Rebecca - Charing Cross Theatre

I don't think I've ever heard of a successful english adaption of a well known musical. Correct me if I'm wrong. I guess in many ways it is much easier to translate an english musical to another language than vice versa.

I wouldn't really say it's the same as those shows. I've seen many a flop as well as all those you list. The problem here is the material is actually okay. The production in Vienna is excellent. Yes, it's sort of old fashioned and very 1980s, but the aesthetic leans into that and you get a giant mega-musical, well produced. This has just been produced horrendously by Charing Cross. As the video above shows, it's mainly the production that lets it down. I ended up being sad / angry rather than finding it to be so bad to be good... mainly as it's actually pretty expensive and a wasted opportunity. I saw a lot of the Vienna team in the audience - they must have been quite shell shocked. Lots of Americans near me left in the interval and were very confused by the 'status' of the Charing X asking if it was amateur theatre / off West End / fringe as their marketing suggests otherwise. There was a sh*t ton of merchandise. More has been spent on the programme than has been spent on the entire set. 

It's hard to tell if Bialystock and Bloom are happy with the production they've created or are watching in horror, or are even open to changes. If you are - a coat of paint would honestly lift things. Get someone in to sort out the messy direction. For the love of god change the bed. It's salvageable to some extent - please throw the cast a life line and help them out.  

Wow, that is awful. 

Good Lord, that looks sub-amdram

I've seen better am dram sets in village halls...this is really really bad

waaaaaaaay too late - they're not gonna build another set, this is it

It’s so bizarre. Some frames from a charity shop would have cost pennies 🤣

I was holding off on booking for this until we started to get some reviews on here and I'm glad I am now! Factoring in travel it would cost over £100 for my mum and I and from the looks of it it's very much not worth it. Such a shame — Rebecca's a favourite novel of ours and we'd both been tentatively excited for this to be finally opening. Oh well, there's always the Jeremy Brett/Joanna David version to rewatch on youtube! This isn't selling particularly well, is it? I wonder if they'll end up doing some heavy discounts... I feel dreadfully sorry for the cast and backstage crew, doing their best with what they've been dealt.

The production designer (presumably costumes and sets) is Nicky Shaw. Her website has a ton of pictures of her other productions, and while the sets are sometimes a bit abstract, there's nothing that looks nearly as amateurish as this.

I can only assume this production was heavily impacted by budgetary issues. But for God's sake, the set is single-handedly going to drive down review scores by a star or two; surely, however tight money is, some extra investment would justify itself?

I have still not been so am reserving judgement until seen it with my own eyes - but you are right it is VERY odd.

The big fanfare about the big orchestra - yet Charing X doesn't NEED a big orchestra whatever the piece and feel sure they could achieve a sound 99% of the audience wouldn't be able to differentiate for this with an 8-12 piece and pre-programming/synth strings. Also if the sound design is as unremarkable as people say, then literally what is the point.

You do need to LOOK at a musical as well as hear it so surely, something should be spent on the set.

Hardly dare ask but does the lighting design in any way make up for it?

That video is from the first night, so the creatives and their friends would have been there cheering.

That said, the enthusiasm was still there on Wednesday.

If you are a set designer, it is evident you are going to hate this.

Even if you aren't, Manderley, which is very much a character in the novel, isn't on stage (bar an atmospheric projection at the beginning), so you still might hate this.

But I went in thinking, this is Charing Cross, the absolute bottom of the theatre pecking order. This is where you find the hungry and the desperate.

So, expectation management is key.

Many of the one star crowd are those who love the show the most. They've seen it staged sumptuously , and they've seen it so often they can recite multiple minute changes. So by comparison, this is terrible for them, because they expect the Drury Lane.

For me, going in with low expectations, and not knowing the show, Lauren Jones's performance and arc were so outstanding that I barely noticed the stage.

Except the seagulls. That was a travesty.

I saw those too. I loved them.

I would class them as "hungry." That isn't a pejorative.

Showcasing their play there, in the hope of one day playing bigger houses.

Or showcasing their amazing skills there in the hope of being noticed and getting other opportunities.

But fair dos. Maybe the cheaper production costs can justify runs that are intended as a one-off.