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Post by paplazaroo on Oct 20, 2021 6:46:28 GMT
I enjoyed this but maybe not as much as everyone else, it’s a fairly standard jukebox, too many songs just performed as if at a concert or recording studio to get much emotion or character investment, act 2 is better than act 1 as it has some nice comedy moments. Cast are excellent though and if you just want to hear the drifters music expertly sung then you’ll love it - it’s a bit like jersey boys but with The Drifters.
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Post by paplazaroo on Feb 28, 2021 20:43:38 GMT
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Post by paplazaroo on Apr 13, 2020 7:40:45 GMT
Good one for streaming this one. Great performances all round, Mathew Kelly is excellent. I the exploration and talk of art as a habit vs inspiration which is why I think the play within a play was very clever - it highlights the fact that everyone is an artist with their own habit. I understand the feelings of discomfort when it first aired around Bennet's portrayal of pederasty, something he's often criticised for. This one seemed to be him throwing his hands up and saying guilty as charged.
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Post by paplazaroo on Apr 7, 2020 17:06:00 GMT
I'd definitely recommend Song of Spiderman, a brilliant look into what went wrong with that doomed project
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Post by paplazaroo on Mar 29, 2020 11:45:07 GMT
Really enjoyed the Hedda Gabler and looking forward to Hamlet on Wednesday! One thing struck me - it was very reminiscent of Rob Icke's Orestiea and Hamlet - the set, aesthetic and the use of 'God Only Knows' by the beach boys, reckon that's coincidence?
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Post by paplazaroo on Aug 24, 2019 23:10:37 GMT
slightly o/t but does anyone know of a good stage adaptation of Hunchback? It is a story that has always worked for me, but I have yet to find a script that matches it. Quasimodo by Jethro Compton was a great version, not sure it’s published but no harm emailing him for a script.
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Post by paplazaroo on May 20, 2019 14:17:42 GMT
Each to their own I guess. I've loved a lot of what I've seen at New Diorama, what didn't you like showgirl? I'm inclined to support them as a theatre because they're very generous and forward thinking and as a non NPO they punch massively above their weight in terms of supporting creatives. I saw Kill The Beast's 'He had hairy hands' and found that pretty hilarious but also really visually inventive. Sorry for the slow response, paplazaroo ; I had t ocheck back. It was the dire Dinomania, which will take me some time to forgive and forget. ah wow I loved that, my dad fell asleep in it though so I know it wasn’t for everyone
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Post by paplazaroo on May 20, 2019 13:14:27 GMT
5 stars from WOS and The Stage, 4 from Timeout.
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Post by paplazaroo on May 9, 2019 11:07:21 GMT
Each to their own I guess. I've loved a lot of what I've seen at New Diorama, what didn't you like showgirl? I'm inclined to support them as a theatre because they're very generous and forward thinking and as a non NPO they punch massively above their weight in terms of supporting creatives. I saw Kill The Beast's 'He had hairy hands' and found that pretty hilarious but also really visually inventive.
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Post by paplazaroo on May 8, 2019 16:54:59 GMT
This has the potential to be the beginning of a new cult british musical starting next week, the team are all very talented and the subject matter is certainly interesting. Had a listen to some of the songs and they're really catchy with very funny lyrics. Blurb from the website - "The year is 1943 and we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse.
Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us World War II. The question is, how did a well-dressed corpse wrong-foot Hitler?
Operation Mincemeat is Singin’ In The Rain meets Strangers On A Train, Noel Fielding meets Noel Coward, in a new collaboration between three members of award winning Kill the Beast and glam-punk composer Felix Hagan."
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Post by paplazaroo on Mar 2, 2019 22:06:29 GMT
That would be great, I was sorry to miss it. Particularly as Michael Ross who wrote it passed away earlier this year aged 40, a very sad loss!
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Post by paplazaroo on Jan 10, 2019 13:08:10 GMT
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Post by paplazaroo on Dec 5, 2018 11:19:46 GMT
Thanks Baemax! I'll check it out!
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Post by paplazaroo on Dec 5, 2018 11:02:59 GMT
Bloody loved this, what an incredible production. The gender swaps enhanced it like everyone said. I had a question that the Sondheim experts might be able to answer for me: When Joanne suggests to Bobbi that she should make it with Larry at the end - what happened in the original? did Joanne suggest male bobbi sleep with Larry still or something else?
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Post by paplazaroo on Oct 18, 2018 13:53:05 GMT
That is ever my line of argument when my mother says of the crossword 'you went to university, you must know this. I studied history until first year at uni, never touched on the empire, I know bits of British history from just general reading but it's very gappy and nothing about Belgium or the Congo. Should I do some reading before I go? I've not seen it yet, but I suspect that McDonagh is probably just channeling Heart of Darkness. He does actually mention Heart of Darkness in the play
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Post by paplazaroo on Oct 17, 2018 21:28:27 GMT
I really enjoyed this, mad as a bag of frogs and very funny if you like Mcdonaghs style. Makes a clever point about history and revisionism in a totally original way. It’ll divide audiences for sure. Some of the cast are still settling into it. The set is really cool too
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Post by paplazaroo on Sept 29, 2018 22:25:20 GMT
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Post by paplazaroo on Aug 31, 2018 9:14:47 GMT
So this opens in a few weeks and colour me intrigued. A highly intuitive Facebook algorithm has been thrusting the ads upon me, and I was initially super confused as they keep referring to the characters as 'powerful deputy' and 'powerless novice'. Initially I wondered if this is Vincentio and Angelo. Then the cast list on the website helped me decipher it - Hayley Attwell and Jack Lowdon share the role of Angelo and Isabella and swap in and out of the characters to question what effect the scenes have when played by a different gender.
Could be cool!
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Post by paplazaroo on Aug 23, 2018 9:50:02 GMT
This was weird for me in the sense I loved the story and was a blubbering mess by the end but really disliked the production. I thought the dialogue was clumsy, the set and costume were like ikea and Gap, the movement imprecise and all a bit devised theatre 101, the ropes were cool but it annoyed me how they just had extra ropes to make props from - would be stronger if they were all connected to the tree.
All of this was overcome by the emotional heft of the story and I guess combined with personal experience it had a big impact on me. Basically if you’ve ever watched someone you love die in hospital this will be like an emotional mugging.
They should have some sort of room full of sofas for people to pull themselves together in after the play.
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Post by paplazaroo on Aug 20, 2018 14:27:15 GMT
How about Anthony Sher? Mandy Patinkin? too old?
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Post by paplazaroo on Aug 20, 2018 11:29:50 GMT
I always wanted to do a musical about Walter Freeman - the guy who invented the lobotomy, but It happened in Key West kind of turned me off dark medical based musicals for a while :-p
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Post by paplazaroo on Aug 13, 2018 12:59:21 GMT
congrats! Hope Mill are kicking ass these days, so good to see!
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Post by paplazaroo on Jul 6, 2018 10:54:04 GMT
Wow I’ve never seen anything described as a ‘theatrical dumpster fire’ before
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Post by paplazaroo on Jul 2, 2018 20:08:04 GMT
Batboy - children children Sweeney Todd - green finch and linnet bird Chicago - class Carousel - a real nice clam bake
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Post by paplazaroo on May 9, 2018 10:28:10 GMT
I think this has been reported a bit harshly. As far as I know they were pitched a play that would explore and expose the rise of white nationalism using British mythology. The idea being like a modern day King Arthur which would ridicule the ideology and preconceptions of nationalism, as satire. The problem with satire is you have to be extremely smart to get it right and I think the writer had been too ambitious with the idea and couldn’t deliver on it in the timeframe. Then with venues booked and money spent they had to try and devise something at which point they fell apart and realised they couldn’t do it so pulled the show at great personal and financial cost with an apology. I’m sure none of the people involved are racist and they set out to do it with only good intentions.
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Post by paplazaroo on Apr 6, 2018 17:47:24 GMT
With the production of Pressure and Photograph 51 at the Noel Coward a few years ago along with Quiz, it got me thinking about what other real life events would it be nice to see on stage or a stage adaption of films based on real life situations. A few spring to mind The last few days of Maggie T at No 10 The Cuban MIssile Crisis The discovery of the AIDS virus - could use the film And The Band Played On as the source material Brilliant ideas. Ask and ye shall receive - 13 days - the Cuban Misile crisis musical
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Post by paplazaroo on Apr 6, 2018 10:53:52 GMT
I saw him a few years ago as a guest at David Badella's Hippodrome concert. He was certainly interesting. Haha I was there too, I remember he just disappeared for ages and when they could get out his dressing room he seemed off his head
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Post by paplazaroo on Apr 5, 2018 9:33:51 GMT
oh this was just phenomenal! I haven't been that moved so often in the theatre for years. I'm surprised the hairs on the back of my neck didn't distract the person behind me they were up and down so much.
It's so clever and unpretentious and brilliant. The theme of change is handled so beautifully and the plot surprised me with how beautifully simple it was, I was expecting this to have a massively plot heavy second half and Kushner nails it by focussing on the internal struggles rather than opting for twists and turns.
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Post by paplazaroo on Mar 16, 2018 22:00:15 GMT
I have no idea how this slipped my radar but it looks phenomenal, Cillian Murphy, Enda Walsh and Complicite taking on this heartbreakingly beautiful book - what a total dream. It’s opening in Galway right now, anyone going to see it? Barbican are listed as a co-producer so fingers crossed it ends up there.
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Post by paplazaroo on Feb 22, 2018 10:04:30 GMT
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