Rebecca - Charing Cross Theatre

I planned my first trip to the west end around seeing Rebecca and next to normal. Our performance of Rebecca was canceled and I feel the show is officially cursed. Glad it meant I could see Cabaret instead though. The English lyrics are dreadful and clunky. From the songs they’ve released, it sounds like they ran the lyrics through Google Translate once in 2013 and didn’t bother to revise them any further. It’s disappointing because I do think this has the potential to be a hit on the west end or Broadway but they need to hire someone to completely rewrite the lyrics. Hell I could do a better job.

They should have worked with not against the small space and had 9 musicians and invested in a staircase, it’s a shame. I remember listening to the English concept album over ten years ago and loved it. Was planning to visit London to watch it but with the TIKTOK videos i have seen and the amdram look of it doubt i’ll go now.

Is there anything in the story that would support seeing the orchestra? I nearly asked a few times on here 'where have they put the orchestra?' thinking they'd reconfigured the auditorium. After the fanfare of this proud selling point I never imagined they'd squander the rich sound by having them in a room somewhere piped in. What a waste.

I feel that the show "Elisabeth", the more successful and famous work of Michael Kunze en Sylvester Levay would be much better suited for international productions. The music is more glorious and the story line is better in my opinion.

I also think that would be a shame, the cast are very talented and have worked hard as have the orchestra and production team. They are doing the best they can.

Saw this tonight. I have a lot of thoughts I’ll need to work out. But was told their press night was moved to next Monday night.

Understudies for Max, I, Clarice, Frank Crawley, Horridge and Giles.

They told me it was pushed back a week to next Monday, so I don’t know.

I honestly don’t even know how to begin putting my thoughts down on something like this. I’ve seen the pics/video online of the show in Vienna etc and it’s HUGE and costs millions. Here, where the staircase could be some painted boards from a neighborhood hardware store and plywood walls of the mansion, maybe the faults with the musical itself are even more evident? This musical has a CULT following who swears it’s the best musical ever written. I’m going back tomorrow so maybe the music will resonate more on a second listen but it’s really nothing special and borders on pure camp a lot of time, as does the show itself.

I thought the understudies for the two leads were fine and good enough for what this production is and would be curious to know if the original two make the production any better. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen (and as someone fascinated by the history of the show), and I’m giving it a 2 star rating here but watching it tonight makes me wonder why it was decided THIS is the English language premier it got. But I’m curious if my view on the material change, rewatching it tomorrow.

I had the fortunate or maybe unfortunate? pleasure of attending a q/a with the cast and director last week and it's even more evident to me now that the director hasn't a clue what he's doing. He was a funny man, a very soft-spoken voice, could barely hear him. Almost sounded unconfident and lost when answering questions. Perhaps he got overwhelmed in everything and that has resulted in what is now playing... 

The cast on the other hand were very enthusiastic, particularly Lauren and Kara who seemed to have done a lot of research together into their characters, reading the book, watching the film, analysing and bookmarking whole passages etc. I remember a while back, when she was doing Bonnie and Clyde and talking with her at the stage door. She was very friendly and talked about the process she did getting into the role of Bonnie and the heaps of research she did to prepare. And all of this seems to have resulted in the amazing performances both of them give in the show. 

Doesn't look like press night has moved - they've just tweeted a few moments ago that all of their previews are complete and their next performance is press night.

I feel so bad for everyone involved. This is going to be a blood bath. To be honest, though, they deserved it; they've seen view reaction to the human seagulls, for example - why are they still in the show? I was really hoping that the cancelled shows was really code for "We are trying to fix some of the major issues with the show!" but it genuinely feels like they just don't care?

A commenter on MickeyJoeTheatre's video said that the seagulls are gone.

There may be other changes. We won't know until the reviews come out.

Oh, entirely possible - saw it on a Facebook post from someone who saw it yesterday. 

Interestingly, Wait in the Wings (who seems to have some access to Kunze - constant references to emailing him, etc) said in his video recently that the fire scene won't be ready in the way its intended until press night... seems odd, but he seems confident that the version we currently have isn't the final version?

This is odd. I saw the show again today and was told press night is indeed happening tomorrow, after being told yesterday it was moved to next week.

I sat near an older man with a notepad today and had a feeling he was a critic. He slept a lot during act one and during the interval he was not only rolling his eyes about how he “had to watch an understudy” but was audibly saying how much he hated it. I don’t know his name or where he was reviewing for (wouldn’t tell me) but for a man his age - he ABSOLUTELY should know better than that. Even if it’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen, you sit there politely watching WITH YOUR EYES OPEN and then go do your review.