578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Mar 2, 2017 8:25:43 GMT
Some friends of mine saw a school production of Billy Elliott last week and it was complete with ALL of the language which surprised me. Wow! It's a tricky one because I'm always assured that kids hear far worse in school every day than you find on most stages, but that's not the same as the school encouraging /endorsing the language! I thought everything in Jamie was justified by context but it still adds a barrier for most teachers, I would think.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Mar 2, 2017 7:24:30 GMT
That is very well put, nash16. There was little that was surprising or new in the message, yet the audience were loving it because it was done well and it seemed that it was a story they wanted to hear. Just in the small section around us were a very elderly man who has loved musicals for years, two ladies in their sixties, a family with children under twelve and a group of young men. I heard them all at different times reacting really positively. I was saying on the way home that it's a great show for schools/youth groups to see and perform but I wondered if some of the jokes and language would be too much. Tricky one. I can certainly see this touring successfully but would it survive in town?
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 23, 2017 21:43:39 GMT
The Country Wife at the Haymarket about 10 years ago had a rabbit Oo that's just reminded me of the production of As You like it which controversially had a rabbit being skinned every night..As I recall Geoffrey Streatfield did the honours.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 23, 2017 19:04:12 GMT
Rat in Curious Incident. And the random fox in Unreachable.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 21, 2017 13:28:34 GMT
All this talk of past productions led me to dig out the DVD I bought of the 1980 BBC version with Felicity Kendal. I think I bought it in a fit of nostalgia for my O level days (!)..It's a very straightforward production, and of course looks dated now, but it was fun to see some familiar TV faces (Trevor Peacock from Vicar of Dibley was rather good as Feste, I thought). I am less familiar with those who were presumably better known for their stage work at the time, though i did note that Malvolio is played by the recently deceased Alec McCowen, for those who have been discussing him. It's a bit of a thankless role really, isn't it. I'm looking forward to seeing what the National have done with it, though I think it may have to be cinema this time round.
|
|
578 posts
|
Evita
Feb 21, 2017 7:34:13 GMT
via mobile
Post by lou105 on Feb 21, 2017 7:34:13 GMT
Hoping to catch this at the New Wimbledon this week. Any ideas on how to get a cheaper ticket for the stalls? They don't do dayseats here, am I right? If you're an ATG member, you'll be able to get half price tonight and a few pounds off on other nights. Otherwise, despite being outer London, this counts as regional and discounts can be harder to find. Day seats rarely exist so far as I know, though Theatre Monkey and others will confirm?
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 20, 2017 13:03:28 GMT
Before Newsies at the cinema, we had a trailer for a film with Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy, which is out in April, called Their Finest. "A British film crew attempts to boost morale during World War II by making a propaganda film after the Blitzkrieg." Looked interesting.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 19, 2017 15:26:21 GMT
I totally get what you're saying, but she said herself that she hadn't done enough musical theatre to play Sandy. No problem with her suggesting Rizzo instead!
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 19, 2017 11:48:08 GMT
Fascinated to hear Louisa Lytton on Sunday Brunch saying that she was asked to play Sandy on the Grease tour. She asked if she could be Rizzo instead because she didn't think her singing was strong enough for Sandy!I mean..Good for her, but..What a way to cast.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 18, 2017 11:51:53 GMT
Still no word on the replacement. Moreover one of the towns which is hosting this in a few weeks has posters up on buses, telephone boxes etc which have Michelle Collins on them, with top billing!
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 15, 2017 13:39:36 GMT
You can set a range of dates, but that's only useful in some situations. (Sorry, just noticed TheatreMonkey was ahead of me with that info)
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 14, 2017 18:06:25 GMT
I was avoiding this thread as am mourning the fact that I didn't book now casting has been announced but checked in, in case you had secret seat information! Think it's going to be like this now for the donmar, unless the announce casting very early it'll be a late seat hunt. Has the new website calmed down now, I went on the first few hours of release and just got very frustrated as it wouldn't show me anything useful and seemed to take about 5 clicks to get into every date to find there were no tickets for anything. Or was I being very dim? I must admit I found it a bit frustrating on a desktop at least. Lots of pages sliding backwards and forwards with words like Search and Availability which seemed to duplicate processes. I think it's been tightened up now.. or I'm getting used to it.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 11, 2017 16:06:21 GMT
Wait, hold up... Victoria H-B is in this?! Well my excitement for next weekend has just grown ten-fold. There's a video on What's on Stage of her singing with Frances R, if you're not one of those who avoids hearing songs in advance!
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 11, 2017 14:04:56 GMT
Fair enough. York is notorious for limited space, I believe. I haven't booked but I'm wondering if they will now offer the more generous Members' first night discount on the Tuesday instead!
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 11, 2017 9:38:31 GMT
Any info on who is taking over from Collins? It looks like they've taken the first night in York off sale (Feb 27th). I think that's about the right time for the replacement to be starting, so I'm wondering if they've dropped a performance for a rehearsal day? Still no name.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 10, 2017 21:56:09 GMT
There was a short piece about this on Look North (Yorkshire) this evening . About 20 minutes in, if you look it up on iPlayer. There's a brief explanation of the real life story behind the show, some glimpses of staging and music, and an interview with Dan Gillespie Sells, who says that he would like to think the show would have further life, but no hint of plans.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 10, 2017 21:15:45 GMT
One good thing about the Donmar is that they put returns back on the website as they come in. I needed an extra ticket for St Joan recently and had no problem picking one up in advance.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 10, 2017 19:57:20 GMT
Thank you so much for posting, lou105 - exactly what some of us are keen to see more of, especially as this sounds like a contentious reworking which is likely to divide opinion! I haven't yet decided whether I want to see it but it certainly sounds intriguing. I'm sure it will divide opinion! I skated over some of the stranger aspects of it in case people felt I was giving too much away..
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 10, 2017 17:15:23 GMT
Damn, why does this never happen to me? I want a backstage tour too. I'd love to know how many different people this actually represents, with so many repeat attenders.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 10, 2017 14:07:12 GMT
I'd been wondering whether to post about this, and then I read a thread about some people's wish to read more about regional and touring productions . So! I saw this in Leeds and there are seven other venues ahead. The premise is: "Witness the transformation of Eliza Doolittle in a world where we can be digitally altered within seconds." Not surprisingly, then, it's all in modern dress, Higgins has much more technology at his disposal and there's a lot of digitised voice swapping to encourage us to consider our preconceptions. Eliza is given an accent other than Cockney, whereas her father is played as a Londoner, and of course the place names referenced in the script are all in London. Presumably that's not supposed to matter - we are just given a strong regional accent, rather than one in particular. More problematic for me was that Eliza had her modern clothes "upgraded" for better ones, but the "aspirational" social events to which she was sent were somewhat stuffy in the early 20th century and just seem plain unlikely now- how many of us have paid afternoon calls to drink tea out of social duty?! Maybe I'm overthinking it but it seemed to me that making partial changes didn't really add as much to Shaw's version as was presumably hoped. Having said that, it's definitely a production to get younger audiences thinking, and there were scenes which i really enjoyed. I particularly liked Liza Sadovy as Mrs Higgins , in some amazing outfits and glass-box sets. The end scene was also strong, perhaps for me because the message at that point was clear, and i admired Natalie Gavin's skill at switching between accents, even in the same sentence!
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 8, 2017 8:29:00 GMT
Very much a case of "Truth is stranger than fiction", this one! I saw an interview with the Family Liaison Officer involved, who co-operated on the series and and she described some of the small details which unsettled officers right from the beginning. Sheridan is a strong lead in this, but it's also yet another metamorphosis for Sian Brooke.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 4, 2017 12:27:34 GMT
Both performances going ahead today
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 4, 2017 8:50:39 GMT
There are some towards the rear of the stalls around the £49 mark, available on the show's own site, or Today tix nearer the time, but there don't seem to be many offers for this at present (and sadly a weekend matinee is never great for offers)
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 3, 2017 18:52:15 GMT
Cancelled tonight due to "sudden cast illness". No news on tomorrow as yet, though they say they "expect" to go ahead.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 2, 2017 19:13:12 GMT
I see this will be screened on 7 February, again. How was the cinema broadcast? It's coming to the States in March - although not yet close to my locale. I didn't think the storm scene came across very well, but after that it was fine. I suspect the effects in general don't work quite as well on the screen, but the performances are worth seeing anyway! I loved Joe Dixon as Caliban.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 2, 2017 16:39:21 GMT
And after yesterday's debacle, I've just had an email from the Young Vic to inform me that the new season is on sale..
EDIT: in their defence, I just had a look on the site out of curiosity and found myself at number 850 in the queue, so I guess plenty of people needed the reminder.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Feb 1, 2017 22:50:30 GMT
Yes, I couldn't get any tickets (despite being able to select certain dates), so must be sold out. It's a shame, as I really wanted to see it. Oh, well! Yep, I spent a while clicking between about four dates which claimed to have availability but it always came up with zero tickets available.
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Jan 30, 2017 9:15:08 GMT
Also worth pointing out that these tickets can be booked either on the app or on the todaytix website, unlike the rush tickets which I think are only bookable through the app. Yep, and you also dont have to tweet/Facebook their link to unlock them!
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Jan 30, 2017 9:06:39 GMT
I just bought some for later in the week. I had planned to wait for Rush Tickets but this was easier!
|
|
578 posts
|
Post by lou105 on Jan 29, 2017 9:47:53 GMT
With all the publicity surrounding the 75th anniversary of Desert Island Discs, I wondered if any other Board members share one of my favourite diversions when I've got to do stuff on the computer but want something to listen to..There's a massive archive of whole and part episodes of Desert Island Discs available here: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway?occupation_group=stage%2Bscreen%2Band%2BradioThere are searches for name, year etc and also grouped professions, so there is a section for Stage Screen and Radio. I've listened to some really interesting interviews and, if you don't like the music choices, you can just skip forward a bit!
|
|