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Post by popcultureboy on Aug 19, 2018 6:50:57 GMT
Why is no one talking about The Savoy for DEH? Because Cameron is bringing it over so it will go into one of his venues. Also, the Savoy is too big for it.
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Post by popcultureboy on Aug 19, 2018 6:49:36 GMT
There was indeed controversy when Molina played Teyve. Has no one heard Forbidden Broadway's Fiddler With No Jew? After Sheridan Smith in Funny Girl, the world does not need a Fiddler with no Jewish leading man. Let's all stop being a bunch of Scarlet Johansson and cast consciously. Harvey Fierstein took over from Molina in that New York production and was the least convincing father of teenage girls I've ever seen on stage...... I fled at the interval, bored beyond all measure. Saw the most recent revival with Danny Burstein and really loved it. Fully expect the Menier to cast Marcus Brigstocke and Lara Pitt Pulford again.
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Post by popcultureboy on Aug 16, 2018 7:00:57 GMT
Finally managed to see this last night, right before it closes, and I was.......not impressed. Not a single performance had any variation whatsoever. Gillen in particular was ruinously terrible, shouting his way through what could and should have been a quieter, more pathetic and frankly funnier turn. All the sharp edges of the script had been completely blunted and a key scene at the start of the second half was so poorly paced and acted that there was exactly zero tension. Such a shame.
Entire audience rose to their feet and whooped and cheered of course. *shrug*
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Post by popcultureboy on Aug 12, 2018 22:36:11 GMT
There are barriers and security, but he does sign. Doesn't pose for selfies and only signs King Lear merchandise, which weeds out all the people who don't know how to behave :-)
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Post by popcultureboy on Aug 11, 2018 6:51:12 GMT
You may be right but their twitter page says it's a 75 minute "excerpt". Well that's silly. I've never known an understudy run to do that before.
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Post by popcultureboy on Aug 10, 2018 7:04:29 GMT
Yes my booking yesterday morning was a hot knife in butter. Was all over and done with inside of 5 minutes. Only putting one show on without any cast announced is clearly the way forward :-).
Wonder why they announced this early though? Any ideas?
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Post by popcultureboy on Aug 10, 2018 6:58:44 GMT
They only have three understudies so they can't do the whole play - just selected scenes. I think I can guess which scenes they won't select. The three understudies will go on. The rest of the company, bar the three roles being understudied, will perform and they'll run the whole play.
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Post by popcultureboy on Aug 8, 2018 22:42:46 GMT
There is no way she'll be "indisposed" for that. Indeed. Richard Madden did the NT Live of Romeo & Juliet with a broken ankle or whatever it was keeping him out of the show, so Kirby won't miss the NT Live of Julie.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 31, 2018 7:00:07 GMT
Pretty sure the test involves two women having a conversation that doesn't involve mentioning a man. No scene in this musical passes it. It's beside the point, really. The musical is very average with some lovely performances, but I don't see why it has so many 5 star reviews. You don't need to get so upset about someone's opinion. I'm not upset. I'm amused that you continue to miss the point, as I and several others have tried to point out to you now. If you didn't like it, fine. Everyone has different tastes and opinions. But it sounds like you didn't enjoy Fun Home because you had completely the wrong idea regarding what the show was actually about.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 30, 2018 8:24:55 GMT
Saw it, don't get the hype. The kids were brilliant but the dad was an asshole and, for a musical about someone who literally coined the Bechdel test, it's hilarious that the whole musical revolved around a man. Didn't get the hype because you entirely missed the point. Fun Home passes the Bechdel Test but to reduce it to being "a musical about someone who literally coined" it, well, it's reductive to the point of insulting. The musical revolves around Alison's father because he was the centre of her universe.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 17, 2018 7:07:14 GMT
Seems to only be the 'upstairs high seats' left for the rest of the run, rows M N and P - has anyone sat here, if so how's the view? I was high numbers side of N. You occasionally miss adult Alison when she's drawing in the far corner, but other than that it's a clear great view. I wasn't cramped in the legroom on this row either, as some others have been and I'm a shade over 6 feet tall. I watched The Inheritance in one day from the same row and had no complaints.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 17, 2018 7:05:18 GMT
You'll find that it does. The point I'm making is Sam Gold helmed the off-Broadway and Broadway runs of Fun Home and is helming the Young Vic run too. Since he knows how to stage the show in both variations, there was nothing to stop him staging it in the round at the Young Vic, it could still have transferred as the proscenium staging is its original staging. That's what I mean about how the staging doesn't really have a bearing on the transfer viability of this show. Also, to repeat my earlier point, the in the round staging you were so fond of was not how the show was created or performed originally, so why would they keep it?
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 15, 2018 15:17:44 GMT
This is definitely transferring as they've staged it Proscenium arch at the Young Vic. If they weren't going to move it they'd have kept it's in-the-round/square staging from New York, which I feel worked better than this format as it was less distancing. Ambassadors would be a great choice for the move. The original staging at the Public was how it's being staged at the YV. The US tour was the Public staging. The Circle in the Square Broadway staging is the anomaly, not the other way around and doesn't mean anything when it comes to transferring it or not.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 14, 2018 7:10:14 GMT
For me it was Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs... glad it wasn't just me. I was waiting for him to say "Was she a really big fat person?"
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 10, 2018 18:04:46 GMT
I'm only skimming comments here because of spoilers, but is this really rather in the vein of Ink, This House, Network, that kind of thing? Men in suits plays. I've booked to see it in October mainly for SRB though the subject matter really doesn't grab me. No spoilers, but if the subject matter doesn't grab you, then SRB or no SRB, I think you'll be bored to tears.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 10, 2018 17:46:34 GMT
Sadly, I think the debacle of its Broadway run rules The Great Comet of 1812 from making a transfer.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jul 6, 2018 6:53:10 GMT
or all Mark’s faults he is a very good judge of a show I'm sorry to disagree here, but, well, I REALLY disagree. He's a terrible judge of shows, most of his opinion is just sycophantic pandering to the creative teams behind the shows more than anything else. And the word of mouth I've heard out of Me & My Girl previews is not flattering at all. So we'll see what the reviews have to say. Why is nobody predicting Hello, Dolly! with Bette Midler going to the Palladium?
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Post by popcultureboy on Jun 26, 2018 6:51:10 GMT
I saw it last night and it was every bit as beautiful, funny, sweet and totally shattering as it was when I saw it at the NT five years ago. Was relieved, having seen posts on here and heard from other friends who had seen it, that the audience was VERY well behaved. Two phones went off, both earning a pointed look from Andrew Scott, but other than that you could have heard a pin drop. And rightly so.
Given that it was written for Andrew Scott, it'll be interesting to see what NY makes of it when Tom Sturridge performs it at the Public next year.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jun 15, 2018 23:52:43 GMT
Canada Day is 1 July - it’s not as much of a big deal in Newfoundland because that was Memorial Day when Newfoundland was a separate colony/independent (the Newfoundland Regiment was almost completely wiped out at the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916). Yes, I googled and it says that it's 1st July but in 2018 the "observed date" will be Monday 2nd July, so I opted for the latter as I didn't think a Sunday press announcement would be a thing. Though I could be wrong.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jun 15, 2018 6:52:17 GMT
Any ideas when this goes on sale? I think I read that the official announcement of the show, with dates and on sale times, will be on Canada Day, which is Monday 2nd July.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jun 14, 2018 7:08:40 GMT
What happened to the project Cate was doing with Sonia Friedman? Would much prefer to see Blanchett in All About Eve which will probably be playing around the same time. I wonder what the story is about why she dropped out of that one. The project was All About Eve and as it will be playing around the same time, I imagine the "scheduling difficulties" reason given for Blanchett's withdrawal from AAE is the valid one.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jun 2, 2018 6:59:45 GMT
I went to first preview. Too much business, not enough show. When it clocks in at 80 minutes and 15 of those minutes are spent ripping off the staging of People, Places & Things with the unnecessarily massive ensemble, it will be a struggle for any playwright to get the characters from A to Z believably. This really felt like they were skipping whole pages of the script (and maybe they were), none of the big moments felt earned. It was all so surface-y that you really struggle to invest in any of the characters or their relationships with each other.
Kirby is ace, but yes, there is NO chemistry with her and Eric. Which makes for a stilted and awkward tone when it should be intense and dangerous. I REALLY wanted to love this. But I couldn't.
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Post by popcultureboy on May 22, 2018 6:59:55 GMT
I suppose my problem is that the other characters didnt like the alpha males language, but they agreed with his bigoted conclusion. (and within the context of that scene outside the rest of the play, gave the same reasons for reaching that conclusion) If you are going to try and get humour out of the situation from a minority's situation, you need to be careful not the punch downwards. I dont think that scene succeeded The conclusion is bigoted, but the whole point of the exercise is to get people out of the room/running for the job, so of course the others won't disagree with the conclusion as it keeps them in the running. I took this whole sequence to underline the prejudices and obstacles the transgender community face in the workplace, from the gross alpha male thinking feminising names and talking about periods is hilarious to HR's "concerns" about time off work for the operations etc. This absolutely does NOT make the play transphobic. As for it being a thriller, it's been referred to as taut and psychologically intense, but I really don't know where they got that from. There was a film adapted from the play in 2005, just called The Method, which ups the ante to seven applicants and sounds WAY more effed up and downbeat than the play, certainly as the quirky little oddity it's being presented as here.
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Post by popcultureboy on May 21, 2018 7:12:11 GMT
but the other character dont disagree with him or call him out Without spoiling it, the transphobic character 'wins' the arguement The reason one of the other three struggles with the revelation is, I thought, well handled and made sense (and also wasn't transphobic). I also seem to recall that the transphobic diatribe is shouted down, a lot. The others hardly stand around and applaud while listening to a lecture on why trans people aren't really people. Let's also not forget that the play is about 4 candidates competing for a high profile job and at the start they are told if any of them leave the room for any reason, they're out of the running. So of course the ridiculous alpha male resorts to all kinds of name calling and button pushing to provoke enough of a reaction from the other three that they storm out in a fury or in tears. He's relentlessly awful to everyone. It fits for his character. It doesn't make the play transphobic.
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Post by popcultureboy on May 20, 2018 12:59:33 GMT
How is it played for laughs??? Cake's character is horrible about it and says many mean things HE thinks are funny, but it's clear that the other three characters (and on the night I saw it, the whole audience) didn't side with him, since we clearly aren't meant to. You can't single the play out for transphobia when the character being transphobic literally doesn't have one redeeming feature and doesn't solely choose to be awful about transgender people but a total sweetheart about everything else.
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Post by popcultureboy on May 20, 2018 8:55:10 GMT
My hot take on it is that it is not a transphobic play. One character is hideous to and about everyone and everything, so when transgender comes along as a topic, he continues to be vile about it. He's shouted down a lot by the other three characters, who tell him how hideous he and his opinions are. I really do not think that makes the play transphobic any more than it makes it homophobic, sexist or racist when the same character trots out his caveman opinions on those matters either. This didn't feel like the playwright was shoehorning his opinions into the character's mouths like it does in The Writer, for example.
We aren't supposed to side with or like the character who is so everything-phobic, so the fact that I didn't and that I enjoyed his takedown by the other three in this and all other scenes where's spewing bile to me means the tone and the direction was actually in the right ballpark. Compare it to something like Mood Music, where Joe Penhall purports to be telling us how terribly men in power can treat women, but is actually giving all the best lines to the men and making them seem pretty funny and cool and really, aren't women just a bit whiny and spineless? That is the perfect example of a tone deaf, tin eared, jarring play as it's put a sociopathic misogynist at its core, but is a tediously misogynistic play. I don't think the same can be said for this one. Personally.
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Post by popcultureboy on May 15, 2018 8:45:21 GMT
When I did click through, I got a security warning so ended up booking normally and couldn't get the refund Oh well. Snap, though as i was going for the £15 tix and they imposed their draconian booking fee, i wouldn't have saved too much. Draconian booking fee? I thought ATG only charged a £3.65 transaction fee, no per ticket booking fee?
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Post by popcultureboy on Apr 27, 2018 22:42:52 GMT
Moonlight is around 80 minutes, so presumably Night School isn't that long.
Also, don't get too upset about omissions just yet, since it's noted there will be 20 Pinter plays featured and the earlier post only lists thirteen.....
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Post by popcultureboy on Apr 25, 2018 7:15:44 GMT
I'm not so sure they will. I've read 2 x 4 star reviews so far. The play has positioned itself as having Important Things To Say about gender and sexuality so it's very possible that critics won't eviscerate it for fear of backlash or seeming out of touch with Important Issues Of Today.
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 31, 2018 7:16:52 GMT
First preview on Thursday night ran 3 hours 25 minutes.....
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