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Post by lonlad on Aug 8, 2017 17:40:27 GMT
That really is the most extraordinary fact. Just been bingeing on her on YouTube and the great Kennedy Center tribute to her, which includes Glenn Close and Audra! An irreplaceable talent.
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Post by lonlad on Aug 3, 2017 9:38:47 GMT
Totally disagree. Miller was born to play this part and delivers in spades -- the best London Maggie I have seen, which is to say dating back to Lindsay Duncan at the NT opposite the late Ian Charleson (and, later, Frances O'Connor, Sanaa Lathan and probably others I am forgetting). O'Connell is good, too, in easily the play's hardest part, since Brick is almost entirely reactive. Lisa Palfrey's embonpoint is a play in itself .....
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Post by lonlad on Jul 30, 2017 1:19:12 GMT
Mr Burns was extraordinary --- one of the best things the Almeida has done.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 29, 2017 6:58:46 GMT
It really is too ridiculous. Can't see this amalgam of moaning minnies getting anywhere near Broadway.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 28, 2017 10:06:52 GMT
"Stairway to Paradise" would be wonderful if it had, well ya know, an actual staircase? Guess the props department sent it on to 42nd Street instead. That said, Max von Essen batted it out of the parkin NYC -- something Haydn Oakley isn't vocally equipped to do. I'd love to see the new alternate Jerry, who is a star dancer with ENB !!
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Post by lonlad on Jul 27, 2017 20:22:13 GMT
I've seen her twice, and she was even better the second time ---- more confident vocally and a much better actress. That said, I gather 4 pm is the witching hour each day when the producers are informed as to which of their many Effies will deign to perform that evening LOL
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Post by lonlad on Jul 26, 2017 13:47:25 GMT
I would have thought it definitely does, not least in a culture (NY) where refunds are much more readily arrived at - and ticket prices are also a lot higher. Maybe Amber doesn't care? She can't think this is doing her Stateside reputation any good .....
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Post by lonlad on Jul 25, 2017 0:10:55 GMT
4* from The Times
I was there tonight as well and agree with Treneman (for once) and Cavendish: a mightily compelling evening that makes an apt companion piece to Andrews's YV Streetcar, though I actually thought this production was better.
I wish people would realise that it isn't that act two is "twice the length" of act one, as if that is somehow to fault the play: in fact, Andrews has (wisely) bled the second and third acts of Williams's play into one extended act, thereby eliminating the need for a second interval - and it works just fine.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 24, 2017 22:19:18 GMT
Also, Fairchild can act and Day can't, which is a bit of a problem. Oh well. They're good friends, and that is what counts.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 24, 2017 15:19:19 GMT
This is all wonderfully entertaining, but does anyone have anything to say about the production?? Is it like Andrews's Young Vic STREETCAR in style/affect? How is Miller? :-)
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Post by lonlad on Jul 21, 2017 22:14:32 GMT
Rained out tonight 10 or 15 minutes into act two which is a bloody nuisance for those of us who were determined to stick it out at all costs --- yes, it was and is as bad as you've heard but not controversially so, just doggedly and determinedly inert. and abysmally acted pretty much down the line, lots of attitude and posturing and not an iota of characterisation.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 21, 2017 5:22:04 GMT
Whether or not it is still running, I'd avoid it ---- or have a read of Lloyd Evans's HILARIOUS (and entirely accurate) review of it in the current Spectator magazine, than which truer words were never written :-) -- it's dire.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 19, 2017 0:16:08 GMT
Saw it tonight. As bad as expected. Starry audience though: Sophie Thompson, Mo Lipman, Tom Wilkinson (with his wife Diana Hardcastle), and more ..... notably few press, though, which was weird since it was press night.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 18, 2017 23:48:18 GMT
"Corkscrew comedies"? That seems a very odd description for this archetypal backstage story, which truly is a tale as old as time (and BRILLIANTLY done in this production)
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Post by lonlad on Jul 16, 2017 23:06:35 GMT
Trevor's vaunted (and once genuine) "passion for theatre" long ago devolved into an inability to stop. There comes a time in every artist's life when you have to say enough is enough, otherwise you risk soiling the reputation that you spent all those decades building towards. Sigh .... am bracing myself for the worst for this.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 15, 2017 18:29:16 GMT
Saw it a few nights ago -- absolutely wonderful: one of the genuine surprises of the year. Rouse is completely thrilling.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 15, 2017 8:54:51 GMT
The last good thing Trev directed was FLARE PATH at the Haymarket, which was sublime. The rest has ranged from indifferent (LOVE IN IDLENESS, redeemed solely by Ms Best; his New York PERICLES, with Christian Camargo) to unspeakable (LETTICE & LOVAGE). Didn't see his Rose Theatre Histories but from what I gather, I didn't miss much.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 11, 2017 22:39:35 GMT
If you have to see it at all, which I don't advise, the show is best watched and not heard. The script is thunderously awful.
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Bodies
Jul 11, 2017 14:25:20 GMT
Post by lonlad on Jul 11, 2017 14:25:20 GMT
Jonathan McGuinness on for Brian Ferguson at tonight's press night
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Post by lonlad on Jul 11, 2017 13:51:31 GMT
Saw it last night and thought it was pretty much an entirely wasted opportunity. The acting by and large is decidedly ropey, the structure poor (what happened to Queen Anne in the end? The play doesn't care and never tells you), and the entire thing feels like bad RSC playmaking at its worst, complete with ludicrous "knees-up" interludes which do little besides embarrass everyone involved. Five minutes of Rob Icke's MARY STUART (and Edmundson is clearly courting comparison with that play, amongst others) blows this out of the water. Garai has her moments, but the writing asks nothing of her. Cunniffe simpers away to grating effect - she likes a dripping tap that you can't turn off. For once, the dreaded Ann Treneman in The Times nails it (as do several of the others). Oh, and the set is actively ugly.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 10, 2017 22:41:04 GMT
>>Bertie Carvel has the same accent as when he did Trunchbull
Um, no. His Trunch definitely did NOT have a soft Australian accent .....
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Post by lonlad on Jul 7, 2017 17:53:54 GMT
It's pitifully thin gruel and totally preposterous- virtually nothing about it makes sense. That said, Abraham is very good in it. Less so any of the others.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 5, 2017 8:29:02 GMT
Um, in what way could Billie Holiday's tragic and harrowing life story "be more upbeat"? I'm sure she would have wished for that as well instead of dying at age 44.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 2, 2017 6:05:42 GMT
Miriam-Teak Lee the clear standout of the women, by some measure: that thrilling soprano matched to a genuinely witty and welcoming stage presence: the woman is a star in the making, brava !
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Post by lonlad on Jul 2, 2017 5:50:08 GMT
The cast for CERTAIN YOUNG MEN really is something else !!
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Post by lonlad on Jul 1, 2017 23:32:07 GMT
To mention this in even the same breath as THE BOOK OF MORMON defies analysis. WIND IN THE WILLOWS is singularly inept - unnecessary and superfluous to start with and then mangled at every wince-making step of the way. Word of mouth is pretty dire on it, at least anyone I know.
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Post by lonlad on Jun 30, 2017 1:31:33 GMT
Dire stuff. A show in which precisely nothing whatsoever happens. Rufus Hound is bludgeoningly charmless.
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Post by lonlad on Jun 29, 2017 9:17:39 GMT
The reviews here more or less identical to Broadway, where no one has ever rated the play. Audra is the obvious occasion and the question is whether she will matter enough to UK audiences. I suspect she won't, which is a shame, especially if they price it unrealistically.
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Post by lonlad on Jun 26, 2017 14:26:11 GMT
And NEAPTIDE
Ronke Adekoluejo (Val), Adjoa Andoh (Beatrice), Simon Armstrong (Sid & Cyril), Thomas Arnold (Colin & Roger), Maureen Beattie (Joyce), Morfydd Clark (Poppy & Terri), Karla Crome (Diane), Helena Lymbery (Anette & Marion), Sarah Niles (Linda) and Jessica Raine (Claire).
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Post by lonlad on Jun 26, 2017 14:25:05 GMT
Casting for THE DRAG is here
Cast includes: Fisayo Akinade, Arun Blair-Mangat, Niamh Cusack, Richard Dempsey, Sacha Dhawan, Tom Edden, Adetomiwa Edun, Jodie McNee, Cyril Nri, Sule Rimi and Adrian Scarborough.
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