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Post by ladidah on Jan 17, 2024 11:17:19 GMT
I love the score to pieces. But not with this casting. Dunbar might be ok as the General or one of the gangsters. But he isn't a Fred/Petruchio Couldn't agree more.
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Post by karloscar on Jan 17, 2024 11:26:50 GMT
If they're bringing over SJB for Kate, why not get her husband Sebastian as well for Fred? He'll probably be here with her anyway.
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Post by Being Alive on Jan 17, 2024 11:28:20 GMT
If they're bringing over SJB for Kate, why not get her husband Sebastian as well for Fred? He'll probably be here with her anyway. I was going to make the point that Seb isnt the right fit for it, but nor really is Adrian Dunbar! Gotta trust Bart Sher knows what he's doing with this - he usually does!
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Post by theatrefan62 on Jan 17, 2024 11:28:23 GMT
If they're bringing over SJB for Kate, why not get her husband Sebastian as well for Fred? He'll probably be here with her anyway. He wouldn't mean anything at the box office. Adrian Dunbar will, although I struggle to see him being good in the role.
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Jan 17, 2024 11:32:04 GMT
I'm excited! Don't know much about Adrian but Stephanie is sublime.
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Post by MoreLife on Jan 17, 2024 11:36:38 GMT
Interesting! It’s an intrigued yes from me with an open mind, will book as soon as I see a deal on. Adrian Dunbar is a great actor. Here he is singing! I wouldn't normally do this, but... desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. I can see he has been a prolific actor for TV and film, though I must say I hadn't heard his name until today (and this is clearly down to my limited knowledge / different tastes in genres, etc.). But a good singer he is NOT. His breath control is so poor he often blurs the ends of sentences / cuts words abruptly because he runs out of air. Because his breath control and support is so poor, he is often pitchy - a lot of of the time he's flat on a note that needs to be held for a vaguely longer duration at the end of a sentence His diction is lazy, for lack of a better word. This has further repercussions on his general (im)precision as his placement / vowel choice does not favour a free and healthy phonation. His phrasing is boring. I've heard way better renditions of this song by improvised karaoke singers. How someone with such shaky vocal skills can be cast in a production as the male lead to play against a bona fide Broadway diva is a mystery to me...
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Post by nash16 on Jan 17, 2024 12:16:23 GMT
Stop Casting Great Actors In Musicals.
We want Singers, not Actors.
I want to sit and be able to close my eyes, for the whole show, and hear it sung beautifully.
Perfectly.
Breath control.
The works.
I do not go to a musical to see it acted well.
I only go for the songs.
There are so many of our musical theatre stars who can sing mightily, and act sort of. Why didn’t they check them?
Jesus, Mary, & Joseph…and the wee baby donkey.
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Post by ladidah on Jan 17, 2024 13:34:06 GMT
Such a shame, I adore this show.
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Post by theoracle on Jan 17, 2024 14:14:19 GMT
If they’re trying to repeat the success of Anything Goes, maybe Adrian will do a Meghan Mullally and drop out and we get a Julian Ovenden instead?
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Jan 17, 2024 14:14:32 GMT
I haven't watched Adrian including Line of Duty.
I've watched the above clip. But I feel Fred is such a majestic role singing wise - I'm worried. Why couldn't they cast a musical theatre actor? Someone to match Stephanie. I thought he would be more suited to one of the gangsters or even the General.
Hm. I'm not sure what casting are playing at 2bh.
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Jan 17, 2024 14:14:54 GMT
If they’re trying to repeat the success of Anything Goes, maybe Adrian will do a Meghan Mullally and drop out and we get a Julian Ovenden instead? OH JULIAN 💕💕💕💕
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Jan 17, 2024 14:16:28 GMT
Stop Casting Great Actors In Musicals. We want Singers, not Actors. I want to sit and be able to close my eyes, for the whole show, and hear it sung beautifully. Perfectly. Breath control. The works. I do not go to a musical to see it acted well. I only go for the songs. There are so many of our musical theatre stars who can sing mightily, and act sort of. Why didn’t they check them? Jesus, Mary, & Joseph…and the wee baby donkey. I think you have to act to a certain extent. I don't warm to someone riffing the sh*t and leaving me cold. But clue in the title. MUSICAL Theatre. It's really baffling.
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Post by solangelafitte on Jan 17, 2024 14:32:27 GMT
If they’re trying to repeat the success of Anything Goes, maybe Adrian will do a Meghan Mullally and drop out and we get a Julian Ovenden instead? My heart and bank account couldn't take this.
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Post by westendwhistledown on Jan 17, 2024 14:55:01 GMT
Stop Casting Great Actors In Musicals. We want Singers, not Actors. I want to sit and be able to close my eyes, for the whole show, and hear it sung beautifully. Perfectly. Breath control. The works. I do not go to a musical to see it acted well. I only go for the songs. There are so many of our musical theatre stars who can sing mightily, and act sort of. Why didn’t they check them? Jesus, Mary, & Joseph…and the wee baby donkey. This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this.
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Post by Being Alive on Jan 17, 2024 15:15:29 GMT
If they’re trying to repeat the success of Anything Goes, maybe Adrian will do a Meghan Mullally and drop out and we get a Julian Ovenden instead? For my financial security this can't happen
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Post by SuttonPeron on Jan 17, 2024 16:20:22 GMT
Speaking of which, minimum ticket price is 33,5 incl. fees. Almost Lion King level. Isn´t it a tad bit ambitious?
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Post by Being Alive on Jan 17, 2024 16:21:40 GMT
Considering sightlines everywhere in the Barbican are pretty excellent - not really I'd say?
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Post by blaxx on Jan 17, 2024 17:25:52 GMT
If Sher directs then the show will be 4 hours long, with 15 minute set changes.
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Post by damaskanddark on Jan 17, 2024 17:38:02 GMT
If Sher directs then the show will be 4 hours long, with 15 minute set changes. With everyone marching towards the audience slowly in the penultimate scene
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Post by sph on Jan 17, 2024 18:52:31 GMT
The casting team and producers/director clearly have faith in his vocal abilities so...
I mean non-musical theatre actors have turned in some amazing performances before in the medium.
It'll be nice to see Block leading a show in London too. I'm glad that we've been pulling so many big MT names from New York to London in the last few years. No, they may not be well known or big draws to the general public in the UK, but it's nice for theatre fans to see them without having to make a huge trip abroad.
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Post by princeton on Jan 17, 2024 19:30:33 GMT
Bart Sher doesn't seem like the most obvious fit for this. He rarely demonstrates a lightness of touch or a natural gift for comedy (witness both iterations of Women on the Verge - when even in spite of great comic actors - the laughs just didn't come). He's great at pieces like Light In the Piazza, South Pacific and Oslo where he can play up the dark undertones - and he's normally pretty spot on with his casting (at least in the original companies). So let's hope he has a vision for this piece and someone other than Aaron Sorkin to tweak the book - because if it's not well sung and it's not funny - then there's nothing left other than some dodgy, dated sexism. Though arguably these days the secondary plots and ensemble work are actually more interesting and entertaining than the 'romantic' stuff between the lead duo.
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Post by karloscar on Jan 17, 2024 20:08:15 GMT
Stop Casting Great Actors In Musicals. We want Singers, not Actors. I want to sit and be able to close my eyes, for the whole show, and hear it sung beautifully. Perfectly. Breath control. The works. I do not go to a musical to see it acted well. I only go for the songs. There are so many of our musical theatre stars who can sing mightily, and act sort of. Why didn’t they check them? Jesus, Mary, & Joseph…and the wee baby donkey. This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this. That depends very much on the role and the show. Fred needs to be able to negotiate the tricky melody of So in Love, the bombast of Wunderbar and the patter of We Open in Venice just for starters. You need and accomplished singer, preferably one who looks good in doublet and hose!
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Post by sf on Jan 17, 2024 20:36:15 GMT
Some of us might have seen Adrian Dunbar in the musical Lady in the Dark with Maria Friedman at the National Theatre in 1997... presuming it's the same person! I can't recall how much he sang in that - will have to dig the cast recording out later. He sang in it. That's why I find his casting in Kiss Me, Kate... questionable. Charley Johnson isn't a huge singing role, but he does sing, and Dunbar didn't - let's be kind - reveal the kind of voice that could easily negotiate a role like Fred in Kiss Me, Kate. You can talk-sing your way through his character's material in Lady in the Dark because the score is almost entirely made up of three mini-operas in which the chorus do a lot of the heavy lifting, but you can't take that approach to a song like Wunderbar and expect to get away with it. I suppose it's possible he's a much better singer now than he was twenty-five years ago, but it isn't very likely.
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 17, 2024 20:53:54 GMT
I'm glad to see I0'm by no means the only person who read the casting announcement & went "Adrian Dunbar? What?". He seems very unsuited to the role. I'd expect the role to be cast with someone in his 40s or early 50s with an operatic or near-operatic voice, not a 65 year old with minimal musicals experience. I think I'll be sticking to my memories of the Broadway transfer in 2002, the Old Vic in 2012 & ON/WNO 2015-18, all of which had far more suitable leading men. I suppose it's possible he's a much better singer now than he was twenty-five years ago, but it isn't very likely. Since even most opera singers' voices are likely to be deteriorating in their mid-60s, I'd be amazed if Dunbar's voice could be better now at 65 than when he was in his 30s or 40s.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 18, 2024 7:27:19 GMT
I wonder if Charlie Stemp might be considered for Bill
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Post by damaskanddark on Jan 18, 2024 7:57:00 GMT
I wonder if Charlie Stemp might be considered for Bill He strikes me as too boyish. We need at least one hunk in this show if Fred isn't going to be one.
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Post by zahidf on Jan 18, 2024 8:28:12 GMT
If Sher directs then the show will be 4 hours long, with 15 minute set changes. With everyone marching towards the audience slowly in the penultimate scene Running time: approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes, including an interval
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Post by nash16 on Jan 18, 2024 14:00:45 GMT
Stop Casting Great Actors In Musicals. We want Singers, not Actors. I want to sit and be able to close my eyes, for the whole show, and hear it sung beautifully. Perfectly. Breath control. The works. I do not go to a musical to see it acted well. I only go for the songs. There are so many of our musical theatre stars who can sing mightily, and act sort of. Why didn’t they check them? Jesus, Mary, & Joseph…and the wee baby donkey. This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this. I fear you may have misunderstood that I was taking the mickey…
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Post by westendwhistledown on Jan 18, 2024 14:29:52 GMT
This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this. I fear you may have misunderstood that I was taking the mickey… thank goodness, I was severely concerned lol!
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Post by MoreLife on Jan 18, 2024 16:50:44 GMT
This isn't a fair comment. Musicals are meant to make you feel something. It is no good just being a fantastic singer if the audience aren't connecting with the story. You should leave the theatre feeling a whole hoard of emotions. Some of the finest MT performances have been from people who in fact aren't the best singers in the world but who give the lyrics new meaning and pull you in. You just have to watch the Sondheim Gala to understand this. I fear you may have misunderstood that I was taking the mickey… I am a firm believer that this craft is called musical theatre because both components need to be fully honed and honoured, musicality and vocal ability count only as much as acting skills. Great acting through song is definitely what I personally look for in musical theatre, that's what moves me more than a million riffs or notes held for - how long was it? 42 seconds? - but that kind of great acting through song can only come when the singing is solid and accomplished enough that the actor can comfortably "worry" only about telling the story and inhabiting their character. To make a concrete example, I believe Jonathan Bailey is a much better actor than he is a singer. But, thinking back to his performances in 'The last 5 years' and in 'Company' (both of which I loved), he still sang on pitch, didn't run out of breath, and had clear enough diction throughout, and that established a solid platform for him to act the proverbial sh*t out of those roles. Unfortunately, as far as Mr Dunbar is concerned, what I could infer from that video is that he is not an accomplished singer, and you may have "taken the mickey" out of me, but you did not quite provide evidence that he is a great actor who can, because of outstanding acting skills, make an audience forget his vocals are a bit on the shaky side.
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