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Post by adrianics on Oct 19, 2016 11:41:49 GMT
Hello and welcome!
Charges will obviously depend on reputation and experience, but be prepared pay somewhere between £25 and £40 p/h. My teacher charges £20 p/h if you travel to him (in North Harrow) or £25 p/h if he comes to you, so please send me a direct message if you'd like me to pass on his details.
Good luck!
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Post by adrianics on Oct 10, 2016 14:18:41 GMT
I got West End Producer's book for my birthday and it's a very entertaining and actually quite emotionally stirring when he's not being funny (although it is pretty funny too). He does a great job of capturing the ups and downs of theatrical life and the insane amount of hard work from everyone involved in putting on a show.
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Post by adrianics on Oct 10, 2016 14:03:29 GMT
SNL uses cue cards and actively discourages cast members and hosts from learning scripts (due to last-minute changes usually resulting from dress rehearsal), I saw a Bill Hader interview where he confirmed that.
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Post by adrianics on Sept 23, 2016 11:18:15 GMT
I would definitely use TodayTix - See what they've got, and if availability looks good for a certain show just go straight to the theatre and ask for their day seats. Most shows barring the most popular ones will probably have day seats at a reasonable hour, we've never needed to do the camping overnight/early morning thing
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Post by adrianics on Sept 20, 2016 10:10:15 GMT
Speaking of Mack and Mabel, I'll add I Promise You a Happy Ending... But only if it's done in the correct context.
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Post by adrianics on Sept 19, 2016 15:12:17 GMT
I was in an amateur production of Legally Blonde earlier this year, and I'll never forget just how incredibly disruptive and distracting it was to have a woman in the front row spend pretty much the entirety of Act 2 on her phone.
Not just because of the beaming light illuminating both her and the two rows behind her, but because when you can see the audience's faces it's borderline impossible to ignore someone quite pointedly not looking at the stage.
To top it off, it turned out she was a close family friend of one of the cast and had the cast-iron nerve to talk to them about how much she enjoyed the show.
It really taught me a lot about the mobile phone issue; there is literally no way to do it without being noticed, no matter how indiscreet you think you are. And no matter how experienced the pros on stage are, I'd bet my next mortgage payment that they notice it and it affects them.
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Post by adrianics on Sept 19, 2016 10:44:32 GMT
Everything from The Hired Man, but particularly If I Could and No Choir of Angels.
The title song from Legally Blonde.
Atencion/Alabanza from In The Heights
Not a 'song', as such, but Fall of the Barricade in Les Mis destroys me.
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Post by adrianics on Sept 15, 2016 13:16:34 GMT
I haven't read through the thread so don't know if anything like this has been brought up yet. When I used to work at the Victoria Palace on Billy Elliot, every time one of the Billy's left the cast they threw a party for him in one of the theatre bars. Cast,crew,foh etc were invited. Now I'm sure a lot of you are aware of the certain following that show had. Well these 'fans' used to wait outside the theatre until sometimes 1am so they could say goodbye etc to the child that was leaving the cast. Most odd and disturbing if you ask me. Oh *Christ*. Wasn't there security to escort those perverts away?
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Post by adrianics on Sept 13, 2016 15:43:10 GMT
I used to stage door, but then I had a few awkward encounters; no one was ever openly rude or aggressive, but I did get blanked a lot and ended up feeling like I was just getting in the way of people trying to go about their business. I remember asking one Spamalot actor for an autograph and he was very polite but clearly in a rush, and as I saw him run off I spent the whole trip home worrying that I'd caused him to miss the last train.
Basically, I decided that actors are probably no more excited at a complete stranger stopping them from getting somewhere than I would be.
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Post by adrianics on Sept 2, 2016 15:02:22 GMT
They don't 'inform' my opinion, per se, but I do sometimes turn to similarly-thought reviews to help me verbalise my opinions a bit better.
That said, theatre reviews tend to be incredibly verbose and fruity so I do sometimes find them hard to relate to.
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334 posts
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Post by adrianics on Sept 2, 2016 14:45:36 GMT
There was talk of an Animal House musical, to be directed by Casey Nicholaw and with a score by Barenaked Ladies; my favourite film and favourite band, so naturally I was freaking out.
The last I heard, BNL had resigned/been fired (depending on who you ask), with David Yazbeck drafted in to write the lyrics and score, but that was last year and have heard nothing since.
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Post by adrianics on Aug 30, 2016 10:46:14 GMT
Indeed; His performance as Leo Bloom is probably my favourite cinematic performance of all, and from all accounts he was an unassuming, genuinely nice human being. He's left an incredible legacy on this world. RIP
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Post by adrianics on Aug 17, 2016 8:28:14 GMT
Happy to see the good reviews. We saw a Saturday Matinee last month and I thought much the same as the consensus; Andy Karl is terrific and a true star, the direction and staging is phenomenal, the ensemble are great but the songs are quite forgettable and sometimes Tim Minchin's dry and meta humour doesn't mesh with the fantastical premise. Some of the stage illusions were nothing short of brilliant, and it's so thrilling to see what live theatre is capable of nowadays.
I'm a huge fan of the film and there were additions that I thought worked very well (making Ned a widower in particular, although that didn't seem to go anywhere), as well as additions that fell flat on their face (Nancy's song in Act 2 makes no sense unless she, as a character, is aware that she's in a musical about the same day repeating over and over again). I also did think that they really struggled to give anyone apart from Phil anything to do, but I guess you could say the same about the film.
All in all I think that it's a fantastic production of a good show, but hardly destined to be a classic or anything like that. Still definitely worth going to see.
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Post by adrianics on Aug 17, 2016 8:20:22 GMT
When we went to see Funny Girl, I'm pretty sure we were sat a few seats across from a couple of personal friends of Sheridan Smith's. We only found out because at the bow, she kept pointing at them, mouthing 'thank you' and making the heart sign with her hands. Throughout the show they didn't mark themselves out at all.
I only say that because I have been at shows where there's friends/family in the audience, obvious because of constant "there they are!" every time they come on stage, waving (WAVING!) and obnoxious whooping and hollering.
I'd be mortified if I was on stage and someone was behaving like that in the audience because of me, personally.
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Post by adrianics on Aug 15, 2016 13:21:32 GMT
We had that at Memphis; a group walked up to us and, without even giving us a chance to check, said "you're in our seats so you need to leave and find your actual seats". I said "no, we're in the right seats" and when they eventually checked, we found that they were in Stalls row CC and not row C... Their faces when they found out they weren't at the front!
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334 posts
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Post by adrianics on Aug 15, 2016 11:19:11 GMT
As long as their big musical-dedicated space has as good a bar as the temporary digs... I am in favour
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Post by adrianics on Aug 12, 2016 9:33:03 GMT
Don't think it's impolite at all. It's very rare that we go to a show in the hope of seeing a specific person, but should there be no notices/slips in the programme a simple "is it a full cast today?" to either a box office staff member or usher should get a polite response.
I wrote about it in the dedicated thread, but when we went to see Guys and Dolls a few months back it was specifically to see Richard Kind as Nathan Detroit and the understudy was on, with literally no notification whatsoever, not even an announcement at curtain up. In fact, a notice was up confirming that Big Jule and Rusty Charlie were being played by the understudies, and I only realised afterwards that the reason Rusty Charlie was being performed by an understudy was because the regular Rusty Charlie was playing Nathan Detroit. I've never seen such a deceitful and underhanded tactic being used by a theatre, and I actually felt very sorry for the (excellent) understudy because it's not fair to just throw him in front of an unsuspecting and angry audience like that.
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Post by adrianics on Aug 11, 2016 9:28:32 GMT
I've never encountered a school trip where the behavior was anything less than exceptional, they always seem to be very attentive and respectful once the show starts.
I really don't care how rowdy people are before the show, as long as they shut up and pay attention to the show itself we're all good.
When we went to The Lion King, the numerous school and summer camp groups around us were a genuine pleasure to share the space with (in awe at the show and enthusiastic during the interval and after the show), and the only trouble we had were from childless couples and parents.
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334 posts
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Post by adrianics on Aug 5, 2016 15:10:53 GMT
There was a bit of a hen party behind us at Funny Girl last weekend, a brief bit of commentary to open Act 2 but a quick glare shut them up.
I'm a big fan of the glare, shuts people up immediately; I do think most people genuinely don't know that they're disturbing others and quickly stop once they find out that they are.
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334 posts
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Post by adrianics on Aug 2, 2016 12:58:50 GMT
I was in a production of Sister Act last year and cannot for the life of me remember a line about "gay boys", when does it happen in the show?
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Post by adrianics on Jul 29, 2016 12:00:20 GMT
Groundhog Day tomorrow afternoon and Funny Girl tomorrow evening!
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Post by adrianics on Jul 29, 2016 11:15:03 GMT
Apologies if this question has already been answered.
I've always been curious as to how they assign understudies to shows. I understand that actors usually audition for male/female ensemble roles, and the ensemble/swing roles are then assigned to them upon casting, but how do they decide who understudies what role? Do the ensemble actors have to showcase their suitability for the roles at the initial audition, or is it figured out later? So, do they cast ensemble actors based on their suitability to understudy the lead roles or does it work the other way round (they cast first and figure out who understudies what later)?
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334 posts
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Post by adrianics on Jun 23, 2016 8:27:57 GMT
You do know that you are entitled to ask them to remove the service charge if you feel that strongly, right? I've done so before.
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334 posts
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Post by adrianics on Jun 22, 2016 15:19:42 GMT
The pub opposite, The Coach and Horses, is one of my favourite Central London pubs. Christ knows how they manage to keep it so civil and quiet in one of London's busiest areas, but I absolutely love them for it.
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Post by adrianics on Jun 17, 2016 12:33:34 GMT
Going to see the final Saturday night preview of The Book of Mormon in 2013 (God, was it *really* that long ago?). I can honestly say it's the best audience I've ever been in for anything, the atmosphere was positively electric and the audience immaculately behaved, not a whisper to be heard or a phone in sight, and raucous laughter and applause in all the right moments. The cast was absolutely sensational with not a single performance from the lead to the dance captain being anything short of outstanding, and it was just so amazing to be in that theatre when everybody involved in any way was clearly just so thrilled and excited that BOM had finally made it to the West End. I still smile thinking about it!
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Post by adrianics on Jun 9, 2016 9:06:13 GMT
No doubt in my mind that the audience member involved said absolutely nothing of the sort, at most probably a polite "could you please not do that?"
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Post by adrianics on May 16, 2016 16:02:20 GMT
Upper circle was closed on Saturday, so...
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Post by adrianics on May 16, 2016 15:18:19 GMT
The only notice up on Saturday was that the understudies for Big Julie and Rusty Charlie (although they mixed that up and said that [actor's name] will be played by Rusty Charlie, which made me laugh) were on. It's just occured to me now that the reason the Rusty Charlie understudy was on was because the normal Rusty Charlie actor was playing Nathan Detroit instead of Richard Kind. This strikes me as sneaky and deliberate, and is pretty much a dick move on the theatre's part.
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Post by adrianics on May 16, 2016 13:34:02 GMT
Saw the matinee on Saturday having gotten some very last-minute tickets. If anything this has gotten better since I saw it at Chichester two years ago, a very energetic and lively production of one of my favourite shows.
These are very well-defined and infamous roles with no little expectations attached to them, and to that end I think the four leads are doing a stupendous job and working very hard to bring something new to these characters. I particularly loved Siobhan Harrison's Sarah Brown, who she played as much more energetic and good-humoured than usual. The chemistry between her and Oliver Thompsett (particularly during their first scene, such a great interpretation for Sarah to be receptive to Sky and laughing at his antics from the start) was blazing and their singing on-point. Gavin Spokes absolutely brought the house down as Nicely-Nicely, blowing the roof off the theatre by the time SDYRTB came along.
My only complaint was that the understudy for Nathan Detroit was on, and while I have no problem with this despite Richard Kind being high on my list of reasons why I wanted to see this production, it was incredibly disappointing that the theatre made no kind of announcement whatsoever and the first the audience found out was when the understudy took the stage. The understudy was excellent (if incredibly David Hague-esque), but this is not fair on him or the audience. If it was a last-minute thing, don't they normally make an announcement over the PA?
One tidbit I found interesting from eavesdropping in the audience regarded the understudy for Big Julie, who wasn't listed anywhere in the programme. Apparently he was flown in from the UK tour at the last second? Either way he was just great!
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Post by adrianics on May 16, 2016 11:28:26 GMT
Guys and Dolls matinee on Saturday - A surprisingly and pleasantly well-behaved audience, if you ignore some talking during the overture/entracte and some old dear behind me who started whispering punchlines before the actors said them.
It's gotten to the point where I consider the absence of genuinely obnoxious behaviour a victory. Like, whispering and phone checking *is* going to happen no matter how angry I get, so what's the point?
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