021 9:07:24 GMT Figaro said:

Looking at the cast, it looks like one of the children characters has been cut.

I was wondering about that but thought maybe a young adult was playing the role instead, the adults don’t seem to have named parts.

[Figaro]

Jun 7, 2021 9:37:45 GMT fiyero said:

Jun 7, 2021 9:07:24 GMT Figaro said:

Looking at the cast, it looks like one of the children characters has been cut.

I was wondering about that but thought maybe a young adult was playing the role instead, the adults don’t seem to have named parts.

Just seen on Twitter than Connor o’hara is playing Charlie, the eldest child.

[cheesy116]

I’m sure Rob Madge can cover the child roles easily

[sph]

Jun 7, 2021 9:37:45 GMT fiyero said:

Jun 7, 2021 9:07:24 GMT Figaro said:

Looking at the cast, it looks like one of the children characters has been cut.

I was wondering about that but thought maybe a young adult was playing the role instead, the adults don’t seem to have named parts.

Yes, that and the fact that the episodic nature of the story means that I imagine most of the adult cast will be multi-roling anyway.

[musicalmarge]

I wonder how they will do the underwater sequences, flying bed and famous cartoon football match wifh animals - it’s quite the challenge!

[sph]

I suspect the football scene will be cut and replaced with something else.

[robertb213]

Jun 8, 2021 12:11:06 GMT sph said:

I suspect the football scene will be cut and replaced with something else.

Agreed. They HAVE to keep the underwater stuff in it though, it's probably the most memorable scene and also the most memorable song. Ah, the Beautiful Briny Sea... 😁🎶

[musicalmarge]

But the “star of asteroth” is on the tiger kings medal! That’s part of the story. The penguins in poppins didn’t add to the story. Hmmm

[fluxcapacitor]

Jun 9, 2021 15:51:50 GMT musicalmarge said:

But the “star of asteroth” is on the tiger kings medal! That’s part of the story. The penguins in poppins didn’t add to the story. Hmmm

They’ll just change where the star is “found”. The details of the encounter on the Isle don’t really affect the story - the whole football game is a distraction that takes around 15 minutes to play out and show off some nifty animation. It would be impossible to recreate it on stage and I doubt we’ll see it in the show. We might see the animals in some form - maybe as puppets or conceptual designs, but I highly doubt they’ll be playing “soccer”.

No reason why they can’t just find the star in a cage with a conceptually designed lion who can roar a few words, or in closed shell on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea, or something similarly convenient that doesn’t involve a whole cast of talking animals in a complex fixed game of football.

Beautiful Briny should be there as it’s such a recognisable number and will be easier to recreate more faithfully as there the animation is secondary and setting a scene, not leading the action.

[Deleted]

Jun 9, 2021 15:51:50 GMT musicalmarge said:

But the “star of asteroth” is on the tiger kings medal! That’s part of the story. The penguins in poppins didn’t add to the story. Hmmm

It's a lion, not a tiger.

Or...unless they decide to cast Joe Exotic in this version.

[FairyGodmother]

I think the only things they took from the books were the characters and the magic bedknob. The star isn't in the book, nor is under the sea, nor a football match.

They travel once to London to try to see their mum, once to an apparently uninhabited island where they have a run in with a cannibal tribe in the first book. They come back with the bedding sopppibg and get sent home (they're not actually evacuees in the book, they're there because their mum is working and can't look after them over the summer).

Then in the second book they stay with Miss Price and go back into the past, to 1666 where they meet Emilius (who's a necromancer) and bring him back to the present. He stays with them for a bit then they take him back. They then go to visit him again and find he's been arrested for witchcraft and starting the great fire of London. They save him using transubstitutiary locomotion, using clothes to fly her broom. They rescue him, and he's inherited (in the past) a farm near where they're staying. He asks Miss Price to marry him, and they go off into the past on the bed together.