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Post by parsley1 on Nov 2, 2024 15:29:07 GMT
Slave play
Barcelona
Hills of California
Juno and the paycock
The duchess
Dr strangelove
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Post by asfound on Nov 2, 2024 15:34:19 GMT
Hills of California was a flop in London? Shame, I thought it was great. Definitely flopping here on Broadway though.
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Post by parsley1 on Nov 2, 2024 15:55:07 GMT
Hills of California was a flop in London? Shame, I thought it was great. Definitely flopping here on Broadway though. It wasn’t the new Jerusalem for sure |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Nov 2, 2024 16:00:19 GMT
coriolanus, faulty towers and backstairs Billy all numbed my senses.
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Post by matthew90 on Nov 2, 2024 16:01:38 GMT
Not sure Barcelona is a flop, it seems to be doing extremely well commercially, and everyone I've spoken to that's seen it has had a great time. It was never going to be liked by critics.
For me The Duchess was the biggest disappointment as it was just all over the place with tone and ideas. And seems to be struggling to sell seats too.
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Post by hadeswasking on Nov 2, 2024 16:41:16 GMT
Slave play Barcelona Hills of California Juno and the paycock The duchess Dr strangelove I think you have to describe what you think a "flop" is - as your initial list is pretty incoherent. Surprised you didn't already have the seagull on there to be honest considering your opinions on that thread. |
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Post by jake on Nov 2, 2024 16:54:11 GMT
Slave play Barcelona Hills of California Juno and the paycock The duchess Dr strangelove I liked Hills of California though I'd agree it's not the new Jerusalem (or Ferryman). Juno... is probably (based on heightened expectations?) the most disappointing thing I've seen this year. I'm not sure it was the worst, though. That would almost certainly be The Government Inspector at Marylebone. That's if by 'the year' we mean 2024. If we mean the last twelvemonth, my wooden spoon would probably go to the excruciatingly awful Havers/Hodge Private Lives that I saw last November. |
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Post by marob on Nov 2, 2024 17:04:27 GMT
Surprised not to see Romeo and Juliet on the list.
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Post by parsley1 on Nov 2, 2024 17:22:17 GMT
Slave play Barcelona Hills of California Juno and the paycock The duchess Dr strangelove Romeo and juliet Both Macbeths Backstairs Billy (Thanks for the reminders) My definition and criteria Is they ain’t winning any awards or going down in the annals of theatrical history and or weren’t respected with a critical gravitas worthy of the best The Other Place |
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Post by Steve on Nov 2, 2024 17:53:40 GMT
I'm disposed to look for things I like in plays, so I'm almost always happy. But these plays left me with a lingering sense of disappointment:- Coriolanus - Oyelowo just didn't feel like the written character at all, more noble Othello than condescending Coriolanus; The Comeuppance - Based on his other plays ("Appropriate," "An Octoroon," "Gloria"), I was feeling Branden Jacobs-Jenkins as some kind of genius, but this show at the Almeida felt so disappointingly average and without vision; "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" was the biggest waste of Greg Hicks I've ever seen; "Withnail and I" at the Birmingham Rep shredded the charm of the film, and tried to force bloody laughs out of strained stones such that I was wincing with embarrassment; "The Marilyn Conspiracy" at the Park Theatre stranded a brilliant Marilyn in a terrible plot; "Madwomen of the West" at the Riverside Studios was worse than any episode of "Loose Women" ever made, entitled, complacent and unappealing, and is my worst show of the year so far.  |
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Post by kate8 on Nov 2, 2024 18:56:36 GMT
Slave play Barcelona Hills of California Juno and the paycock The duchess Dr strangelove I think you have to describe what you think a "flop" is - as your initial list is pretty incoherent. Surprised you didn't already have the seagull on there to be honest considering your opinions on that thread. A flop surely means a production that has failed on a bigger scale than just not being to some people’s taste - something with bad reviews & poor ticket sales. I’d put the Donmar Macbeth & The Other Place in my top 10 favourites for the year, Hills of C woul make my top 20. My least favourites: Juno & the Paycock, Northanger Abbey (Orange Tree), Richard III (Globe) |
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Post by Jan on Nov 2, 2024 19:31:53 GMT
I'm disposed to look for things I like in plays, so I'm almost always happy. But these plays left me with a lingering sense of disappointment:- ”The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" was the biggest waste of Greg Hicks I've ever seen; Yes it wasn’t much good. I think Hicks himself was not entirely without blame though. Surprisingly you could see a different production of it next week if you wanted to. www.theplaygroundtheatre.org.uk/projects/the-dream-of-a-ridiculous-man |
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Post by aspieandy on Nov 2, 2024 19:51:48 GMT
I don't understand parsley's list (saw 3 of them). It's been a good year for moi. London Tide is probably the most disappointed I've been (an anti-musical?).
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Post by mrbarnaby on Nov 2, 2024 21:09:12 GMT
Dr Strangelove
The Hills have California
But nothing will be as bad as….
Juno and the Paycock
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Post by happysooz2 on Nov 3, 2024 13:48:08 GMT
I think you have to describe what you think a "flop" is - as your initial list is pretty incoherent. Surprised you didn't already have the seagull on there to be honest considering your opinions on that thread. A flop surely means a production that has failed on a bigger scale than just not being to some people’s taste - something with bad reviews & poor ticket sales. I’d put the Donmar Macbeth & The Other Place in my top 10 favourites for the year, Hills of C woul make my top 20. My least favourites: Juno & the Paycock, Northanger Abbey (Orange Tree), Richard III (Globe) Hot damn. I’d successfully forgotten that Richard III. More mind bleach, please. |
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Post by Jan on Nov 3, 2024 16:26:04 GMT
The ETT Macbeth which I saw in Guildford was far worse then either of those. |
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Post by David J on Nov 3, 2024 16:41:03 GMT
A chorus of disapproval at Salisbury playhouse. Couldn't wait to leave at the interval.
I've liked some of Alan Ayckbourn's works here and there but this one was so dull.
Sad for salisbury playhouse that once put on some marvellous revivals. Despite the production values and efforts of the cast, with Damian Humbleby in the lead role, none of it could lift a script that meanders with no focus. I wondered whether Ayckbourn was being meta with the director of the Beggars Opera taking so long to get anywhere with rehearsals.
Speaking of which the director was increasingly unlikeable. Did anyone see Rob Brydon in the Trevor Nunn production at the Harold Pinter. Could he bring any charm to a character who just belittles his cast members here and there and is disliked by his wife.
Flat jokes went on and on. Wanted one of the cast members to shut up about whether Humbleby's character was from Scotland.
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Post by jake on Nov 3, 2024 17:20:33 GMT
Did anyone see Rob Brydon in the Trevor Nunn production at the Harold Pinter. Could he bring any charm to a character who just belittles his cast members here and there and is disliked by his wife. I saw it and I'm afraid I found the production rather dull, unwieldy and unmemorable. I've never seen another version of the play for comparison, but the chances are you're right and the play itself is the problem. Maybe it's not that good or exceptionally hard to get right. I don't recall thinking Brydon was a significant redeeming feature. The performance that sticks in my mind is Nigel Harman as the newcomer. And a relevant comparison is the much more satisfactory production of Absent Friends round about the same time at the HP. This starred, inter alia, Reece Shearsmith and featured a superb performance by Harman's East Enders colleague Kara Tointon. It was, for me, very much better in just about every way than A Chorus of Disapproval. |
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Post by jake on Nov 3, 2024 17:34:42 GMT
Did anyone see Rob Brydon in the Trevor Nunn production at the Harold Pinter. Could he bring any charm to a character who just belittles his cast members here and there and is disliked by his wife. I saw it and I'm afraid I found the production rather dull, unwieldy and unmemorable. I've never seen another version of the play for comparison, but the chances are you're right and the play itself is the problem. Maybe it's not that good or exceptionally hard to get right. I don't recall thinking Brydon was a significant redeeming feature. The performance that sticks in my mind is Nigel Harman as the newcomer. And a relevant comparison is the much more satisfactory production of Absent Friends round about the same time at the HP. This starred, inter alia, Reece Shearsmith and featured a superb performance by Harman's East Enders colleague Kara Tointon. It was, for me, very much better in just about every way than A Chorus of Disapproval. PS I just unearthed my contemporary musings in an old Word document and find I did give Brydon some credit at the time. But my memory of not being impressed by the production is largely accurate. If it interests you, this is what I wrote (probably just a few days after seeing the production: …the staging is quite efficient with transformation from rehearsal room to pub to living room done very smoothly.
The performances were also commendable with Rob Brydon’s theatre debut (?) as Daffyd ap Llewellyn going very well – especially as we were treated to Ar Hyd y Nos in his very strong voice. Nigel Harman was very good, too. I knew I recognised him but had to check my programme to see that he was Denis in Eastenders before I stopped watching it (a long time ago) and I was rather surprised by the lengthy list of theatre credits in his biog. Daisy Beaumont, the chameleon who played many of the young women in C4's wickedly irreverent spoof celeb biography series Star Stories, handled the single role of Fay effectively and Northern Broadsides director Barry Rutter put his acting boots on to give us a wonderful Jarvis Huntley-Pike.
The rest of the cast were also strong – special mention perhaps for LAMDA graduate Georgia Brown in her debut as Bridget – and the ensemble numbers were convincing. Indeed excerpts from The Beggars Opera were perhaps a bit too strong for the conflict-ridden PALOS troupe. So why was I mildly disappointed (with the emphasis on mildly)? Almost certainly because my expectations of Ayckbourn were too high after my recent enjoyment of Absent Friends and The Norman Conquests. By comparison A Chorus of Disapproval, enjoyable as it was, never seemed to take off and soar. I see some reviewers blame Trevor Nunn’s production for this but I’m not sure that’s fair. I’d have to see what those reviewers considered a good one.... |
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Post by nicenin on Nov 3, 2024 17:36:17 GMT
Dr Strangelove The Hills have California But nothing will be as bad as…. Juno and the Paycock Agree with you mrbarnaby re Strangelove. What was so awful about Juno? Not that I don't believe you. I acted in this at school many moons ago. Would have thought it hard to destroy it and the advertising artwork is very reminiscent of old Dublin. |
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Post by Jan on Nov 3, 2024 18:09:57 GMT
A chorus of disapproval at Salisbury playhouse. Couldn't wait to leave at the interval. I've liked some of Alan Ayckbourn's works here and there but this one was so dull. I saw the original production at NT. It was genuinely very funny, Michael Gambon excellent as Dafydd Ap Llewellyn. Of course that doesn't mean it's funny now. Some things can be genuinely good at the time and not ever again - I notice this most with TV series - for example for whatever reason I never watched an episode of "Inspector Morse" at the time when it was by far the most popular and lauded-by-the-critics detective series (and still is), but watching it for the first time now it's just rubbish. |
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Post by SilverFox on Nov 3, 2024 19:10:33 GMT
A chorus of disapproval at Salisbury playhouse. Couldn't wait to leave at the interval. I've liked some of Alan Ayckbourn's works here and there but this one was so dull. I saw the original production at NT. It was genuinely very funny, Michael Gambon excellent as Dafydd Ap Llewellyn. Of course that doesn't mean it's funny now. Some things can be genuinely good at the time and not ever again - I notice this most with TV series - for example for whatever reason I never watched an episode of "Inspector Morse" at the time when it was by far the most popular and lauded-by-the-critics detective series (and still is), but watching it for the first time now it's just rubbish.
Has anyone seen the so-called comedy "Bread" on one of its TV repeats? It is a oft-quoted beacon of the time and a Carla Lane 'hit' - but honestly! An entire episode recently without even a smile. Of-its-time and should be quietly forgotten imo.
CofD was one of only a couple of AA's plays which was not premiered at Scarborough. The National gave AA a budget and scope unimaginable in his own town. He hated the movie adaption of the piece.
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Post by Phantom of London on Nov 3, 2024 19:27:46 GMT
What is the pass mark for success, is it our private educated theatre critics approval? I have seen stuff that I’ve been told is crap and really found it not to be crap, I’ve seen stuff that I’ve been told is brilliant and left bewildered how poor I personally found it, then read the publication to find it is advertised. Or is a show viability only gauged by what money is made and if it doesn’t it is deemed a flop.
For me a flop is inertia, but luckily we have producers that take risks, no producers sets out to put a bad show on, and at the end of the day you can have risky flop and risky successes and without the risky flops, you wouldn’t have great successes, so it is all relative. Theatre always has and always will be a crapshoot.
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Post by lilgirlbigcity on Nov 3, 2024 19:34:02 GMT
The Enfield Haunting was this year, right?
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Post by ncbears on Nov 3, 2024 23:03:19 GMT
Instead of "flop" - the title should be something like "most disappointing" "Flop" is a show that didn't recoup the investment or didn't make it's "projected" income. But since y'all don't have publicly available box office numbers, it's kind of hard to make a guess at what was a "flop" other than reports of lots of empty seats.
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