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Post by tonyloco on Sept 3, 2017 17:09:37 GMT
Talking about things that could be changed/you don't like, there's one sentence I absolutely hate. It's Peggy saying "I know" when Annie tells her she's good at dancing. Am I the only one that thinks that doesn't make sense? I mean it took her an hour to go in the stage door, to me that doesn't sound like someone who would say she knows how good her dancing is. If she was the kind of person to say she knows her dancing is great then wouldn't she have just walked straight in and be more confident? Probably just me but I absolutely hate that line. That line jars with me a little too but it usually gets a laugh and I suppose it fits with the scene a little later when Julian says he will take the next girl he sees in the street. He then asks Peggy whether she can dance, and Peggy energetically demonstrates her ability to do a range of different steps until Julian says: 'OK. The job is yours', or something similar. But overall I really love all the dialogue. It's short and snappy and totally to the point and dotted with wisecracks and jokes, not all of which are picked up by the audience but they always entertain me. What a feast of super songs and super dancing it all is! I suppose it is time I now admitted that I am back on 25 September and 2 October in A0 and A24 respectively.
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 3, 2017 11:27:34 GMT
Yes, Bryan Dick did the revival of Hobsons Choice which went into the West End. He was either contracted or chose to and the dates clashed. Kipps is a star vehicle and can make star which hopefully it will do for Charlie! Such is the luck of this business we call show! There are lots of revivals of musicals that Charlie would be ideal for - Me & My Girl, Crazy For You, Barnum, Billy etc. He needs to create a role in a new hit musical ideally... I agree that he'd be superb for any of the shows you name, but I reckon he's got more in him than just 'cheeky chappy'. (I imagine his Dick will be that role too...!) Let's hope someone can come up with something that'll show a different side to him. Trying not to lower the tone, I refrained from saying I was looking forward to seeing Charlie Stemp's Dick, but caiaphas has boldly gone there, so let's hope it does not disappoint!
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 3, 2017 11:07:55 GMT
I saw the ad in today's Times and have booked a front row seat at Richmond on my ATG Theatre Card. Lots of well-known TV faces all together in one play. I agree it seems odd that the West End theatre is not mentioned in the ad, presumably because it is not settled yet.
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 3, 2017 9:12:54 GMT
And while we are in Panto land, here's another old favourite that also needs an Aussie accent:
"What'll it be?" asked the waiter, Studiously picking his nose. "Two boiled eggs" said the diner. "You can't get your fingers in those!"
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 2, 2017 23:17:58 GMT
Tony, I think I'm right in saying that the 'loco' bit of your name is a train reference, but, actually, um.....do you speak any Spanish? You do make me giggle. Hi tibidabo. No, I don't speak any Spanish but I do know that 'loco' means crazy in Spanish and that's why I chose that variant of my surname. It has nothing to do with trains or locos or choo choos, Chatanooga or otherwise. And I enjoy your flights of fancy on Mornington Crescent. Will the game ever come to a finale ultimo?
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 2, 2017 23:04:10 GMT
Nice to know that Half a Sixpence went out with a bang tonight, mainly for the hard-working cast, but it was not a show that I enjoyed. My lengthy comments can be found on the theatremonkey website. Now I am greatly looking forward to seeing the talented and personable Charlie Stemp in the Palladium Panto and hoping he will have a better character to play than the gormless Kipps.
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 2, 2017 16:07:39 GMT
And I booked some tickets. Booking tickets is always good. Yes, I agree. Booking tickets is very good. I don't always go to the show, just booking the tickets is sometimes enough, especially when you get a nice assortment of confirmatory emails to keep as souvenirs.
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 2, 2017 15:52:25 GMT
Need an Aussie twang for that one Tony So that's me 'outed' then! OK, mate, no worries, I admit it: I'm a dinkum cobber from Oz. Struth, I laughed like a mad goanna when I first heard that joke. It's bonza.
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 2, 2017 12:38:44 GMT
Here's a little bit of ancient history regarding the discussion on the best recordings of Follies. I knew a charming, cultured man called John Coveney who lived and worked in New York as Angel Records' Artist Liaison Manager but who also kept up with Broadway theatre as well as classical events at the Met and Lincoln Center. He told me that when Capitol planned to record the original Broadway cast album of Follies in 1971, he begged the president of Capitol (I think it was Alan Livingstone but I might be wrong) to record the entire show, as Columbia had done previous with 'Most Happy Fella', or at least to record as much as possible of the music because of its artistic importance, but he was told that Capitol had no confidence that the recording would be commercially successful and they would just record the usual single LP in order to maintain Capitol's place alongside Columbia and RCA in competing for the rights to record Broadway cast albums in the hope of getting an occasional winner like Columbia's 'My Fair Lady' or 'West Side Story'. So a unique opportunity to preserve the Follies original cast performance in its entirety was lost due to grubby commercial considerations! As a post script, I think Capitol's most successful Broadway cast album was probably 'Funny Girl' with Barbra Streisand.
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 2, 2017 11:59:26 GMT
the ghosties and ghoulies One of my fave lines in panto, "I don't want to be grabbed by the ghosties" "and I don't want to be grabbed by the..." LOUDLY "We have to sing the song again" I like: Q. "What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?" A. "You can't wash your hands in a buffalo!" Boom! Boom!
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 2, 2017 11:48:53 GMT
For those fans of 42nd Street keeping score, here's the result for last night:
Covers on: Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson (as Peggy Sawyer) and Greg Bernstein (as Bert Barry) Conductor: Andy Massey, who did a good job but whose smile is not quite as winning as that of Jae Alexander.
Seat: Never sit in B26, even at £15 because the heads of the people in A23 & A24 seriously block one's view of the stage. Fortunately the young man in A24 picked up his back-pack at interval and told me he was leaving so I moved to A24 from where the view was perfect and my knees now recognise how it feels to sit there so my evening was salvaged.
Balcony not open and empty seats at the back of the stalls. I spoke to a lady at the Reception Desk about this and she assured me that the producers were satisfied with the level of attendance because it is such a big theatre to fill, but I was not entirely convinced by what she said.
Three small things that need changing to make the show perfect:
1. Maggie must tone down that ridiculous jazzy version of the verse of Shadow Waltz that she does to demonstrate the song to Dorothy Brock. It gets a cheap laugh but makes no sense musically.
2. The tango dancers who appear during Boulevard of Broken Dreams must be allowed longer on stage, even while Dorothy Brock is singing if necessary. They add a lot to the staging of the number but are gone in a flash (of thigh)!
3. Bert must revert to the original words in Keep Young and Beautiful to replace 'permanent wave' with 'Marcel Wave' – a contemporary reference that adds period charm to the lyric. All the other songs retain their contemporary references to the Depression years of the 1930s so why remove Marcel Wave when 'permanent wave' does not even scan properly?
Otherwise it was all in great shape.
Special thought last night during my sixth visit. The songs of Dubin and Warren all have wonderfully powerful rhythms, energy and forward movement which make them irresistible for dancing, especially tap. No wonder Busby Berkeley was inspired to create those amazing routines in the original films and Gower Champion made such a great job of bringing 42nd Street to life as a stage show. Big shout also for Randy Skinner who choreographed the current revival.
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Post by tonyloco on Sept 2, 2017 10:50:39 GMT
Let me add my thoughts on the merits of pantomimes by saying that a good panto can include many aspects of good theatre that I think all of us here respect and admire. Let me bore you with part of my review of MOTHER GOOSE at the Hackney Empire a few years ago:
I really cannot remember ever having enjoyed a show more than I did ‘Mother Goose’ this afternoon. There were tears of laughter running down my cheeks on several occasions and when that wasn’t happening my jaw was aching from grinning so much out of sheer joy and happiness. Every aspect of the production today was top class, from the sets and costumes to the special effects to the orchestra to the lighting and the sound and even the small children on stage were all brilliant. The geese flying around the auditorium at the start of the show, and the ghosties and ghoulies who filled the place at the beginning of Act II were an inspiration, and the scene where Mother Goose, in a solid gold dress, sees herself young and beautiful in a big mirror was a stunning coup de théâtre. The really strong thing about today was that everybody on stage just played their characters without worrying about doing any speciality acts, and the talent of all those people was outstanding. Clive Rowe (one of the very best dames ever) and Sharon D Clarke take some beating when it comes to full-throated singing, and Kat B and Tameka Empson are both wonderful comedy actors with a talent for physical humour. Susie McKenna (who wrote the script) played the bad witch magnificently, and the two juves (Jack and Jill played by Matt Dempsey and Abigail Rosser) couldn’t have been more appealing in real pantomime style.
The whole experience was life-enhancing and uplifting. Of course not all pantos can reach such heights but that's true of all theatrical ventures and it's why we all keep going to see shows of every kind.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 31, 2017 21:58:22 GMT
It sounded ok, but it was a nightmare to conduct, and when it went wrong.... it really went wrong! Pretty much a show stop. Actually, this discussion of the orchestra for 'Les Mis' hardly belongs in the thread for 'An American in Paris' but I find it very interesting. So has the 'Sinfonia' now been totally replaced by other instruments, traditional ones or perhaps other keyboard synthesisers?
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 31, 2017 16:03:08 GMT
Of course, the Tableaux vivants were greeted with total silence because the men were unable to applaud...!
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 31, 2017 11:05:45 GMT
Looking back over the recent posts on this thread, it seems to me to be regrettable when the production team of a major show keeps tinkering with it, usually to cut bits that fans have enjoyed. I suppose they are trying to improve the show overall but it is extremely aggravating to go back for another visit and find that a favourite number or bit of business is no longer there. Let's hope that when Bat comes back to London in 2018 it will have all the cut bits reinstated and if everything is not there then Theatre Board members should organise a protest!
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 31, 2017 10:45:09 GMT
You may have heard the dreaded "Sinfonia" machine then! Yes, that name rings a bell (pun probably intended!). To be honest, after all the hoo-ha I was expecting it to sound like a fairground organ but it seemed perfectly decent. Has that device, whatever it was, now been replaced by other things?
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 31, 2017 10:22:17 GMT
WOW! I thought this was almost perfect. An intelligent serious production of a serious musical play. An examination of the follies of youth,of middle age and of the folly of trying to work out the future.Its done with honesty.It has moments of melancholy, mirth and beauty.I was just in awe of the writing and of the talent on stage. The music can be chilling, lilting and humorous. Of course it won't appeal to everyone, what does. But it is certainly worth anyones time.If you let it, it will more than repay an open mind.And considering it is 46 years old it still rings true in its observations of life.I love the way the cast pull together to tell each others stories.I am so glad that the National has the resources to do justice to this piece of writing. I am delighted that bramble had this response to 'Follies' because it is almost identical to the way I felt after seeing the Palladium Gala back in February 2007 when I wrote in my diary: "A huge cast of top West End performers gave a truly magnificent performance of one of the iconic musical shows of the 20th century. I am still speechless with admiration for the skill and depth with which the whole cast delivered the show. It made one admire all over again the wonderful music and lyrics of Sondheim and the brilliant book by James Goldman." As I have already posted, I had some reservations about the present production but the National Theatre has to be thanked for staging the show so lavishly and making it available to a new audience, as well as us old curmudgeons who are sure to prefer something seen many years ago! Maybe I will go and have another look with an open mind and reassess the things that I didn't like, and perhaps this time I won't have a woman next to me eating a doner kebab and massaging her foot as described in my post on bad audience behaviour!
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 31, 2017 9:58:31 GMT
Thanks barrowside for the link to the Arthur Lloyd website. Note the picture captioned: "The Windmill Theatre during its Revudeville period in 1957" showing men outside the theatre mostly all wearing raincoats. Note also that the pavement is dry and there is no chance of it raining inside the theatre but nobody ever took their coats off while sitting watching the show. Perhaps it was cold in there!
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 30, 2017 10:25:23 GMT
Here's my first contribution to this already rather long but fascinating thread. At Follies last night, the woman next to me produced from her several copiously large handbags a half-eaten and very smelly doner kebab, which she picked at for a while and then re-wrapped it and put it back into her bag. Fortunately she did not return to it during the show but what she did do was take off her shoes and by some gymnastic trick managed to get one of her naked feet up into her lap where she massaged a rather large blister. Thank heaven for the good sized armrests at the NT which kept her feet away from my personal space. It's no wonder I was not in a receptive mood to enjoy the show when it eventually started somewhat lateish.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 30, 2017 9:39:31 GMT
tonyloco, you have omitted one of the most astonishing members of that concert cast - ANGELA RIPPON! Who i seem to remember doing the splits? My apologies to Boob and to Angela Rippon. Yes, she was indeed in the Palladium cast and I have her described as 'DANCER' in my diary note. Along with everyone else in the large cast (except perhaps silly old Trevor McDonald who added nothing) she made a memorable contribution to the proceedings. For me it was one of the most enjoyable evenings I have ever spent in the theatre. Alas, I certainly coundn't say that about last night.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 30, 2017 9:32:36 GMT
As Ryan noted, there's a lot of walking but that's inevitable if stage management keep switching on the revolve.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 30, 2017 0:31:29 GMT
It seems appropriate to want to see Hugh Jackman in The Boy from Oz - just once before I go. Now there's a co-incidence. When I was visiting Sydney roughly once a year while my mother was still alive, I remember on one visit seeing that Hugh Jackman was just about to open in The Boy from Oz in the original theatre production but, to my chagrin, the next time I went back to Sydney it had already been and gone. He later did an arena version but I was never in Sydney to see that either.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 29, 2017 23:45:10 GMT
Those of a nervous disposition should perhaps avert their eyes now and stop reading as I discuss my disappointment with Follies tonight. Actually, Ryan's post above is a fair summing up but, in my own inimitable fashion, I feel the need to say more so here we go. I will number my points so you can decide when you have read enough and stop!
1. I thought the show was a bit lost in the very large set on the Olivier stage and would surely have been better staged in the Lyttelton. The central story is about the two main couples and I found it hard to concentrate on them for most of the opening sections of the evening.
2. For me, the perfect realisation of Follies was the semi-staged one-off gala at the Palladium on 5 February 2007. The cast was as follows:
PHYLLIS Liz Robertson SALLY Maria Friedman BUDDY Tim Flavin BEN Philip Quast EMELIE Wendi Peters (Rain on the Roof) CARLOTTA Kim Criswell (I’m Still Here) STELLA Meg Johnson (Who’s That Woman) HATTIE Imelda Staunton (Broadway Baby) SOLANGE Liliane Montevecchi (Ah, Paree!) HEIDI Josephine Barstow (One Last Kiss) ROSCOE Bonaventura Bottone (Those Beautiful Girls)
3. My main criticism generally tonight was that this is a musical and those numbers are songs and should therefore be sung. Listen to Barbara Cook and Julia Mackenzie singing 'Losing my mind', Eartha Kitt singing 'I'm still here' and so on. Honestly, I thought Imelda was auditioning for Lady Macbeth in 'Losing my mind' and Ryan thought she was replaying Mamma Rose. The same was true of some of the other songs like Janie Dee's 'Could I leave you'
4. I could have done with less of the ghostly Follies girls haunting the set. It was clever to have them take over 'Who's that woman' to do the more energetic tap routine but it took away from what the older ladies were doing and at the end it was hardly the personal triumph for Stella (Dawn Hope) that it should have been. Ryan is right that Anita Dobson at the RAH showed exactly how that number should work.
5. For me, the numbers that I didn't like at all were 'Broadway Baby' and 'Ah Paree'. I was also disappointed with 'Could I leave you' despite the fact that I felt Janie Dee was the ultimate star of the show. I was also disappointed with 'Buddy's Blues' because I thought Peter Forbes sang most of it out of tune and the two girls were too loud
6. What did I like best? Loveland. Why? because the staging suddenly looked like a proper theatre setting and 'Follies' is about theatre! I was also won over by Tracey Bennett as her performance of 'I'm still here' changed from an intimate conversation with several of the other characters into a barn-storming finale. And in her case she did not over-perform the number because that's how it is supposed to finish. And of course Josephine Barstow and Alison Langer were perfect for 'One more kiss'
I note that Ryan felt it sagged in places and for me the worst place was in the opening section when it took forever to get to 'Waiting for the girls upstairs' and then even longer to get to the medley of 'Rain on the roof, Ah, Paree and then Broadway Baby'. I will not be going back to see it again and will therefore have more money to spend on more tickets to '42nd Street'.
PS It did not come down until close to 10 pm after a late start and as I was sitting almost at the back of the stalls I did not notice anybody going out to pee, so I would say that all that fuss about having no interval was perhaps a bit of an over-reaction. But what do I know?!
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 29, 2017 16:06:06 GMT
Good point, but I can't remember the details and I don't think it was to justify men appearing nude on stage in the shows. Perhaps somebody else can remember better the plot of the film.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 29, 2017 15:24:10 GMT
Wiki says the capacity of the Windmill Theatre was 320 when it closed as a theatre in 1964. I would say that by now it will have been gutted, especially when turned into the present strip club, but there's no reason why it could not be converted back to an intimate playhouse although I have no idea how successful it is these days as a lap dancing club.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 29, 2017 13:06:56 GMT
Honoured Guest, it sounds like you might enjoy going out as part of a performance of Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 29, 2017 12:51:13 GMT
Gosh, crabtree, I really don't remember whether there were any men in the tableaux. All I remember is that to me the whole idea was rather silly and I am sure the men sitting there in their raincoats could have had a lot more fun in most of the other attractions in Soho than the Windmill Theatre. It also occurs to me that the Lord Chamberlain would probably not have allowed men in the tableaux, even fully clothed, but again I might be wrong. And my memories of the actual tableaux is that the curtains opened only for a very short time, maybe no more than a few minutes at the most and the fact that the naked and semi-naked girls stood stock still to me seemed to remove any eroticism. But remember that the theatre was quite small and sitting anywhere in the auditorium felt being fairly close to the stage so I suppose that held a frisson of its own for the raincoat brigade.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 29, 2017 12:34:52 GMT
Since this thread has not attracted much attention yet, I will contribute my most wanted which might sound rather surprising in 2017 but I want to see a production, semi-staged will do, of Kustave Kerker's 1897 musical 'The Belle of New York'. It failed on Broadway but the entire production and complete cast of 63 persons were brought to the West End in 1898 where it was a huge success (674 performances was an unprecedented run in those days) and the star, Edna May, became the toast of London. It has a wonderful score, with a complex choral first act finale to die for. It has echoes of 'Guys and Dolls' as the main character, Violet Gray, is a salvation army girl but its major problem for today is that one of the characters is a crazy anarchist going around with a bomb trying to blow up one of the other main characters. I saw an amateur production back in Sydney in the late 1950s and I was blown away by the wonderful songs for a very varied cast of colourful characters. Full details can be found on Wikipedia (the 1897 stage musical, not the 1952 film).
Well, Danieljohnson14, you did ask. It takes all sorts!
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 29, 2017 11:24:42 GMT
In reply to crabtree's question, back in 1960 soon after I had arrived in London from Sydney I sampled a show at the Windmill while it was still functioning in its original form. I don't remember a lot about it, but a few things that I do recall are that the show, basically a variety bill of about an hour or so (I could be wrong about the length) just ran continuously all afternoon and evening. The men in their raincoats in the rows close to the front eventually got up and left and more men in raincoats from the rows further back then got up and moved forward. The tableaux vivants of naked girls standing still were all very artistic and I think lasted only for a minute or two. I suppose there was music but I don't remember much about that. The bulk of the bill was a mixed collection of a comic, a singer, a magician, etc, etc, the acts interspersed with the occasional tableau, but what really grabbed me was that as the shows repeated, each of the performers had a go at doing somebody else's act, so the magician sang a song, the singer did a stand-up routine and the comic did magic tricks. This was presumably to relieve the monotony of just repeating the same show over and over again but I found this totally engrossing and stayed on for several shows just to see who would do which act next. Needless to say, some of them were better at some things than others and I guess had I stayed longer I could have worked out when they were doing their own act and when they were just having a go at something else. I assume that the majority of the punters (essentially all men) were not too critical about the acts as they had all come to look at the naked girls in their classic poses. BTW, I found nothing erotic in the tableaux, which were all reproductions of famous paintings or mythological events so I don't know how those men in raincoats found them stimulating but they apparently did.
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Post by tonyloco on Aug 29, 2017 8:44:26 GMT
Have seen the show four times in total and I swear every time it just gets better and better. Although I personally didn't much care for Half a Sixpence (my reasons are given – at length – in my comments on the theatremonkey website) I am greatly heartened to hear how much other dedicated theatre-goers enjoy repeated visits to that show and others that they love. I felt at my fifth visit to 42nd Street last night that it too is getting better and better and I am always sorry in some ways when a musical closes and the performers are out of a job. I just made a similar comment on the AAIP thread (another show that disappointed me) but if fans are getting pleasure out of repeated visits then all I can say is 'hooray' – after all, it's why we are all members of this website!
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