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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 11, 2021 16:30:57 GMT
MEGHAN MARKLE THE MUSICAL
FABULOUS
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 10, 2021 0:03:31 GMT
Aidaaaaaaaaaaaaq’ I ADORED this show on Broadway. Saw it three times! I too saw it on Broadway with the original cast back in 2000 and it was the one of the several show that, to this day, still stands out. I still have the original cast recording as part of my i-Tunes library. Me too!!!! I adore it. I never understood why it went to Germany and around the world but NEVER the UK. I understand it was expensive to produce?
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 9, 2021 9:53:00 GMT
Aidaaaaaaaaaaaaq’
I ADORED this show on Broadway. Saw it three times!
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 8, 2021 12:39:08 GMT
One concern with Birmingham is -
A The are not many international tourists like London (millions visit the West End every year). B The socio-economic demographic of local population of Birmingham. Do people have money for a family to see Starlight?! C Southerner’s by large (sorry here but it’s true) do not travel to Birmingham. Theatre loving fabulous folk like us don’t count. D Birmingham is a ethnically and culturally diverse city.... and sadly audience members do not match the percentages of the city. In other words will the theatre be full every night? Full from what demographic? From where?
These issues will no doubt bring up many debatable political and social questions - but nevertheless VITAL for knowing if they CAN sit 1000 people every night in a theatre with everyone paying 70 quid a ticket.
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 6, 2021 5:38:28 GMT
As a big ALW fan the music is getting 6/10 from me at the moment.
The pants songs, no cast list, shiny silver set, amateur looking flats, revolving seats and closed circle/balcony is making this show FASCINATING
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 6, 2021 5:11:27 GMT
I saw Starlight Express in the magnificent Bochum production in Germany when they made all the crazy changes two years ago.
They removed characters Made Papa a Mama Added awful songs Cut good songs Made the whole show woke Destroyed Pearl Added awful new costumes Cut all the goosebump moments Removed all the wonderful melodic in-between songs. Added drones and a weird stomach laser to Starlight Sequence but the Mama/Rusty key and arrangement is now all over the place
Sadly Starlight Express like a botched surgery job has been played with so many times over the years ALW and Arlene Philips have destroyed it. Unless they bring the 2000 Bochum Caboose/There’s Me, Du Allein/Only You, LeibessExpress/Engine of Love, Lotta Locomotion version back in the Bochum setting in Birmingham. Ill be giving it a miss.
It was meant to be in Battersea for years in a huge arena type Bochum show but didn’t happen. I presume this won’t either.
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 5, 2021 16:04:02 GMT
Well the song is clunky ALW meets Stephen Ward sounding which I don’t like but that aside....
A what is Carrie wearing? B was this video made for 500 pounds? C didn’t the director tell Carrie that she must physically match the vocal power when lip syncing. D Any direction? Any? E Acting? F point of the theatre setting?
A rather BAD Cinderella! I so want this to be bad but it’s all a bit CRINGE. I’m sorry!
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 5, 2021 15:33:26 GMT
Yes, to get bums on seats it seems that well-known properties are understandably a safer bet. However, I think Fame, Saturday Night Fever and Dirty Dancing (not counting Grease because it WAS a stage musical initially that was filmed) lend themselves naturally to the stage because there's so much dancing in them. I don't see the need to translate "regular" movies to the stage, especially when it's a lame 1:1 adaptation that literally just slaps the movie onto the stage with a few mediocre new songs added. At least some stage adaptations like Billy Elliot manage to find new layers and I think those also do way better at the box office than the lame 1:1 adaptations. Pretty Woman was cheap dross on stage that let down Vivian especially and I think it won't run all that long once words get around how uninspired it is - was the same on Broadway. And will also be the same for Mean Girls, which didn't do well either on Broadway. Bring shows that are smartly written, that add new layers, make the stage version its whole own thing or that at least provide magnificent spectacle to enjoy live such as Moulin Rouge. I'm here for that, credit card in hand, but the Savoy Theatre won't see me for a while, which is just as well FYI I saw Moulin Rouge last Jan in NYC. Visually 11/10 story 6/10 Sorry
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 5, 2021 15:28:46 GMT
NOT AVAILABLE? I know I have a heart music video?
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 4, 2021 22:58:18 GMT
I thought that it looked like a bigger, wider ‘Other Palace’ in that last video and did indeed wonder where the circle was. The circle is still there - it’s in the video. Surely they wouldn’t take it off sale. HOW ODDDDDD
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 4, 2021 0:48:01 GMT
Carrie says she's never seen a show that is so immersive. And there are carts on tracks...with wheels that spin! The Gillian Lynne looks gorgeous with its new seats. If it’s in the round (circular) have all the seats been taken out at the front? Are they on sale? Surely the stage can’t move out? The cats seats move and stage comes out? Hmmmmmm! Thinking. I need to see seating and stage plans for this
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Post by musicalmarge on Mar 1, 2021 15:00:44 GMT
Do we think Pretty Woman is just going to reopen at the Savoy, or stay at the Piccadilly until it needs to leave for MR? Cast member told me today - rumours are the Savoy on an unlimited run. Starting June/July. Whoop!
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 20, 2021 3:26:49 GMT
I hated Sheridan and hate everything she is in. Awful. Jodie on the other hand - would be GREAT! Super talent I have to ask. If you hate everything Sheridan is in why waste your money and go and see her. A it’s a musical and not a one woman show B I live in hope that she proves me wrong! C I actually liked Funny Girl and the entire show, cast, book, music, musical itself, set, costumes, lighting, direction, orchestra and sound design, Sheridan disappointed me with her average standard singing sadly. D I thought Joseph was bad for lots of reasons. The epic 1990’s RUG version it was not. E I pay for my tickets. She was very good in Cilla the ITV series on TV though.
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 20, 2021 3:18:11 GMT
ALW is on Jess Ware’s Table Manners podcast this week. He says Cinderella is going to “launch” Carrie. I wonder how Carrie feels about still being an ingenue after a lifetime in musical theatre 😁 I love his delusion 😂 Lauch her where? Into a UK tour or Eastenders? I doubt Equity would allow her to do Broadway.
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 18, 2021 11:15:12 GMT
I personally would love to know how much money they made from this.
Perhaps this is the future way of theatre?
I did smile at the Palladium show on BBC the other week. I thought the six performance in the auditorium dress circle was so stolen from the Sunset format.
May it long continue!!!! Amazing
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 16, 2021 19:40:53 GMT
The Clockmakers Daughter was one of the best new shows I’ve seen for years.
What happened to them? The composers are out there!
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 16, 2021 19:38:59 GMT
I think it’s terrible for them to keep 360 pounds from my group when they didn’t send any tickets. No postage paid.
If they keep 9 pounds from every ticket at 3000 seats that’s 27,000 times seven shows and that’s almost 189,000 a week on fees!
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 16, 2021 11:21:49 GMT
Can they legally take 9 pounds fee? I have 40 tickets and want a refund! Anyone work in box office and know the legals?
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 14, 2021 19:18:33 GMT
I hated Sheridan and hate everything she is in on stage. Awful.
Jodie on the other hand - would be GREAT! Super talent
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 14, 2021 19:15:04 GMT
Although I am pro the updates and am excited to see what is unveiled at Her Majesty's, I do understand people's loyal attachment to the original. I was the same with Starlight Express. But that has been chopped and changed like nothing on earth over the years so guess I am just used to shows changing and developing. I think Phantom is unusual that it remained totally unchanged for so long. I am excited and intrigued to experience the whole new show though - literally keeping EVERYTHING crossed - in June! Starlight in Germany is destroyed. I’ll never go and see it again. They actually took out the 6 goosebump moments in the show, ridiculous. Not that it’s running at the moment. Sad, Back to Phantom, I’m interested to see how the “action can be morphed into the audience” I hope cast members aren’t going to running up and down the aisles. Ugh.
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 13, 2021 0:09:00 GMT
First preview of Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi. Those stage mechanics!... One of the best sets I’ve ever seen! Oh those 1980’s early 90’s show!!! Ahhhhhhh
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 12, 2021 12:19:59 GMT
Bombay Dreams. Said no one, ever. I LOVED that show
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 12, 2021 12:18:56 GMT
Some of the music in Love Never Dies was written at the same time as Sunset though. Wow, I'd love to have drinks with him! It would be fantastic to listen to him talk about music — his or others' (although I'm not sure you'd get a word in edgeways!). He always seems so enthusiastic about music and theatre. Haha, same. Though I'd be absolutely desperate to talk Starlight Express and I feel sure he wouldn't want to! That was the main show I spoke about! That and Love Never Dies. This was a good ten years ago. I have photos of it too. Graham Norton was there too. Fun evening.
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 12, 2021 11:21:27 GMT
I like it. I've liked all the songs to be honest. If you don't like the songs or the sound of the show don't invest any more time exploring it and don't go to see it, rather than just moaning about how terrible it is all the time. It will make your life happier. Me too - I've also liked all of them. And completely agree - the line of people waiting to not like the songs and then going on about it is all quite tedious. ALW hasn't written a Sunset Boulevard since, well, Sunset Boulevard, 28 years ago. All the Cinderella stuff is (unsurprisingly) in his style of the last two decades; have no idea what people were expecting. Perhaps not as iconic as the earlier stuff, bit to my mind still fantastic work with a rightful place in the West End. Not true. Some of his music in Love Never Dies is superb and of the same standard as Sunset. I had drinks with ALW at a Ritz hotel a few years ago (true story) and he told me he thinks that’s the score he’s most proud of. In regards to negative comments. When you love 20 cakes and have been a fan of them for 30 years ..... if 1 comes out that disappoints you, surely you are allowed to evaluate rationally why that is. Simple. Cotton wool culture is equally as bad as an overly critical or negative one.
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 12, 2021 1:33:28 GMT
Gosh, loads. Could do the ALW ones. Joseph - About half of it. King Of My Heart for the 00s version. JCS - Could We Start Again Please (well, added for the stage version I guess) Evita - You Must Love Me Cats - The various Italian things that replaced Ballad Of Billy McCaw. Song and Dance - Unexpected Song (though melody was already there) Starlight - Make Up My Heart, Crazy, Next Time You Fall In Love, I Do, Whole Lotta Locomotion, I Got Me, Megamix (deffo the ALW show with the most new songs). Sunset - many interlinking sections By Jeeves - About half of it compared to Jeeves Whistle Down The Wind - The Gang Beautiful Game - Boys In The Photograph Tell Me On A Sunday - Multiple, for the DVO version. Wizard of Oz - 5 new ALW songs Love Never Dies - new melody to verses in Beauty Underneath (and lots of re-ordering of stuff) Phantom stage show, Aspects, Woman In White, School of Rock have yet (I think) to get a new song! There are also loads of songs removed and general re-writing. "Musicals aren't written, they are re-written" as they always say. A couple of other from faves of mine. Miss Saigon - Maybe (God I wish they'd put It's Her Or Me back in). Chess - Someone Else's Story. Then that Act 2 opener that Burke sang at the ENO. The WORST decision ever made in theatre was to cut It's Her Or Me
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 12, 2021 1:26:00 GMT
Every Movie’s A Circus - Sunset Boulevard A great addition!
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 12, 2021 1:24:48 GMT
KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMANNNNNNN
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 12, 2021 1:24:04 GMT
I love Andrew Lloyd Webber but these SONGS ARE ploddy, clunky, 80’s Eurotrash in sound with cheesy chord patterns, all sound like they are rejects from Whistle Down The Wind and all TERRIBLE! The Six music is genius - I’m sorry this is bad. He needs to stick to romantic string classical music - WhT can’t get recreate the musical masterpiece similar to Evita. I find it fascinating that he is so hit and miss.
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 11, 2021 16:29:21 GMT
The only reason this was done is due to MONEY.
It needs to be cheaper to run. Period.
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Post by musicalmarge on Feb 9, 2021 1:33:16 GMT
I don’t get why people hated on him. He actually made me cry! Honestly... It was only really American critics a lot of whom were probably self loathing 'masc' gays or overly woke Twitter nobodies who got annoyed by his campness. The irony is of course (and Americans don't get irony) is that in criticising 'camp' they are actually being homophobic...oh and misogynistic if we want to make out that camp = feminine which of course it doesn't. Most gay men are camp to some degree (especially Americans), in fact I've never met a gay man totally devoid of camp (myself included) so why we pretend it doesn't exist instead of celebrating it in all it's fabulousness is beyond me x Most gay men are camp? Hahahahaa.... You have no idea. Maybe in your rainbow glitter circle Queen. Most my gay mates are either geeks, bikers, bears, punks, leather guys, serious businessmen, builders, politicians or muscle tattooed pigs and are NOT the stereotypical camp, limp wristed, show tune loving, West End Wendy’s that you suggest. But perhaps I’m older than you, Hm. Back to my nail file and Kylie now. #snap
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