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Post by crabtree on Oct 9, 2022 17:08:56 GMT
I had the huge pleasure of seeing Maddy Prior front Steeleye Span, last night, albeit in an alarmingly small audience at the RNCM. Maddy's vocal antics have been part of my life for so long and given me enormous joy. The songs of justice and injustice and bawdy shenanigans delight me and feed my love of Restoration and eighteenth century comedy and ballads and angry lurid shanties, and it has always been my wish that Maddy would lead either Steeleye or her Carnival band into a raucous production of the Beggar's Opera. No not the Villian's Opera or the tax payers opera or the whatever woke brigade is trending now opera, but the Beggar's opera. I found her singing ' Youth's the season made for joy' from the opera. Gorgeous. So Some enterprising producer take note. and don't mess with it. Incidentally, has anyone ever seen a production of the sequel, Polly?
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Post by crabtree on Sept 30, 2022 21:38:26 GMT
I loved the film tonight and it was a little literal in a romantic sort of way but gorgeous - but oh i loved the stage musical - the parade of dresses and flooding the stage with flowers - glorious. do see the film though.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 28, 2022 8:41:12 GMT
The Bernadette musical in question was truly dire and in the wrong venue. The apparition amounted to little more than a light bulb sadly.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 23, 2022 14:22:58 GMT
I agree with the poster about Sunday in the Park, but I can't explain the torrent of emotions i experience when the picture is formed. Much of The Hired Man has me in tears, and in the world of ballet, every second of Still Life at the Penguin cafe.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 17, 2022 17:27:17 GMT
Heck, what a hard working, quick changing cast - two shows a day must be a struggle, but great fun for us to watch. Definitely appreciated by the audience this afternoon.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 11, 2022 18:28:27 GMT
a good nod to The Real Inspector Hound - more nods than a backseat toy dachshund.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 11, 2022 10:42:46 GMT
I love how the Ambassadors (?) suddenly had a huge epic foyer - the Domininion I assume, and all that spacious backstage area and corridors! And what a lavish party for 100 performances - some great in jokes about Stoppard, Hamlet, and so much theatre history.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 10, 2022 18:59:50 GMT
oh she is wonderful, and looks magnificent in her uniform. very dry and droll.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 10, 2022 16:43:32 GMT
Don't go expecting hundreds of vicars, but do go expecting a Shakespeare in Love of murder mysteries, with layer upon layer, some very funny in jokes. It's stylish and a little clunky, and with very loose geography of theatres backstage and the west end, but there we go.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 9, 2022 9:33:19 GMT
of the many things going through my emotional head today, the thought crossed it of who will be re-embroidering the mammoth ROH curtain? stamps, bank notes. Full marks to Huw Edwards to simply keeping going for so long yesterday.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 24, 2022 9:35:59 GMT
yes I had to re-read the whatonstage info, but there we go. at least Mrs Pearce sings doesn't she?
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Post by crabtree on Aug 24, 2022 9:11:46 GMT
And Lesley Garrett as Mrs Pearce is a bit of a surprise - i love though that they give her credit as The Messiah.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 17, 2022 15:28:57 GMT
ah Metropolis was pretty extraordinary, spectacular in so many ways. You also missed a treat with Mutiny! and The Hired Man.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 16, 2022 22:11:23 GMT
Bombay Dreams, as it happens, replaced starlight express. Heavens, can you imagine converting that building back to a railway track less theatre.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 16, 2022 21:41:09 GMT
The one that I sadly missed was Bombay Dreams. Did anyone on here see it. I assume it's just too big to be revived but i love the score, and the lengthy making of documentary shows a piece of such energy and colour. So sad to have missed it. How long did it run. Was it a success? I so love 'Love's never easy' - very sensaul
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Post by crabtree on Aug 15, 2022 21:55:36 GMT
I have somewhere in my stuff a dreamworks script, that was quite alarming in the restructing and removal of songs and characters. It didn't happen. I've seen many stage productions and rather loved the Yorkshire playhouse version, and truly hated, hated the royal exchange's version.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 12, 2022 8:16:32 GMT
Didn't Scottish Opera have a great success with Candide in the 80's with stunning designs, direction by Jonathan Miller and Patricia routledge as the Old woman with one buttock?
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Post by crabtree on Aug 9, 2022 18:28:41 GMT
I saw it about three years after it opened, and I, fresh from doing drama at uni, had my eyes opened at the physical toll of eight shows a week. it was in pretty poor shape sadly. Not enough disciples, and not all the chequer board floor lit up, and it looked very tired indeed. I think resident directors keep things in tauter shape these days. let's hope I caught JCS on a particular limp day, but here i was expecting theatre at it's best.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 4, 2022 8:19:49 GMT
I think i posted this years ago, but it still makes me laugh. A mother and daughter next to me at the RSC Merry Wives musical, got up and left complaining loudly that they'd booked expecting Simon Cowell as a singing Falstaff....not Simon Callow. But there's an image to deal with.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 3, 2022 21:18:42 GMT
I'll go and see this. To me, so far, betty blue Eyes is their finest work.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 1, 2022 12:20:39 GMT
there's a video of him as george in Sunday in the Park, in Paris.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 1, 2022 10:09:39 GMT
lovely -
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Post by crabtree on Jul 28, 2022 21:53:04 GMT
Julian O is a walking work of art in so many ways - everything going for him.
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Post by crabtree on Jul 24, 2022 9:48:11 GMT
I watched the movie last night and enjoyed it enormously. What was the equivalent scene that opened act two of the show that impressed so many. Good to see the two Mister Darcy's together.
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Post by crabtree on Jul 19, 2022 20:02:57 GMT
Noises Off is a great example of a play that should be left, brilliantly, on stage.
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Post by crabtree on Jul 19, 2022 20:02:18 GMT
Yep the opening up of Chorus Line and it's trendy reorchestrations were a bit grim. Some clever tricks with the mirros but i missed the original choreography - though in there One number, there is that lady who quietly drops out of sight, among the hundred dancers, but is soon back on her feet. Too late to reshoot that.
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Post by crabtree on Jul 19, 2022 19:54:51 GMT
Poor South Pacific seems to be having a bit of a technically bumpy visit to Manchester......
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Post by crabtree on Jul 11, 2022 17:28:59 GMT
What are the worst shows for casts to be doing in this heat?
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Post by crabtree on Jul 10, 2022 15:06:18 GMT
again, that was a question i was going to ask, or does it take the characters and put them down elsewhere?
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Post by crabtree on Jul 10, 2022 12:35:10 GMT
Other activities will stop me going again, but otherwise I'd be there next saturday. In the matinee yesterday there was a lady in almost the front row who read her programme cover to cover during the show, whilst the two male leads were just feet from her. So rude to my way of thinking. I'm sure the singers were trying to earn her attention. Still thinking how perfect this production is - so many fine details, and such a great use of space. Weekend in the Country was thrilling Any american gent on the front row matinee - sorry our chat was so brief, but i hope you thought the journey from London was worthwhile.
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