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Post by crowblack on Jan 11, 2020 21:49:17 GMT
Pre-Christmas, but a heads up as it goes off Now TV in a couple of days - HBO's Watchmen, which is just glorious and has An Octoroon / Appropriate's Branden Jacobs-Jenkins on the writing team.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 11, 2020 20:58:02 GMT
Just finished it and it's fantastic! Please don't let Alan Moore-purism put you off (niche maybe, but Radio 5's reviewer is boycotting it and she is really missing out!). I won't do any spoilers here but An Octoroon and Appropriate's Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is on the writing team and if you love his work I think you'll love his.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 7, 2020 10:29:06 GMT
Funding-wise, perhaps they should start releasing NT lives to buy online or DVD. The Globe does, and some RX productions are also on DVD (eg the Maxine Peak Hamlet, though I think she wasn't happy with that). People 'illegally' watch downloads of the Cumberbatch and other 'celebrity' productions - when a production has finished its run, why not cash in on the worldwide demand from fans? Some productions are currently available to schools but a theatre version of itunes would be great, and I don't think audiences would go "I'll just watch it on TV" - if anything, it's the other way around: seeing plays on screen entices people into theatres (it did with me, seeing RSC productions on TV as a kid)
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Post by crowblack on Jan 6, 2020 18:24:55 GMT
The M R James Ghost Story for Christmas 'Martin's Close' was an altogether better offering from Mark Gatiss, I thought. It was on BBC4/iplayer (I've only just caught up with it because first time round it was interrupted by rain dripping through the ceiling!).
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Post by crowblack on Jan 6, 2020 17:12:04 GMT
But this is exactly the issue: firstly, not everyone wants -or can afford - a "premium experience" These 'premium' prices - £11-plus - are less than "normal" for a bog standard multiplex 2D here in my Northern home town! I've just checked, and tonight my local Cineworld, glamorously located on the edge an industrial estate and serving the large council estate my Mum grew up on, is charging £12.35 for Little Women and Cats (2D, normal seating) and £14.85 for Star Wars, 2D, normal seating, larger screen. NT Live is around £24, and you have to go into town for that. The regular price at Picturehouse here is £12.20 plus booking fee, and the Odeon is similar. Picturehouse's 'bargain Monday' is now £7.80. It's often cheaper to go to the theatre. (And yes, the cinemas have been pretty deserted on the few times I've been! The only packed house was for The Favourite, and that had a much more middle-class, middle-aged crowd).
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Post by crowblack on Jan 4, 2020 12:59:45 GMT
It's a shame. I think there's a problem with some writers/screenwriters becoming sacred cows, with no-one daring to step in to suggest changes. It's like the TV version of A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter. I went back and watched the first two Sherlocks last month and they were excellent - the show ended up going so up itself by the last series I had forgotten how good it was when it began.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 4, 2020 12:51:50 GMT
Though I would hazard a guess that it's more likely to be because the cast are a bit mature by now to look like they're still at university rather than because people are taking offence at any implications of the word Polytechnic. Yes, I saw it listed (Radio Times?) as "the Cornley Polytechnic drama society are back..." but yeah, I think the actors are too old now to be plausibly students.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 4, 2020 11:27:31 GMT
I've seen a lot in my time and the bad outweigh the great by quite a large margin! Yes, but I don't think it's fair to mock it - the people who do it, do it because they love it. Maybe some of them, if they'd come from better off backgrounds with a financial safety net to keep them while they waited for their acting career to take off, could have afforded to hone their skills at a drama school. And god knows there are some bloody awful 'actors' cast in leading roles in major movies and TV shows just because they're pretty and well-connected, and some ludicrously pretentious, clunky stuff done by the drama depts of Russell Group universities. I just wish the 'goes wrong' team would drop the regional poly thing: it doesn't add anything. Having "Goes Wrong" in the title is quite enough.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 4, 2020 10:18:33 GMT
Because it comes across as 'punching down' humour when a group of students from the London-based 'Oxbridge' of drama schools (one which has just slashed audition fees to increase accessibility for less well off applicants, suggesting the school recognise it was an issue) use that as shorthand for 'crap'. You must remember the social class division between kids who went to uni and those who went to poly (mostly state school), surely? It's like that old-school snobbery about regional 'redbrick universities', or 'The National Theatre of Brent'. I thought NTOB was funny too, but dear god what is it with the English and their snobbery about anywhere Not London, unless it's a mansion in the Cotswolds. Compare and contrast with the USA which, for all its faults does, in its popular culture, respect small town life and regard it as just as valid and meaningful an existence as LA or NY.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 4, 2020 0:24:40 GMT
I am certain we will get more. I doubt it - have you seen the Twitter reaction? It's worse than Cats!
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Post by crowblack on Jan 4, 2020 0:20:19 GMT
I really dislike the "Goes Wrong" branding, though - feels like it somewhat spoils the joke. Well, it does what it says on the tin - I wish they'd drop the 'regional polytechnic so of course it's crap' thing though.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 3, 2020 21:22:25 GMT
Just caught a bit of it tonight and thought it was rather jolly - will defo recommend to young relatives because I think they'll love the slapstick.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 3, 2020 18:58:45 GMT
The first 40 minutes or so are quite creepy, most of the angst c/o a great performance from John Heffernan, but once the Count rejuvenates it gets very panto, and last night's, set on a ship, wasn't scary at all. Tonally it's very reminiscent of their Sherlock vs Moriarty episodes, with Dolly Wells' van Helsing as the slightly 'on-the-spectrum' pale, cheekboned sleuth and Dracula camping it up as Moriarty. It doesn't bear much resemblance to the novel.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 2, 2020 23:45:42 GMT
Dracula feels like the drama equivalent of a big jumbled Quality Street tub with nods to pretty well every horror and genre pic they must have seen growing up, including all those Poirots. Maybe it should have been on last week, instead of the downbeat Christmas Carol. This is rather silly and better suited to that slightly drunk laid back, undemanding family atmos.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 2, 2020 18:02:43 GMT
I want to give a shout out to a couple of films on iplayer for people who may not have seen them. Murder On The Orient Express with Albert Finney, the definitive Hercule Poirot and a fabulous cast which eclipsed Branagh’s recent attempt by miles. Death On The Nile with Peter Ustinov as a different but equally fantastic Poirot and an absolutely stellar cast including Bette Davis and Maggie Smith which will not be eclipsed by Branagh’s upcoming effort. Evil Under The Sun with Ustinov as Poirot again, and Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith Looking bloody fab and bitching the hell out of eachother. The Mirror Crack’d is also on one of the catch ups, might be My5. Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson and Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple. Talking Pics TV have a version of And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians) on this evening which I've never seen but a friend recommended. The reviews are rather lukewarm though.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 1, 2020 22:59:14 GMT
Loved 'Dracula' until the Count went inexplicably Guy Ritchie. I mean why? It was going so well, properly creepy and superb work from John Heffernan et al, and I loved the female Van Helsing - she deserves a spin-off.
Btw, the actress playing Mina has just been cast as Galadriel in the mega-budget Amazon Lord of the Rings series.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 1, 2020 20:35:25 GMT
Robert Icke might know, he's from the North East. Maybe that's why they're sticking to Richmond and Brighton!
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Post by crowblack on Jan 1, 2020 20:24:24 GMT
Derry Girls Bake Off on Ch4.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 1, 2020 20:15:54 GMT
It might depend on one of two things, does Juliet Stephenson have good friends there, or is within a 30-min Uber of Islington at 11pm .. It really should end up on one of those digital platforms .. NT/BBC Live Mary Stuart did a few dates at the Lowry so it may happen - so saying, from what I've read about it, I don't think the rather Islingtonny identity politics theme would resonate as strongly with a more socially/class diverse Northern audience.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 1, 2020 19:17:23 GMT
Are they the only places this is touring to, Outer London and one of London's main dormitory towns? I was hoping it might come to the Lowry.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 31, 2019 14:44:37 GMT
I've just returned 2 good cheap stalls seats for an otherwise sold out performance on the 2nd if anyone's interested.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 30, 2019 20:49:10 GMT
What an amazing double bill! They're also on iplayer for the next 6 days.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 30, 2019 12:13:07 GMT
The Apartment and Some Like it Hot are on BBC2 this afternoon.
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Exits
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Post by crowblack on Dec 23, 2019 13:17:40 GMT
The Liverpool Empire has over 2200 seats on two levels, there's no way people are getting out of there in 4 minutes. The Philharmonic also takes ages - it's a listed building so I suppose they are limited in what they can do but I find it quite scary tbh. And I'm surprised by the Bridge - for a new building the time it takes to get out is really surprising.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 23, 2019 13:02:01 GMT
Did anyone catch the BBC A Christmas Carol last night? I tried watching but it didn't work for me, and was so mumbled and dingy that it was physically hard to watch (it's daft to show a programme requiring cinema conditions of silent darkness in your living room two days before Christmas!). I like the actors, Peaky Blinders and Taboo so am prepared to give it another shot, but my main thought so far is "they cancelled the fantastic Dickensian for this?"
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Post by crowblack on Dec 20, 2019 22:45:32 GMT
I've just seen a series of tweets by one KevinTPorter and the audience look like they're having a whale of a time, rocky horror or what have you style.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 20, 2019 16:19:32 GMT
Everything now looks to be north of £32. Either ATG are holding back or the Queen of Dragons has set the box office on fire. There's a note on row D saying "may not be the front row" so maybe more will pop up later (hopefully restricted/cheap?)
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Post by crowblack on Dec 20, 2019 14:17:40 GMT
have been surprised by the popularity of Cyrano He's a great actor with a wide fanbase drawn from various 'franchises' (as I suppose we must now call them) and currently in His Dark Materials so I can totally see the appeal of Cyrano - it's way out of my price range, however. I'm waiting to see who else turns up in the cast and if they have offers for this.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 19, 2019 9:21:04 GMT
Yeah, but Springtime for Hitler - this might still land on its feet.
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Post by crowblack on Dec 17, 2019 15:58:52 GMT
they thought it was weird, somewhat confusing but were drawn into it and it became a juggernaut. It'll probably be like The Greatest Showman a couple of years ago - critics went 'urgh?' but audiences loved it.
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