310 posts
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Post by showoff on Apr 17, 2017 16:37:47 GMT
Are the gold taps actually solid gold? I wouldn't have thought so. Gold's a terrible metal for making pretty much everything apart from extremely fine wires. It's stupidly soft and nearly twice as dense as lead. I suspect it won't even "tap" and will just "clunk" instead, but I don't seem to have enough gold lying around to try it out. That's what I thought, as an experienced tapper, I wouldn't think gold taps would be any use at all on tap shoes. Some of the things stated in this thread seem an absurd waste of money when it is so hard to keep a musical in the black, if the money really has been spent in that way. But then again, I'm not one of those people who believes throwing money at things, be they musicals or shoes, automatically makes it of superior to anything else, a lot of the time it's either a waste of money or a company seeing someone coming. Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing this next month, for the musical and to see the talented cast, not because of money spent to produce it.
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310 posts
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Post by showoff on Apr 17, 2017 16:27:58 GMT
Hello all. Long time lurker, was a member a while back, but cannot remember username, or password, or email used! So a new user now.
I thought I would add my collected thoughts on the show, seen on Thursday night. I saw it from the dress circle, I always prefer the dress circle anywhere for a few reasons, one being I like the overall view of the show and set pieces. I had to go further back then I usually like to the front row of the second section, as because of personal reasons, I really need an aisle seat and none were available at booking for the front rows/section and as it was a birthday treat, the date had to stand. I saw a full cast, no understudies, including Amber and Adam fresh off their Olivier wins.
I don't think my thoughts will be what the majority think, but they are mine anyway!
A few problems I had with the show were varied. For me the biggest was Amber. Whilst she has an amazing voice, no doubt about it, but her overall performance, either in the song or acting, just didn't reach me in the dress circle. Her eyeline was mostly kept level, so no playing to the gods, and so to me it seemed as if she was always looking down. Of course her voice reached me and it was stunning, but as a performance, I felt it was lacking. I don't know if in the stalls I would have had a completely different opinion and I am willing to go again and try the stalls for the first time in many years to see. But even so, it's still an issue for me in her performance. I actually wondered how she managed to win the Olivier if that was her performance level.
Adam on the other hand was amazing, star quality in spades, and boy did he work that stage! A total scene stealer, when he came on the audience just were drawn to him and enthralled. A supporting award usually goes to those who can shine in every scene they are in, and that's what you have here. I just loved his energy in the role.
Another critisim is, to me, it felt like it lacked any real grit or depth. Where were the civil rights issues? They were barely mentioned. It didn't feel like enough had happened to really make Effie down and out to make her comeback more amazing. The singing between the big numbers made it feel like all of the songs rolled into one and because of this none were standing out on their own. Because of this Listen was an unexpected highlight for me, it stood out as being different and more emotional. My companion and I both agreed and afterwards both said we had tears in our eyes during that one. The actress as Deena sang it beautifully and I didn't believe her to have that great of a voice to begin with, I presume that's a deliberate choice in the role to show her progression as an artist.
Another small thing for me, was the staging of And I am telling you. I didn't enjoy the positioning of the dressing tables throughout it and found myself hoping they were maybe going to revolve them around to the side a bit. I felt it distracted and distanced me from Amber in a way. A small thing maybe, but it was there.
The last thing was the audience, and I am blaming The Savoy for this in part. One thing is they continued to let people in all throughout the first half, at any given time big groups were just brought in. I thought Funny girl was bad enough with that, however they waited between songs for it to happen, Dreamgirls just let people in all throughout. Then there was so many people leaving for the bar or toilet, some people arriving late, not finding their seats and coming back down to ask for help. I was really shocked and it spoiled it. A few people were complaining and one couple did not return after the first half. The other thing is the screaming during the singing, a couple of girls just in front of us began the night by screaming and throwing their arms everywhere, to which I had to ask them to not as I could not see. But the screaming before Amber even finishes her big notes mean you actually miss them, which is actually a shame, I don't really understand it myself as if you are a fan, do you not want to drink in every note, not miss it with your own screaming?
On the whole I think I would give it three stars, I thought it would be a lot more, I've been waiting for this to come here for years, but there were a few things I didn't love. Maybe on a different night, in different seats it would be better, but from where I sat Amber just did not reach me with her performance sadly.
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310 posts
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Post by showoff on Apr 17, 2017 14:38:17 GMT
Are the gold taps actually solid gold?
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