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Post by stuart on Nov 21, 2018 19:00:26 GMT
Do we know what the cast performed at the Royal Variety? I was hoping they’d do Yorktown to try and sell the show a little bit more but it looks like Jamael and Rachel were in their opening costumes when they met Harry and Meghan so presume it will be Alexander Hamilton again.
I also thought they might have had a King George appearance given the occasion.
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Post by stuart on Nov 11, 2018 13:17:09 GMT
It isn’t a kids' show,is it? So they should do something about the publicity for this. IMO, the usher should have been more proactive and offered the children alternative seats! No loss to anyone and good will all round. The theatre website did say “Suitable for ages 12+” at the top of the page so I presume these parents either ignored said warning or thought it would be appropriate regardless.
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Post by stuart on Nov 10, 2018 23:52:01 GMT
I managed to get Edinburgh tickets this morning suspiciously easily. Opened Ticketmaster, clicked for 2 Standing tickets, paid for them, job done by 10:31am.
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Post by stuart on Nov 10, 2018 23:50:55 GMT
Sorry for the long post but I would be intrigued to hear how the forum would deal with what I experienced at today’s The Comedy About a Bank Robbery tour matinee in Glasgow.
We were sitting to the side of one of the Circles. Our seats weren’t restricted view but the ones immediately next to us were as would’ve been the ones in front of those. Right before curtain, a family consisting of 2 parents and 2 children (a girl and boy aged 7 and 9 I’d say?) sat in the row in front of us including in 2 of the aforementioned restricted view seats. As the show started, the young girl clearly realised her seat was restricted view and decided she wanted to sit on her dad’s lap, thus blocking half of the stage for those behind. However, as his seat was most likely restricted view too, she then leaned forward quite considerably which resulted in her blocking our view of almost two-thirds of the stage. A few loud tuts from my party had no reactions from the parents who seemed to largely be enjoying the show and ignoring their restless children.
I was really at odds with what to do here. There was nobody sitting in the restricted view seats next to me and I tried shuffling along but the father/daughter continued to take up most of the view. As I was essentially at the end of the row, I managed to sneak out the side to speak to an usher and explain the situation. She (very helpfully I should say) told the father that she had to sit in her seat and even provided a booster cushion to the young girl. That helped for approximately 6 minutes until she wanted back on her dad’s lap again. It was at this point that the young boy in this family also decided his view wasn’t good enough and stood up to watch the end of the first half, meaning our view of the stage was now just the very extreme right corner. Again, neither parent addressed this.
At the interval, I spoke to the same usher again who said that we could move to the very back of the circle but these seats would be restricted view. She also contacted a manager who offered seats in the back row of the Stalls, but these would also be restricted view. We were at odds with what to do but when the family didn’t arrive back for the start of Act 2, we just remained where we were. Oh, how we were wrong! A few minutes in (and after a false start owing to a tech problem) the family arrived back at their seats. The entire spectacle repeated itself during the second act - girl can’t see, gets on dad’s knee, usher tells her to sit down, parents don’t react, son then decides to stand up again. It was when the son stood up for the second time that the mother took action, by sending him to the end of the row to stand in the aisle and watch the show! This meant the little girl then decided to move seat a few times and sit on her mum’s knee before finally deciding she wanted to stand in the aisle too. I think the parents realised it was a lost cause by this point and made a hasty exit 20 minutes before the end.
In my view, I would’ve been happy to move to a restricted view seat at Intermission just to see some of the show but as my friends pointed out, we’d paid full price for non restricted view seats. Why should we have to move to a cheaper seat because of others?
What was the right thing to do here? In my opinion, the show isn’t exactly child friendly so were the parents in the wrong for bringing their children into a show they wouldn’t enjoy? Were the ushers in the wrong for not being proactive in managing the situation? Was I in the wrong for not asking the parents to deal with it?
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Post by stuart on Nov 10, 2018 23:24:22 GMT
No Dave Hearn at the Glasgow matinee today but still thoroughly enjoyed it! It was my second time seeing the show and the touring cast are just as strong as the ones I saw in the West End about a year ago.
We did have three show stops though owing to sound and power issues. One 5min one straight after the interval, another 10min one right before the wall scene and a third immediately after the second when it was clear that there was still no sound for FoH (apparently the side of stage’s sound was fixed so they assumed the whole theatre was). The irony of a Mischief Theatre production going wrong was not lost on us. It meant it was well past 5:30pm before the curtain went down on the 2:30pm matinee!
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Post by stuart on Nov 8, 2018 10:43:22 GMT
This seems like a long run for a show that struggled to fill regional theatres.
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Post by stuart on Nov 7, 2018 18:17:05 GMT
Dave Hearn posted on Twitter yesterday that he was en route to Glasgow for the show. Is he back in it now? I’m meant to be seeing it on Saturday so this would be amazing news if so! Dave joined the tour in the middle of October, after Sean Carey broke his hand, and has been in it for the Norwich, Leeds and Cheltenham tour stops (conveniently I was already booked to see it in Norwich so got to see Dave again - for the 3rd time this year!). Sean tweeted this 2 days ago:
So it looks like whether or not you'll see Dave depends on which show you are seeing on Saturday and, of course, whether Sean is actually recovered enough to do all the shows he is scheduled to do.
By the way, pace ellie1981's post, if anyone wants to see the (very good) current London cast you have until 16th December when the next cast change will happen. Sean Carey will be on every night show? I’m going Saturday matinee so fingers crossed!
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Post by stuart on Nov 7, 2018 11:00:47 GMT
Dave Hearn posted on Twitter yesterday that he was en route to Glasgow for the show. Is he back in it now?
I’m meant to be seeing it on Saturday so this would be amazing news if so!
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Post by stuart on Nov 5, 2018 18:24:09 GMT
Ok, so who on here is trying for tickets?
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Post by stuart on Nov 4, 2018 10:39:12 GMT
Something similar happened to me at the theatre once. A guy in front was wearing a SnapBack cap, one of the ones where the skip is pulled back pointing upwards meaning my view of the stage was completely blocked. I leant forward shortly before curtain asking him to take it off and he just threw me a look and turned back around. His female companion turned around and went “Sorry, he hasn’t done his hair so he’ll need to keep it on”. Why? We’re sitting in the dark for the next 2hrs!
I may incur the wrath of other posters by saying I eventually moved to an empty seat further up the row during a scene change but I genuinely couldn’t see a thing over this guy’s cap.
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Post by stuart on Nov 4, 2018 10:34:39 GMT
Vicky Vox put on Instagram “I’m not sure I should be posting this but GET ME BACK TO LONDON” or words to that effect (I won’t embed the post because it contained unofficial footage of Little Shop of Horrors.).
Could Little Shop of Horrors be making a return next year? Or, could it be transferring?
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Post by stuart on Oct 29, 2018 14:43:45 GMT
On a similar subject, I have tickets booked for a show (which I booked in person at the box office) and I went online to book an additional ticket for a friend when I noticed that this performance was a captioned one. Again, I don’t have anything against captioned performances (I haven’t been to one before actually) but I’m worried the captioning will distract from the play itself.
Should the box office staff have told me it was captioned before I booked?
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Post by stuart on Oct 14, 2018 15:56:07 GMT
When I saw it, I thought they would be hoping for a transfer. It seemed like too big a production for it just to be in place for 6wks, with all of the changes they made too you’d think they’d want it to be seen wider. I also noticed that Vicky Vox now has a UK agent too which suggests she’ll be doing more work over here. I don’t know what sort of theatre it would go into though or for what sort of run. How about the Dominion? Feels like it could fit there quite well!! Can’t see it in the Dominion at all. Imagine those shopping trolley skyscrapers being pushed around that massive stage! Somewhere like the New London would be perfect.
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Post by stuart on Oct 14, 2018 9:10:20 GMT
Could Little Shop transfer? When I saw it, I thought they would be hoping for a transfer. It seemed like too big a production for it just to be in place for 6wks, with all of the changes they made too you’d think they’d want it to be seen wider. I also noticed that Vicky Vox now has a UK agent too which suggests she’ll be doing more work over here. I don’t know what sort of theatre it would go into though or for what sort of run.
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Post by stuart on Oct 8, 2018 13:10:21 GMT
Ben Adams as Brad Joanne Clifton as Janet Duncan James as Frank
Yikes! Not sure about that last one!
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Post by stuart on Oct 8, 2018 8:18:52 GMT
Opening straight into the West End. Theatre Royal Haymarket from February 9th. Tickets on sale now.
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Post by stuart on Oct 7, 2018 15:28:02 GMT
Does anyone know who's playing the Hollywood Producer in Edinburgh? It isn't listed on the website. Jo Brand is playing ‘The Critic’ in Edinburgh as a try out for London. So maybe there won’t be a name for The Hollywood Producer?
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Post by stuart on Oct 3, 2018 16:45:26 GMT
I reckon the announcement for this will be Mean Girls Day (October 3rd) next year, for an opening Spring 2020.
It’s a simple show to stage but I imagine they’ll want to focus on US Tour first.
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Post by stuart on Sept 28, 2018 12:19:09 GMT
I saw Sharon Rose as Eliza a few weeks ago and she moved me in a way Rachelle never has. She was poised but had heaps of vulnerability. I shed a tear during the final section.
Meanwhile, in the few times I’ve seen Rachelle I’ve seen her forget her words, have timing issues and struggled to understand her diction at times.
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Post by stuart on Sept 27, 2018 22:07:27 GMT
I can’t believe Rachelle Ann-Go is staying.
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Post by stuart on Sept 27, 2018 21:51:40 GMT
Jon Robyns is our new King! Not the name I was expecting but he’ll be bloody brilliant at it!
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Post by stuart on Sept 18, 2018 21:48:51 GMT
I’m 0/3 for Giles. Sifiso more than makes up for it but I’d love to see Giles’ take on it.
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Post by stuart on Sept 12, 2018 14:22:56 GMT
Jane McCarry (Isa from Still Game) to play the Hollywood Producer in Glasgow
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Post by stuart on Sept 12, 2018 12:08:13 GMT
I’d recommend watching the PBS documentary ‘Hamilton’s America’ if you haven’t seen it. It follows Lin Manuel writing the show, through rehearsals, the opening at The Public Theater and the hype that comes with it through to opening night on Broadway. However, it also tells Hamilton’s story along the way with Lin and the cast visiting various landmarks and learning more about their characters.
I won’t post a link for copyright reasons but it’s not very difficult to find online.
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Post by stuart on Sept 11, 2018 18:38:19 GMT
Saw this again on Saturday and it was covers galore:
Stephenson Arden-Sodje on as Hamilton - his performance started very timid and he got a couple of words wrong early on, but as Hamilton matured so did his performance and we got to see that young, scrappy and hungry attitude come out. With a little more confidence in those early numbers, he could be really special.
Sifiso Mazibuko on as Burr - this is the 3rd time I’ve seen Sifiso as Burr (I have yet to see Giles Terera) and he continues to blow us all away (pardon the pun). His Room Where it Happens is just sublime.
Sharon Rose on as Eliza - I wasn’t a fan of Rachelle Ann Go’s interpretation of Eliza but Sharon Rose was phenomenal. She puts so much emotion into her performance which I felt was lacking from Rachelle’s. She angrily screams Burn which is a completely different take on the character and made Eliza’s forgiveness during It’s Quiet Uptown and the finale even more heartbreaking. I actually shed a tear (which I’ve never done in the theatre before)
Miriam Teak-Lee as Peggy/Maria - The last time I saw the show, Miriam was on as Angelica so this one took a second to get my head around when I saw her strut her way on stage during The Schyler Sisters. I thought her Maria Reynolds was sublime. She was just oozing sex appeal and sounded great during her solo.
Jack Butterworth as Laurens/Phillip - This isn’t a casting match I thought would work and I was surprised when he started singing during the opening song but it really did. His Phillip was definitely stronger than Laurens, bringing a childish enthusiasm to the character which really worked in the early scenes in Act 2 but also perhaps explained a bit more about his immature actions later in the show. I can’t critique his Laurens much either if I’m honest, he was pretty much word, note and step perfect.
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Post by stuart on Sept 11, 2018 18:21:23 GMT
I absolutely loved this. Vicky Vox blew me away as Audrey II. Her plant was both menacing but hugely entertaining. She walked that line between camp and crass like only an experienced drag queen could. Once she’d made her grand entrance, you could tell that everyone was just waiting for her next appearance. I can see her getting an Olivier nomination next year (but wonder if it will be as Actor or Actress?).
I also really enjoyed Matt Willis, thought his couple of numbers were really funny and lifted the show especially during the 2nd act.
It was lightly raining throughout the first half which only added to the spooky atmosphere as it got darker and Audrey II came to life. It really was one of the best nights out I’ve ever had at a theatre.
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Post by stuart on Sept 9, 2018 20:21:36 GMT
Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer at Little Shop of Horrors last night!
There was also a drag queen with makeup on but no costume who I think may have been a RuPaul’s Drag Race queen. I overheard her saying to someone that she was hotfooting it to her own show once the performance was done.
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Post by stuart on Sept 8, 2018 6:33:00 GMT
I’ve woken up with a bad chesty cough with a theatre day ahead of me and I now fear I will be mentioned in this thread...
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Post by stuart on Sept 5, 2018 18:22:44 GMT
Quite a lot of covers on tonight - Hamilton, Burr, Eliza, Lafayette/Jefferson and King George!
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Post by stuart on Sept 5, 2018 12:53:15 GMT
I don’t quite get what they’re going to do. They’re advertising Russell Kane and Jon Culshaw as “the hosts”. Not sure how you “host” a West End show which runs night in and out, let alone with Culshaw probably squeezing impersonations in too.
Peter Andre - not a man who is known for any Michael Jackson covers or relationship. Is he just going to turn up at curtain call and perform Man in the Mirror or something?
Is this meant to attract people to buy tickets?
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