1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Jun 3, 2020 20:14:56 GMT
The original finale was far better than the revival version. Far more emotional 'The Story Of Miss Saigon'
Is that a book?
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Jun 3, 2020 20:06:44 GMT
They certainly know how to write an emotive if not slightly manipulative overblown tearjerking finale. MS is their best. The pacing and structure of that final scene is breathtaking. Blows the stupid helicopter out of the water. The original finale was far better than the revival version. Far more emotional I'm trying to recall how different it is? Not that much?
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Jun 3, 2020 17:12:39 GMT
Hardly new ones from me, but, since you did ask. Glenn in Sunset. No amount of acting can compensate for such a mediocre singing voice. Hamilton whilst no doubt clever and fresh is insanely overrated. She Used To Be Mine aside, the scores of Waitress, Come from Away and Dear Evan Hansen are a total yawn fest. Rent Remixed was not that bad and DVO marching on in the very last second of Act 1 was iconic.
YESSS! Especially your last choice - that end of Act I cliffhanger was BRILLIANT!
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Jun 3, 2020 17:11:27 GMT
Bernadette Peters has the acting range of a three-speed blender, and the blender might be a better singer. I LOVE her, but never seen her live in anything, but that's still funny!
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Jun 3, 2020 17:05:54 GMT
Hamilton and Book of Mormon both massively overrated. Rent Remixed was actually ok 100%!!!!!!!
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Jun 3, 2020 17:03:58 GMT
I thought Rosalind Russell was great as Mama Rose. I don’t care that she didn’t sing all of it. I think it was better for it 😱. Barbra Streisand should never have been cast in Hello Dolly and she was terrible in it.😖 Kinky Boots should never have been made into a musical. 🤫 Michael Crawford had a lucky break in POTO, and his performance wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny today.😷 Book Of Mormon would not make it past the workshop stage today. And even if it did, no producer would touch it. 👹 Sarah Harding wasnt as bad as people said in Ghost. 👻 Over to you...
good taste. I agree with all of these!
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on May 24, 2020 13:14:23 GMT
Never heard of it. Different from the Kara Tointen thing I assume. So has this got anything to do with Andrew Lloyd Webber or has the channel moved on from him now? It’s essentially the US equivalent I believe, and was done prior to the Kara Tointon version. I believe his involvement was a reality casting show for it?
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on May 22, 2020 10:57:40 GMT
The first socially distanced concert has now taken place. I really hate to be negative but it looks like the most depressing night out. I'd ratger they stayed off for longer until it's safe than this. Gigs are all about the social, the get together. At the very least relaxing. Whatever this is certainly doesn't qualify! I'd rather not bother. It's a depressing fascimile
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on May 16, 2020 19:33:44 GMT
As has been mentioned recently, I think that's due to it being Universal putting on their back-catalogue of ALW shows as opposed to ALW himself! I guess Universal must be all out now. I'd love to see his private collections of films - Aspects of Love in London... Whistle Down the Wind.. Sydmonton concerts - I'd be there ever Friday night. But I'm sure it's about contracts with the actors, musicians, etc. Would hope in a global pandemic we'd look for ways to keep at this to keep people connected, but... I put a very similar suggestion in his comments!
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on May 16, 2020 19:31:05 GMT
Well I gave Cats another go. Lasted 15 minutes 😐
Watching it again reminded me how magical the show is.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on May 15, 2020 19:25:25 GMT
Been really enjoying it! Watching my blu ray along with his youtube channel on my phone!
Some anecdotes I didn't know (many I did), plus there were some thinly veiled digs at the Tom Hooper film!
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on May 6, 2020 21:28:40 GMT
It's alright. A bit too trashy for me. Lacks gravitas to truly retain my attention.
It has it's moments but super glossy, hyper-real stuff doesn't do it for me.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on May 1, 2020 9:55:30 GMT
I hope they don't try and slavishly recreate them - or what would be the point, other than invite endless comparisons between the original actors?
There's nothing to say they HAVE to be set in "T'North"!
I've performed one before doing a working class Buckinghamshire accent! All it needed were a few Yorkshire place names replacing - we are not SO different down South. It's all about the human condition at the end of the day!
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 30, 2020 16:05:14 GMT
As wonderful as Thora Hird was, I'm sure its a lot more to do with the current situation. My first thought when I heard they were re-doing these monologues was that Cream Cracker would be devastating at the moment - it's pretty upsetting under normal circumstances. I think it's the right call.
According to an article in the Times yesterday, it's because they feel it's too risky in these circumstances to film with an actress in the appropriate age bracket for 'A Cream Cracker Under The Settee' and 'Waiting For The Telegram'. 'Talking Heads is coming back - and this time it's in lockdown'"What they all agreed they could not do, however, were the two episodes originally performed by Thora Hird. The first, A Cream Cracker Under the Settee, is about a 75-year-old widow who has fallen off her pouffe. The second, Waiting for the Telegram, is about a 100-year-old woman waiting for her telegram from the Queen. Both required actresses of advanced age, and thus in a high-risk group. They discussed approaching some big names of that sort of vintage — “I think you can probably guess which actors it might have been,” Loader says, making no explicit reference to Smith, Judi Dench or Eileen Atkins, all 85 — but decided it was too big a risk. What if the venerable national treasure concerned put herself in danger because she was too much of a trouper to say no? He and Hytner couldn’t live with the responsibility, Loader says. “It’s just not safe for them.”"
Another interesting detail in that article - they're apparently going to do hair and makeup by sending the performers a pack of materials to apply themselves and then having the hair and make-up artists guide them via Zoom - obviously, since it's not possible for hair and make-up artists to work in the normal way and maintain safe social distancing. It would be marvellous if these could be done at a later date.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 29, 2020 10:43:10 GMT
There are two TVs in my house and neither of them are smart. I bought my TV because it was 3D but it came with Smart features built in. I tried them but didn't see the point because what they offered was essentially a restricted version of what I could already do far more easily on my computer. It was very much a matter of "Love the Internet but want it to be a pain to use and wish there was less on it? Well good news!" And now those smart features don't work at all, because the web services they connected to have changed over time and the TV manufacturer hasn't updated the firmware to match because they want me to keep buying new TVs instead of sticking with the old one. So my TV is just a TV; it displays pictures just fine, which is all I ever wanted of it anyway.
Because you can view on a bigger screen? Most people don't have 42 inch plus PC monitors, plus you get better sound on a TV
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 29, 2020 10:42:06 GMT
You can prob get the article online as it is in the actual paper not on their online platform, if you see what I mean. The article did make me start thinking when it asked what would I want to make me go back to the theatre.So I was thinking- So remove all the doors. Use curtains as they do anyway. So you remove one touchy feeling risk. Cover the stair hand rails with paper and change it for each performance and other such covering devices. Toilets: do what the Old Vic did, put them outside with attendants and plenty of HOT water and soap. Close the bar, either sell packaged drinks outside or have staff wearing clean white gloves ( psychological thing) hand round free water and juice in the intervals. I bet you’d get sponsors of drinks to do this. Even hot drinks could be provided with some caution. Better regulate the air con and heating, investigate the systems that don’t circulate the air but filter it. Extend the cloakrooms so people can leave their stuff more easily and with no cost. Might have to move out some seating in the old WE places to accommodate this but would be worth it. Start earlier, say 7pm so people can come straight from work and don't have to hang about. Cafes will adjust. Lower the prices, yes, counter intuitive but make it a cheap option for a date. And put on only the very best, maybe reduce the clutter of big sets if too expensive but you know the mantra - if it is good, they will come. So some loss of income to start with but much goodwill and theatre to build on. Obviously back stage facilities should be refurbed for the actors and creatives so they are comfortable. Spend money guys!
To be honest with all that faff, I'd raher not bother. Doesn't sounds like a pleasurable experience at all to me.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 29, 2020 10:38:50 GMT
Filming is taking place at BBC Elstree Studio using existing sets. Probably for the best. It's so much more convenient than using sets that don't exist.
Would be funny if they took place inside of familiar EastEnders' residents homes!!! (filmed at Elstree)
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 29, 2020 9:19:59 GMT
The most surprising one is Maxine taking on Mrs Fozzard - WAY younger than Pat Routledge was when she played the role. Will it work?! I'll be throttled by Alan for this but I was rather too old for the part at the time - 69, since you asked. Miss Fozzard is most definitely middle-aged but still in gainful employment, so could still be played convincingly by a younger woman. She'd just need to bring enough "northern spinster" to the role.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 28, 2020 12:49:50 GMT
The most surprising one is Maxine taking on Mrs Fozzard - WAY younger than Pat Routledge was when she played the role. Will it work?!
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 28, 2020 12:40:29 GMT
My smart tv has been revolutionary in how I watch and what I watch. I think I watch more on YouTube than ‘real’ tv these days. I follow various vloggers, mainly travel who are still releasing content because they all seem to run with a significant backlog. The quality of content is incredible. And the other week I used the internet browser app on the tv for the first time to access the Wind In The Willows recording which looked stunning on a large screen in high definition. There’s no way I’d enjoy any of the broadcasts on a phone or iPad. Smart TVs are not that expensive nowadays so for anyone who does like the idea and is saving loads of £ on going out, now may be the time? There are some schools of thought which say it's better to buy an Amazon Fire Stick or Chromecast with a standard TV.
My smart TV became more of less obselete after 4 years because it could no longer support the latest updates of most of the TV channels. Case in point, so I had to get a Fire Stick in the end.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 28, 2020 12:37:02 GMT
Only 2 theatre, but I'm expecting more to come.
It's concerts I've taken the hit on - about 7 I had booked this year have been postponed til 2021
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 15, 2020 23:09:59 GMT
The world has to start turning again, just as it did after 9/11. And it will. Economically, we all have no option as markets are interdependent and businesses are global. We may have to accept combo of higher death rates and higher risk till vaccines appear. After all, death to infection ratio typically ranges from 2-4% with 6-10% for exceptional cases. It will come down to how many trillions of debt we want to preload for future generations. Plus, without wanting to sound callous, more folk have died in Syria and many other war zones through deliberate human decisions and interventions. Millions died in World wars. Covid 19 has proved containable with a lower impact than might otherwise have been expected. Mass lockdowns needed to happen as nobody knew how severe it might get; with every passing day we have a better idea of the numbers, rate of infections and deaths. We now need a plan to kick start the global economy otherwise in the long term more people will die of poverty or hyperinflation than the coronavirus.
Rare to find someone talking sense and looking at the bigger picture, instead of hysteria.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 1, 2020 15:00:00 GMT
Nooo this was the revival I was most looking forward to this year... That and the double whammy of the Edinburgh Fringe today. Doing nothing for my morale.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Apr 1, 2020 9:20:42 GMT
I was talking to someone the other day who had booked this and had no idea at all that it was a musical until I told her. She had purely booked it because of Jake. She is not a lover of musicals and I thought good luck with that as it's not one of Sondheims easiest.
Indeed. Casual theatre goers will just book for the star turn, in many cases.
And yeah, good luck to her. I saw the show in the 2000s, and hated it at the time (although I do like to listen to some of the songs)
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Mar 14, 2020 21:02:49 GMT
But the audience barely laughed last night. Honestly my mate and I (who had never even heard of it before let alone seen it) laughed all the way through it and thought it was very funny. But it became obvious rather quickly that we were alone in this because no one else in the theatre was getting the jokes. I think maybe because most of the humour is quite sly and not overly exaggerated most of it flew right over the audiences head. I certainly recognised where the humourous lines were, but they just weren't laugh out loud funny to me. Just mildly amusing.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Mar 14, 2020 18:13:25 GMT
I don’t ever remember this musical going for an overtly Comedic or farcical tone?! It’s not farcical, but there’s more than one kind of comedy. The first paragraph of Frank Rich’s New York Times review of the original Broadway production: “ There's nothing novel about show-stopping songs and performances in Broadway musicals, but how long has it been since a musical was brought to a halt by riotous jokes? If you ask me, one would have to travel back to the 1960's - to ''Bye Bye Birdie,'' ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,'' ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' and ''Little Me'' - to find a musical as flat-out funny as ''City of Angels,'' the new show about old Hollywood that arrived last night at the Virginia Theater.“ But the audience barely laughed last night.
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Mar 13, 2020 23:18:35 GMT
Well, I went to see it on Friday night. Now - a slight disclaimer - I was lucky enough to see the original London production of City of Angels which I absolutely loved. Unfortunately I can't say the same of this production which is hit and miss. First the good : The staging / set and lighting is fabulous - there were a few teething troubles as others have alluded to above, but by and large it worked very very well. The orchestra were also great. The cast that remained from the Domnar production were all excellent. Hadley Fraser was outstanding as Stein. Rebecca Trehearn and Rosalie Craig were also great as Oolie and Gabby (although I still prefer Haydn Gwynne as Oolie - sorry!). Newcomer Theo James did a very creditable job of Stone, despite looking a little too fresh and young (but then I am comparing to Roger Allam who does dishevelled brilliantly). Then there are some remarkably "odd" casting choices. Vanessa Williams and her massive Biog promised a lot, but delivered little, and frankly her age made Stone look like he was molesting his grandmother (if you don't know who she is you won't be able to find her easily from her picture in the programme - some serious vanity photography in use there...). There was absolutely no chemistry on display and little to suggest that Stone would be believably attracted to Alaura. The Tennis song was flat as a pancake and very uncomfortable. Similarly rather than a slick suave but thick Jimmy Power, we had Rob Houchen who seemed like he was visiting from Me and My Girl. He sang nicely but has quite a strong vibrato - he's not a crooner and Jimmy Power is supposed to be a crooner. He also didn't come across as the sex symbol that could carry the movie, and that Alaura would be infatuated with. The whole dynamic just failed for me. Then we move to Nicola Roberts. She sang nicely, but she is not a jazz singer and she couldn't deliver alluring blonde bombshell for Mallory or thick blonde bombshell for Avril. She was also the victim of a really odd directorial decision (unless it was her idea). The line in Stein's novel in this production alludes to Mallory not wearing much more than a sheet (it was changed from the original script). In this show however "not much more" comprises a full set of underwear and a shirt. In the original production Mallory was naked (although her nudity never shown to the audience except for the back) and used a sheet throughout the song to cover her modesty. This sets up the staging for the framing of Stone and sets up the joke - "I don't remember you coming back with those sheets from the laundry..." . Much more importantly, Stone is *not* supposed to be seduced by Mallory, but caught off guard for the incriminating photograph. In this production Stone seemed quite happy to get it on with everyone be it grandma or grand-daughter, thus ruining the narrative and making him look stupid. Stone isn't supposed to be stupid. The archetypes are really important to make this show work and the casting needs to be done carefully. Dropping big names in to sell seats that don't fit the roles does no-one any favours. Then we move to Jonathan Slinger. Maybe he was having a bed night, or was under rehearsed. He seemed to be nervous and seemed to be reading lines from his desk at one point. He was average vocally, and his acting was hit and miss. I wish they could have got Peter Polycarpou. Another issue I couldn't quite pinpoint was with the Angel 4. They are used a lot to carry set changes and scene changes, which means that they are often quite distant from each other whilst trying to deliver what should be their very tight close jazz vocals. They were slightly off on occasions. I'm not sure if it was the bigger stage or if Manuel Pacific (Tenor) just wasn't quite on it sometimes. Their voices didn't quite gel as the vocal group. I imagine they will improve with time however - this was only the second preview. So - generally a good show but I'd go see it after 25th July and hope they don't parachute more famous people in to fill seats. Agree on so many of these points. So much of it didn't gel and just became baffling and threw me off
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Mar 13, 2020 23:11:26 GMT
I wasn't a fan I'm afraid. Completely new to the piece. Started off promising with striking production design and direction but I got bored of it after half an hour, and as things got increasingly convoluted, it lost me.
I found the songs unmemorable and didn't care about any of the characters
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Mar 13, 2020 14:01:46 GMT
Am I the only person who can't stand Monty Python and found them painfully unfunny?
|
|
1,894 posts
|
Post by distantcousin on Mar 12, 2020 11:10:45 GMT
The public has short term memory issues. Give it 3 months and most people will have dismissed this story from their memory and just remember the lovely songs and dances. Any they have!
Especially since the accusations were swiftly silenced and for whatever reasons, didn't gain any real traction.......
|
|