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Post by anthony40 on Jun 10, 2022 12:21:58 GMT
Similar to Here Lies Love at the National a couple of years beck at The Dorfman, I think where they had three or four 'floating' stages that they moved around throughout the show and the standing members of the audience move around accordingly. |
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Post by jgblunners on Jun 10, 2022 12:22:40 GMT
This is exactly true - if you find promo footage for their productions of Julius Caesar or A Midsummer Night's Dream you can see how the entire stalls are ripped out and turned into a level area, where people stand and are able to move around. The upper levels are extended to wrap (almost) all the way around and are still regular seating. Whether the 'immersive' area will in fact have club style seating in this production (for the Hot Box club) I don't know - I don't expect it to but there's always a possibility! Does that mean that if you have a seat you're going to be looking not only at the cast but also at several hundred audience members milling around? I think I'd find that pretty detrimental to concentrating on the show. In the previous 'immersive' productions at the Bridge all of the performance has occured on raised platforms within the standing area, so it's fairly easy to focus. It's not like the actors are getting lost in the middle of the crowds. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jun 10, 2022 12:31:56 GMT
You can't make it the Hot Box club as that is only really home to a couple of numbers. The mission hall is more central But the streets of New York are vital. As is the trip to the Sewers and the trip to Havana. So you have to have a very flexible stage to accommodate all the different settings Which means immersive is likely to involve a lot of projection and furniture shifting. Much as I love the score, this doesn't sound like the right plan for the piece Maybe different stages with different sets connected by runways? Standing crowd turns and directs their attention to whichever one the action is taking place on? If you are going to do the big scale company numbers, you need a lot of space for the dancing and chorus which seems incompatible with a series of smaller stages and runways. It is far easier to reimagine a Shakespeare piece in an immersive way because they were never conceived to be performed with lots of scenery. And interaction or at least close engagement with the audience is part of how the plays were intended to be received. A big book musical like G&D really doesn't fit that model. I know Hytner can be very creative. But I just remain unconvinced by the virtue of taking this sort of approach |
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Post by Being Alive on Jun 10, 2022 12:33:01 GMT
Bunny Christie's sets for the promenade Shakespeares have been minimal but effective - I think this will work really well.
If they've managed it before with minimal set at the Royal Exchange, I'm sure itll be fine.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 10, 2022 12:56:57 GMT
Does that mean that if you have a seat you're going to be looking not only at the cast but also at several hundred audience members milling around? I think I'd find that pretty detrimental to concentrating on the show. In the previous 'immersive' productions at the Bridge all of the performance has occured on raised platforms within the standing area, so it's fairly easy to focus. It's not like the actors are getting lost in the middle of the crowds. Thanks. I guess I'll wait for the casting & see if there are enough people in the cast that I want to see to overcome my wariness about the production style. |
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Post by digne on Jun 10, 2022 17:21:39 GMT
Those news made my day today - the Bridge's immersive Julius Caesar and Midsummer Night's Dream are among my favourite theatre memories! I'm really excited they're trying that concept with musicals now. I can see Guys & Dolls working well in that setup and atmosphere, especially with the musicians also being a part of it. (Also I've never been shouted at and I've seen both shows twice - when an actor or helper gently nudges you, you just move out of the way. I was usually standing right at the front of a platform where the crowd is thickest, and even there you can make space for the actors because generally everyone else in the audience is aware that actors need to get through now and then, so when you try to move to make way for an actor, your neighbours will allow you do so. I have, in fact, always been impressed with their crowd maneuvering, and I've seen the immersive shows in early previews as well as later in the run. Just make sure to wear comfy shoes if you're getting a promenade ticket.)
Also for those wondering about the immersive aspect/the stage, the trailers for their former immersive shows show the platforms that raise out of the ground. If you have a promenade ticket, you gather around the platforms and move from one to the other as the actors and action moves. If you have a seated ticket, you have a pretty normal view at the actors above the crowd:
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Post by Latecomer on Jun 10, 2022 18:41:43 GMT
I sat in lowest seats around the edge of the area for Midsummer Nights Dream and the view was splendid. Also saw Julius Caesar from the floor, as it were, and that was fab too. They were both imaginative dynamic performances and the space has been deliberately designed to be flexible, from the very start, so lots of sets arriving and disappearing like a choreographed piece, but didn’t seem intrusive. I think this will probably be splendid. I expect they will also get some starry casting!
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Post by lynette on Jun 10, 2022 22:01:15 GMT
In the previous 'immersive' productions at the Bridge all of the performance has occured on raised platforms within the standing area, so it's fairly easy to focus. It's not like the actors are getting lost in the middle of the crowds. Thanks. I guess I'll wait for the casting & see if there are enough people in the cast that I want to see to overcome my wariness about the production style. Dawnstar, it worked a treat for previous shows. I would go for this one. Has pedigree as it were… |
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Post by Dawnstar on Jun 10, 2022 22:07:19 GMT
Thanks. I guess I'll wait for the casting & see if there are enough people in the cast that I want to see to overcome my wariness about the production style. Dawnstar, it worked a treat for previous shows. I would go for this one. Has pedigree as it were… I would be waiting for the cast announcement no matter what the production style, as I have a rooted objection to booking anything without knowing the cast, so not actually doing anything different to my normal booking habit. |
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Post by showtoones on Jun 11, 2022 6:31:55 GMT
No, in the article - the 400 people who will get to move around in the show will have the cheapest tickets. The people sitting down will probably be paying most. So cheap seats don’t exist anymore you have cheap walking tickets 😂 This seems to be how “Here Lies Love” worked at the National. I’ll be sitting…thank you very much 😜 |
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Post by lynette on Jun 11, 2022 11:02:52 GMT
Booked. Possibly the entire theatre allowance for ‘23 now spent. Not to mention the teeeeeny little dots you have to tap for the seats. 😳
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Post by FrontroverPaul on Jun 20, 2022 9:57:27 GMT
At least one pre-sale for Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre is now open. First preview Monday 27 February 2023.
The area which appears closest to the stage is being sold as "Pit Standing, General Admission" @ £42. Is that a first for a traditional musical in London ? I can see the appeal for a musical like Mamma Mia with its danceable score but why would anyone want to stand for two to three hours of Guys and Dolls ? There is seating on all four sides of the stage.
A lot of the seats which I would consider reasonably priced - £18 to £54 during previews - come with a restriction warning - high seat, lean forward or overhang - and decent preview seats are in the £71 to £149 price range though those prices probably includes an agency fee. From official opening it's £24 to £179.
In a previous incarnation Guys and Dolls apparently struggled on tour and was the first show I ever saw as a seat filler. Hopefully this Guys and Dolls will be something special like Cabaret. I've just grabbed the cheapest available seat @ £18 for opening preview night way up in the balcony for now.
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Post by viserys on Jun 20, 2022 10:07:01 GMT
Pricing is pretty eye-watering. I think I'll wait for casting before I decide how much this is worth to me.
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Post by digne on Jun 20, 2022 10:07:33 GMT
It's an immersive production, as their previous immersive productions of Julius Caesar and Midsummer Night's Dream. Personally I can't see why anyone would want to sit in one of those, but fortunately these productions cater to all tastes.  We've talked about their immersive productions on the last page; I also recommend checking out the trailers they have on Youtube for their other immersive productions to get an idea of how they look/how the rising platforms in the pit work.
I'm pretty sure I've never paid more than £25 for pit tickets so I'm going to wait - they might do them as rush again, too.
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Post by galinda on Jun 20, 2022 12:42:37 GMT
At least one pre-sale for Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre is now open. First preview Monday 27 February 2023. The area which appears closest to the stage is being sold as "Pit Standing, General Admission" @ £42. Is that a first for a traditional musical in London ? I can see the appeal for a musical like Mamma Mia with its danceable score but why would anyone want to stand for two to three hours of Guys and Dolls ? There is seating on all four sides of the stage. A lot of the seats which I would consider reasonably priced - £18 to £54 during previews - come with a restriction warning - high seat, lean forward or overhang - and decent preview seats are in the £71 to £149 price range though those prices probably includes an agency fee. From official opening it's £24 to £179. In a previous incarnation Guys and Dolls apparently struggled on tour and was the first show I ever saw as a seat filler. Hopefully this Guys and Dolls will be something special like Cabaret. I've just grabbed the cheapest available seat @ £18 for opening preview night way up in the balcony for now. I remember having standing tickets for the Piccadilly production about 15 years ago as that was all I could afford back then. It felt such a long show having to stand! I was glad when it had finished!! I don’t think I appreciated what I good show it was until I saw it from a seat 😂 |
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Post by inthenose on Jun 20, 2022 13:05:05 GMT
I've seen several Guys and Dolls productions and whilst I find the show enjoyable, to me it's rather like Chicago. I adore the score, but seeing it live leaves me a bit cold coming out of the theatre and I'm not sure why.
From memory I saw it on Broadway (Oliver Platt - ugh!!), 2005 Donmar twice once after transferrinv, original cast then Don Johnson. Also saw the semi-recent West End run with Oliver Tompsett which surprisingly, given its general cheapness, I enjoyed the most.
Won't be going to this, turned off by the "immersive" angle.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 20, 2022 13:39:39 GMT
Just strikes me as being very gimmicky. I can see why Julius Caesar would work in this style, I just don’t see why Guys and Dolls is going to benefit from it. And the people choosing to sit in the seats are potentially going to be very distracted by a load of people milling around in their line of sight.
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Post by ceebee on Jun 20, 2022 13:46:56 GMT
Booked orchestra seat for £38. Happy enough with that.
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Post by marob on Jun 20, 2022 14:12:04 GMT
Some of those seat prices on Todaytix are ridiculous, particularly with no cast announcement or anything. I don’t think I’ve been there since A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so correct me if I’m wrong but from what I remember pretty much every show they put on (unless it starred someone like Maggie Smith or Laura Linney) would have to reduce quite heavily and still wouldn’t sell. Has something changed? Or are they just hoping the show will sell itself?
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Post by inthenose on Jun 20, 2022 14:26:58 GMT
I am assuming this won't be getting triple A casting to be fair...
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jun 20, 2022 22:42:22 GMT
£42 to stand and be herded around like cattle for 3 hours?
Nope.
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Post by mattnyc on Jun 21, 2022 1:22:02 GMT
Is there a presale code to purchase tickets now?
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Post by mkb on Jun 21, 2022 9:11:14 GMT
Interestingly, a session I had logged in (at 09:50) would not refresh at 10:00 - it was just stuck on a "loading" page. Even refreshing that wouldn't help. But initiating a new session and logging in again fixed it. Weird.
Also, a bit annoyed that I pay the Bridge for 24-hours advance access to tickets only to learn here that the same seats were publicly available earlier, albeit with a hefty booking fee, via TodayTix. That did have the benefit though that I could hold the seats I wanted in TodayTix until I got into the Bridge website.
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Post by mattnyc on Jun 21, 2022 20:09:26 GMT
I was confused about the TodayTix sale but glad I went on and got tix now. The performances I wanted were already going fast so I only imagine they’ll be sold out almost immediately when they open up the general sale in the morning.
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Post by mrnutz on Jun 22, 2022 9:07:24 GMT
Just picked up a couple of standing tickets for the first Saturday preview.
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