I missed matching eyebrows?! Darn it. Eve best is on my list of would watch reading the football results? Fishing broadcast? I want to say yellow pages but that doesn't exist any more.insert suitably dull material.
I saw this on Saturday, and pretty much agree with what’s been said so far. Fairly mundane Wilde-by-numbers stuff at the start, with the usual one-liners being passed back and forth without generating a great deal of laughter, then Eve Best shows up and all of a sudden you’re in a proper, serious drama. She is glorious really, and the exchanges between her and Dominic Rowan are brilliant, vicious stuff.
The rest of the cast are decent enough, but the play seems a bit over-populated with peripheral characters that don’t do a whole lot. In general though, definitely worth a visit to see one of our…erm….best actresses at the top of her game.
For the second half and eve best yes but don't worry if you're tempted to nap first half. There are some deals around, today tix offering £15 seats for today only (as in selling today for this week).
Anyone know what the day seat situation has been like? I'm thinking about catching it over Christmas, but only if it's easy to enough to get a day seat by rocking up at 10am and seeing what they have.
Anyone know what the day seat situation has been like? I'm thinking about catching it over Christmas, but only if it's easy to enough to get a day seat by rocking up at 10am and seeing what they have.
That's what I did. It may have been a little later than 10am as well.
Front row is a great view, not especially high and you can see everything perfectly well from what I recall. AND more fabulously, you may get to sit next to a MBer who reads but doesn't post if you're lucky!
For the second half and eve best yes but don't worry if you're tempted to nap first half. There are some deals around, today tix offering £15 seats for today only (as in selling today for this week).
Interesting, peggs, as I've been searching for a deal and couldn't find anything like that good an offer on Todaytix - and I last checked first thing this AM. Best I could find was absolutely rubbish seats for £22.50 in the rear stalls or dress. So if I can't improve on that online, I will chance day-seating - after all, it's only a matinee I want, too, and not school hols or summer.
Oh sorry, I looked about mid afternoon I guess but just checking now and the site won't load. I think it must vary as the other week they had £20 seats end of row B I think. But sounds like you ought to be able to day seat, I would do that but can only do Saturdays so lessens my options.
Having checked again I can now see £15 tix on Todaytix (sure they appeared during the day yesterday as I've checked so much lately), but most frustratingly and puzzlingly, never for any matinees. Do they think these sell better anyway? Because they won't to me if I have to pay more than for an evening performance!
The £15 offer is now over anyway but whilst it was still open I tried all the matinee dates and not one had that performance listed, so maybe there were only a few tix for those and they went? I do wish though that Todaytix would email users to alert them to offers; I do have an account and surely that's an obvious use for users' contact details?
When the £15 offer went live, they did offer Saturday matinees at £15, but the Thursday ones not (just regular price). Then shortly after, the Thursday matinee times disappeared - no offer of any tickets. Now the offer is over, all performances are back on show and tickets available.
On being alerted, my app did alert me at some point (can't remember when), but I did not get an email.
Thank you for the info, bellboard27. I do have the app but received no notification of any type; shame, as I'm specifically looking for this Thursday matinee now, but there are alternatives. Looking at future dates, even quite close, imo the seat locations are still too poor for the price.
Indeed, HG, had there been any notifications to miss, but as I said, I received none. If I had the time I'd contact Todaytix about it, but life's too short - plenty more plays in the London sea.
Saw this yesterday and as no day seats appeared on the site within 24 hours of the performance (perhaps I was wrong but I thought I recalled someone saying that Nimax did this which saved day-seating?) and Todaytix finally offered me a slightly better seat location than before, I was able to see this from row M of the stalls, which was fine if slightly further back than I'd normally hope to sit, but preferable to front row for me.
Not a full house but a very respectable turnout, with an appreciative audience and some standing at the end. I enjoyed it, especially the many one-liners in the first act, and unlike some I didn't find that things only really got going once Eve Best appeared - though I do agree that the pace and nature of the play changed significantly from that point.
I've now had the pleasure of looking back to see who I was actually watching, as though I recognised Eleanor Bron and Eve Best, I had forgotten who played Lady Hunstanton (surprised I had forgotten this was Anne Reid as hers was the only other name familiar to me) and had no idea who the others were - but that's always my preference as then I'm not distracted by knowing who the actors "really" are.
I can't recall much about the version I first saw, I believe with Felicity Kendal playing the wronged woman, but I'm sure Eve Best was a better fit and that the production overall benefited from the current casting.
Went to see A Woman of No Importance last night (thanks to those who alerted us to the £15 TodayTix offer!) and really quite enjoyed it.
It was a bit 'Wilde-by-numbers', but the relish with which most of the actors played their parts made it a nice evening out. The contrast with the initial frivolous witty lines scenes and the storyline once Eve Best turns up, jarred a little - not too much though. The final pay-off line was definitely worth it!
Overall the cast were terrific, especially Eve Best and Anne Reid (her comic interlude songs were a real highlight). Although there was one hilarious Play That Goes Wrong moment where Reid in the first scene sat down on a chair and it collapsed; leaving her flat on the stage. Bless them, they tried to mask it as part of the action (full marks especially to Eleanor Bron who improvised wonderfully about needing to 'send the chair to the menders'), but given the obvious shock on their faces it was clearly not supposed to happen.
The only weak link was Sam Cox as John Pontefract - he just had the most bizarrely distracting robotic style; he was clearly awaiting someone to say a line before he did his next move - even down to background action, he would stop, wait for a line, move to pick up an object, stop, wait for another line, then do his next movement. Very very odd.
It's a production well worth seeing, but perhaps not at full price!
It's only been open four days and I'm not sure Oscar Wilde is a hot ticket for us lot. That said, I'm planning on swinging by the box office on Saturday to see if I can get a cheeky dayseat rather than sticking with my already-planned matinee. I'll be interested to see if the presence of Jennifer Saunders makes a difference compared with how easy it was to get A Woman of No Importance.
It's only been open four days and I'm not sure Oscar Wilde is a hot ticket for us lot. That said, I'm planning on swinging by the box office on Saturday to see if I can get a cheeky dayseat rather than sticking with my already-planned matinee. I'll be interested to see if the presence of Jennifer Saunders makes a difference compared with how easy it was to get A Woman of No Importance.
I was told by the box office that day seats will only be available after it opens, not in previews.
Would recommend seeing it, even though the staging is quite old-fashioned. Jennifer Saunders is a joy, solid performances by Samantha Spiro and others.