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Post by crabtree on Dec 10, 2016 22:25:28 GMT
And whilst I know what a mammoth undertaking this was, I'm afraid this seemed rather shoddy, with too many clumsy mistakes to be acceptable. It just felt rather underpowered and ugly, with under-rehearsed production values.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 8, 2016 8:28:38 GMT
exactly, but I remember the NT equivalent being so dreary and lacking in pace, and being consumed by the technology. At the barbican it was glorious.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 8, 2016 8:26:53 GMT
I directed Trovatore elsewhere, this time last year, and sort of got to make it work, but heck it is hard work. So much happens off stage or before the opera starts, but it is suitably twisted and dark, and full of magnificent music. For me making the character of Ferrando more significant and more active in the storytelling helped. It is a piece about memories and storytelling, and that let me find a way in.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 6, 2016 8:36:33 GMT
And I rather adored Peter and Alice and am hoping to direct it myself soon.
I did direct a Sherlock Holmes play, whose exact name escapes me, but I would suggest that that was the worst play ever written...simply nothing happened, at least on stage. Dire.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 4, 2016 15:44:28 GMT
the trailer looked like one of the worst Strictly warm up films.....
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Post by crabtree on Dec 4, 2016 13:59:26 GMT
oh that trailer is a bit.....ghastly/awkward/naff?
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Post by crabtree on Dec 3, 2016 17:21:59 GMT
There's certainly a lot of homage to other dances/ballets, huge chunks, which on reflection could have had the time spent with the central drama. The lovers don't really get together till the end of act one, then there's the drama, then the red shoes reappear, and then the train, and it's done, Perhaps a little less time with the bouncing balls would have been better.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 3, 2016 14:31:10 GMT
So do projections ever really work on stage? I'm not sure they do - my heart sinks a bit when ever that light comes on, often accompanied by rather limited animation. I saw Matthew bourne's Red Shoes last night, and the set was incredible, full of texture and fluid transformations, happily conveying a dozen different location, but then they transformed into one onstage ballet and it was breathtaking - a simple piece of stagecraft, changing from rich dark colours, to receding white wings and such. It didn't need distracting imagery projected on it, and slightly strobing animation. The sheer scale diminished what the cast were doing. I'm still of the feeling, and it's not necessarily old fashioned, that theatre is all about the now, and the shared experience, and somehow film and projections seem dead and mechanical. It's much loved at the moment, and heaven forbid that theatre should not move forward with technology, but I still love the rawness of theatre. It seems a rather cheap way to avoid scenic ingenuity.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 3, 2016 10:17:36 GMT
Panda posted the story about confused audience members - two short stories. Watching the RSC musical of Merry wives a few years back, a mother and daughter next to me walked out early on as they had paid to see Simon Cowell in it, not Simon Callow as Falstaff. Likewise, I heard an elderly couple complaining in the interval at a production of Turn of the Screw that I had directed that they didn't realise it would be sexual and scary. They had come to see Taming of the Shrew.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 2, 2016 23:06:29 GMT
Edwina was in the audience just next to us, looking rather amazing and chatting and smiling. Not a tut in sight in the whole show, but a lot of nods to a lot of ballets the complete history of dance is in there somewhere. If there is a fault it is that it is too short, and rushes through the drama. But that drama is good.
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Post by crabtree on Dec 2, 2016 22:36:29 GMT
I'm posting this in musical here as well as ballet as I wanted to ask if anyone got to see the ill fated musical and could say anything about it. Here are some rather spontaneous thoughts about the ballet.
So, just back from Matthew Bourne's new ballet, The Red Shoes. I went expecting numerous, easy dance parodies, very fluid sexuality, bum jokes, a haughty ice queen, meta theatricality, ravishingly lit scenic imagery, dance within dance, a lot of camp, a lot of a dancer's lot, someone with an animal head, great music,sexy chic costumes, naked torsos, and taut storytelling - and yes, we got all that, and none of which is a bad thing (and lord knows, themes repeat and repeat and repeat in my fims, We all have our own language), but this was truly sophisticated in every department - the star, I confess, was Lez Brotherson's extraordinarily complex, detailed but fluid design. Gorgeous. A great, if rather short evening - short only in that I didn't want it to end. We got to the train all too quickly. All this and good company, a Bernard Herrmann score, and Edwina Currie - don't ask.,
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Post by crabtree on Nov 30, 2016 23:16:00 GMT
Simply, The Mousetrap.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 30, 2016 8:35:22 GMT
Pinocchio with me directing and designing, I'm afraid, though the Opera North/Jonathan Dove production would be hard to beat.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 29, 2016 18:57:04 GMT
The lyrics of Make Our Garden Grow from the end of Candide, and 'Be you remember'd for what you have done ' from War Horse
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Post by crabtree on Nov 28, 2016 22:40:23 GMT
A terrible confession about Company. I was once dating a gent in new Zealand, and one night I met him after he had had a lesson in his 'Singing Sondheim' course, and that night they had learnt Being Alive. I looked forward to a healthy discussion about the complexities of the song. What had the teacher said about it, how had she interpreted this masterpiece, I asked hopefully. Nothing, and he had learnt the notes without once questioning what the song was about, singing it as a lyrical, bland love song. I'm afraid that was the end of any potential romance. Terrible and shallow I know, but not to question or ponder the meaning of the song, well, there we go. a what a lousy teacher to teach no sense of character or performance. Any one else got any suitably shameful confessions.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 27, 2016 14:23:31 GMT
Trying to think of the Lear's I have seen - Nigel Hawthorne, Richard Eddison, Tom Courtney, Ian Mckellen, mot of the films, but heck there must be many more than that. And the original Dresser too.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 27, 2016 13:09:43 GMT
There is no doubting the technique of La Jenkins or her popularity, but to me she disappoints as nearly everything she sings is coloured with the same bland simpering sweetness, and angled head that allows the hair to tumble down regardless of the emotion or content. I am hoping that under a good director she will find the variation and feisty character that flirty, tragic, stoic Julie is made of.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 26, 2016 20:33:10 GMT
and dogs and nudity?
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Post by crabtree on Nov 25, 2016 21:59:16 GMT
Russell Watson and Susan Boyle just added to the cast....no, just kidding, but....?
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Post by crabtree on Nov 25, 2016 18:44:23 GMT
Ah I remember the gloriously giddy RSC production, running in rep with Piaf, as I remember, or at least alongside it. Epic design and a great tap dance to finish the show. I've seen a production since and was rather underwhelmed.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 25, 2016 18:44:10 GMT
Ah I remember the gloriously giddy RSC production, running in rep with Piaf, as I remember, or at least alongside it. Epic design and a great tap dance to finish the show. I've seen a production since and was rather underwhelmed.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 25, 2016 8:38:19 GMT
Oh dear, how disappointing. That's one off the list. Of all the people that could have brought feisty Julie to life.......just remembering the National's production with Patricia Routledge breaking hearts with You'll Never Walk alone, and being the brilliant actress she is. What a production that was. Everyone member of the cast could sing, dance and act.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 25, 2016 8:31:46 GMT
Please do drop any thoughts. Very eager to see this. There is a small subgenre of plays/musicals about paintings.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 23, 2016 22:12:58 GMT
and any argument about the authenticity of the race of the characters can be shot down easily - revolving scenery, an orchestra, an event happening over many months, and so forth all suggest this is not real life. It's called theatre, and is about the performers, and Charlie Stemp is not actually Arthur Kipps. This discussion never dies.....
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Post by crabtree on Nov 22, 2016 22:35:35 GMT
400 years since it was performed for James in 1606. Maths was never my strong subject but........
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Post by crabtree on Nov 21, 2016 22:09:40 GMT
And it's a long time since I have seen any Aristophanes.....
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Post by crabtree on Nov 21, 2016 18:57:21 GMT
I'd love to see Hitchcock Blonde revived - such a great dark, sexy play. I directed it a couple of years back in a studio production and the audience were left feeling both horny and scared. Mission achieved.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 20, 2016 11:57:22 GMT
It terrifies me that some posts suggest that theatre has no place for politics - what? i'm not sure how it is in America, but here in the UK most theatres are now playing without tabs, losing the 'them and us' feel, encouraging the audience to be part of event, sharing the experience, connecting with the event, and the incident the other night seems a mighty fine way to remind audiences that Hamilton is, er, about real politics, thinly disguised in the metaphor of a musical.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 19, 2016 21:48:22 GMT
Do you think Herbert George wells would recognise any of this? And any deals coming through...I want to see this so much, but with an expensive train trip to begin with, any 'economy' (to mention a much missed song)would help.
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Post by crabtree on Nov 19, 2016 13:49:14 GMT
Full marks for Glenda having the stamina and the memory for coming back to the stage and this age, let alone to play Lear. A brilliant actor. Interesting the comment about Celia Imrie above, as the reviews have not really mentioned her.
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