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Post by wickedgrin on Feb 24, 2016 14:08:04 GMT
Oh thanks HG. I have actually got row G as he gave me a choice. I think he said any seat is £25 for the matinee. Don't know if that's an advertised offer or just if ask for day seats but worth remembering I'm in row G too this afternoon!!!! LOL |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2016 15:27:03 GMT
This is not actually that bad a show
In fact it's quite tame in the pathetic sort of "risqué" way that Book Of Mormon is
Taking a swipe at developed white society
It's all too safe territory
I like the cast other than Neil Pearson (awful)
But the fact remains that along with Mrs Henderson both these shows are going to be around for a shorter duration than Bend It Like Beckham
In a way it saddens me and I think in many ways commercial theatre really is the pits and full of sh*t bags
So much more pleasure is derived from our great publicly funded venues who offer true risk and artistic excellence alongside safer options
Thank the Lord for them
Praise be
As a thought to leave you with- there are more people watching Cleansed each evening in the Dorfman than are seeing Hand To God at the matinee today
Please don't underestimate context
It's SO crucial
If Hand To God was running at the NT it would be heavily booked out just due to the reputation of the venue
Hence the WE is now just full of commercial crowd pleasing sh*t for people who can't speak English and travel to the venue in a coach group
The sole purpose of staging a WE show is to make money.
And this breeds greed. The focus is entirely different.
Hand To God, Mrs Henderson, Bend It, Made In Dagenham all should have been placed into funded theatres.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2016 16:28:28 GMT
So
You all rip the piss if I leave at the interval
I stayed today as the first half of the show was okay
And I regretted my decision
This show is so shallow and 2 dimensional it deserves the critical mauling it got
The second "half" is 30 mins long and entirely pointless. All it shows is how dumb the US sense of "humour" is
And how even good "actors" like Janie Dee and Jemima Rooper can have a good judgment failure
Big time
No way this show will be running 3 months from now
They were papering since previews
The stalls were not even half full today
Same dress circle
Reviews were negative
And the show is sh*te with a plot and character development thinner than a communion wafer
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Post by sam22 on Feb 25, 2016 8:48:00 GMT
Oh thanks HG. I have actually got row G as he gave me a choice. I think he said any seat is £25 for the matinee. Don't know if that's an advertised offer or just if ask for day seats but worth remembering I'm in row G too this afternoon!!!! LOL Ah only just read this, which seat were you in? This is why we need badges! What did you think? |
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Post by littlesally on Feb 25, 2016 9:13:14 GMT
I'm in row G too this afternoon!!!! LOL Ah only just read this, which seat were you in? This is why we need badges! What did you think? Badges? Mine would say "Theatre OCD on board. Loves an interval." What would yours say? |
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Post by wickedgrin on Feb 25, 2016 9:53:42 GMT
If you are a Bible reading Christian you will hate this play but then I suspect the title alone would put you off buying a ticket anyway! Blasphemy and all that!
Of course religion is an easy target to make fun of and that is one of the targets in this very funny entertaining play. The theatre is for entertainment - right?
Very well staged in what looks like a fixed set that holds a host of surprises. Extremely well acted by all the cast especially Harry Melling as Jason/Tyrone the glove puppet. His performance was a tour de force of puppetry and schizophrenia. An hilarious scene of "glove puppet sex" in the second act.
A very enjoyable afternoon.
I do take Parsleys point above that the stalls were less than half full and that if this play had been staged at the NT they would be sold out (like Cleansed). It certainly isn't the usual WE tourist, coach party show and will certainly struggle, I think, like Mrs Henderson to find an audience! It is rather depressing and will continue dumb down producers intentions in the WE.
So I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it (as long as you are not religious!)
4 stars.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2016 10:13:11 GMT
I really enjoyed it, thought it was slight but very funny. Great set, funny puppet sex and a terrific cast. Harry Melling is just sensational (there has GOT to be at least an Olivier nomination there for him), Kevin Mains strangely hot and Jemima Rooper funny and she really comes into her own in the second act. Loved Janie Dee too. I must say I loves me the mens and nothing is going to change that but Janie Dee is really hot. Like sexy, vampy, funny hot!
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Post by Polly1 on Feb 25, 2016 15:01:11 GMT
Blimey, I'm glad I'm going next week before it gets pulled!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2016 10:53:20 GMT
We went to see this last night. A Broadway theatre tour guide recommended the show when we were in NY last Summer, so when it appeared here, it was a no brainier! From where we were in the stalls it appeared that the theatre was full (although this was a Friday, so I'm sure midweek sales aren't as strong) and everyone seemed to be lapping it up.
It was terribly witty, and the puppeteering was brilliant, with an unexpected poignancy to the story at the end. Although in essence, only two of the characters are important here (besides Tyrone) the other three felt a little bit like window dressing, I would still thoroughly recommend this show to anyone who can get to see it before it leaves.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2016 11:19:23 GMT
I haven't seen it yet, but I get the feeling the reviews were incredibly unfair on this show?
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Post by n1david on Mar 5, 2016 13:10:08 GMT
Had to leave this at the interval last night. Probably too far back in the auditorium (row N) but just couldn't connect with it at all. Didn't find it funny, didn't find it shocking, was just bored. Might have been interesting in a Donmar or Union but felt utterly lost in even a small West End theatre like the Vaudeville. Stalls about 80% full. Obviously some people on here loved it but not for me.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2016 17:36:02 GMT
Had to leave this at the interval last night. Probably too far back in the auditorium (row N) but just couldn't connect with it at all. Didn't find it funny, didn't find it shocking, was just bored. Might have been interesting in a Donmar or Union but felt utterly lost in even a small West End theatre like the Vaudeville. Stalls about 80% full. Obviously some people on here loved it but not for me. It's closing soon |
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Post by mallardo on Mar 6, 2016 8:34:04 GMT
A pretty full house (stalls and circle) yesterday afternoon and a VERY responsive crowd. And no wonder. This is the funniest play I've seen since... well, I can't recall anything funnier. The puppet sex scene was hysterical, especially as played by Harry Melling and Jemima Rooper with deadpan faces, carrying on a benign conversation, while their hand puppets were going at it furiously in every possible position in what must be the greatest example of surrogate sex ever.
Melling is astonishing, essentially playing two roles constantly in conflict with each other. It's an amazing tour de force. But everyone is great. Janie Dee's meltdown from repressed widow to raging sexual predator in her scene with Kevin Mains was priceless - and utterly convincing, and Neil Pearson was perfect as the unctuous minister on the make.
I thought the play itself was far from trivial, as some have portrayed it. Tyrone's (the puppet's) tirades contained much truth amidst the profanity and blasphemy and the play's portrait of five troubled souls searching for meaning, somewhere, in their tedious and tragic lives seemed very real and, at times, quite moving, to me.
I think it's a great piece and it will never be better played than by this wonderful cast. I would urge anyone who is on the fence about it - because of some of the ridiculous wrong-headed reviews - to go. It's a unique theatrical experience, to say the least.
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Post by n1david on Mar 6, 2016 11:17:35 GMT
I think it's a great piece and it will never be better played than by this wonderful cast. I would urge anyone who is on the fence about it - because of some of the ridiculous wrong-headed reviews - to go. It's a unique theatrical experience, to say the least. Out of interest where were you sitting? I felt it was a show that couldn't play to the back of the stalls but I could have had a very different experience had I been upfront. Someone else upthread made the same suggestion (although that doesn't explain the reviewers given they'll all have had good seats) |
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Post by mallardo on Mar 6, 2016 11:23:59 GMT
I think it's a great piece and it will never be better played than by this wonderful cast. I would urge anyone who is on the fence about it - because of some of the ridiculous wrong-headed reviews - to go. It's a unique theatrical experience, to say the least. Out of interest where were you sitting? I felt it was a show that couldn't play to the back of the stalls but I could have had a very different experience had I been upfront. Someone else upthread made the same suggestion (although that doesn't explain the reviewers given they'll all have had good seats)
I was in a day seat, front row, and yes, I'm sure that did make a difference. The hand puppet had a certain reality up close that probably would not be the case further back.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 7, 2016 19:26:17 GMT
Decided on a whim to come. Sat in the stalls now  |
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 7, 2016 19:32:31 GMT
Stalls less than half full
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Post by theatre-turtle on Mar 7, 2016 20:26:29 GMT
Not hugely enamoured by the whole thing. Tempted to leave at the interval. Several, mostly older patrons, have decided to leave at the interval. I wonder if some of them didn't read the synopsis
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2016 20:20:36 GMT
Is the stage height the same as that for Forbidden Broadway which was at the same theatre a few years back? That was the last time I went to this theatre and I sat in the front row and was a great view.
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Post by partytentdown on Mar 24, 2016 8:03:04 GMT
What's the cheapest deal around for this at the moment?
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Post by mallardo on Mar 24, 2016 12:35:01 GMT
I definitely recommend the day seats. The stage is a bit high but not bad and the front row is the place to be.
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Post by wickedgrin on Mar 24, 2016 13:17:13 GMT
Don't sit back upper circle for this - you need to be front stalls. So Wed afternoon is your best bet if you can do that or hope for an upgrade?
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Post by partytentdown on Mar 24, 2016 20:26:26 GMT
anyone know if the upper circle is being upgraded? Sadly aren't able to day seat
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Post by firefingers on Apr 1, 2016 21:09:37 GMT
Saw this the other day and greatly enjoyed it. As other have said, the deadpan sex scene is hilarious, which genuinely caused me to laugh more than anything in a play before. I am a sucker for a puppet, and the puppetry is fantastic.
Not the subtlest of "metaphors", and I felt the ending was a little ham fisted, but undeniably hilarious, with the male lead part taking an incredible amount of skill.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2016 15:57:01 GMT
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