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Post by BurlyBeaR on Apr 11, 2024 17:47:41 GMT
Why is it so locked up Ridiculous isn’t it? Maybe look for a VPN service with a free trial period but remember to cancel.
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Post by woobl on Apr 12, 2024 15:53:49 GMT
will we be able to watch the live awards on any platform or will we have to wait until the condensed broadcast on itv, is it going to be livestreamed on youtube? It’ll be live-streamed on YouTube but geo blocked so it can only be watched from outside the UK. You’ll need to use a VPN to spoof your location if you want to watch it live from the UK. I find it utterly illogical that an awards show that supposedly celebrates the West End and the UK theatre scene does a broadcast deal that means they can't broadcast the entire ceremony to UK audiences - just a highlights package at such a late time in a broadcast schedule.
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Post by Jon on Apr 12, 2024 16:02:04 GMT
It’ll be live-streamed on YouTube but geo blocked so it can only be watched from outside the UK. You’ll need to use a VPN to spoof your location if you want to watch it live from the UK. I find it utterly illogical that an awards show that supposedly celebrates the West End and the UK theatre scene does a broadcast deal that means they can't broadcast the entire ceremony to UK audiences - just a highlights package at such a late time in a broadcast schedule. It doesn't rate well enough to broadcast it live and I suspect ITV1 wouldn't want live rights anyway. They aired in primetime one year and it bombed
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Post by theatrefan62 on Apr 12, 2024 19:16:26 GMT
It’ll be live-streamed on YouTube but geo blocked so it can only be watched from outside the UK. You’ll need to use a VPN to spoof your location if you want to watch it live from the UK. I find it utterly illogical that an awards show that supposedly celebrates the West End and the UK theatre scene does a broadcast deal that means they can't broadcast the entire ceremony to UK audiences - just a highlights package at such a late time in a broadcast schedule. But it doesn't celebrate UK theatre. It's very London centric focusing on productions that most won't get a chance to see and/or have already closed.
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Post by curiouskc on Apr 12, 2024 21:32:23 GMT
I find it utterly illogical that an awards show that supposedly celebrates the West End and the UK theatre scene does a broadcast deal that means they can't broadcast the entire ceremony to UK audiences - just a highlights package at such a late time in a broadcast schedule. But it doesn't celebrate UK theatre. It's very London centric focusing on productions that most won't get a chance to see and/or have already closed. Preach! Is regional/touring theatre not eligible for the Oliviers or is it just always ignored?
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Post by Dave B on Apr 12, 2024 22:12:13 GMT
But it doesn't celebrate UK theatre. It's very London centric focusing on productions that most won't get a chance to see and/or have already closed. Preach! Is regional/touring theatre not eligible for the Oliviers or is it just always ignored? It is run by SOLT - Society of London Theatre.
Established in 1976, the Olivier Awards celebrate the world-class status of London theatre, and are Britain’s most prestigious stage honours.
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Post by theatrefan62 on Apr 13, 2024 7:59:00 GMT
Preach! Is regional/touring theatre not eligible for the Oliviers or is it just always ignored? It is run by SOLT - Society of London Theatre.
Established in 1976, the Olivier Awards celebrate the world-class status of London theatre, and are Britain’s most prestigious stage honours.
That might be, but that doesn't change the fact most people across the UK do t have a reason to care. I'd also argue it can't be 'britains most prestigious stage honour' when you exclude the majority of theatre in Great Britain. And just because it's run by SOLT doesn't mean they couldn't include some regional awards (like WOS) to make the awards more inclusive and appeal to a wider market (if they wanted to). You also have the fact that awards in general do not meen as much as they use too. The BBC musicals concert has shown there is interest in theatre being on tv. But you have to make it something people want to watch.
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Post by Dave B on Apr 13, 2024 9:17:18 GMT
So I was on the theatre panel this year. I was going to post tomorrow, but I’ve just checked my NDA and realised I was actually clear to talk about some things once the nominations had come out. My better half and I are off to the awards tomorrow, red carpet arrivals and onwards to the fancy afterparty as guests! Sorry for the long post, I’ve tried to pick out questions that have been asked about the panel in this thread and cover many of them while talking about my own experience. I am not in the theatre business, I don’t have connections, I do not know cast or creatives. I work in a very different industry and since moving back to London in 2018, I’ve rediscovered a love of theatre (I had previously gone a fair bit between 2004 and 2007) and my better half and I now go to a lot of shows. I applied online for the panel for the last couple of years. I sent in a short review of a production recently seen and a listing of shows seen in the previous year. The number of shows is a particular indicator because the panel is quite a time commitment. The panel were regular theatre-goers (there are at least three others lurking if not posting here). Let me stress, you don't need to have been going to a hundred West End shows, I see a ton of Fringe shows - it is knowledge, enthusiasm and time commitment that are valued. I later found out that my 207 shows listed for the previous year pretty meant the interview was loaded in my favour. Note, I was not the panellist who had seen the most shows(!). There are 9 members on the theatre panel. I saw 119 shows for the panel - this was a record year. This was across 46 different stages on 107 days. There were 116 eligible shows with a couple of repeat visits if an understudy had been on and then a show that wasn't eligible. I saw *everything* eligible, I did not miss a show. I got a plus one to 109 of 119 shows, The face value of the tickets was £20,049.10. Note that does not include any booking fees that would have been added on top. That works out to an average of £87.93 per ticket. The highest price was £300 for Plaza Suite at Savoy and the lowest was £15 for The Good Person of Szechwan at Lyric Hammersmith. There was a copy of a programme included every time there was one available (108) including some of the fancy souvenir ones. There were drinks tokens included for maybe a quarter of the shows. Please don’t take this as a complaint but I do think it a useful piece of information. I do like my tracking and my spreadsheets, so I can tell you that I spent £926 on travel just for the panel shows. I got four particularly snazzy invites (Shirley Valentine gala night, Dorian Gray with fancy afterparty, Nachtland after party, and due a series of mix-ups, the Coliseum gave me a box for We Will Rock You - I don't think I'd been lower than the balcony before!).
There were two panel meetings clocking in at over 10 hours of in-person discussion, with wine, beer and a cold buffet dinner. The discussion was not directed, nor were the panel pointed to any names at any stage. There was one question about halfway through as SOLT thought it was noticeable one show had not been mentioned but in this particular case we simply had not got to the categories where there was consensus and it went on to feature on our list and somewhat in the nominations. I’m quite happy that this discussion was entirely led by the panel. So the panel creates a longlist in almost every category. The panel's selections are then marked for the first round voters' attention. These are SOLT members (and the panel gets to vote here too). This creates the nominations and then the wider SOLT membership (and the panel again) vote for the eventual winners. The main exceptions are the supporting categories. There are literally thousands of possible nominees, so the panel has significantly more power here. It selects a long-list and that list is the only list that SOLT can vote on. The panel can nominate anyone for supporting unless the producers have put them forward in a leading position. I - mostly - got to pick when I wanted to see a show. I would get a window in which I could request my dates, these would be usually accepted subject to cast holidays etc. It did lead to some quiet times and then some really busy times, but by Feb due to the number of shows looking to get in before the deadline, it was BUSY. I did not have a choice of a number of dates but this had been flagged in advance. Between 15 Feb and 28 Feb, I think I saw 12 shows. There were some short notice shows, either shows that decided they wanted to be eligible or that added some extra dates on short notice to reach the threshold. It has become a bit of a moot point since Bridge Theatre has become an affiliate**, but there was a bit of early discussion about how the awards might mean less if Guys & Dolls wasn’t eligible - there were a few changes to the venues this year. I had a ticket withdrawn when a venue became ineligible, and if you watch the SOLT Venues page listing, it does get updated. solt.co.uk/solt-venues/ At the end of the day it is an award within a membership organisation, you gotta be in it to win it. The panel initially seeing it and then becoming eligible was the biggest thing I had to bite my tongue about on here but other posters shared this info both times. It was an amazing experience. We saw literally everything, you name it, we saw it. No such thing as sold out, there was even an opportunity to sometimes buy an extra ticket so despite being sold out, I was able to buy two extra house seats and bring friends to Donmar’s Macbeth. The seats given were 95% of the time the best seats in the theatre occasionally sat right with celebs or guests. Not me but the two best panel stories were sitting next to Ralph Fiennes while watching Dear England and Hugh Jackman at something reasonably recently. I did see Cate Blanchett three shows running including a brief hello at the Dorian Gray party because it took a second for my brain to realise she isn’t someone I knew, she’s just famous. I’m sure people say ‘hello’ by reflex all the time before realising their mistake. There is some joy in always being able to see the full cast and knowing that you’ll get rescheduled or go again if you miss a lead actor. Coming from this to tickets I paid for to MJ and Nye and not getting the leads that I had bought on the basis of was a bumpy return back to normality! It was really nice to share around with friends too. With so many plus ones, there were shows that my better half wasn’t interested in seeing or just fancied a night off so I was able to take going on a dozen different friends, some of whom are not regular theatre goers and most would not have ever had such good seats. The advice beforehand was to go with an open mind and to expect a lot of Shakespeare. Three Macbeths and two Lears really rammed the latter home! Downsides, I’ve not been allowed to talk much about shows I’ve seen. I’ve read lots of threads but not contributed to so many. I’ve posted a little more following the panel meeting but it has meant keeping pretty quiet for a year on here and on social media and mostly in general conversation. I enjoyed voting in polls and liking posts though! I have no idea how anyone did this pre-covid in a ‘standard’ 9-5. The amount of nights out when I am 99% WFH and so can get an extra couple of hours sleep in the mornings without a commute was still tiring at times. By the end of Feb it was a very tiring, I will grant that. The run of shows and having to fit them in for a specific order was very draining. Like other panellists, I took it quite seriously, it wasn't just a case of seeing something but making some notes afterwards and perhaps focusing on things that we don’t always focus on at a night at the theatre. It’s nice to now just be able to come here and post 2 lines that sum up my thoughts without trying to make sure I’ve considered the sound and the lighting and the choreography and the directing and etc in such a way that 12 months later I’d be able to cast a vote from memories helped by my notes. By the end of it, I think the entire panel was feeling it. It sometimes felt like a fulltime job. You might think that 119 shows spread out over the year is easy, two a week right? Yeah that was what I thought too but actually there are fits and spurts and sometimes producers change dates and all of a sudden you don't have a quiet weekend at home like you had planned. Having said that, I’ve seen 20 shows since finishing on the panel on 28 Feb, so you know, my enthusiasm remains! Deciding my own pace, picking my own shows and doing more fringe/pub again helps. So yeah, there you go. After the awards I will post who I voted for in the final round. I’ll be happy to answer any particular questions on process/experience. For the time being, I don’t think it fair to talk about the panel voting so I will shy away from that at least for now. My thanks to a couple of the recent panellists who posted here and then chatted a bit in private messages, very interesting to compare some notes. If anyone is on the current panel and would like to chat anything in particular, feel free to message! **Love any gossip on this if anyone wants to share!
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Post by clarefh on Apr 13, 2024 9:38:17 GMT
Thanks so much for such an interesting post Dave B! Two quick questions if that’s ok - given the commitment needed did anyone drop out and/or was the panel skewed a certain way or fairly representative ( no problem if you can’t answer!)? And also did you feel you missed out by not having the time to see none SOLT shows (I’d love to do something like this but am a huge ballet fan so not sure I could manage a year without ballet for example!). I assume you are just one panel for all categories? Wonder whether they’ve ever considered splitting musicals/plays into two panels to make it more manageable.
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Post by Dave B on Apr 13, 2024 9:46:50 GMT
Two quick questions if that’s ok - given the commitment needed did anyone drop out and/or was the panel skewed a certain way or fairly representative ( no problem if you can’t answer!)? No-one dropped out. Not everyone was able to see everything in the end but in order to be not allowed take part in the discussions a panellist would have had to have seen less than 80% of the year's slate and no-one even came close to that. I think the panel was extremely representative and I give SOLT a lot of credit for the group they pulled together. And also did you feel you missed out by not having the time to see none SOLT shows (I’d love to do something like this but am a huge ballet fan so not sure I could manage a year without ballet for example!). Honestly.. some times yes. When it got busy or when plans were looking perhaps a little complicated, I'd prioritise Olivier shows in my planning so I got to places like Arcola and Finborough a lot less than I normally would. It's a definite trade-off but one I was happy to do. There is a separate dance panel for the Olivier's which you could always consider!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Apr 13, 2024 10:19:46 GMT
Last chance to vote if you haven’t done so already. I’ll be closing the poll some time after 5pm today (Saturday 13th).
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Post by TallPaul on Apr 13, 2024 10:50:08 GMT
Fascinating post, Dave B. Thank you very much for your sharing your year with us.
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Post by americanresident3333 on Apr 13, 2024 11:01:55 GMT
American resident here, planning to watch live on Britbox. I’m seeing mixed messaging as to what time they begin. Is it 5:10pm Eastern Time?
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Post by clarefh on Apr 13, 2024 11:27:58 GMT
Two quick questions if that’s ok - given the commitment needed did anyone drop out and/or was the panel skewed a certain way or fairly representative ( no problem if you can’t answer!)? No-one dropped out. Not everyone was able to see everything in the end but in order to be not allowed take part in the discussions a panellist would have had to have seen less than 80% of the year's slate and no-one even came close to that. I think the panel was extremely representative and I give SOLT a lot of credit for the group they pulled together. And also did you feel you missed out by not having the time to see none SOLT shows (I’d love to do something like this but am a huge ballet fan so not sure I could manage a year without ballet for example!). Honestly.. some times yes. When it got busy or when plans were looking perhaps a little complicated, I'd prioritise Olivier shows in my planning so I got to places like Arcola and Finborough a lot less than I normally would. It's a definite trade-off but one I was happy to do. There is a separate dance panel for the Olivier's which you could always consider! Thanks for the reply. And kind of amazing everyone managed to stay committed!
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Post by darvsplanet on Apr 13, 2024 14:00:09 GMT
American resident here, planning to watch live on Britbox. I’m seeing mixed messaging as to what time they begin. Is it 5:10pm Eastern Time? I don’t believe it’s live on britbox. It will just be the edited highlights that are airing in the UK, The only way to watch live is on YouTube (13:00 ET). It’s not clear if the stream will be available in the US so you might need a VPN like the UK do to watch the whole ceremony.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Apr 13, 2024 16:03:23 GMT
The TheatreBoard Oliviers poll is now closed. Thank you to ladidah for the suggestion and to the 289 members who placed a total of 2193 votes. TheatreBoard Olivier Award Winners Entertainment/Comedy - Old Friends Revival- Shirley Valentine Musical Revival - Sunset Boulevard Actor in a musical- Charlie Stemp Actress in a musical- Nicole Scherzinger Director - Jamie Lloyd Actress - Sheridan Smith Actor - TIED Mark Gatiss and James Norton New Play - Dear England New Musical- Operation Mincemeat Most popular nomineesOld Friends 132 votes Jamie Lloyd 129 votes TIED Operation Mincemeat and Sunset Boulevard 121 votes Nicole Scherzinger 105 votes Least popular nomineesVardy vs Rooney 5 votes Sarah Jessica Parker 9 votes Stephen Daldry & Justin Martin 11 votes Hadestown 13 votes A Strange Loop 14 votes What do you think of our results and will there be any surprises on the night?
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Post by parsley1 on Apr 13, 2024 16:31:45 GMT
So I was on the theatre panel this year. I was going to post tomorrow, but I’ve just checked my NDA and realised I was actually clear to talk about some things once the nominations had come out. My better half and I are off to the awards tomorrow, red carpet arrivals and onwards to the fancy afterparty as guests! Sorry for the long post, I’ve tried to pick out questions that have been asked about the panel in this thread and cover many of them while talking about my own experience. …….. So yeah, there you go. After the awards I will post who I voted for in the final round. I’ll be happy to answer any particular questions on process/experience. For the time being, I don’t think it fair to talk about the panel voting so I will shy away from that at least for now. My thanks to a couple of the recent panellists who posted here and then chatted a bit in private messages, very interesting to compare some notes. If anyone is on the current panel and would like to chat anything in particular, feel free to message! **Love any gossip on this if anyone wants to share!
This was lovely and took me back Thanks for your summary I did plays and opera 2 separate times many years ago The most interesting was the “professionals” I met whilst doing the roles Whilst it is an amazing opportunity I am not sure I would do again as you lose control and choice of what you want to see And end up missing some other shows in order to fit in all that is proposed as being eligible for the awards I like having autonomy to ditch a ticket as well if I change my mind I also didn’t miss a single show or opera 🥰
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Post by parsley1 on Apr 13, 2024 16:34:31 GMT
I remember it can be an issue if you see a show and the lead is off
I recall offhand Kathleen Turner had a viral infection during Virginia Woolf
Usually they call you or email to offer to rearrange
And as for the perks
I remember TRH always offer drinks and party and suchlike
Delfont venues also used to be very nice At those times the awards were held either at ROH or Park Lane hotels
And I do prefer this to RAH
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Post by aspieandy on Apr 13, 2024 17:06:57 GMT
Thoroughly entertaining read, dave _B Thanks.
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Post by americanresident3333 on Apr 13, 2024 23:04:03 GMT
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Post by c4ndyc4ne on Apr 14, 2024 11:31:28 GMT
This feels like it might be a way of clamping down on VPN useage - as normally users would go for the cheaper US VPNs, which will no longer work?
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Post by ceebee on Apr 14, 2024 11:55:23 GMT
Okay, so who is going to watch this live in the UK? If watching live, how are you doing it please?
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Post by Rory on Apr 14, 2024 11:56:35 GMT
Is it not usually broadcast live on BBC Radio 2?
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Post by Dave B on Apr 14, 2024 12:22:02 GMT
Okay, so who is going to watch this live in the UK? If watching live, how are you doing it please? By sitting in the stalls! Sorry not helpful but it amused me! 🤣
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Post by ceebee on Apr 14, 2024 12:58:33 GMT
Okay, so who is going to watch this live in the UK? If watching live, how are you doing it please? By sitting in the stalls! Sorry not helpful but it amused me! 🤣 Enjoy! Not jealous at all.
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Post by aspieandy on Apr 14, 2024 13:35:09 GMT
This is that the BBC says lol
tbf, they only have about 10 national radio stations and 4 or 5 tv channels, and online.
Must have really competitive bidding against ... Magic fm.
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Post by Hamilton Addict on Apr 14, 2024 14:41:15 GMT
Do I need BritBox to watch from the US, or are they making it available on YouTube as well?
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Post by mattnyc on Apr 14, 2024 14:45:53 GMT
Do I need BritBox to watch from the US, or are they making it available on YouTube as well? No they’re not streaming live for USA/Canada this year which REALLY makes me angry. There’s only a highlights show you can watch on Britbox starting at 5pm EST. The YouTube link will only work outside UK/USA/Canada. hate watching stuff on my computer so i have a VPN, I’ll log in on my laptop and then stream from my laptop to my smarttv.
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Post by bigredapple on Apr 14, 2024 15:46:27 GMT
Will a VPN work to watch this on YouTube? I’m in the UK
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Post by greatauntedna on Apr 14, 2024 15:58:08 GMT
Anyone know how the programmes work? Can you just not get one if you’re in the cheap seats? 😅
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