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Post by crabtree on Mar 24, 2024 22:18:29 GMT
and don't mention Il Trovatore where the wrong baby is thrown on the fire!
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Post by crabtree on Mar 13, 2024 18:07:50 GMT
it would be wonderful to reinvent the plant, much in the way the Royal Exchange did.
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Post by crabtree on Mar 8, 2024 21:52:59 GMT
The Garrick it's obstructing pillars! How about theatres that are comfortable?
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Post by crabtree on Feb 5, 2024 19:55:15 GMT
I have much affection for the emotional The hired Man, and we do need to see The Visit
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Post by crabtree on Feb 5, 2024 19:53:06 GMT
and a lot depends on the casting....
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Post by crabtree on Feb 5, 2024 14:01:51 GMT
As I lurch in to, if not the final curtain but certainly the last act, what the heck am I going to do with nearly two thousand programmes dating back to the early 70's. How rich I would be in one respect if I'd never discovered theatre, but how poor in otheer respects.
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Post by crabtree on Feb 4, 2024 14:34:30 GMT
Can you imagine if dinnerladies had been written by a writer's room - shortlived in terms of episodes perhaps but each one utterly brilliant. Miss Wood's brilliant phrasing would clearly have been lost I suspect.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 30, 2024 17:16:15 GMT
Oliver's 'arrival' was a suggestion of the imaginative joys, both grim and light, that lay ahead. A magnificent, intelligent production.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 16, 2024 15:38:26 GMT
definitely Scandal and Edward II - both Edwards at the Royal Exchange set the bar very high for that play, but it is still a great watchable play. It must have caused an outrage when first performed
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Post by crabtree on Jan 16, 2024 10:42:05 GMT
Like any interesting should be there are a combination of 'heck, I must rush to book that' and'no thanks, but thanks anyway'. Good to have a rollicking 18th century comedy again.
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Post by crabtree on Jan 12, 2024 14:21:19 GMT
In a similiar vein I once saw Pirates of Penzance with an actress singing Mabel from one side whilst the real Mabel croaked her way through the dialogue on stage. added to the fun was a female signer on the other side, so at one point we had thrree Mabel's in action.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 23, 2023 22:28:23 GMT
Very much looking forward to seeing Lindsay Duncan in this. I've only seen one production of this but was rather impressed. I believe I saw Googie Withers at York Theare Royal mid 70's?
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Post by crabtree on Dec 14, 2023 22:15:05 GMT
the Royal Exchange seem to be having a decent run at the moment, but a few things in recent years have had me screaming and vacating quickly - Wuthering Heights and Persuasion to name but two - simply trying too hard, too gimmicky, and too far from the author's intent.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 7, 2023 10:07:16 GMT
Josephine B as Mrs H, please.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 5, 2023 13:43:34 GMT
Thank you, that's perfect, and rather lovely. I had been thinking of sir Foppling Flutter as well, or the small part of the player in the beggar's Opera. Thank you.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 4, 2023 20:22:13 GMT
Can anyone recommend a speech of a likeable character, who seems to have swallowed a dictionary or embellishes every fruity word - any sex. Does Mrs malaprop have any lengthy speeches? thanks
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Post by crabtree on Oct 9, 2023 20:35:35 GMT
and what do we make of 'Lust', the musical based on The Country Wife? I think I;ve got those details right?
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Post by crabtree on Oct 3, 2023 21:41:50 GMT
am I right in remembering Gary Oldman and Cheryl Campbell in the Royal Exchange's wonderfully rude Country Wife. The letter scene still lingers as pure joy.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 3, 2023 15:39:26 GMT
Did anyone catch part one of this on the BBC on sunday, filmed in a studio back in the mid 60's and beautifully introduced by Dame Janet. It's almost cleared up a lifetime mystery. I was 8 as our filming went on a barging holiday through Stratford when this was on stage. And there was a buzz - remember those. In the garden up by the Dirty Duck or a bit further was a monumental sword stuck in the grass and permantly on fire. an impressive sight that everyone says i invented. I remember the texture of the metal, and there is this recording, was the smae metal work, continuing the theme. I wish someone else remembers the sword as it made such an impression
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Post by crabtree on Oct 2, 2023 18:59:50 GMT
Favourite Mrs Malaprop? I've seen so many, some tragially deluded, some knowingly social climbing, some just charging forth with gay abandon, but what a superb character.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 2, 2023 17:07:48 GMT
do you think that whilst the play remains a masterpiece of construction, the edge has been rubbed away by the more unsubtle phyisicailty of the Play that Goes wrong behemoth?
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Post by crabtree on Oct 2, 2023 13:12:08 GMT
it's good to see that others have a fondness for Restoration Comedy. I wonder if the Country Wife today with Horner's ailment not being impotent but gay. That old chestnut. And yes let's be pedantic - I don't class The Rivals, and such, as Restoration. Would we label them as Regency? Yes, the great Mrs Malaprop, Lady Bracknell, and Hyacinth Bucket all related, and all related by Patricia Routledge.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 1, 2023 21:24:31 GMT
As I teeter to my dotage and develop a tremor I become suitable to be cast as a Restoration Fop, such as Sir Fopling Flutter. When, i pondered, did we last have a high profile Restoration piece. Has their dependence on fruity language dropped from favour, or they just simply have nothing to say any more. I love them and thier ornate language and cynicism - mind there might be a trendy director ready to reinvent the country Wife as a gender confused tale, with no set but lots of video screens and live footage
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Post by crabtree on Sept 20, 2023 9:07:28 GMT
It's a shame that The Boyfriend is not featured as Twiggy was rather special in that, and it must have been a huge part of her life. I adore the film, in all its' different versions. Just think that there could have been a scene set backstage at a provinical musical as seen through the eyes of a Hollywood producer all the whilst at an off west end theatre.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 12, 2023 22:05:18 GMT
through no fault of the enthusiastic performer this was the most underbaked evening ever spent in a theatre. sadly, it simply did not deliver any tension or thrills
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Post by crabtree on Sept 1, 2023 21:43:56 GMT
The last Gondoliers I saw was Scottish Opera's rather straightforward one. I wonder if we will ever see The Sorcerer or a revial of Opera Norths wonderful Ruddigore
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Post by crabtree on Sept 1, 2023 16:44:07 GMT
I watched the Sky Arts broadcast of ENO's Pirates last week. I've loved so many of their g&S but oh dear this was flat a grim. a set designer completely on a different page to the costume designer - and so dull. Choreography half hearted. hmm Yeomen - interesting certainly Patience - gorgeous and definitive Mikado - classy and inventive Iolanthe - ravishing Pinafore - wonderful Princess Ida - wtf?
have I forgotten any?
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Post by crabtree on Apr 8, 2023 19:27:03 GMT
joining in is acceptable when encouraged by the performers, as in Mother Goose down the road, and everybody was good natured and kept quiet when they should. But oh dear, alcohol has so much to do with this. watching Imelda battle vainly on during Rose's Turn against a group of pissed women clapping and shouting 'go girl' nearly ruined my theatre going for life.
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Post by crabtree on Apr 7, 2023 20:28:43 GMT
and then Ziegfeld, because I couldn't believe it the first time round.
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Post by crabtree on Apr 7, 2023 20:27:44 GMT
I'll throw in a vote for The Hired Man......
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