629 posts
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Post by theatremiss on Feb 22, 2023 19:57:42 GMT
Anyone know if there is an alternate night? I can’t put myself through Smith
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Feb 23, 2023 0:44:13 GMT
That's not great, there must be a better option She worse a flesh coloured sheer bodystocking when she was in a funny Girl which worked up to a point. The seams were visible from the front stalls though.
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Post by marob on Feb 23, 2023 7:18:48 GMT
That's not great, there must be a better option She worse a flesh coloured sheer bodystocking when she was in a funny Girl which worked up to a point. The seams were visible from the front stalls though. I saw that at the Menier and they didn’t bother covering them at all there.
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Post by alece10 on Feb 23, 2023 9:24:58 GMT
I saw something on social media last night that said "many performances already sold out" so thought I'd put it to the test. Checked quite a few random dates and looks like the claim is true. Most of the dates I checked had very limited availability. So whatever people's views are about Sheridan you can't deny that she sells seats.
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Post by ladidah on Feb 23, 2023 10:55:47 GMT
I think people are keen for a fun, upbeat show (I presume!)
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Post by Steve on Feb 24, 2023 16:23:29 GMT
Saw this last night and absolutely LOVED it! Sheridan Smith is so funny, so relatable and so moving, it's an event! One of the best one person shows I've seen, doing for comedy what Jodie Comer did for drama. Some spoilers follow. . . This works as drama too, of course, it works as comedy, it never flags, and it is incredibly entertaining. In my opinion, Shirley Valentine is the part that nobody in the world could play better than Sheridan Smith. Like in "Flare Path," she gets desperately vulnerable; like in "Legally Blonde," she is brightly exuberantly relatable; like in "Funny Girl," she fires off lines like comic bullets. I found myself belly laughing at all of life's absurdities that Willy Russell so poignantly and hilariously writes about. Smith is 4 months shy of the 42 years of age that Russell specifies for Shirley Valentine in the play, closer than Pauline Collins or Meera Syal were when they played the part. If you see the show at the end of the run, she'll be almost the exact age to the month lol. She's the part in every other way, from the wit to the self-doubt to the fierce determination. She's every other part too, as Smith is a marvellous mimic, capturing accents of people and also their attitudes. A well captured accent can be funny, but a well captured attitude is funnier, and combined, it's laughs squared. When you add in Smith's ability to instantly react to the voices and attitudes in all of Shirley's relatable blundering vivaciousness, it's laughs cubed. This is one of the shows of the year, for me. I want to see it again, and I went ahead and booked a cheap seat for June lol. (At last night's show, I splashed out for a Row E premium-adjacent £55 stalls seat, but I can't spare that much again lol). 5 stars from me, without question.
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Post by JJShaw on Feb 24, 2023 22:53:38 GMT
I saw it tonight and loved it! A wonderfully funny little play and Sheridan is absolutely perfect, she just shines and lights up on stage. She looked so comfortable and made the performance look effortless.
I had a standing ticket, view is fantastic (you’re actually closer than the two bench rows (can't remember the letters of them) I would suggest to stand auditorium right, which was the side I was on, as I think it was staged ever so slightly toward that side.
Light, fun, just delightful! Usher told us 1hr 5 act 1 and 35 mins act 2. I think it was roughly that but we did start late. The 'Prosecco huns' were out in full force, and actually two almost-latecomers drunkenly stumbled in to the centre seats (of course!) but after about 15 mins excused themselves and didn't come back. Quite a bit of rustling for about 10 minutes but id say on the whole it wasnt too bad.
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Post by alece10 on Feb 25, 2023 9:20:17 GMT
Anyone know when press night is? Can't find anything kn t'internet.
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1,277 posts
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Post by Dave B on Feb 25, 2023 9:46:18 GMT
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Post by TallPaul on Feb 25, 2023 14:03:44 GMT
Poll added. Go smash some plates!!!
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245 posts
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Post by gmoneyoutlaw on Feb 26, 2023 16:30:31 GMT
Poll added. Go smash some plates!!! This was the first time I could vote! Thanks.
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1,222 posts
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Post by mkb on Feb 27, 2023 23:16:48 GMT
My fourth production of Shirley Valentine, and the best so far.
While Sheridan Smith gets through the material more rapidly than previous actresses, it never feels rushed. The juxtaposition of comedy and pathos is beautifully written and brilliantly delivered.
I have never felt quite so involved before in Shirley Bradshaw's three-act conversation with the fourth wall; here, I felt like a valued confidant. It was hard to remember I was watching a performance and not listening to the outpourings of a real person, a person lost and trying to find herself. That's surely a stage of life we all experience at least once and can relate to. We settle for the routine and the mundane, in life and in relationships, and give up on our youthful hopes and dreams. As Peggy Lee once rued in the deathbed lament -- is that all there is? Instead, Shirley teaches us to be alive.
Five stars.
Acts 1 & 2: 19:33-20:36 Act 3: 20:57-21:32
Footnotes: The Duke of York's must have the ugliest safety curtain ever. It looks like a giant square ironing board cover. Has it always been so? ATG should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves with the programmes their venues have been putting out lately. This one was devoid of any content other than a cast list, biogs and some rehearsal pics, all for the prepay price of £5.50, which is apparently a discount on the walk-up cost.
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Post by Being Alive on Feb 27, 2023 23:40:56 GMT
I thought Sheridan was terrific in this - it felt like they'd written it for her.
I thought the production looked unbelievably cheap, tacky and like it had cost £10.
She deserved a better production alongside just how good she was.
Stood for £7.50 and that's generally a better and more comfortable view that most of the seats in the upper circle!
PS: Duke of Yorks is absolutely awful as a venue - corridors are an inch wide, tiny foyer space, loos are basically impossible to get into, just generally a terrible venue
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Post by marob on Feb 28, 2023 0:09:50 GMT
ATG should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves with the programmes their venues have been putting out lately. This one was devoid of any content other than a cast list, biogs and some rehearsal pics, all for the prepay price of £5.50, which is apparently a discount on the walk-up cost. It’s a bit off topic, but yeah they’re really bad lately. The one for The King and I tour is just bios. No rehearsal shots or context, not even a song list. Just bios.
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Post by A.Ham on Feb 28, 2023 11:28:38 GMT
Based on everyone’s enthusiasm on here, I’ve just booked to see this on Saturday night - a two show day now with Sylvia in the afternoon and SV in the evening - very much looking forward to it.
For those in search of decent tickets, ATG have just released what I assume are usually house seats (stalls row G/dress circle row B) for this week’s performances - tonight through to Sat eve, minus tomorrow’s press night. They’re all at £95 but by seeing it on the same day as Sylvia I’ve justified it to myself based on saving on the travel cost involved if I’d ended up going on a different date!
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Post by matty on Feb 28, 2023 22:30:35 GMT
Absolutely loved this tonight. Sheridan really was fantastic, I got completely drawn in to her story.
Had a cheap seat in the upper circle, but didn't feel disconnected at all. My lega did by the end of the night though! This reminded me why I usually splash out at a bit more at this theatre
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Post by A.Ham on Feb 28, 2023 22:49:55 GMT
Just taking a further look at the ATG site tonight, on various dates across the run, and there’s a lot of extra tickets that’ve been released, compared to when I was looking at the weekend and yesterday.
Looking at pricing though I think this is ATG getting ahead of the expected rave reviews, as anything half decent is now top price for most of the shows I looked at. Stalls back to row O or P (and right to each side) are all £95, and just the last couple of rows of the dress circle are £75, with the rest all at £95. There’s a few exceptions so carefully check as many dates as you can before booking.
Looks like they’re anticipating a hit and aiming for a big box office too. So well done if you booked early!
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Post by alece10 on Mar 2, 2023 1:18:23 GMT
Nice 4* reviews from The Times, Guardian and WOS.
And apparently box office record for Duke Of Yorks theatre broken with £4 million advance sales.
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Post by Steve on Mar 2, 2023 7:40:08 GMT
Just looked through the Reviews: 5 Stars The Independent The Daily Mail Financial Times All That Dazzles Jonathan Baz 4 Stars The Guardian The Telegraph The Times WhatsOnStage Time Out The Upcoming 3 Stars Evening Standard The Stage London Theatre My understanding is that the consensus is that Sheridan Smith delivers a 5 Star performance in a 3 Star play, this delivering a 4 Star Average Review. The low rating of the play stems from it's "dated" view of women's lives (42 is not old these days, everybody understands the clitoris now, this is a play about a woman written by a man). In defence of the play, I would argue that even if some elements are dated, the key takeaways (Carpe Diem, Everyone has value) are not. If we judged works by how "dated" they are, rather than what they are telling us, we'd sling Jane Austen's works on the pyre, for starters, as women don't hang around waiting for a man to save them these days. But we don't, because we are capable of reading such works through the prism of the time in which they were written, and not only learning about that time, but also extracting the valuable insights that are universal. Same here. The dated stuff tells us how far we have come since the eighties, and allows us to see the world as it was seen then, and the timeless undercurrents remain as valuable as they ever were. In my opinion, it would be a shame to allow the label "dated" to stiff us out of seeing a truly magnificent performance in a play that is timeless in it's thrust, even if the setting is dated.
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Post by lynette on Mar 2, 2023 14:41:35 GMT
I haven't seen this production which actually sounds rather good but isn't the point of it that Shirley rebels and toddles off etc etc… contrast and compare with The Doll’s House. Well, life’s too short but you get my drift.
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Post by A.Ham on Mar 2, 2023 16:17:25 GMT
The dynamic pricing on this is shocking. I guess the booking pages are getting lots of hits following the good reviews that’ve been published today, and despite loads of seats being raised from £75 to £95 earlier this week, they’ve gone up again - £125 now!! Even the restricted view ones at the far sides of the dress circle are up to £95 now. Unreal!
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Post by Being Alive on Mar 2, 2023 16:20:18 GMT
Very much a 4 star production (5 star performance 3 star show) - Time Out as ever gets it spot on
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2023 17:24:20 GMT
Does "everybody understands the clitoris now"? How is this even assesses lol?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2023 18:50:48 GMT
Those who’ve seen this: if I go for a £75 stalls or dress circle aisle seat (‘discounted’, ha ha, for potential restricted view) - just how much of the show would I miss, do you reckon?
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Post by mattnyc on Mar 5, 2023 19:40:18 GMT
99.5% of the show is her center to mid-center stage. Only rarely does she go to the extreme sides and then when she does it’s only for a brief second.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2023 23:43:44 GMT
99.5% of the show is her center to mid-center stage. Only rarely does she go to the extreme sides and then when she does it’s only for a brief second. Thank you! Reckon I’ll go for it then.
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Post by A.Ham on Mar 6, 2023 13:03:42 GMT
Yep, agreed with Mattnyc, she’s not at the sides a lot. If you’re going for one side or other of the auditorium, I’d err to the left (low numbers side), depending on availability of course.
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Post by A.Ham on Mar 6, 2023 14:44:13 GMT
I saw this on Saturday night, and have to say all the positive comments on here and in the press reviews are justified. Sheridan is just perfect as Shirley - there’s a genuine connection with her and the audience that makes it a wonderful performance. Will post a fuller review when I get chance but it’s definitely a must see!
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Post by ladidah on Mar 6, 2023 15:06:46 GMT
Wish I had booked this when it was cheaper!
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Post by theatrefan77 on Mar 7, 2023 1:47:32 GMT
They don't seem to be doing day seats which is a pity. I thought they would
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