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Post by daniel on Oct 18, 2017 10:33:34 GMT
Three Effies! No alternates then I take it sempala, you win the point for Moya!
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Post by daniel on Oct 18, 2017 10:24:33 GMT
We already knew this, but apparent confirmation:
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Post by daniel on Oct 18, 2017 10:20:12 GMT
Don't worry @baemax you've got the right tone - if you'd come on here like "OMG guys I know who it is. Gonna be amazing. Soz can't tell you" then that's when we'd extradite you
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 20:55:21 GMT
Announcing the new Miss Hannigan in three days time. Any ideas? I heard rumours of Catherine Tate a while ago, but that was before Craig was cast so I assume it's dead in the water now.
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 19:11:24 GMT
My prediction is that it's a deliberately short booking period so that it inevitably sells out and then they can spout the usual wibble about extending due to "phenomenal demand"
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 19:05:51 GMT
Something is telling me that Jocasta will be Deena and marisha will obvs be Effie White. I would love Jocasta to be promoted!! Fingers crossed.
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 16:25:42 GMT
This cast looks incredible, gutted at the prices though! £37 is the cheapest seat in my local, way out of my range at the moment! Is it really expensive anywhere else or is it just my lack of money in the bank making it look worse? It's generally expensive across the board. I think this is probably the most expensive tour that we've ever seen. Not only are the top prices on a par with London, the lowest priced tickets are a heck of a lot higher, and that's what bugs me. Charge £100 by all means if people will pay it, but with the cheapest seats pushing £40, so many people are alienated. I dread to think how high Lion King will push their prices when they tour again!
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 15:16:00 GMT
Adrienne Warren
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 14:43:40 GMT
By now, don't expect any shock celeb casting if they haven't announced it already. The Effie takeover isn't a star or celeb, so unless they have star cast Deena and are gonna announce it late, it will be fresh faces to the production who we may of seen in Ensemble roles or Supporting roles in other musicals. you sound like you know something danieljohnson14
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 12:59:33 GMT
Over the moon that Craige is doing this Me too. He is a fantastic Trunchbull and will lead the cast magnificently!
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 12:57:41 GMT
The Lion King I would say is the number one musical for people who don't do musicals.
And why is that?
Sorry I should've clarified... According to my super-accurate personal research ( ) people who are very much into musical theatre will appreciate Lion King for the visual spectacle, but generally criticise it as a piece of theatre Non-theatregoers generally seem to just absolutely love it. The number of people that I've spoken to who, upon learning that I love theatre, say "I saw lion king and it was the best thing ever"! It seems to have that divide. Sure, there's theatre-lovers who love it and non-theatre type who despise it, I'm just massively generalising
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Post by daniel on Oct 17, 2017 9:12:45 GMT
She definitely is ready, not sure why they're leaving it so late though. That said, Book of Mormon didn't announce their new cast until a few days after they started, and that's an SFP show. I think when Asmeret started in Dreamgirls, they announced it on the day. All could mean nothing of course
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Post by daniel on Oct 16, 2017 18:03:08 GMT
The Lion King I would say is the number one musical for people who don't do musicals.
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Post by daniel on Oct 16, 2017 17:13:51 GMT
Won the TodayTix lottery for tonight, yay! Row R in the Stalls, £20. Or free, because of my credits
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Post by daniel on Oct 16, 2017 13:04:29 GMT
UK tour, opening in Wimbledon in July.
Produced by Selladoor.
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Post by daniel on Oct 16, 2017 1:26:04 GMT
I have no doubt in my mind that ATG only do security checks to stop people bringing in their own drinks to try to increase bar takings rather than anything to do with security. Add into that mix, the ridiculous 'restoration levies' and 'booking fees' - and you have a toxic combination that is driving up prices and delivering nothing better for the audience members. Just to provide some wider context...in my experience the vast majority of theatres do bag checks now - booze is confiscated not to increase bar sales, but because it's against the venues' license to allow alcohol to be brought onto the premises. If it was about increasing sales, they wouldn't allow anything in. ATG (and every other theatre I've been to other than the London Coliseum) will let you take any sweets, soft drinks, and anything you want inside to eat/drink, as long as it isn't hot food or alcohol. But bag checks are equally about security. Even if things can slip through the net, it's about customer reassurance. I remember working FOH (independent regional venue) just after the Paris attacks, and a woman was hysterical because we weren't doing bag checks. She wouldn't even go in to watch the show because she didn't felt safe. Yes, theatre bars are expensive, but maximising sales isn't the reason for bag checks. Re ticket charges, I remember there being an extensive discussion on another thread a while ago - in the simplest terms, the vast majority of the ticket "face value" goes to the producer/promoter. Once a show recoups and/or depending on the deal, the theatre may keep a percentage of the ticket revenue but it's rarely more than 20%. Booking fees is where theatres get their guaranteed income from. Most theatres across the country will get complaints about their booking fees (though I do think that theatre isn't nearly as bad as the music industry when it comes to adding on fees), though in the last couple of years there has been a trend whereby the booking fee is "inside" the ticket cost. So rather than the ticket being £50 plus a £4 fee it'll be £54 with no fees. This may be a contributor to regional ticket prices seemingly taking a sharp increase, though it seems like audience satisfaction is higher because there's no perceived additional fee, even though the ticket itself is more expensive. It's weird, pricing psychology. I did some Box Office work a couple of years ago for some summer pocket money, and we had a major UK tour do a sit-down run - when the producer decided to remove the £3 concession for over 60s, we got an absolute barrage of complaints, and were reminded multiple times per day how disgraceful this was (despite the fact that it was by no means our decision). Yet later in the run when the prices increased by £5-£10 and the £3 concession returned...not a peep. . Restoration levies are a thing so that the money is ringfenced for restoration work. Most (though not all) theatres seem to charge this now, though it does vary from about 75p up to £2. You've only got to take a look at various venues (yes, even ATG) and you can see that the amount spend on refurbishments is above and beyond the restoration levy income. The fact that theatre owners are safeguarding this income to look after their buildings is a positive thing, it's not just another stream of cash into their pockets. Though admittedly the larger groups (DMT/ATG/HQ) will pool all this money together to use for larger projects. For example a large chunk of the money to refurbish the Victoria Palace may well have come from restoration levies from Sir Cameron's other venues. What I think is the big issue though is the multiple adding on to the ticket price. Theatregoers don't want to see a £40 ticket with a £1.50 restoration fee, £3.50 per ticket fee and £4 transaction fee - just call it a £49 ticket, and worry about the breakdowns behind the scenes.
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Post by daniel on Oct 15, 2017 22:21:23 GMT
How about Salford? Im there on 11/11. Really looking forward to it. Anyone know when the press night is? Looks to be busy but not yet sold out. Press night usually the first night.
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Post by daniel on Oct 15, 2017 18:13:49 GMT
There seems to be a large number of us going to Amber's last show! Who's up for a game of "who can scream the loudest at the most inappropriate moment in the middle of a song"?
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Post by daniel on Oct 15, 2017 18:11:19 GMT
In defence of the ATG £15 nibble box...you do get a drink from the bar (£6ish), house programme (£4), little bottle of wine (£5) and nibbles (couple of quid) in the box, so whilst it's not a revolutionary money saver, if you're someone who would generally buy that stuff anyway, it can be worth doing.
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Post by daniel on Oct 15, 2017 1:16:56 GMT
Ms Burke, love her or hate her, sells tickets. The public just love her.
She was the best-selling Rachel Marron in London during The Bodyguard's run, and the show did amazing business on tour, as did Sister Act, which returned to some venues.
I certainly wouldn't be surprised if she ended up doing Tina (ooh matron)
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Post by daniel on Oct 15, 2017 1:14:30 GMT
Saw this last weekend...LOVED it. Knew nothing about it in advance, but it was just brilliant. The main bloke was out but his understudy gave a stronge performance. The show is just absolutely bonkers. Yes it gets a bit silly at times, but I feel like that's kinda what they're going for with it.
We did have a show Stop about 10 seconds into act 2 - the sliding doors decided they weren't going to open, cue much bashing of hammers backstage.
My only criticism is producer greed. It's 100% an Off-West End show. There's no doubt about it. It's an Off-West End venue. Yet the prices are nearer to West End prices. Whilst I don't want this or any show to fail, I'm really pleased that sales are slow for this because that's a lesson to the producers that you can't charge top whack for a low budget (albeit brilliant) show that you are paying peanuts to the performers for, and get away with it. Hopefully she'll drop the prices to where they should be for an off-West End show, and it'll pack out the Arts, which is what those super hard working actors and musicians deserve.
Do go see it if you can find a seat at the right price for you, it's bloody good.
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Post by daniel on Oct 15, 2017 1:00:45 GMT
Saw this on Tuesday, Lucie Jones was off - very strong performance from the understudy.
I knew nothing of the show - other than a brief part of "Omigod You Guys" being on the interval playlist at Showstoppers on Monday and my friend saying "oh this is from Legally Blonde!" I've never seen the film or earlier iterations of the show so I went in blind.
First up I loved the score, and the energy of the show as a piece. The music is infectious and the cast give a committed performance.
My problem with this was the physical production itself. My god. A little bit of Internet digging informed me that this is in fact basically the exact production that they hire out for amateur groups. And it looked like it. Don't get me wrong, I have no production with amateur dramatics I think it's wonderful, but to take an amateur set on the road and be charging towards £50 per ticket is, in my eyes, an outrage. Generally it was 2D and flimsy or a frontcloth. Oh and the back was a starcloth, which I think is just super lazy, unless you're actually trying to simulate a starry night sky, which they weren't. One of the doorknobs fell off at one point, another one of the doors decided it didn't want to open.
The smoke machines at the side of the stage really bugged me. They were so loud! Although I did chuckle that every time they went off *PSSHHHHH* someone would try and slide some set on in the smoke.
Lighting design reminded me of a primary school disco. Sound design was muddy, at times the vocals were just lost. And whoever programmed the keyboards needs some lessons, those synth strings were dire!
Costumes fit in very well with the sets - cheap and tacky. I think, like Hairspray, this show can get away with it to an extent, but there were a few moments that I did cringe for a second.
They should never be allowed to tour number one venues charging number one prices with this production. What makes me most sad is that once we get the cheap crap and tacky versions of shows doing the rounds, chances are we're never gonna see the "proper" one again. Think Hairspray, Footloose, Avenue Q, Starlight Express etc.
What saves Legally Blonde is that the piece itself is so strong as a "good time" show that people (myself included) have an absolute whale of a time and let the shortcomings pass.
Two star production of a four star show.
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Post by daniel on Oct 15, 2017 0:35:01 GMT
A while back at Five Guys Named Moe press night I was sat within earshot of some very senior DMT people, and they were talking about their site visit earlier that day, and how nice the interior is (lots of gold, so they said), and also on the Cam Mack documentary he was examining seemingly nearly finished toilets. Bearing that in mind, it may be that the interior of the building is much further along than the exterior may suggest. I walked past the Victoria Palace on my way to Starlight Express the other week, to have a nosey at how it's coming along - there were two aspects that particularly alarmed me, but on later reflection it may be that they're not as major as first feared. As you look at the front of the theatre, there's an area to left that had a supported facade but still no building behind it. I wonder if this is to be restaurant/bar space, that may not need to be open at the same time as the rest of the theatre so could be finished later, if needed. Secondly, around the back of the theatre I was alarmed by the number of what looked like steel building girders, and looked like the fly tower hadn't even been built up to its full height yet. Again on reflection, I wonder if that's might just be super beefy scaffolding, which could very quickly come down when the building work is done. My point being that the building might be further along in its construction than it appears to us laymen from the outside. That said, things could be as bad as they look and the whole thing is in fact buggered. (Pictures from 16th September)
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Post by daniel on Oct 13, 2017 20:18:47 GMT
Thanks for sharing this charlotte! I just got A0 and A1 for my February London trip. They changed a price for these seats from £15 to £25 the buggers! I'm not suprised though, they were an absolute steal at £15.
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Post by daniel on Oct 13, 2017 19:11:58 GMT
Let's face it though Parsley, you probably would've got a better return on your investment if you'd put money into An American In Paris rather than Bend It.
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