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Post by karloscar on Sept 26, 2023 23:51:46 GMT
Interesting that Nigel and Katja have the only waltz of the night with a new(ish) song that's never featured on Strictly before. Granted it sounds like it's been around since the 50s, but popular new songs in waltz time are rare these days. It's almost guaranteed to stand out from the crowd, just like last week's Paso Doble did.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 26, 2023 21:34:38 GMT
Tina Sinatra's been on Woman's Hour and ITV News at Ten tonight with a few clips from the show. They're creating quite a bit of interest for a show in Birmingham.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 26, 2023 14:51:55 GMT
Rylan is a MASSIVE miss on it takes two 😢. I know it’s Fleurs first show but I’m not keen. Maybe for you. I'm not missing the awful gushing and constant interrupting one iota. Fleur's a much better interviewer, at least she listens and lets the guests complete a sentence. If Janette finds some new adjectives and quits calling everything "iconic" it might be quite watchable.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 24, 2023 21:22:38 GMT
Just started previews. Anyone going to see this?
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Post by karloscar on Sept 23, 2023 21:59:31 GMT
There is a lot to unpack there. It's a show involving murder & cannibalism. I'm extremely squeamish. It's hardly surprising that I can't cope with it. I'd never see Assassins either. Into The Woods is my limit of gruesomeness in terms of Sondheim. Well you'll never get a less gruesome version of Sweeney than you get here. It'll be the Act One version of Pretty Women where nobody dies, the hymn to his razors,and two comedy numbers which you'd have to be mighty sensitive to find offensive. (Some imaginary flies do usually get squashed with a rolling pin in worst pies, but that's as bloody as it gets!)
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Post by karloscar on Sept 23, 2023 20:01:37 GMT
Some nice surprises, a few disasters and a few outstanding for week one moments. The top half of the leaderboard all seem fairly evenly matched and I can't see many of the stragglers having a huge enough fanbase to upset the odds so far. As expected Ellie and Vito, Nigel and Katja and Leyton and Nikita seem to be the ones to beat.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 22, 2023 10:28:28 GMT
Please tell me Joe's demise is an exact replica of Roxy Hart's "Oh Fred...(oh fred) Nobody walks out on me!!....I gotta pee!." Costumes seem perfect for it.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 21, 2023 15:15:26 GMT
One Instagram quip: "See if she'd only worn the turban she wouldn't have that problem!"🤪
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Post by karloscar on Sept 19, 2023 21:53:23 GMT
There's a hell of a lot of music in that show devoted to the entrances,exits, transitions, really bad car chase etc etc. You have to fill that time with something to look at or you're left with a lot of nothing connected by a few big numbers.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 19, 2023 14:37:29 GMT
It very much sounds as though the whole thing will be black and white. Costumes, set, lighting, the lot. Can see this ties in with the artwork they’ve released, the rehearsal photos and of course the fact movies were all in b&w when Norma was starring in them… Think it would be a cool decision to have this all black and white until Norma returns to the studio. Could be a nice contrast to the grey before! Except however atmospheric it may be, grey is really quite boring to watch on stage for the 90 minutes before she makes it back to the studio.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 19, 2023 12:55:58 GMT
As well as requiring multiple standbys and understudies for every role, there was also an offstage chorus of singers in the original production covering all the non solo stuff because the skaters were too knackered to sing it well. One of my friends did it for a year cos it was easy money, though singing stuff like "freight is great" over and over drove her nuts. I have fond memories of seeing Stephanie Lawrence, Frankie Ruffelle, PP Arnold, Michael Staniforth, Tom Jobe, Ray Shell and others in the original cast (many sadly no longer with us), but I doubt their original charm and energy could ever be replicated.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 17, 2023 13:41:24 GMT
Isn't Julia co-directing rather than performing?
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Post by karloscar on Sept 16, 2023 22:08:34 GMT
Well it's back! Unfortunately my TV has died- as has my stereo and my laptop so I had to watch it on the i-Player. Initial thoughts- the judges all look good. I feel that Craig has visibly ages a little ans Motsi looks great- I think she may have lost a little weight Loved the tribute to Len. It was good to the cuddly teddy bear that Hamza is dancing again with Jowita. Anyone else miss Vito's dopey grin? This year they didn't introduce any new pro-dancers however who was the new guy dancing on Craig's right? Speaking of pro-dancers, has anyone noticed that Cameron has left? All the new contestants understandably all looked a little nervous/excited/anxious. There is obviously room to show their stuff, develop and grow. I have no ideas who a handful of those contestants are. I like the pairings. I thought that woman from Coronation Street looked like that Michelle Lee from Glee! Les Dennis, whilst I doth my cap to him for agreeing to take part (sorry, but) he just looks old! That said, I'm prepared to be proven wrong and blown away by his abilities. Is it too early to select favourites? Do you mean Lea Michele? Michele Lee is over 80!
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Post by karloscar on Sept 15, 2023 12:44:04 GMT
A big new show wouldn't announce a "star"name, then have them play no part in the initial production where all the character development is done, and then parachute them in for Broadway following tracks someone else has done all the work on. Ridiculous idea. What? Nicole has done workshops of the show.. is doing Chicago and Broadway. Or was your comment aimed at someone else? I'm agreeing with you and disagreeing with the person who thought she wasn't going to do the out of town tryout and therefore would be able to bring Sunset to New York. (A show that hasn't even begun previews, so nobody knows if she'll give a praiseworthy performance or not. )
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Post by karloscar on Sept 14, 2023 23:06:30 GMT
A big new show wouldn't announce a "star"name, then have them play no part in the initial production where all the character development is done, and then parachute them in for Broadway following tracks someone else has done all the work on. Ridiculous idea.
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Post by karloscar on Sept 12, 2023 9:41:53 GMT
Apparently Freddy (Frasier and Lilith's son) takes after his grandpa Marty much to his father's displeasure, and Niles and Daphne's son David is living with Uncle Frasier while studying in Boston, so they seem to have kept the intergenerational tensions in place with the passage of time. Much depends on how the cast gel together, but it sounds promising.
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Post by karloscar on Aug 30, 2023 22:41:29 GMT
Just look at his Instagram page and you'll see he's doing plenty theatre and concerts. Fun Home and The Secret Garden in the last six months and gigs with Kate Baldwin. (And he's more likely to be on the picket line than filming anything at the moment!)
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Post by karloscar on Aug 25, 2023 19:45:51 GMT
Frasier was always the least funny/interesting of the central characters. No Eddie to steal the show either. It'll be interesting to see if it works with a largely new cast.
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Post by karloscar on Aug 14, 2023 22:21:08 GMT
True, but this makes no sense as in every version, she speaks/sings with a perfect early Hollywood Transatlantic accent. Mid Atlantic accent. I don’t think she didn’t transition to talkies is simply they stopped making her kinda movies anymore. Myrna Loy and Claudette Colbert both started out playing melodramatic vamps in the twenties, but successfully made the transition to comedies and drama once the silent era was over and had long careers.That's what Norma failed to do, and she's still stuck trying to play Salome twenty years later.
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Post by karloscar on Aug 11, 2023 12:53:46 GMT
It'll be all about who's teamed up with which pro, as nobody from this line-up is likely to set the screen alight on first impressions.
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Post by karloscar on Jul 20, 2023 21:41:50 GMT
That's some cast of characters: Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis Jr as well as all the Sinatras and Ava Gardner. Given that only Lana wasn't a singer and they're using the Sinatra back catalogue, are they all going to be fighting for a line/verse/chorus of a song to sing or will they all be on mute?
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Post by karloscar on Jul 18, 2023 14:21:57 GMT
Tracie Bennett originating a Sondheim role. There's a surprise. It's for the second time, she was Celeste in Saturday Night at the Bridewell. I always forget that the Bridewell did Saturday Night first because I saw the New York version with David Campbell and Andrea Burns many moons ago. I'm not in any way doubting Tracie's abilities, it's just there's no shortage of American actresses of a similar age and type who might have been interested in originating a Sondheim role.
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Post by karloscar on Jul 17, 2023 17:41:30 GMT
Pippa Evans as Christine and Marcus Brigstocke as Michael Crawford's Frank Spencer doing POTO on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is worth checking out on BBC sounds. Hilarious, and she has the notes!
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Post by karloscar on Jul 17, 2023 17:27:44 GMT
Tracie Bennett originating a Sondheim role. There's a surprise.
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Post by karloscar on Jul 3, 2023 1:48:20 GMT
She's playing Begbie in Trainspotting the Musical!
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Post by karloscar on Jun 17, 2023 13:21:16 GMT
I despair. The most financially secure composer of musicals on earth is now whining that he can't write the show he wants to because "woke" forces are telling him he can't write about a foreign country because he doesn't come from that culture. He doesn't say what country that might be or give any clue why setting his latest project there might cause offence. Just that "they" whoever "they" may be are out to get him. And the Telegraph are now devoting column inches from another middle aged white man saying this is the end for all writers. Utter nonsense. He can write whatever he likes. He can afford to produce it himself which gives him an immediate advantage over most other composers. If it is any good he may even find backers and maybe even an audience for it as well. The reason his last show failed was because it was bloody awful in London, and he was daft enough to waste money taking it to Broadway without a substantial rewrite where it did even worse. Maybe the forces telling him his next show is a bad idea, are the same ones who said Bad Cinderella was a turkey from the getgo and maybe he should listen to sound advice rather than presuming he's right and everyone else is out to get him. By claiming his liberty to create is being curtailed without being specific about why that might be, he just sounds a bit pathetic.
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Post by karloscar on Jun 16, 2023 23:20:41 GMT
I'd forgotten that I saw Glenda Jackson do Mother Courage at the Citz in Glasgow until I read her obituary. I did remember her Bernarda Alba a few years earlier with Joan Plowright and Patricia Hayes stealing the show as the mad granny. She had amazing stage presence and a great voice ( equally effective in parliament). I hope the BBC make all of the Zola adaptation Blood,Sex and Money available again on Sounds. That does stand out as one of her last great performances.
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Post by karloscar on Jun 10, 2023 12:51:11 GMT
Either the critic from the Sussex Express is incredibly dim and completely failed to understand what Sondheim and Weidman were trying to do, or this production is less clear than any poor student production of Assassins ever staged in the last 30 years.
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Post by karloscar on Jun 9, 2023 21:13:03 GMT
Hahaha, hahaha, hahahaha! Infamy infamy, they all had it infamy! The delusional bollocks that Johnson's coming out with is hilarious. Of course everyone else is to blame for his downfall.
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Post by karloscar on Jun 9, 2023 14:33:54 GMT
I'd hope they'd film it without the onstage audience as their responses could be quite distracting if you're not there in the theatre, and if they're filming it over several performances the changing faces might make for crap continuity unless they're kept invisible.
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