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Post by david on May 11, 2023 18:50:53 GMT
I’m here tonight. Fingers crossed the rain holds off for 90 minutes!
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3,083 posts
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Post by david on May 11, 2023 21:34:10 GMT
Well that’s 90 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. I’m just glad that I got a £25 rush ticket this morning because based on my viewing tonight, I wouldn’t have wanted to pay any more. Considering this show is meant to be set on a tropical island, I’m not too sure if what the set designer thought one looked like, but walking into the auditorium and being faced with a grey empty set devoid of any dressing to give the impression of an island is not what I expected to see. For palm trees you get a few metallic posts that light up via neon light strips and the edges of the set have light strips as well. During the show there are a few props and even a paper mache type puppet thing and a very big French flag so I assume the set budget was blown on these. I think cheap looking is how I would describe this show. As for the book, I really wasn’t that invested in it in all honesty and just left me bored. I really couldn’t connect with this show emotionally at all or with any of the characters.
The few positives I took from tonight -
1. The score - some really great songs within it
2, The cast - it was great to see Gabrielle Brooks back on stage singing. A stunning voice with those songs. Vocally, the rest of the cast were great and a joy to listen to.
3. The Band - band of 6 (percussion, reeds, keys, guitars) sounded great in the open air theatre.
Overall a misfire for me. I thought being in the OAT would of offered alot of potential but for me never materialised.
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Post by mattnyc on May 11, 2023 22:08:02 GMT
I love this musical but OOF this was rough tonight. This is a show I know well but due to the staging of it, even I was confused at times as to what was going on. A bunch of lights and huge moving mirrors don't exactly read "island" and it all looked very cheap to me. Some of the performances were quite good and others, well, not so much. It's a shame, too. "Once on This Island" is such a gorgeous show and always makes me cry but tonight left me completely cold.
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18,816 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 12, 2023 13:40:57 GMT
Poll added
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594 posts
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Post by og on May 12, 2023 14:50:21 GMT
Whats with the sassy "Was Once one time too many?"?
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Post by Dr Tom on May 12, 2023 21:03:25 GMT
I was incredibly impressed how well Gabrielle Brooks hid how dreadfully cold she must have been. I was shivering under multiple layers.
Otherwise, I thought of plenty of witty comments I could make while the show wound its way through what is really an extended 90 minutes of interpretive dance, but they wouldn’t be fair on a cast who are doing their best with what they’ve been given. A shame though. I really thought nothing could come close to knocking White Girl in Danger off the worst show of the year awards.
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4,565 posts
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Post by Mark on May 12, 2023 21:13:19 GMT
I was familiar with the show having seen the Broadway revival a few years back. This isn’t a patch on that, difficult really with how great that production was. The staging here is much simpler with a lot of focus on the lighting (which was good), and I thought it sounded good for the most part, though Brooks was really the only standout cast member. I wouldn’t totally write this off as others have though. It’s a very simple story, with some lovely music.
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Post by hitmewithurbethshot on May 12, 2023 21:24:58 GMT
Adding a cat fight between Andrea and Ti Moune was unforgivable
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Post by matty on May 12, 2023 21:37:22 GMT
Managed to avoid the rain tonight, but my god it was cold sat there, I'm glad it was only an hour and a half long.
I went in totally blind and really enjoyed this. Some of the accents went a bit iffy at times, but I liked the songs and didn't feel the staging took anything away. After the car crash that was Legally Blonde last year, this definitely felt like a step back in the right direction for the OAT.
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Post by FrontroverPaul on May 12, 2023 22:49:59 GMT
It's disappointing to read the comments so far as I enjoyed the 2019 Southwark Playhouse production. With poor ticket sales so far it will certainly need favourable press reviews to buck things up.
I didn't really like what the OAT did with Legally Blonde, Carousel or Evita so unless there's cheap seat filling I'm sticking with my memories of Southwark.
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Post by c4ndyc4ne on May 13, 2023 17:22:17 GMT
When I heard the OAT was doing this musical I thought I would be able to break my extended sabbatical from visiting one of my favourite theatres due to the "style" of productions it's been staging recently eg grey,dreary and oh so serious.Not knowing the musical I thought it may at least be a colourful,tropical,quwaffing the odd cocktail as the sun sets kind of a show like OAT used to stage but reading the reviews so far it looks like I'll be giving it a miss for another year. Im hoping Cage aux Folles will add a dose of extravagance to balance things out
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4,454 posts
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Post by Being Alive on May 13, 2023 18:58:22 GMT
If this is what they've come up with for OOTI, I am nervy as hell about what they're going to do with La Cage
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Post by c4ndyc4ne on May 13, 2023 21:25:12 GMT
If this is what they've come up with for OOTI, I am nervy as hell about what they're going to do with La Cage you never really know where things are going to fall with tim sheader, that's for sure!
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18,816 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 13, 2023 21:44:00 GMT
Not booking!
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Post by mattnyc on May 14, 2023 15:50:04 GMT
I have one ticket to this that I won’t be using for tomorrow evening if anyone would like it. No charge. Bought two dates for my trip in case of rain but don’t need to use this.
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1,103 posts
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Post by theatrefan62 on May 14, 2023 16:18:22 GMT
It's sad to see how far they've fallen from the seller revivals of the 2010s. I guess JCS in 2017 was their last good musical
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5,278 posts
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Post by mrbarnaby on May 14, 2023 20:17:36 GMT
This looks absolutely terrible. Horrible design
Not gonna bother seeing this now.
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4,454 posts
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Post by Being Alive on May 14, 2023 21:35:40 GMT
Controversially I quite liked Little Shop, but yes they're otherwise incredibly inconsistent in recent years
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Post by mattnyc on May 15, 2023 10:49:15 GMT
Still have a free ticket (center, row L) for tonight if anyone wants it. I can’t attend and don’t want it to go to waste.
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18,816 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 15, 2023 11:00:51 GMT
Still have a free ticket (center, row L) for tonight if anyone wants it. I can’t attend and don’t want it to go to waste. If nobody takes it we can truly say that you couldn’t give tickets away for this
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Post by hugomilosz on May 15, 2023 11:04:56 GMT
I have one ticket to this that I won’t be using for tomorrow evening if anyone would like it. No charge. Bought two dates for my trip in case of rain but don’t need to use this. Hi is this still available by any chance?
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Post by mattnyc on May 15, 2023 11:21:27 GMT
Still have a free ticket (center, row L) for tonight if anyone wants it. I can’t attend and don’t want it to go to waste. If nobody takes it we can truly say that you couldn’t give tickets away for this Ticket claimed. But I thought the same thing…
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Post by newdawnrisin on May 16, 2023 9:10:44 GMT
I saw this on Friday and was really pleasantly surprised. I went in completely blind, not knowing anything about the story (only that it was based on the original little mermaid) and not knowing any songs or previous productions of it. I thought the set was a bit meh (but liked how they used the lights), the story and songs were great, and the costumes were incredible! Gabrielle was incredibly talented and I thought the supporting cast were really great. Loved the choreography and the staging (fire!) and think it's got a lot of potential after any changes they might make before press night tomorrow - as long as you're not comparing it to the Broadway production, which a lot of people here seem to be doing. As its own show, I really enjoyed it and will definitely go back after it's officially opened to see it again.
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Post by lolli on May 16, 2023 22:34:22 GMT
This does not compare well to the recent Broadway production — a definite misfire from the park
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Post by theoracle on May 16, 2023 23:00:51 GMT
Unfortunately this felt very misguided despite a terrific team involved. The first 10mins just felt rather jarring with the balloons and the rather odd choreography. The set as others have said is very disappointing and doesn’t make the most of the theatres offering - it’s very underwhelming.
That being said, Gabrielle Brooks is an absolute star. I wish she had more songs especially towards the second half where I really wanted her to have a big solo number. The cast while good, don’t always match her I’m afraid to say. There isn’t much effort to try to flesh the characters out more and you can tell from the audiences reactions that they’re not having the impact the material should allow them to give. The man next to me walked out before the bows and rudely kept checking his watch and counting down the songs in the setlist in the programme.
The show does get better as it goes along but overall this was not the wonderful experience I’d hoped I’d get from my first open air show of the year. Hopefully it gets better towards the end of the run as there are some lovely moments in the show
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Post by shownut on May 17, 2023 6:54:32 GMT
Caught last night's performance and while it is not the best version I have seen of the show (this being my 4th which includes the US National Tour back in 1992 and the more recent Broadway revival), there is still much to admire about it.....and to dismiss.
The good: - A strong cast through-out and no weak links - An interesting design scheme that includes puppets, fire and mirrors. Unfortunately, you do not get a sense of anyone actually being on an island (bare feet and sand like other productions) but you do get some interesting elements that enhance the story. - This is a very strong score and the cast vocally do it justice. Sadly a lot of lyrics get lost due to not-so-great diction and some very uneven French-Caribbean accents, but from a musical standpoint I was not disappointed (though I have one caveat below). - Band was crystal clear and 'punchy'. - Gabrielle Brooks was a fine TiMoune (though I am not sure how she will retain vocal stamina during this run. Most songs are belted rather than mixed so will be curious to see if she is still at top level vocally in a few weeks). - Interesting direction (if wildly inconsistent), especially the most interesting and effective staging of "Sad Tale of the Beauxhommes" I have seen.
The not so good: - The choreography was bland and at times amateurish. The opening number should grab our attention but staging wise, it was a mess. Looked more like line dancing rather than sharp, grounded and purposeful choreography. - Some of the tempos killed the songs. "Mama Will Provide" should stop the show. This version seemed to plod to its conclusion and the cluttered choreography didn't help. Quite a missed opportunity. - There is the addition a scene with a gun and another with a cat fight (but no spoilers here though the fight has been mentioned elsewhere on this board). Both were unecessary and surplus to requirements.
A strong 3 stars from me.
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Post by Being Alive on May 17, 2023 21:58:46 GMT
Oh this was bad wasn't it!
I guess the positives were that it largely sounded very good (particularly Gabrielle's Waiting For Life) but otherwise a total misfire from every angle. It looked horribly cheap (the costumes are...very poor), they played so much of it for laughs when it's not meant to be, and they had absolutely no idea what to do with the ending and thus everyone just went...eh? Also, any show that needs to turn the orchestra up to 110 isn't worth much to me. (And don't get me STARTED on the choreography!)
Gabrielle is ultimately too old to play Ti Moune but somehow just about gets away with it but barely. Thought the guy playing Daniel was pretty terrible, and the gods (apart from Erzulie) all pretty unremarkable.
I think it was just a director who lacked any clear vision of what to do with a show that (when not staged spectacularly with a phenomenal cast a la Circle In The Square) is at BEST three stars, but more likely two.
2 stars for this production from me.
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Post by kasper on May 17, 2023 22:39:46 GMT
I have a ticket for thursday the 26th evening performance. Anybody? I'll mail you the ticket. For free.
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Post by capybara on May 18, 2023 10:03:23 GMT
The reviews haven’t actually been too bad this morning. Mostly 3* but a smattering of 4* as well.
Which is confusing because of the response on here, as well as people I know who have been, who have been very critical.
I was going to get a rush ticket but the seats on offer seem to be very far away from the stage. Had hoped there would be more offers to get bums on seats but I can’t see anything anywhere just yet.
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Post by theatrefan62 on May 18, 2023 10:27:44 GMT
The reviews haven’t actually been too bad this morning. Mostly 3* but a smattering of 4* as well. Which is confusing because of the response on here, as well as people I know who have been, who have been very critical. I was going to get a rush ticket but the seats on offer seem to be very far away from the stage. Had hoped there would be more offers to get bums on seats but I can’t see anything anywhere just yet. Weren't the Legally Blonde reviews last year more positive than here too
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