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Post by bimse on Dec 31, 2021 11:17:42 GMT
The Magpie in Whitby , must be one of the best fish and chip restaurants and takeaways anywhere, I was so happy to go a couple of months back, during my first trip away from home in ages . It’s best to book ahead it’s that good. It’s the only chippy I know with a wine list , and they have digital information screens telling you (amongst other things) what make of potato they’re using for chips. it’s a serious business .
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Post by bimse on Dec 31, 2021 11:03:23 GMT
Same as with Anything Goes, it seemed over acted all round, especially the comedy, not just Charlie Stemp. To be fair no doubt so it could be seen throughout the theatre. The whole production was very busy , made worse by the editing . But nevertheless a tour de force by all the cast who kept that pace up performance after performance. Charlie Stemp was very impressive , on stage more or less throughout , a wonderfully joyous performance, and a terrific dancer . The camp photographer at the end was just cheap , not funny, and not acceptable. As for the musical itself, it could do with a few more memorable songs, and the set wasn’t very imaginative or interesting.
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Post by bimse on Dec 29, 2021 14:03:05 GMT
I’ve heard Joe Pasquale for Higgins, Rufus Hound for Pickering and Su Pollard for Eliza. I hope the rumours are true. Bradley Walsh for Doolittle, he’s in everything, and Miriam Margolyes as Mrs Higgins , to add a few much needed laughs.
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Post by bimse on Dec 29, 2021 9:24:11 GMT
A very talented cast, (with one who seemed out of her depth as mentioned in the previous post) and the “character” of Reno didn’t come across for me, I expected a Megan Mullally broad type, instead she was like a clever, knowing observer. Having said that , the song and dance numbers were terrific , and Sutton Foster was fantastic in those . Carly Mercedes Dyer was a revelation , the best performer for me, with great comic timing. I didn’t get the point of the Blow, Gabriel, Blow number , obviously I missed something in the plot ? It would be better on stage rather than the tv showing (I missed the cinema due to snow and illness) , the broad farcical comedy didn’t always hit the mark , and just looked frantic at times . Great cast , beautiful costumes and set, I wouldn’t want to see the show again.
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Post by bimse on Dec 21, 2021 6:18:26 GMT
Helen Mirren had a superbly executed quick change in The Audience, from older Queen to young Queen , right at the beginning , when she was about to have an audience with Winston Churchill for the first time . She went to sit at a desk and the change was covered by people attending the Queen or moving props , but was very slick .
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Post by bimse on Dec 19, 2021 0:11:46 GMT
I know how they do the costume change in Feozen (which is quite simple but effective) but won't spoil the magic. I've also seen some very clever quick change artists on variety shows over the years and remember seeing a show at the Garrick years ago with an Italian artist whose costumes were all made of paper. It was amazing. The Italian performer you saw alece10 would be Ennio Marchetto, I saw him at the City Varieties in Leeds a few years back, a unique act, amazing indeed.
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Post by bimse on Dec 11, 2021 15:10:24 GMT
I really enjoyed it, from the performances to the brilliant style of production, and the comical elements. The police department were particularly annoying (to me) in a comical way , I wondered if this element was a send up of the many detective series that grace our screens just now? All told , I felt incredibly sad for Olivia Colman’s character , it seems she was let down by everyone in her life .
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Post by bimse on Dec 9, 2021 8:16:15 GMT
Thank you so much jaqs that’s much appreciated, I’ll give that a try immediately. Thanks to jaqs I’ve now had my ATG vouchers replaced. Thanks again !
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Post by bimse on Dec 8, 2021 17:46:07 GMT
Thank you jaqs for the information. Do you have the email address you used? I’ve tried several and they keep bouncing back saying not in use . Sorry turns out I used a web form for it, they responded by email help.atgtickets.com/hc/en-gb/requests/newThank you so much jaqs that’s much appreciated, I’ll give that a try immediately.
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Post by bimse on Dec 6, 2021 14:56:00 GMT
I tried to use a voucher and it turned out to be expired, emailed and got a new code within 2 days. It’s the only thing I’ve had a quick response on. Thank you jaqs for the information. Do you have the email address you used? I’ve tried several and they keep bouncing back saying not in use .
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Post by bimse on Dec 5, 2021 23:31:15 GMT
ATG vouchers which I’ve been unable to use expired in May 2021. I accepted a voucher plus an extra credit of £10 at the start of the covid pandemic , to leave my cash in place pending theatres reopening. I’m trying to find out if my voucher is still valid , but no response to emails so far . Has anyone any experience in this respect ?
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Post by bimse on Nov 28, 2021 12:56:00 GMT
Looking like I’ll miss the screening this afternoon, it’s snowing heavily where I live so it seems a bit foolish to get stuck whether I go by car or train . Disappointing but I guess we’re all getting used to missing things these days .
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Post by bimse on Nov 27, 2021 8:02:52 GMT
Oh for goodness sake, he didn’t mistake him for Phillip! He was winding him up. That’s exactly the sort of thing BH has always done. Of course he knew what he was doing. The master of bursting any attempt at celebrity pomposity, like when he had Dame Edna slap name badges on the celebrity guests so she’d know who they are .
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Post by bimse on Nov 23, 2021 15:31:17 GMT
Not sure where he resides now ... Hampstead I think. Saw him on stage in the early 1980s - one of the most sensational things I've ever seen, an absolute genius, none of his TV work came close. There's a description someone wrote of seeing Max Miller on stage in the 1940's from a cheap seat - how the circles seemed to get closer and wrap themselves around him when he came on stage such was the force of his personality - Humphries was like that. I agree Jan, an absolute genius. I first saw Barry Humphries at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, in 1980. His stage performance is probably the finest I’ve ever seen.
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Post by bimse on Nov 23, 2021 15:24:22 GMT
Thanks TallPaul that’s much appreciated !
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Post by bimse on Nov 22, 2021 13:50:21 GMT
Very soon someone is going to say that they grew up living in a cardboard box in the middle of a motorway... ….. but we didn’t have motorways in those days .
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Post by bimse on Nov 21, 2021 14:21:38 GMT
Black and white televisions that needed to warm up before you got a picture, with just two channels . I can’t remember if you had to have a particular TV set to get BBC 2 when that appeared, but my auntie, uncle and cousin didn’t have BBC 2 on theirs , so they used to come round to watch certain programmes like Alias Smith and Jones. I would be furious because I didn’t want to watch . We were the first in our family to get a colour tv . The above family members declared that to be immoral , said we’d come to no good with colour tv, but they still came round to watch their favourite programmes anyway .
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Post by bimse on Nov 21, 2021 14:13:38 GMT
I lived in a council house when I was a child and there was no central heating. The only room that had heating (a gas fire) was the lounge. My bedroom was so cold during the winter that I often woke up to ice on the inside of the window. The first house my parents bought had no central heating. We, too, had to get up in freezing temperatures until someone went downstairs to light a fire. We also didn't have a bathroom, and the toilet, though attached to the house, was only reachable by going out the back door and walking down the yard. I don't recall the toilet ever freezing up, though I imagine it must have.
When I was young we just had a coal fire in the living room , no other heating. I shared a bedroom with my brother and our parents would put a cylindrical shaped electric heater in our bedroom to warm it up . I hated the smell and would turn it off , preferring to dive under the blankets to get warm. I recently had to empty my mums house (a different house to my childhood home) to sell it when she needed to go into care . In the attic I found that heater , 55 years later . No idea why mum had kept it , but it brought back memories , especially that smell !
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Post by bimse on Nov 21, 2021 6:59:00 GMT
With top-notch performances and direction I'd be ok with a smaller set. At these prices I’d expect top notch spectacle as well as performances and direction.
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Post by bimse on Nov 18, 2021 14:06:36 GMT
Ents24.com had it on their email. Checking it they list the theatre royal Bath on April 17/18 2022 the Easter weekend. A 7.30 show each night. Ent24 normally only email me local shows so I presumed he will be doing some more around the country but it maybe a special at Bath only. Not sure where he resides now and if Bath is local to him Thanks interval99 I’ve since found Nottingham Playhouse 7th-9th April but nothing else. I’ll keep an eye open for (hopefully) something nearer to me, as I’ve long admired Barry Humphries’ work , a true comic genius .
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Post by bimse on Nov 17, 2021 15:10:44 GMT
Any news of dates for this tour? I’ve done a search but not come up with anything .
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Post by bimse on Oct 30, 2021 11:45:38 GMT
I'm afraid I wasn't very keen on the Roberto Devereux production. It was about 500 years too modern for my taste! I must admit I do like a good wigs, ruffs and breeches opera production myself Dawnstar. This one worked for me , but when booking ahead for new productions I was always concerned they would spoil things (for me) by setting an opera in a trailer park or a branch of Burger King with Elisabetta (for example) as manageress.
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Post by bimse on Oct 30, 2021 5:55:57 GMT
Su Pollard is on our local panto this Christmas so clearly getting the practice in I bet she’s a hoot in panto; where is that? Su Pollard is in pantomime at the Sunderland Empire Theatre this year.
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Post by bimse on Oct 29, 2021 21:50:32 GMT
I went to Munich for my 21st birthday. Admittedly my main reason for the trip was to see Dame Felicity Lott's final Marschallin but when I found out that the previous evening would be Edita Gruberova in Roberto Devereux I also booked for that. It was my only opportunity to see her live, as she hadn't appeared at the ROH for years before. I realised quite how popular she was in Munich when, before the performance started, a man came onstage to make an understudy announcement & the first thing he said was that Gruberova was fine! The curtain calls afterwards seemed to go on for ages. I was in one of the upper tiers & exited having thought they were finished only to find when I got down to the next tier that another curtain call was taking place. This carried on until I got to ground level! Thanks for sharing your Edita Gruberova experience Dawnstar. That production of Roberto Devereux was so inspired, in my humble opinion, one of the best theatre productions I’ve ever seen . I enjoyed it so much I went again during a later season . Gruberova was sensational , and yes the curtain calls always went on and on for her. At one production I saw she was taking curtain calls for so long that stagehands in hard hats began pulling the set down behind her , she graciously acknowledged them , and encouraged the audience to applaud them . Gruberova rarely appeared in the UK , and only once (that I know of) at Covent Garden.
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Post by bimse on Oct 29, 2021 14:22:07 GMT
Edita Gruberova, the celebrated coloratura soprano has died (on the 18th October) at the age of 74, apparently following a tragic fall , in Zurich where she lived. M. Gruberova only recently retired, in 2019, when the covid pandemic forced the cancellation of the final performances of her amazing career. Lately specialising in the bel canto repertoire of Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini, M. Gruberova was said to be concerned that she hadn’t given a good performance if her curtain calls lasted less than 20 minutes. I myself witnessed the rapturous audience reception to several of her performances in Munich and Zurich , and memorably spent my 50th birthday in Munich to hear her sing Bellini’s Norma . Her performances were always an event , and many of them are left for us on cd and dvd, including the above mentioned Norma, the incredible Roberto Devereux and Lucrezia Borgia , all in Munich. RIP Edita, a true star, a legend.
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Post by bimse on Oct 13, 2021 18:29:27 GMT
We’ve been told to quietly pop this on sale by midday tomorrow in cinemas before marketing kicks in on Friday if anyone wants to book for the cinema broadcast early. Thank you so much, I’ve got in early and booked my seat already. I’d love to see it live, but this is next best , I’m really looking forward to it,
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Post by bimse on Oct 9, 2021 13:18:33 GMT
Any news yet which cinemas will be showing this ? I’ve been searching online but not found anything . We're allowed to announce our listings on Wednesday, with tickets on sale on Friday Thanks very much for the information Being Alive , I really appreciate it. I’ll look out for details on Wednesday. I’m so looking forward to seeing this.
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Post by bimse on Oct 9, 2021 10:45:04 GMT
Any news yet which cinemas will be showing this ? I’ve been searching online but not found anything .
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Post by bimse on Sept 10, 2021 17:58:01 GMT
Hi Nick, it seems to me your daughter is doing something she must love, she must be good to have been given this role, she’s still getting an education (academic, and being socialised into work discipline , something I’ve noticed in my career that many youngsters just don’t have and don’t want, what a great worker your daughter is and will be), and she’s being cared for professionally . I wish my parents were as encouraging as you are . Your “friend” has no idea , or rather , chooses to have no idea .
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Post by bimse on Jul 22, 2021 15:04:27 GMT
Madame Butterfly followed by Barry Humphries
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