|
Post by theimperialtailor on Nov 30, 2023 14:56:48 GMT
Oh, I wish there was an option to rate this 2 1/2 stars here. It's not awful but it's also not very good. At 2 hours 45 mins, this is entirely too long for what it is. It wasn't until about 45 mins into act one when the Witches actually all showed up that I thought "Ok, finally this is going somewhere". I guess there's gonna be some spoilers here - I think the entire first 20 or so mins can and should be cut and condensed into a single song starting with Luke losing his parents and ending with him meeting his Gran and then the entire hospital scene needs to go and just have it be she's taking him on a holiday because she's recovering. We don't need anything besides them meeting, her teaching him about the Witches and her past and then boom, get on with the show. The second act fares better but I still found myself losing interest when the focus wasn't the Witches. I think the most disappointing part of the entire thing for me was the "Get Up" song. I really enjoyed what they released for that number and was looking forward to seeing how it was staged and it was BORING. A couple kids dressed in some fancier Halloween costumes standing side by side singing the song that should be a rousing anthem but instead was completely lethargic. There's some decent stuff in there but it's all sandwiched between a lot of things that the show just doesn't need. YES - very much this.
|
|
|
Post by theimperialtailor on Nov 30, 2023 15:00:27 GMT
Too long. No heart. Everyone is shouting all the time. KK, DR and SAT sounded like they’re about to lose their voices. Music completely unmemorable. Choreography wasn’t linked to the narrative. Set was impressive as was the boy who played the spoilt friend. Can’t believe this has been in development for all these years. Needed a really quirky creative team to pull this off. As has been said, Matilda this ain’t and won’t be doing for the NT what Matilda has done for the RSC. Such a shame as there are so many fabulous performers in the cast. hahahah - yes indeed!
|
|
|
Post by theimperialtailor on Nov 30, 2023 15:02:22 GMT
So, lots to say about this show (and would love to say more after they've opened, only fair to give it a chance to bed-in a bit more). As others have said, some lovely bits, and some great performances (Gran, oh yes. Stringer, yes please. Bruno, one to watch), but overall surprisingly underwhelming. Especially given how long it's been in the making (the un-special effects compared to say Cursed Child are just, well, where did the budget and ingenuity go?!). And not just on the production side: some very, erm, questionable story/script/character choices that just seem tortuous (and painfully overly-directed). But all that's for another time. And they are still in Previews after all, and have had to contend with show-stops and set malfunctions and three casts of kids, which must pose its rehearsal challenges. So fair play and all that and wish them well and have already booked to see the show two more times at least. But what I will say (and yes, having been an avid "guest" on this forum to soak up all the lovely wisdom and inisghts over the years, I have finally joined specifically to make this post, so forgive the alarming virgin outburst)... for the LOVE OF LARRY can someone reading this post from insde the production please just do this ONE THING?! Lots to work on, but this ONE THING is just an absolute car-crash (and, spoiler alert, there's an actual one of those and it's done brilliantly) - CAPS LOCK TIME... YOU CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT HAVE THE GRAND HIGH WITCH CALL A CHILD IN THE AUDIENCE (however obviiously a [spolier] plant) an "ASSHOLE" (and certainly shouldn't entertain the notion of the child misbehaving out of "boredom", a state many geniune audience members were edging towards as the show wended its way thorugh a quite heavy almost 3 hours, but that's another matter). And the whole mobile phone thing is done somewhat clinkily in any case, but again that's for another time. Yes the show is 8+, but deploying actual swear-words was utterly inept and crass. And totally unnecessary. And I personally love swearing. It didnt make us detest the GHW, but rather made us cringe as if watching a stand-up lose the crowd. (And to have children repeat this aterwards ad nauseum on the way home is, well, not my point, just an added sh*te-cherry on top of the w*nk-cake). Plus it's an Americanism (there were a few of those peppered thoughout, quite jarring, but no doubt eyes on Broadway transfer one day). If you're gonna go there, in Blightly it's "Children are little Sh*ts sometimes". But just NO. All that is just wrong. Take a leaf out of Miss Trunchbull's book and deploy "Maggots" or similar. There are so many Dahl-esque concoctions to use. "Squiggle-munchers" or "Piggle-pogglers" or similar. Or use the Norwegian for "A**hole". Or use an insult that kids would find funny: "Butt-Munch" "Bogey-Breath", whatever. Something, ANYTHING. If anyone is out there who would kindly like to pass this onto the Creatives before it is needlessly folded into the Press Reviews next week then I shall die happy. Or at least shall not cringe-cruch into my seat when I next see the show as the dreaded moment approaches. More to follow in the days to come. Thanks void for allowing me to scream into you. xxx Hold my beer. Shall be joining you in the void shortly...
|
|
134 posts
|
Post by romeo94 on Nov 30, 2023 20:35:13 GMT
Has anyone sat in Row AA? It notes that it's a bench. How comfortable are we talking?
|
|
|
Post by lookingatthestars on Nov 30, 2023 22:45:37 GMT
Has anyone sat in Row AA? It notes that it's a bench. How comfortable are we talking? I sat there. I heard there were no arms, and for some I reason was expecting no back and the bench itseld to be hard and wooden, perhaps my Dickensian state of mind!. So it was a nice surprise when I found them to be cushioned, both the seat and the back. I found the seat to be comfy enough. It's one long bench. The view is right under their noses. Personaly I love being near the front to see their faces, and for this show it was great to catch all the facial expressions, especially from Daniel Rigby. Their feet are out of view for the most part, and you miss things right back of the stage but 90% of the action is out near the front. So for me, this was a good seat for the Friday Rush price.
|
|
134 posts
|
Post by romeo94 on Dec 1, 2023 7:42:07 GMT
Has anyone sat in Row AA? It notes that it's a bench. How comfortable are we talking? I sat there. I heard there were no arms, and for some I reason was expecting no back and the bench itseld to be hard and wooden, perhaps my Dickensian state of mind!. So it was a nice surprise when I found them to be cushioned, both the seat and the back. I found the seat to be comfy enough. It's one long bench. The view is right under their noses. Personaly I love being near the front to see their faces, and for this show it was great to catch all the facial expressions, especially from Daniel Rigby. Their feet are out of view for the most part, and you miss things right back of the stage but 90% of the action is out near the front. So for me, this was a good seat for the Friday Rush price. This is super helpful. Thank you!
|
|
|
Post by edi on Dec 1, 2023 19:24:00 GMT
Has anyone sat in Row AA? It notes that it's a bench. How comfortable are we talking? I sat there. I heard there were no arms, and for some I reason was expecting no back and the bench itseld to be hard and wooden, perhaps my Dickensian state of mind!. So it was a nice surprise when I found them to be cushioned, both the seat and the back. I found the seat to be comfy enough. It's one long bench. The view is right under their noses. Personaly I love being near the front to see their faces, and for this show it was great to catch all the facial expressions, especially from Daniel Rigby. Their feet are out of view for the most part, and you miss things right back of the stage but 90% of the action is out near the front. So for me, this was a good seat for the Friday Rush price. but where are these bench seats? I tend to sit at the 'normal' front row of the olivier and cannot imagine where these benches are because there is normally no space between the usual front row and the stage.
|
|
|
Post by nottobe on Dec 3, 2023 10:20:25 GMT
I saw this last night and had an enjoyable time. Yes it is not the best musical ever it is still a good night out. I really enjoyed the staging and design along with the impressively array of costumes. I would say I was never bored however I did feel a lot of the songs could have been trimmed by a verse or two as you got what they were on about in the first few verses. Also I don’t understand the criticism of songs not being memorable. I wonder how many shows we consider ‘classics’ had audiences not remembering the songs as soon as they walked out.
Personally I am never really a fan of child actors and I found in this show they were the sort of child actors I really do not like. Yes they could perform well but I was really on the Witches side. Overall a well made and fun show.
|
|
4,603 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by Mark on Dec 7, 2023 9:59:57 GMT
There's a big difference between a very fun show, and a good musical. This is the former. I'd just re-read the book last week so it was pretty fresh in my head. A lot of the frustrations stemmed from how there were a lot of needless variation from the book which added nothing. The music was serviceable, but nothing more. The effects were lacking. How to make it a better musical? Cut the kids except for Luke/Bruno. Play up on the camp humour of it all.
I did laugh a lot though, and it was a lot of fun for sure. I just expected more. I may try it again if I can get a cheap ticket.
|
|
92 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by annette on Dec 7, 2023 17:08:04 GMT
It's hard to understand how this production turned in to such a gigantic charmless mess.
I felt it completely lacked any heart, warmth or soul, part of which was down to both the banging tuneless score and the cack-handed interpretation of the book.
I loved the black and white Tim Burton/Edward Gorey style school room dumbshow, but then that style disappeared completely and we were back to the slightly nauseating purple and pink palette pretty much for the rest of the show,
It seemed like the entire cast bar Sally Anne Triplett had been directed to shout their way through the show. There was no sense of light or shade whatsoever.
How on earth do they end up with mice you could buy in our local toyshop (along with ears and tails), given the animals play quite an important part in the show? A few of them got stuck in the revolve which provided a bit of light relief amidst the chaotic nature of the show. The clock & vase style costumes looked like something out of a school production and rendered the children unable to move, which for your 'signature tune' number is a bit of a mistake. And then a ton must have been spent on scenery like the revolving kitchen set. Did they just run out of money I wonder?
I didn't understand why Katharine Kingsley had the middle-European accent. The "children are arseholes" line was back in her song and I felt like some of the audience checked out at that point. The scene where KK is standing over Luke violently convulsing on a table, just looked unpleasant and extremely strange (not in a good way).
I reckon they could have cut ten of the witches and given a smaller cohort to give the actors a shred of distinguishing characteristics. At least then they wouldn't have all been completely interchangeable. Same with the kids. Less didn't add up to more in this production.
Given the narrative was all over the places it may also have benefitted from being shaved down from the nearly three hour duration of the production. The whole experience felt like a punishing ordeal. Maybe the NT should just give-up trying to produce original musicals and Roald Dahl's back catalogue should be left on his bookcase for while.
|
|
|
Post by Jan on Dec 7, 2023 17:37:39 GMT
It’s been 10 years in the making What a shame to be cancelling previews now And if any part of this is a f*** up It will be due to wrong choice of director It is the latest in a long line of disappointing NT family shows where they used the wrong creatives: The Cat in the Hat, Beauty and the Beast, Emil and the Detectives, Treasure Island, Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear, Pinocchio, Hex. Not a transfer amongst them (?). I stopped taking my family to them. The only good one we all liked was I Want My Hat Back, though of course there were others we missed. They are big enough to obtain the rights for these tings then they screw up.
|
|
|
Post by Boob on Dec 7, 2023 20:41:04 GMT
Thought The Elephantom was jolly good. But an exception.
|
|
|
Post by hadeswasking on Dec 7, 2023 20:48:13 GMT
Treasure island was also fantastic. Just too big to transfer anywhere else. (I don't actually know how it was recieved though. This is just personal opinion)
|
|
92 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by annette on Dec 7, 2023 22:21:33 GMT
It’s been 10 years in the making What a shame to be cancelling previews now And if any part of this is a f*** up It will be due to wrong choice of director It is the latest in a long line of disappointing NT family shows where they used the wrong creatives: The Cat in the Hat, Beauty and the Beast, Emil and the Detectives, Treasure Island, Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear, Pinocchio, Hex. Not a transfer amongst them (?). I stopped taking my family to them. The only good one we all liked was I Want My Hat Back, though of course there were others we missed. They are big enough to obtain the rights for these tings then they screw up. I did wonder about the creative team as (I could be wrong here) it seemed like neither the producer/writer and director had worked on musicals before and they are creatively such a different prospect to making dramas. I thought the choice of composer was also surprising. Of course surprising can be good, but it wasn't in this case.
|
|
|
|
Post by vickyg on Dec 8, 2023 7:53:11 GMT
I wonder if people would have been so accommodating if they had known just how many show stops they have been having. I’ve been several times and have a 60% show stop rate. While I have no doubt that the team are working extremely hard, that’s really not acceptable. I imagine being involved in this show has been a wild ride.
|
|
|
Post by maycontaincats on Dec 8, 2023 8:20:00 GMT
Any ideas what is causing the stops if there have been a lot? My child was at the show last night with school and raved about it to me and is keen to go back and see the rest of it. Interesting to see the reviews on here in comparison. I'm tempted to see it myself now if I can find a good price. Hopefully the school will get rebooked.
|
|
|
Post by vickyg on Dec 8, 2023 9:29:27 GMT
Any ideas what is causing the stops if there have been a lot? My child was at the show last night with school and raved about it to me and is keen to go back and see the rest of it. Interesting to see the reviews on here in comparison. I'm tempted to see it myself now if I can find a good price. Hopefully the school will get rebooked. I know they have previously had a lot of trouble with the revolve but on Wednesday they were hammering a piece of the floor down about 20 mins in.
|
|
2,823 posts
|
Post by ceebee on Dec 8, 2023 11:11:26 GMT
This show is poor and the number of showstops is an absolute joke. Amateur dramatics at its best.
|
|
4,612 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 8, 2023 11:53:07 GMT
Is the set that complicated? It didnt look it me but then im no expert
|
|
7,584 posts
|
Post by alece10 on Dec 8, 2023 12:49:09 GMT
No show stops the night I went but it didn't seem a very technical show to me so strange that things keep going wrong.
|
|
866 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by ladidah on Dec 8, 2023 13:15:52 GMT
That's what I was going to ask - I wonder what exactly is going wrong/breaking?
|
|
4,612 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 8, 2023 13:59:40 GMT
A witches curse ?
|
|
|
Post by vickyg on Dec 8, 2023 16:39:32 GMT
Someone up thread said before it opened that the NT's drum revolve has always been a problem and is regularly out of action. Seems they have been proved correct!
|
|
7,584 posts
|
Post by alece10 on Dec 8, 2023 16:45:31 GMT
Someone up thread said before it opened that the NT's drum revolve has always been a problem and is regularly out of action. Seems they have been proved correct! But they don't use the drum in this production, only a revolve and it's quite a simple one too.
|
|
92 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by annette on Dec 8, 2023 17:04:54 GMT
A mouse stuck in the revolve?
|
|
1,022 posts
|
Post by andrew on Dec 8, 2023 17:38:08 GMT
Someone up thread said before it opened that the NT's drum revolve has always been a problem and is regularly out of action. Seems they have been proved correct! But they don't use the drum in this production, only a revolve and it's quite a simple one too. I've not seen it so I don't know, but have they installed a different revolve? Because classically they still used the drum revolve without the lifting function for their normal revolutionary needs on the Olivier stage.
|
|
|
Post by agent2023 on Dec 8, 2023 19:11:02 GMT
I saw this recently, we had no show stops. I thought that the opening number was great and that we were in for a treat. After this, the next 20 minutes could probably be condensed down into one number. I think that a problem the show has is that the end of the conference scene is the natural point for the interval, but they end up padding things out to lengthen the first act. The wheels really came off in Act 2 for me - so much padding, and the kids other than Luke and Bruno are totally pointless. {Spoiler - The Grand High Witch's Reveal for those that don't want to know} I was confused by the Grand High Witch's entrance. She had the big cloak on and I assumed that this was to hide the "reveal" of her "witch form". But she took the cloak off and she was in her standard lady disguise. I think that the incredible prosthesic of the first film have spoiled me as far as the Grand High Witch goes. It is obviously impossible to have her make SUCH a change, but I was disappointed by how they navigated it given the budget and the potential for creativity at the National Theatre. She appears as the ‘pretty lady’ for the majority of the meeting scene, only showing her ‘witch face’ at two minimal times, with none of the grandeur that the reveal in the book holds. She also goes offstage to take her wig off, which I found strange given that the rest of the cast are able to do on stage so effortlessly (to the point that one of the witches wigs fell off earlier than it should in the scene!) The end of Act 1, with her in "full witch mode" looked great, it's just a shame that they didn't give Katherine Kingsley the opportunity to play the whole scene out like this. I think it doesn't allow the character to reach her full potential.
|
|
|
Post by firefingers on Dec 8, 2023 23:56:10 GMT
Yes, the drum revolve needs £100k spent on it and 'dark time' with no shows programmed to rise and fall again sadly.
|
|
1,912 posts
|
Post by sf on Dec 9, 2023 17:18:09 GMT
Saw it last night.
No technical hitches, and it's a very likeable show. Clever, witty music, phenomenal performances, a very funny book, and a few things that need tightening up. It could stand to lose a few minutes (and the National *really* needs to get better at getting people seated and starting the show on time), and 'Get Up!' has to be restaged if the show has a life after this, because the current staging of it is so flat-out bad that I can't believe it made it out of a rehearsal room. Apart from that, it's enormous fun. Sally Ann Triplett, Daniel Rigby, and Katherine Kingsley are clearly having a great time, and the kids are flawless.
It's not going to be the sort of worldwide hit Matilda was, simply because it's a much darker story with a much darker ending (which I think Lucy Kirkwood's adaptation negotiates quite well). But it does deserve a longer life, and I want a cast recording. I really wasn't in the mood for a Festive Family Show last night - lousy week, not enough sleep - and I had a much, MUCH better time than I was expecting. A solid four stars from me.
|
|