Piaf - Nottingham Playhouse / Leeds Playhouse

Damn, I shall miss the live stream!

Which almost certainly means it's a play. You don't have a great track record, BB. 😂

First half is 55 mins
20 minute interval
Second half 65 mins

I agree Juicy.

Terrible quality over Zoom - do we really need the hands up?

I watched it to the end as I liked Dame Jenna's performance. The play is really terrible with no depth at all, I'm surprised it gets produced.

I think it will be a lot better live as the brilliant music and female trio will really shine

I am very sad by these reviews, as I like Jenna. She once told me she sang the Red Dwarf theme tune uncredited for Howard Goodall - little bit of trivia there!

I didn't bother with this production as I agree, the play itself wasn't particularly noteworthy, though I didn't find it offensive. It takes a lot to offend me in a theatre. I'm usually more offended by other patrons (B.O!) than what is happening on stage. Piaf's prostitute friend was played by a larger actress, with most of the jokes coming at her expense, from what I recall.

But in spite of this I absolutely adored Jamie Lloyd's Donmar Warehouse production at the Vaudeville Theatre. Why? Elena Roger, who deservedly won the Olivier. Coming out afterwards, I said "if she doesn't win the Olivier for this, I'll eat my hat". She was an absolute tour-de-force and carried what was a very average play with one of the best single performances I've seen on a West End stage.

There were some very cool staging ideas, which I loved. A pretty awesome "boxing match" (much better than in Spiderman: Turn off the Dark where Peter Parker was boxing a wacky inflatable wavy arm man). "La Foule" was incredibly creepy, using wheeled floodlights to create a distorted, heroin addicted nightmare as Piaf is losing her mind. Some truly brilliant bits in amongst the knob and obesity jokes.

The play itself reminded me a lot of "End of the Rainbow" starring Tracie Bennett. The subject matter, the musical biography format and the one star turn carrying a bang average piece.

For me, this is one of those times where I've seen this particular work at it's absolute best. Seeing anybody else would be pointless as it wouldn't compare.

That said, I'm still really sad this has gone down so badly.

No, it's a mystery isn't it, BurlyBeaR? Still, it's nice that so many southern members are travelling to places like Scarborough, Buxton and Leeds for their theatre fix. Only today we learnt that restaurants in deepest Derbyshire stay open later than in Chichester! 🙂

I found myself in the right part of the country yesterday, so attended Piaf at the Leeds Playhouse, having missed this in Nottingham and not seen the stream.

My hopes weren't all that high having seen the earlier comments, but I really enjoyed this.

Officially it is a "play with music" but it really isn't far off the style of jukebox musicals that are so popular right now. The book could be stronger, but the presentation is clear. I do think this is the type of play which would work better in the theatre rather than through a stream.

The three female leads are all very strong. Jenna Russell's voice suits the Piaf songs perfectly. Plus, there's a talented ensemble. Great to see Zheng Xi Yong and shame he doesn't get to play any instruments. He also gets to show off his physique, as does Louis Gaunt, which is a nice bonus if you like that sort of thing.

As for the Playhouse itself? The first time I've ever visited and it's a pleasant venue, but they were telling all the audience members they could take their mask off when they were seated. So, there were only a handful of people in the audience wearing a mask (I was one of them). Considering the average age of audience members was in the 70s, that's an unnecessary risk.

This wasn't full and two people near me managed to get into the Stalls with tickets for Thursday instead of Tuesday. They were allowed to stay and there were even seats available on the same row (with seats closed off for social distancing). They were also moving other people forward.

There are table seats right by the stage, but the view angle for those isn't great. The first row of seats proper is closed off. I managed to book a seat the day before I travelled for the centre of that row, which has to be the best place in the building to sit, especially as the stage extends forwards slightly in the middle. So don't feel you have to book table seats as the Stalls seating is close.

I do now feel I should read a book on Piaf to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge, but when most biopic musicals/plays with music struggle to find dramatic moments, this is a life story with no shortage of them. Glad I made the effort to see this fine regional production.