Marvellous - New Vic / @sohoplace

[Rory]

[alece10]

Actually interested in this. I have seen the film a couple of times and just love the story. So uplifting.

[alessia]

Aug 19, 2022 10:26:34 GMT alece10 said:

Actually interested in this. I have seen the film a couple of times and just love the story. So uplifting.

Not heard of the story or the film but I've just booked on the spot, tickets are affordable too...hope it will be good!

[oxfordsimon]

The film makes me cry. In a good way. But still I sob

[Jon]

I'm going to book because it's a great true story but also to be visit @sohoplace.

[meister]

Anyone know what the £25 front row seats will be like?  Seem like a bargain!!
And what is the running time for this?

[Jon]

Aug 19, 2022 11:15:37 GMT meister said:

Anyone know what the £25 front row seats will be like?  Seem like a bargain!!
And what is the running time for this?

The theatre hasn't opened so we won't know yet.

[TallPaul]

Before opening in London, Marvellous is also returning to the New Vic - 17 September to 8 October.

As for the running time, perhaps someone with a Stage online subscription could have a look at the original review from March 2022?

[FrontroverPaul]

Aug 19, 2022 11:15:37 GMT meister said:

Anyone know what the £25 front row seats will be like?  Seem like a bargain!!
And what is the running time for this?

I've booked for the opening night , Saturday 15 October. £25 for row A has to be a bargain and to visit a brand new theatre on its opening night is an experience not to be missed. From the seating plan it looks like the stage is in the round and the website refers to perfect sightlines from every seat so should be okay.

The TV play starring Toby Jones is a delight and as a bonus the theatre is now so easy to get to on the Elizabeth Line.

[showgirl]

The Stage said 2 h 15 mins at the New Vic, so definitely a matinee for me.

[Someone in a tree]

Anyone having difficulty booking for this ? I tried several times over the weekend and kept getting error messages.

Just tired again, stalls front row was £24 and now it's £40.

[alece10]

Just booked to see this innthe first week. Interested in seeing the play but even more interested in seeing the new theatre.

[FrontroverPaul]

"Best available seats for £25" ... "from 15 October to 26 November" ...visit sohoplace.org ... (book) using promocode RadioTimes25.

[cavocado]

Oct 7, 2022 1:08:30 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

"Best available seats for £25" ... "from 15 October to 26 November" ...visit sohoplace.org ... (book) using promocode RadioTimes25.

Has anyone used this code? I couldn't see anywhere on the basket or payment screen to add the code. I was waiting for rush tickets for this, but happy to pay £25 if I could only work out how to do it.

UPDATE: I've worked it out. If anyone else is wondering where to add the code, it's above the calendar on the page where you choose the peformance you want tickets for.

[max]

Aug 22, 2022 18:59:18 GMT Someone in a tree said:

Anyone having difficulty booking for this ? I tried several times over the weekend and kept getting error messages.

Just tired again, stalls front row was £24 and now it's £40.

£25 front row is showing across the run (I couldn't see them other day either, but definitely there now)

Plus the promo code mentioned above:   "Best available seats for £25" ... "from 15 October to 26 November" ...visit sohoplace.org ... (book) using promocode RadioTimes25

[zahidf]

£15.00 tickets on todaytix for front row

[showgirl]

I'd love to book for this and quite a few other current/forthcoming productions and was pleased to see the deals return as I'd waited too long for the original "£25 front row" tickets. However, it's now the prospect of further train strikes which deters me as since theatres aren't obliged to give credits/refunds for this reason, it's risky to book and then be uanble to attend.

[FrontroverPaul]

Looking forward to seeing this tomorrow night though slightly peeved to be sent a ticket which can only be displayed on a smartphone, attempts to print it led to a message that printed tickets would not be accepted.

I do now have and use a smartphone myself but following an incredibly distressing incident I witnessed a few years ago I object to be given no alternative. I also know someone who can't use a smartphone or apps and regularly ends up missing out on deals and paying more for things than the app price.

Replied to that effect and was sent a downloadable ticket which I've printed so all good now.

[cavocado]

Oct 14, 2022 12:24:11 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

Looking forward to seeing this tomorrow night though slightly peeved to be sent a ticket which can only be displayed on a smartphone, attempts to print it led to a message that printed tickets would not be accepted.

I do now have and use a smartphone myself but following an incredibly distressing incident I witnessed a few years ago I object to be given no alternative. I also know someone who can't use a smartphone or apps and regularly ends up missing out on deals and paying more for things than the app price.

Replied to that effect and was sent a downloadable ticket which I've printed so all good now.

I once dropped my phone down a theatre loo, so I always like printable tickets just in case! I also know a couple of people who don't have smartphones.

[Jon]

Oct 14, 2022 16:56:11 GMT cavocado said:

Oct 14, 2022 12:24:11 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

Looking forward to seeing this tomorrow night though slightly peeved to be sent a ticket which can only be displayed on a smartphone, attempts to print it led to a message that printed tickets would not be accepted.

I do now have and use a smartphone myself but following an incredibly distressing incident I witnessed a few years ago I object to be given no alternative. I also know someone who can't use a smartphone or apps and regularly ends up missing out on deals and paying more for things than the app price.

Replied to that effect and was sent a downloadable ticket which I've printed so all good now.

I once dropped my phone down a theatre loo, so I always like printable tickets just in case! I also know a couple of people who don't have smartphones.

I hope you cleaned it after you picked it up! 

[cavocado]

Oct 14, 2022 17:09:15 GMT Jon said:

Oct 14, 2022 16:56:11 GMT cavocado said:

I once dropped my phone down a theatre loo, so I always like printable tickets just in case! I also know a couple of people who don't have smartphones.

I hope you cleaned it after you picked it up! 

I did clean it but it didn't recover unfortunately and had to be replaced. At least now I have a new phone it's got enough storage and battery power so that I can keep tickets on there if necessary.

[showgirl]

So did this go ahead on Saturday 15, pse, those of you who were due to see it then? It seems to have been strangely quiet here since, whereas people are usually quick to post early reports. I'd have been there myself but for needing a matinee due to the running time - and there are no regular weekday ones, alas; only a couple near the end of the run.

[Steve]

Oct 17, 2022 3:38:12 GMT showgirl said:

So did this go ahead on Saturday 15, pse, those of you who were due to see it then? It seems to have been strangely quiet here since, whereas people are usually quick to post early reports. I'd have been there myself but for needing a matinee due to the running time - and there are no regular weekday ones, alas; only a couple near the end of the run.

Lol I was there, and enjoyed myself a great deal, but didn't absolutely love it, cos it wasn't as good as the Toby Jones film for me, for a number of reasons that wouldn't affect the expectations of someone who hadn't seen the film. So I thought I'd leave it to someone else to say something first, whose expectations weren't skewed that way.

As far as the theatre is concerned, I felt it was lovely, like a slightly enlarged Dorfman Theatre, or a slightly shrunken Bridge Theatre. The programmes were not available, so we got a free downloadable one, which was especially nice as I wasn't going to buy one anyway lol.

I know you like to know how long things are, and I recall we got out at about 10pm, which would suggest a running time of around 2 and a half hours, so I suspect that in future, the advertised running time of 2 hours 20 minutes will be about right.

Some spoilers follow. . .

The expectations engendered by the film, which I absolutely LOVED back in 2014, were threefold: (1) that the focus was on a bloke who asks and always hilariously receives; (2) that the focus was on some beautiful bonding between Neil and Lou Macari (his footie boss), Neil and his Mum (an absolutely adorable Gemma Jones in the film) and Neil and Reverend Mark; and (3) that some wonderful cast communal singing (eg of Delilah and Enjoy Yourself) would be happening.

All three hopes were dashed, since:-

(1) the focus of the play is not the moments where Neil breaks taboos and audaciously asks for stuff from people that most wouldn't dare to, but is actually his whole life. This play doesn't even get to the film plot until the second half. The first half is mostly his parents getting together to have him, and him growing up, which is all well and good, but isn't what made Neil so unique, in my opinion, which was his grown-up, infectiously insistent, assumingly engaging yet demanding personality;

(2) since Lou Macari and Reverend Mark have much reduced parts in the play, the building of bonding scenes with them, over time, simply isn't possible in the play. And the possibility of bonding with the characters, per se, is also reduced as noone in the cast plays anybody but themselves, in a self-consciously Brechtian way, except for Michael Hugo, who is utterly charming and loveable as "The Real Neil." Basically, a lot of the plot involves the actors talking and arguing about who's gonna play who, and then sharing the roles around, lol, which veered between being very funny and twee, but again, not what I was craving;

(3) there was a tiny bit of singing at the end, but the anthemic prevalence of songs like Delilah and Enjoy Yourself was utterly absent.

So that's why my expectations, unfairly aroused by having watched the film, were dashed.

On the upside,

(a) I learned so much more about Neil Baldwin's background and life than I learned from the film, especially in the first half, which was almost all new to me;

(b) the aforesaid Michael Hugo is an unforgettably personable and loveable host, playing Baldwin hosting the play about his own life, and I found him joyous and genuinely funny;

(c) in the second half, Hugo gets to play Baldwin's grown-up self, and there is some marvellous (yep) clowning around with Suzanne Ahmet, temporarily playing his Mum, involving food, that had me in stitches;

(d) Gareth Cassidy's facility with accents, and impish and knowing sense of humour, no matter who he was playing at the time (he's credited in the programme as simply playing Gareth, himself lol) was terrifically engaging and entertaining;

(e) the whole wonderful cast generously give their absolute all to this play and towards entertaining the audience for the whole duration.

Overall, my disappointment at one of the very best (5 star) British films of recent years not having an encore (lol) was countered by other enjoyable things to make up for this, and though the general atmosphere did skirt tweeness a little more than I would have liked, I ended up having 3 and a half stars of laughs and memorable fun.

And I did enjoy meeting the "Baby Bridge" Theatre on it's first professional outing, and I'm intrigued to see it kitted out differently for less circussy productions in the future.

Hope that helps.

[Jon]

I'm not surprised that @sohoplace feels like the Bridge or the Dorfman, the auditorium was designed by Haworth Tompkins who did both of those.

[FrontroverPaul]

I was also there on opening night, having failed to realise that the Elizabeth Line was closed for the weekend and only taking my seat at 19.28 after a stressful hurried train and tube trip from Abbey Wood. I had my usual "bag for life" with a book, a few interval snacks and a flask of cold fruit juice - it's smaller than most handbags so was slightly surprised to be asked to hand it in the cloakroom because "we have a bag policy". There was a small queue there at 19.26 so I just doubled back and up the stairs to the auditorium.

I know the film well and was expecting a retelling of the story but it's presented in a much less structured way. For a minute or two I was fooled into believing the real Neil Baldwin was there at the start which seemed feasible on opening night - Michael Hugo is totally convincing in the role. I felt too much time was spent on Neil's childhood which wasn't really that different to everybody else's or if it was that wasn't brought out at all. As a play the story is reduced to bare bones and there's far too much pantomime-style slapstick comedy with flour being thrown around and water sprayed everywhere. There were a few children there and it's fine for a family audience.

At least eight people in my sightline from a front row seat didn't return after the interval. I was entertained, glad I saw it but wouldn't revisit. Three stars