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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 15:25:13 GMT
I feel you must have some personal grudge against this enterprise. Please share.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 15:34:35 GMT
I could easily be (ie almost certainly am) wrong, but I felt at the time like R Norris was blaming Sunday openings as a distraction from the fact that his first season didn't get an audience. I've done Sunday mats at the NT plenty of times and I didn't notice a difference between that and other performances. I wonder if it would be different now he has found his feet. I guess it's always going to be more expensive to open seven days a week rather than six just in terms of staff pay, and I assume the NT is well-unionised, whereas a smaller theatre would have fewer overheads. It's quite sad to see the building shut when the rest of the Southbank is heaving.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 15:42:25 GMT
There have been so many people on here saying that Tower Bridge is inaccessible and that they cannot possibly go there, so maybe Sunday matinees will seem a safe environment for them to try the place out? It was just the same with Wales Millennium Centre situated in Cardiff Bay, a whole mile from central Cardiff. Before it opened, I got sick of hearing local people whinge on about how they couldn't possibly envisage travelling all the way down there to such a deserted spot, etc., etc. And now it's far and away the most-visited attraction in Wales.
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Post by foxa on Apr 27, 2017 16:09:13 GMT
You guys are bad for my credit card. I had determined not to book for this - didn't really know much about it and it all seemed so much in advance with nothing in particular to draw me to it but then....I ended up booking £25 tickets for the first two shows. I agree with Xanderl though that booking so far in advance for Nightfall with no cast announced didn't seem particularly appealing. But booking was totally painless and it seems worth trying to support a new venture.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 16:22:43 GMT
You guys are bad for my credit card. I had determined not to book for this - didn't really know much about it and it all seemed so much in advance with nothing in particular to draw me to it but then....I ended up booking £25 tickets for the first two shows. I agree with Xanderl though that booking so far in advance for Nightfall with no cast announced didn't seem particularly appealing. But booking was totally painless and it seems worth trying to support a new venture.That was pretty much my thinking, which is why I went for the half price membership offer. It might not work out, I might not like it but it's a bold, ambitious thing to do that I'd like to see succeed and am willing to give a bit of support to. Plus I did mostly like Hytner's NT so his programming probably will be up my alley. |
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Post by Latecomer on Apr 27, 2017 16:44:27 GMT
I do like their return policy too...can return for credit,like the National, up to 48 hours before for £2 per ticket fee. This always makes me book well in advance and is soooo much better than the West End in general (Harry Potter excepted)....and the stuff they have coming up next looks fun too. I fear I too am one of the ideal-seaterati......  |
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Post by sf on Apr 27, 2017 17:54:19 GMT
I sat on one of those Dorfman ones and it was fine....but I quite like the front seats at Olivier and Lyttleton and I know people sometimes find them uncomfortable!I have booked one for last production at Bridge as only cheaper but close option! ☺ Thanks Latecomer, you are right. I just got an email back from the Bridge Theatre confirming this: "A strapitan seat is narrower and folds away. It may be slightly less comfortable than the other seats around it but it is great value." Presumably "strapitan" is a corruption of the French "strapontin", which means folding seat. I have to say I booked one for 'Young Marx' without knowing exactly what it was (I assumed it would be somehow less comfortable), purely on the basis of the price. If they are what I think they are - similar to strapontin seats pictured in the Dorfman and the Opéra Bastille in Paris - then they shouldn't be too painful. |
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Post by Latecomer on Apr 27, 2017 17:58:56 GMT
Welcome sf! |
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Post by peggs on Apr 27, 2017 20:10:51 GMT
Currently we will be able to wave at the rest of the audience on the basis that it's quite likely to be some of us but hopefully it'll pick up nearer the time, most people I know who are occasional theatre goers think booking more than a few months in advance is some what undoable as who plans that far ahead, well we all do obviously.
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Post by kathryn on Apr 27, 2017 21:10:13 GMT
Possibly we're a little too used to having to jump in quick to get tickets for our own good! ☺️
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 22:37:47 GMT
Had a quick look this morning, but seating plan was pretty impenetrable for an aisle seat gal. Will wait to see if photographs appear that make it clearer what's what.
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Post by Sotongal on Apr 28, 2017 14:46:07 GMT
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Post by peggs on May 10, 2017 19:46:56 GMT
Have an email announcing their first monday night think, Richard Thompson gig, he's a class act but not sure i'd describe a 900 seat theatre as an intimate experience but I guess for music maybe that is.
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Post by Jan on May 11, 2017 14:58:28 GMT
Have an email announcing their first monday night think, Richard Thompson gig, he's a class act but not sure i'd describe a 900 seat theatre as an intimate experience but I guess for music maybe that is. Maybe they'll do what they do at Greenwich, hang a giant sheet a few rows back in the stalls to make it look the size of a fringe venue. |
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 15:06:06 GMT
I once saw Dolly Parton in the O2 arena - never again. 900 seats is quite civilised compared to that.
I have no idea who this guy is, I should add. He may not be on a par with Dolly.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 15:24:53 GMT
I once saw Dolly Parton in the O2 arena - never again. 900 seats is quite civilised compared to that. I have no idea who this guy is, I should add. He may not be on a par with Dolly. Not a folkie then?
Richard Thompson, folk music god, early on with Fairport Convention, then solo or with his then wife Linda Thompson (who, to bring this back to theatre, appeared memorably in the Bill Bryden Mysteries at the National).
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 15:25:03 GMT
The entire Bridge Theatre is onsale for Richard Thompson - stalls and all three galleries - in the end on configuration being used in the rest of the week for Young Marx. I've seen and heard Richard Thompson live many times over the years, often solo. He keeps things fresh, always giving his many fans a reason to see each tour, while also always referring back to some of his vast back catalogue. A lot of the fans are of his generation but not all of them by any means.
He's a singer-songwriter and in his early years was a folk reviver with the folk-rock movement. On the Fairport Convention front, he's on the bill again this August at the annual Fairport's Cropredy Convention where I once made an appearance selling homemade sandwiches in aid of a local church's fabric fund. We sold out and packed up the van just before Fairport Convention closed that year's festival with a set lasting two and a half hours - my introduction to the world of folk-rock! This was in the old days, before Health & Safety, when we just roped in a gaggle of willing volunteer old ladies to make the sandwiches on our home kitchen table, and there was no thought of any curfew (unlike nowadays) so the music ended at 2.00am.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 15:32:20 GMT
I once saw Dolly Parton in the O2 arena - never again. 900 seats is quite civilised compared to that. I have no idea who this guy is, I should add. He may not be on a par with Dolly. Not a folkie then?
Richard Thompson, folk music god, early on with Fairport Convention, then solo or with his then wife Linda Thompson (who, to bring this back to theatre, appeared memorably in the Bill Bryden Mysteries at the National).
The only two 'gigs' (for want of a better word) I've ever been to were Dolly and Barry Manilow. That probably answers the question! |
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Post by peggs on May 11, 2017 18:35:53 GMT
He's a singer-songwriter and in his early years was a folk reviver with the folk-rock movement. On the Fairport Convention front, he's on the bill again this August at the annual Fairport's Cropredy Convention where I once made an appearance selling homemade sandwiches in aid of a local church's fabric fund. We sold out and packed up the van just before Fairport Convention closed that year's festival with a set lasting two and a half hours - my introduction to the world of folk-rock! This was in the old days, before Health & Safety, when we just roped in a gaggle of willing volunteer old ladies to make the sandwiches on our home kitchen table, and there was no thought of any curfew (unlike nowadays) so the music ended at 2.00am. Sigh, so no honoured guest, guest appearance this year then? I will be dancing my stuff there this summer (hopefully not in full waterproof gear) or could have been tempted by this at the Bridge. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 29, 2018 17:04:39 GMT
So now it’s well and truly up and running I was wondering how folk are finding it.
I like the design.
Young Marx was terrible.
I found the BO staff to be rude when they moved me to a restricted view seats for Alleujah. They didn’t encourage my loyalty.
Bizarrely due to work I had to sell my tickets for Alleujah and Dark Matter - I’m now glad I did!
I haven’t booked for anything else and I currently think that is wise.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2018 17:13:47 GMT
I like the lights in the foyer. I like the tap water machine downstairs on the pit level. The productions I've seen have ranged from "fine" to "well that SUCKED". I find it delightfully easy to exchange tickets, I just did it over email the other day without having to pick up a phone or look up a specific email address or anything. I've had pretty good visibility from every seat I've sat in, though as a not-very-large person I'm less enthused about being shoved around the pit space for the "immersive" productions. The view out the front is lovely. The toilets are reasonably plentiful. The Nicks do need a couple of scorching hits though, it's very sub-NT at the moment. They need to forge their own identity that isn't just "remember when we were at the NT? Come down the river for more of the same (but worse)".
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Post by Jon on Oct 29, 2018 17:17:22 GMT
I like the lights in the foyer. I like the tap water machine downstairs on the pit level. The productions I've seen have ranged from "fine" to "well that SUCKED". I find it delightfully easy to exchange tickets, I just did it over email the other day without having to pick up a phone or look up a specific email address or anything. I've had pretty good visibility from every seat I've sat in, though as a not-very-large person I'm less enthused about being shoved around the pit space for the "immersive" productions. The view out the front is lovely. The toilets are reasonably plentiful. The Nicks do need a couple of scorching hits though, it's very sub-NT at the moment. They need to forge their own identity that isn't just "remember when we were at the NT? Come down the river for more of the same (but worse)". TBF to the two Nicks, it'd be unrealistic for them to knock it out of the park in the first year. They'll probably have assessed what gone right, gone wrong and try and make improvements since probably they played it safe for the first season |
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Post by learfan on Oct 29, 2018 18:14:53 GMT
Still nothing on to interest me im afraid.
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Post by sf on Oct 29, 2018 18:28:05 GMT
I like the auditorium. I particularly like that there's a range of ticket prices including a very good selection of cheaper seats. The front-of-house experience is generally quite good, or at least it has been on the four occasions I've been. I enjoyed 'Young Marx' and 'Allelujah' but didn't think either of them represented either playwright's best work. 'A Very Very Very Dark Matter' has a script that just isn't ready. It divided people here, but for my money 'My Name is Lucy Barton' is the best thing I've seen all year, and I'm going back for the return engagement. I didn't see 'Julius Caesar' or 'Nightfall'.
I attended a performance of 'Allelujah' in August at which an understudy appeared in one of the play's main roles and the theatre did not announce it. I find that absolutely unacceptable. I was also not impressed with their response to my feedback afterwards - a feedback email they solicited - which was to tell me that sometimes there isn't time to announce the appearance of an understudy. That suggests a certain lack of respect for both performers and the audience, at least on the part of the staff member who wrote that particular email, and it's an area where I think the theatre maybe still has work to do. If there are procedures in place - and there should be - about announcing the appearance of an understudy, they need to be reviewed.
Overall, I think they've probably deliberately played it safe for the first year, and that's understandable. I think they've got a lot of things right. I think they need to flex a bit more muscle in terms of quality control of the scripts they produce, but overall they're off to a reasonably good start.
I do agree they could use a big fat hit, though. 'My Name is Lucy Barton' sold out the final performances, I think, but it was only a three-week run; Richard Bean, Alan Bennett, and Martin McDonagh have all written plays that generated the proverbial line around the block at the box office, but their Great Big Hit Plays were significantly better - and in McDonagh's case in an entirely different league - than the work they did at the Bridge. That's a rut the Bridge needs to break out of, fast.
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Post by peggs on Oct 29, 2018 18:56:53 GMT
It's an easy theatre to get to for me and quick route back to the station. I can't help but think leg of lamb everything time I see their foyer lights but I blame Latecomer for that. Free water, lots of toilets downstairs, range of ticket prices and comfy seats all work for me. They also let you return tickets for refund minus admin fee which makes it more likely that i'd book for things though my experience of booking early and then finding cheaper seats come up later on say today tix has tempered that. It's not the best place pre show unless you get their early to bag a seat but in fairness that's probably as i'm comparing to the nt which it isn't, there's more room that say in the westend. Shows have been mixed, loved JC, disliked Allelujah, skipped very very dark matter due to faint risk and found Young Marx enjoyable but not brilliant. Programming is not wildly exciting but frankly it's a relief sometimes to not want to see things. I think it's had a fairly decent year really for a new theatre. |
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