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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2017 14:05:01 GMT
Or People with Jarvis Cocker.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2017 11:49:41 GMT
Just read a review in the Sunday times and they gave it no stars! I have never really seen anything get no stars before. I do feel the reviews are making it sound much more worse than it was
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Post by dave72 on Jun 11, 2017 11:58:22 GMT
It may be perverse of me, but I'm quite looking forward to seeing it--and not because I expect it to be bad. Certain reviews--especially Lukowski's in Time Out--make me hope that the play (especially in its newly trimmed-down form) is more interesting than most have given it credit for. It wouldn't be the first time--I loved Deborah Warner's School for Scandal at the Barbican years ago, for instance, when everybody else hated it. And I always try to go to the theater with a sense of hope.
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Post by martin1965 on Jun 11, 2017 12:39:52 GMT
Just read a review in the Sunday times and they gave it no stars! I have never really seen anything get no stars before. I do feel the reviews are making it sound much more worse than it was Hilarious! Blood in the water for Norris. I will be counting the empty seats on 24th😊. The next new play in the Olivier, this George and Dragon folk play, (whatever the flip that is!) had better be amazing. |
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Post by lynette on Jun 11, 2017 16:10:53 GMT
Risky having so many new plays isn't it? Norris might like to go for the old stuff now. How about an Irish season? Just saying...
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Post by youngoffender on Jun 12, 2017 10:49:50 GMT
When was the last NT show to close early? This one still looks OK on advance sales for the next couple of weeks, even with a high return rate, but it's hard to see how this can limp on through another 35+ performances into mid-August. Salome, meanwhile, looks like a total commercial disaster. Morale in both casts must be terribly low.
It's such a shame to have tumbleweed running through the Olivier all summer when Angels is doing so well in the Lyttleton. Could that play not have been conceived as an Olivier blockbuster?
Here's a suggestion: cancel Common and Salome forthwith, and put a big screen up on the stage to show a live stream of Angels from next door, at the existing Travelex prices. A bit like a theatrical Henman Hill. I wager that more people would pay these prices to see a runaway success at one remove than either dud show in the flesh.
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Post by profquatermass on Jun 12, 2017 11:56:08 GMT
I wonder which production holds the record at the NT for returns and/or interval walk-outs? This one might do the double... When I saw Peer Gynt with Chiwetel Ejiofor, it was literally half-ful at the start and a quarter-full after the interval |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2017 12:14:42 GMT
I wonder which production holds the record at the NT for returns and/or interval walk-outs? This one might do the double... When I saw Peer Gynt with Chiwetel Ejiofor, it was literally half-ful at the start and a quarter-full after the interval Deservedly? Cos that sounds quite good to me! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2017 12:50:07 GMT
Lots of productions have failed in the Olivier in the past. There are only eight more weeks of performances of Salome and Common.
What's Simon Russell Beale doing in the next eight weeks? This could be the moment for him to read the telephone directory.
Or Owen Jones could fill it with a series of talks for eight weeks.
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Post by crowblack on Jun 12, 2017 15:09:06 GMT
It may be perverse of me, but I'm quite looking forward to seeing it Even more perversely, I booked it after reading the one-star reviews. Some of the 'criticisms' - it's like NIck Cave / Ben Wheatley / The Wicker Man - sound pretty good to me. It's a period I find politically interesting and I'm in that niche that loves folk horror / 'English Eerie'. |
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Post by crowblack on Jun 12, 2017 15:39:52 GMT
What's Simon Russell Beale doing in the next eight weeks? The Tempest, I hope, because I've booked for that too! |
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Post by sherriebythesea on Jun 12, 2017 17:14:19 GMT
The Tempest, I hope, because I've booked for that too! Me too. He's still listed as being there. |
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Post by profquatermass on Jun 12, 2017 17:26:33 GMT
When I saw Peer Gynt with Chiwetel Ejiofor, it was literally half-ful at the start and a quarter-full after the interval Deservedly? Cos that sounds quite good to me! It was so bad even the director heckled it. (True story) |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2017 17:39:02 GMT
Deservedly? Cos that sounds quite good to me! It was so bad even the director heckled it. (True story) Really sounds worth telling if you can be bothered! |
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Post by profquatermass on Jun 12, 2017 17:54:43 GMT
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Post by peggs on Jun 12, 2017 18:29:26 GMT
Interesting reading thanks profquatermass
I'm currently still booked for this and the similarly low starred R and J at the Globe, I'm less bothered about the later as it's not a play I like and I booked it on the basis of a £5 for a play I haven't yet seen and disliked since forced study at school. There is perhaps a limit to how much bonkers or plain bad I should see in a short period of time but I think summer tends to be more poorer viewing time perhaps because the improved weather, lighter/longer days etc. temp me to things I wouldn't risk in the winter.
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Post by Snciole on Jun 12, 2017 18:35:34 GMT
I think both Salome and Common will limp on but expect cast illnesses to go through the roof so understudies get a go. I do wonder what the bigger names in these productions turned down but I can't hate on Rufus for taking risks and if new works means higher representation of those who aren't represented elsewhere then I am all for it but the NT doesn't have the cash revenue it once hard. New plays need to have a common purpose, something that makes them stand out in a competitive field. A successful play doesn't need big names, it just needs to get people excited.
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Post by crowblack on Jun 12, 2017 19:17:53 GMT
I can't hate on Rufus for taking risks and if new works means higher representation of those who aren't represented elsewhere then I am all for it I think the themes of Common would appeal to a certain sort of audience if they got to know about it, but they're not the sort who currently make up your typical theatre crowd. |
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Post by lynette on Jun 13, 2017 18:36:53 GMT
The Villains' Opera was dire. Maybe worst thing I've seen at NT. As I said elsewhere I sent Common tix back. When I booked I thought it would be interesting as yes the whole common land thing is v important issue etc etc... and the cast, well, what went wrong? Do people go and have a look at stuff in early rehearsals? I've often wondered. Or is Norris just not up to the job? This is The National Theatre for goodness sake. Thousands of tourists passing by, wanting to see good British theatre for which the UK is renowned and which we here know is out there. They and regular punters should be able to see several plays over the summer in a season of British theatre ( ok maybe I mean theatre in English, ok, maybe I mean good theatre in translation ) but proven good. Challenging? Yes, in all sorts of ways but honestly it isn't that hard to see if a show is good enough or not. I don't think so. We can all do it.
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Post by joem on Jun 13, 2017 20:07:17 GMT
I am seeing both Common and Lettice and Lovage this weekend. Either Tristan saves it or the dinner at Joel Robuchon will have to do the biz,
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2017 21:45:01 GMT
I am seeing both Common and Lettice and Lovage this weekend. Either Tristan saves it or the dinner at Joel Robuchon will have to do the biz, Joel always lovely 😸😸😸 Have to have the chocolate sphere |
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Post by chameleon on Jun 14, 2017 17:14:42 GMT
The Villains' Opera was dire. Maybe worst thing I've seen at NT. As I said elsewhere I sent Common tix back. When I booked I thought it would be interesting as yes the whole common land thing is v important issue etc etc... and the cast, well, what went wrong? Do people go and have a look at stuff in early rehearsals? I've often wondered. Or is Norris just not up to the job? This is The National Theatre for goodness sake. Thousands of tourists passing by, wanting to see good British theatre for which the UK is renowned and which we here know is out there. They and regular punters should be able to see several plays over the summer in a season of British theatre ( ok maybe I mean theatre in English, ok, maybe I mean good theatre in translation ) but proven good. Challenging? Yes, in all sorts of ways but honestly it isn't that hard to see if a show is good enough or not. I don't think so. We can all do it. Norris just doesn't know how to tell the difference between good playwriting and bad (a not uncommon fault among directors). If he did, 'f*** the Polar Bears' might not have been quite so bad. He should recruit someone who understands playwriting craft to work for him. But he would need to understand the craft to know who else actually understands it.. |
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Post by martin1965 on Jun 16, 2017 19:46:04 GMT
Review in current issue of Spectator is hilariously bad! "What an embarrassment for the National, lots of baffled ticket holders bailed out at the interval".
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Post by crowblack on Jun 16, 2017 20:15:11 GMT
Review in current issue of Spectator is hilariously bad! Maybe, but from the sound of it, politically it's hardly the sort of thing that was likely to appeal to the right-wing press anyway. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2017 23:33:16 GMT
Well. This is a HOT MESS. It's hilarious! It's sort of like Wurzel Gummidge as written by Russell Brand.
Anne-Marie Duff is a game gal and gives it some wellie even when she switches to playing Alexis Colby in a corset and she's such a watchable actress. Set looks good (although it's much too big for lots of the two-hander or solo scenes) and the revolve is on form. Great end of act one and beginning of act two as well.
Not sure I thought it was as bad as it's been made out to be but have to admit I didn't have a clue what was going on for half of it though.
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