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Post by tmesis on Sept 29, 2019 16:44:18 GMT
Let's start with a few plaudits. The cast are fantastic and the design is stunning - probably the best ever at Southwark. Oh, and Tom Noyes is a fantastic pianist, not just for getting round the notes of this very challenging music, but for committing it all to memory and playing it so expressively. But....I didn't really enjoy it at all. Maybe I'm just too involved in Rachmaninov's music which I have now been teaching, playing and listening to for nearly fifty years that I found this mash up of his great music and Dave Malloy's own lack-lustre efforts/arrangements so annoying and unsatisfying. Before the interval the pianist starts an exquisite bit from the 2nd Piano Concero which morphs into a song for Natalya but it just doesn't work since it sounds like something rejected from 'Wicked.' Towards the end of Act 2 Malloy seems to channel his inner Philip Glass and give us ten minutes of waffle all on one chord that tried my patience to the limit. I assume he was trying to produce a hypnotic effect but it was just self indulgent and dull.
A play with music that attempted to get into the mind of the composer would have worked much better, but by the interval I just thought 'This is pretentious twaddle' and nothing in the 2nd half changed that view.
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153 posts
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Post by liverpool54321 on Sept 30, 2019 19:11:29 GMT
At tonight’s show. Halted after 30 minutes. No reason given but presume technical as we are waiting in bar.
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4,558 posts
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Post by Mark on Sept 30, 2019 19:29:15 GMT
At tonight’s show. Halted after 30 minutes. No reason given but presume technical as we are waiting in bar. Oh gosh, I was going to go again tonight after it was cancelled last week halfway through due to rain leaking in. With the weather I didn’t bother so I’m glad I didn’t now! Hope it will be able to continue for you.
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153 posts
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Post by liverpool54321 on Sept 30, 2019 20:02:48 GMT
Cancelled due to roof leaking again.
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Post by juicy_but_terribly_drab on Sept 30, 2019 20:38:59 GMT
Sounds like it's a good idea that they're moving soon then.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 3, 2019 15:33:33 GMT
It's a big thumbs down from my mate and I. I have bought said friend tickets for Ghost Quartet for his birthday. Eek!
I liked aspects of the score but the book... Lady in the dark has tedious therapy scenes but then fabulous dream sequences. Sunday has the most glorious act 1 finale and then act 2 goes off in a new direction. To me Preludes seemed very tedious and repetitive.
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Post by Polly1 on Oct 6, 2019 15:09:19 GMT
This was quite the most bizarre but also one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen. As mentioned above, it was very hot during the first half and I was tired so found trouble engaging. But the second half was stunning, the wedding scene sublime and when the brilliant pianist started, after the hypnosis, on the theme from the 2nd piano concerto, I was in floods. Really worth seeing as a theatrical event.
One question, why did they make the therapist a women? Was it just for a bit of gender balance? Rebecca Caine was great, wish she had got to sing a bit more.
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3,927 posts
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Post by Dawnstar on Oct 11, 2019 19:07:43 GMT
I have a ticket for tomorrow's matinee but between the reports of the theatre being very hot & the weather forecast for heavy rain tomorrow I think I might go & see something else instead.
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1,330 posts
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Post by CG on the loose on Oct 11, 2019 19:20:14 GMT
I have a ticket for tomorrow's matinee but between the reports of the theatre being very hot & the weather forecast for heavy rain tomorrow I think I might go & see something else instead. I found it really hot in the bar area last weekend, but once inside the auditorium it was fine. The rain may be more of a problem... no idea if they've managed to patch the roof yet!
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4,558 posts
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Post by Mark on Oct 11, 2019 19:36:22 GMT
I’m here tonight. Auditorium is fine for temperature and I’m told the roof has been fixed!
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3,927 posts
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Post by Dawnstar on Oct 11, 2019 19:51:41 GMT
I'll think about it. Southwark being the only theatre where I've had to leave in the interval due to it being unbearably hot, I've been very wary of it since. I'm not sure the piece itself is going to be something I'll like either. It sounds pretty strange & abstract.
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Post by apubleed on Oct 11, 2019 22:09:39 GMT
So rachmaninoff was a gay emo twink on drugs? I was afraid that he was literally going to pull all his hair out at one point.
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Post by juicy_but_terribly_drab on Oct 11, 2019 23:01:29 GMT
So rachmaninoff was a gay emo twink on drugs? I was afraid that he was literally going to pull all his hair out at one point. He was a straight emo twink on depression and anxiety.
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Post by juicy_but_terribly_drab on Apr 1, 2021 1:10:19 GMT
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152 posts
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Post by digne on Apr 3, 2021 11:27:41 GMT
You just made my day. This was one of my favourite shows of 2019, I didn't think I'd get to see it again.
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