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Post by crabtree on Sept 30, 2016 20:07:43 GMT
I suspect the drum revolve will be working over time for this.......is it in use at the moment?
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Post by crabtree on Sept 30, 2016 17:57:23 GMT
oh I do mean the bath from Titus. A brilliant piece of stagecraft, made even more brilliant by the fact that we was wearing his laurel reef (and nowt else). Yes, what a voice. I've not seen him in any of his TV work, but on stage, he is a stunning actor.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 30, 2016 17:55:13 GMT
Hopefully Cam Mac won't interfere with this and soften the ending again. Bring back the darker ending.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 29, 2016 20:56:57 GMT
How was John Hopkins.....a huge fan of him, especially after a rather memorable scene in the RSC's last Titus, and in Mad World
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Post by crabtree on Sept 29, 2016 20:55:01 GMT
no dogs or nudity then.....
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Post by crabtree on Sept 29, 2016 18:20:22 GMT
you'd think, under the circumstances, that Biggins would spell her name right.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 19, 2016 7:20:04 GMT
No choirs of angels - The Hired Man Make Our Garden grow - Candide Being alive - company The last ten minutes of Scottsboro Boys Sunday - Sunday in the Park with George the Umbrella Man - Underneath the Arches
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Post by crabtree on Sept 17, 2016 9:25:39 GMT
Does anyone remember the brilliant RSC version with Iam Mckellen and Emrys James, and some very sordid, distressed puppets as the sins and Helen. Stunning production. Ben Kingsley and James Maxwell at the Royal Exchange werer also in a memorable production.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 10, 2016 9:13:48 GMT
Yes, a tremendous play, and brave for the main actor. There did seem to many themes going on. It reminded me of a less highbrow version of Travesties but with sex, or rather no sex.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 4, 2016 20:19:31 GMT
Thanks Cathy, and that looks interesting. Is it an honest portrayal, warts and all. There was certainly a lot of darkness in his life. And as for being the oldest jukebox musical, I would suggest that The Beggar's Opera claims that title.....full of joyously recycled tunes from a variety of popular airs. Darn, I want to direct that piece.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 4, 2016 18:28:15 GMT
For me, I would kill to direct The Wicker Man on stage - more a play packed with integral songs. Why has that not been done. Imagine that great effigy rising up out of the Olivier Drum aas the policeman is led round. Summer is a comin' in - sing cuckoo.
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Post by crabtree on Sept 4, 2016 18:25:03 GMT
Hi there, and has there ever been a biographical show built around the beautiful, joyous, angry, and melancholy songs of Stephen Foster....or, as a bit of a change, the songs of the Ink Spots?
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Post by crabtree on Sept 1, 2016 19:37:03 GMT
the producers are used to big scale productions....I wonder if this will be a big scale production. Really it needs an old theatre - a bigger version of Wilton's music hall.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 29, 2016 23:01:53 GMT
Here's the song from Chicago I mentioned. There's also a version on youtube of it performed on stage in the try out, and David Pierce white or whatever his name is sings it elsewhere.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 28, 2016 21:45:39 GMT
I like the song that got lost from Chicago, about the theatrical agent - was it called Mr Ten/Seven per cent? It had some clever lyrics and a catchy tune, but it introduced a character that only had one song, I believe.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 27, 2016 9:33:26 GMT
Oh guys, please do go to see this. It is a staggering musical, heartbreaking and joyous, but heartbreaking, with a beautiful score. I never get tired of this show. It does deserve a big west end revival, or at the national, especially with the WWI acknowledgements. Yep Howard Goodall's score provides song after song of emotion.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 23, 2016 18:51:09 GMT
someone mentioned the film of Sweeney Todd...truly one of the worst stage to movie adaptations. I wonder how many millions of people whose only experience of Sweeney and Sondheim that was will never darken a theatre door again. Oh the damage done.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 23, 2016 18:22:38 GMT
I love this haunting beautiful show...very tragic, but somehow uplifting, and a great score.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 22, 2016 7:30:49 GMT
and mics and amplification lead to my pet peeve, which is the voices seemingly coming from everywhere but the performer - a convention we just have to accept. Wrong!
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Post by crabtree on Aug 21, 2016 22:15:30 GMT
personally I would love to hear a show without amplification, just the band and real raw voices......how glorious.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 20, 2016 7:47:39 GMT
Poor Alice - she must be one of the most mistreated of literary characters. So many reinventions, all trying to find a relevance and imposing meanings and interpretations on her wonderful tale. You know what, Lewis Carroll did a rather good job himself and should be trusted.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 13, 2016 8:18:39 GMT
I wonder why they've left out Coriolanus - maybe in the Swan. Oh how I remember the previous Romans.......Janet Suzman sensational as both Cleopatra and Lavinia. And a monumental set.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 10, 2016 22:07:58 GMT
Audrey at the exchange had the puppeteers on the outside, operating a hydra like head with a long versatile neck. She was planted in a trough that was wheeled around the stage, and rather than swallowing the bodies, leafy flaps in the trough opened and the head nudged the bodies in. But that head ducked and dived and soared over the audience. A bit like Ray Harryhausen's hydra in Jason and the Argonauts - a conscious reference apparently.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 10, 2016 20:52:38 GMT
a shame they are not using the royal Exchange's brilliant reinvention of Audrey. Crikey, she raced round the stage and auditorium
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Post by crabtree on Aug 9, 2016 21:36:18 GMT
yes, maybe, but what a turgid score.......
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Post by crabtree on Aug 8, 2016 7:38:13 GMT
And I ordered off Amazon a 'color me Sondheim' - yep a colouring book of all our favourite productions. Some images are clearly drawn from stills and you can work out the actor. Great fun. I also got the Shakespeare and Broadway books.
I should have worn green - I wore green the last time.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 7, 2016 21:24:38 GMT
Well, it can only be better than their truly ghastly Into the Woods last year....some of the decisions made were truly bizarre. Cinderellas mother?
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Post by crabtree on Aug 7, 2016 17:36:10 GMT
Yep, very passionate about Sondheim, but I admit that 'Liaisons' is my least favourite song. Clever lyrics certainly, but it is a dirge, and I'm always amazed that the signers don't get totally lost in it.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 7, 2016 9:18:51 GMT
Is the line in Grease ' the chicks will cream?'. Ghastly.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 6, 2016 20:29:25 GMT
They are staging them in Manchester as well. I wonder how they will redesign without the lifts.
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