I know - Lunchtime Theatre! Definitely come along - would be lovely to see you
This year has been busy for me, theatre-wise! So far I have seen:
Blood Brothers
War Horse
Jersey Boys
Dreamboats and Petticoats
Million Dollar Quartet
End of the Rainbow
And I am going to see soon:
In a Forest, Dark and Deep
Rocket To The Moon
I don't usually go this much! I've just been lucky this year, with people inviting me etc! Jersey Boys, War Horse and End of the Rainbow were the best ones
I saw The Last 5 Years at the Tabard the other night (I did start a thread about it ages ago which I now find mortifying so I'm not bumping it).
Lauren Samuels was in it and was FUCKING AMAZING 11/10! Her voice is everything I want from a musical theatre performer and her acting was pretty much spot-on (even if she seemed more like an 11-year-old than someone in her late twenties at times).
The understudy for the guy was on and was 3/10. And because it's an euqally-weighted two-hander that's kind of a problem
A tamer version of this post can be found on the whatsonstage forums (TP)
Last edited by dUb; 19-02-2011 at 07:17 PM.
I like that in the alternative version you've removed any trace of personality. It's the whatsonstage way. I've only ever logged on as a guest to give abuse, myself.
The tabard's a tiny little theatre isn't it? I'm surprised they actually HAVE understudies, and that they didn't cancel / ask you up onstage with a copy of the sheet music. The lead guy was off ill at the royal court upstairs a few months back and they had to get another actor in for two nights who just wandered around with the script.
I now have a THEATRICAL week ahead of me, seeing two shows (vernon god little + our private life) after a very slow start to 2011 theatre-wise. There are also now also lots of things coming up that i want to see., HOORAY
Also since we're talking whatsonstage, here are the results from their meaningless awards show last night.
Tabard is tiny alright, with quite annoying seats but it's got a good RAKE!
There was a prick in the row in front of me, right in front of the performers, playing with his phone and emailing. He got a stern tap on the shoulder.
Oh and I see Jon Lee has gotten the (alternate) lead in Jersey Boys.
Despite looking like the worst thing ever i still quite want to see Jersey Boys. I'd never pay for it myself, mind.
Also, Vernon God Little at the young vic is super fun. I would definitely recommend it. It's like a mental twisted dark cartoon, and the whole thing just rips along in the most wonderful batshit way. There was genius use of props and old country songs, and despite quite wanting to punch him at first i thought the guy playing Vernon was great too, so charmingly odd. It maybe dragged slightly in the second half, but this was possibly because i had developed GERIATRIC BACK PAIN at that point due to sleeping in a funny shape the night before. I have sympathy for diddy.
Also SOPHIE OKONEDO was there. Wearing a fitness first back pack
Our Private Life was NOT AS GOOD. It wasn't terrible and we were in and out in 80 minutes so didn't get bored, but it was all a bit so what.Originally Posted by TurnerPrize
The scraggy little Merlin boy was pretty good, though my favourite would be the mother who was basically PAULINE PRESCOTT as re-imagined by Pedro Almodovar. In fact i think the whole thing was going for an Almodovar-esque slant, and the overall production was good, but the text just wasn't so up to it. And the main thing i took away from it was that all gays were abused as kids, which is a just a BIT off isn't it. Although apparently that's how gayness is viewed in colombia (where the play was sort of set), so it sort of makes sense i suppose, but i think more could have been done about it. All the themes and characters felt a bit half baked really.
Last edited by TurnerPrize; 26-02-2011 at 12:47 PM.
Anyone bothered about The Wizard of Oz? Can't say I am, although Hannah Waddingham as the Witch seems rather good
I really like that! In fact the whole show looks nicely spectacular, but i'm not sure i could sit through the wizard of oz again, in any of its forms. And not for the prices they're charging.
Now I DON'T HAVE A THEATRE PROBLEM, but i did end up seeing two shows in one day on Wednesday. It wasn't actually planned but i ended up with a free afternoon in the big smoke so went to see Frankenstein (ON MY JACK - though a fabulous old dear in pearls befriended me before it began.) ANYWAY i really really liked the show. I don't think it's as good as it could be, but i don't begrudge it the hype, and despite being 2 hours straight through i never got bored. I actually thought it got better as it went on, which is generally NOT THE CASE with most things i see. In fact the much-praised first 10 minutes made me worry a bit, since a (non-buff) naked man SPAKKING IT UP and rolling around the place is not what i call entertainment. Although i feel credit is due to Benny Cumberbatch, because his limp cock is even less impressive than my sorry excuse for one, and no way would i get that out on stage 4 times a week.
Also if people do want tickets, just refresh the booking section of the national website a few times the day before. Despite all the talk of people queing from 5am for day tickets, i found that they'd uploaded a couple of returns for it at about half 7 the night before. I'd also hazard a guess and say that maybe it would be better to see Cumberbatch as the Doc and Miller as the monster, but they both did well enough in the combination i saw. Neither myself or Elizabeth (she looked like an Elizabeth) next to me joined in with a standing ovation, which about a fifth of the audience did, but i'm still really pleased i got to see it.
I then saw Company, which was QUITE ALRIGHT but made me think that Sondheim is not really for me. I've seen four on stage now and only fully liked one of them. This was probably my second favourite since it did at least have a few decent songs, but again the book was shite. Also the southwark playhouse is TERRIBLY run, and quite a shoddy venue in general. And the usher sneezed over my friend's hand when she handed him our tickets, which was nice.
Has anyone ever been to Above the Stag? Went there yesterday to see their production of My Beautiful Launderette. It was OK I guess, for its genre of semi-professional theatre. It's definitely worth a visit if you are into that sort of thing (i.e. a venue of about 40 people, all sitting very close to the "stage", you can bring your beer from the bar etc...), and for just 15 quid it's quite a nice post-work night I'd say. The Stage itself though is rubbish.
there are things worse in life than never being someone's sweetie.
Is that the place that only does gay plays? I've never been myself.
Also has anybody seen Black Watch? It's a THEATRICAL PHENOMENOM and seems to be on all the time after winning every award going a few years back. I finally saw it a few days ago in histarwick Warwick and thought it was a BIT SHIT myself. Maybe pieces about war just aren't for me. I still gave it a standing ovation mind, but it was only because everybody else in the entire audience did, and i didn't want to be THAT guy, or look like it was some sort of anti-war protest gesture.
Yes, the Stag is the GAY PLAY spot. I saw an update of Les Liaisons Dangereuses there last year and it was rather ropey really on the staging front but the play itself was quite good. There were too many unpleasant hairy bums at far too close a distance for a Sunday afternoon though.
That Wizard Of Oz song is alright but nothing to get me to sit through all the drivel with the Munchkins and Dorothy's awful sidekicks and Michael Crawford does bog all for me too. Does she have another song because that one is a bit slight really. That is an amazing Margaret Hamilton impression Hannah Waddingham is doing there, she really does have her mannerisms down perfectly. I'd have preferred to see her do her own thing but I guess they're trying to stick pretty closely to the film. She doesn't seem very scary there though but maybe that's just a factor of age - the Witch used to absolutely SCARE the living shit out of me when I was small, to the point where I had to leave the room when she came on screen
I genuinely cannot think of anyone's I'd like to see LESS (his not yours). I will try your day-before approach as I would rather like to see the play.
I'm auditioning for a Sondheim show in the summer. If I get in, I hope you will reconsider your new-found aversion to the ouvre.
I've seen a couple of things recently. End of the Rainbow was really great. I wasn't shouting from the rooftops about it because everyone else seems to have done that, a long time ago. Enjoyed it a lot and she's very good in it of course (I sometimes found the accent/voice a bit MUCH though if I'm honest). Her rotten husband is quiteand the gay friend is sweet apart from having to deliver one of the biggest clunkers I've heard in years:
Spoiler: clunk!
Then I saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Donmar (my first time there, now I feel all proper). Loved how the room was done up to be like a high school sports hall (pic). I was approached by some people to sign up to be a speller in the show, which I did. The way they were talking it up, I became utterly convinced that I was DEFINITELY going to be picked and then after the first number they read the names and I wasn't among them! I was all
Once I got over that, I enjoyed the show. As I said on Facebook to Chrissy, it is absolutely hilarious at times, particularly the stuff with the audience spellers (and the semi-insults that are read about them as they approach the mic: one ginger girl got "Ms. Smith hasn't read Chaucer, hasn't read Austen and hasn't read Dickens, but she has red pubes" - cheap but amazingly delivered). The other plot stuff is pretty good and the characters are alright, but my God the songs aren't up to much. They became tedious pretty quickly, apart from one called The I Love You Song which is gorgeous (and sung mainly by Martha from Spring Awakening TP). So I would recommed it but I wouldn't go again myself (which would be seen by some to be a DAMNING indictment coming from ME).
I have also been doing a bit of amateur/fringe theatre reviewing for remotegoat (where I was terribly reviewed once), which is nice as you get to see the stuff for free. And I am in rehearsals for The Wedding Singer. And that is all the theatre news I have for today.
Last edited by dUb; 18-03-2011 at 07:51 AM.
Don't think so!
Ooh, what Sondheim are you going up for Dub?
Assassins
Ooooh, I'm going for that too. An "Unworthy Of Your Love" Moopy duet possibly?Assassins
Interesting show - there are some JUICY parts in there. Good luck Moopers!
Wouldn't THAT be something! Good luckOoooh, I'm going for that too. An "Unworthy Of Your Love" Moopy duet possibly?
Assasins is the one of the four Sondheims that i LOVED. I even spent fifteen quid on the soundtrack (and then promptly lost it). Did you see the Southwark Playhouse revival last year? I was scared to in case it was rubbish and tainted my happy memories of the Edinburgh one i saw (no pressure on you).
Also if you want Frankenstein tickets, bookmark this page and visit when you feel lucky. I guess the majority of returns happen the day before the showing. Oh and i'm LOVING what they've done to the Donmar, and how they've got something young and fun on. I meant to book actually.
I've just gone on the website and am liking how the page for their next production has WARNING: CONTAINS MALE NUDITY in big red text, larger than anything else on the page.
I saw The Heretic on the royal court main stage yesterday and it was RUBBESH. It felt like an episode of My Family with a bit of swearing, self-harm and boring global warming politics. Characters just swapped ropey one liners in a really smug way, often when it totally made no sense and it undermined them as characters. And i was ACTUALLY a bit offended with how they portrayed the anorexic girl character. She just stood around making crap jokes with her mother about throwing up/not eating, before having a very convenient-for-plot-reasons heart attack.
I had been quite excited to see Juliet Stevenson on stage, but she was very very annoying. In fact three of the cast i quite wanted to throw tomatoes at by the end. I'd not reccomend seeing it, though i doubt any of you were rushing out for tickets, and i think we saw the penultimate show anyway. Good riddance to bad rubbish. God of writing Simon Stephens has a new one there next so i'm hoping it will be a case of the sublime taking over from the ridiculous. Simon Amstell's TV Grandma is in that one at least.
Last edited by TurnerPrize; 20-03-2011 at 08:00 PM. Reason: it's still sunday
[CAN MORE MOOPY PEOPLE GO TO THE THEATRE AND REVIEW IT IN THIS THREAD PLEASE]
ALSO, i saw Flare Path at the Haymarket earlier, and it was MAGNIFICENT. An absolute joy. Very moving in various places, with some proper great performances, and overall it's just wonderfully made theatre (with only a few niggles, for me at least). I welled up a couple of times, and there are a few moments of pure theatre magic.
Sheridan Smith totally justified her new Olivier award to me and was deffo my favourite, although the main guy who isn't James Purefoy was also wonderful. And Purefoy was very good too. Sienna Miller is the alleged STAR, and she did have a lovely dress at one point, but i wasn't too impressed with her. She was nothing terrible, but might as well have just been an upturned mop on casters.
Tonight, though, it's Clybourne Park
HOORAY
Could you tell if it's selling well? I hope it is. I guess the Best New Play Olivier helps matters, if it somehow wasn't before.
Dayseated so dunno! I was the first one there though
I will let you know how full and enthusiastic the audience is anon
ok then
I saw 'The most incredible thing' last week at Sadler's Wells and it was magnificent! Pet Shop Boys did a great job with the music they wrote, the dancing was really good and it was fun throughout.
Tonight I'm going to see 'The diary of Anne Frank' after Eileen highly recommended it.
Last edited by ZZ; 31-03-2011 at 12:58 PM.
I really need to go see some theatre soon... once my play is over and I actually have some free time.
I did see an amateur production of Romeo & Juliet a couple of weeks ago where Anthony Head was in the audience (his niece was acting in it). Almost trampled him in the interval as I ran in from outside and he was sitting on some steps on the other side of the entrance making a phonecall.
Oh where's this? It strikes me as something that could work wonderfully for stage.
I remember seeing a version at the theatre when i was about 14 or something, but the girl playing Anne was so fucking dreadful that i could not wait for them to gas her. That sort of ruined the whole thing really.
Well I just LOVED Clybourne Park!
I adored every second of Act I and was a bit alienated by the start of Act II BUT obviously it pulled it all back with the outrageous stuff.
I'm glad Martin Freeman
I LOVED Sophie Thompson in the first half but the second had me thinking that she might be a bit one-note. Is she?
I agree with cwej that the black actress wasn't great as Francine (at all) but amazing as Lena, down to her posture in the chair. Also loved the pregnant one in Act II.
I give it four and a half dUbs out of five
Last edited by dUb; 01-04-2011 at 06:09 PM.
Oooh, I'm seeing this with my parents when they come to visit for Passover later this month. Sounds good!
Also, is anyone going to see 'in the forest..' with Matthew Fox?
there are things worse in life than never being someone's sweetie.
Oooh, I'm seeing this with my parents when they come to visit for Passover later this month. Sounds good!
Also, is anyone going to see 'in a forest..' with Matthew Fox?
Last edited by Tal; 01-04-2011 at 07:02 PM.
there are things worse in life than never being someone's sweetie.
Oh yeah I went to see End of the Rainbow last week. I texted my review directly to dUb instead of posting it here. "OMG AMAZING!" etc etc.
It was at Catford Broadway and I think it ends tomorrow.
Let me tell you, it worked really well on stage, it was very very well acted and the studio where it's presented was a small and intimate place and the actors were really literally in front of us.
I'm finally seeing Clybourne Park next Monday. Really looking forward to it.
Clybourne Park is the shock moopy SMASH of the season. At least TP, star, kitty kat, cwej, dUb, and Robotboy will have seen it. It's practically WICKED
How annoying that it's ME who is the only one (so far) who didn't really get the fuss
I've sort of forgotten a lot of it, but i don't remember thinking that Sophie Thompson came across as particularly one note, dUb. I did think her character(s) were a little bit though. The only other thing i think i've seen her in is Eastenders when she was that fabulous child beater, so i can't really judge (although she was totally different in that). Apparently at the Royal Court the only two times this had standing a ovation (that my usher friend saw at least) were the two times that Emma Thompson came to see it, sat down the front, and lept to her feet the moment it ended. I'm gutted i missed THAT.
Last edited by TurnerPrize; 03-04-2011 at 12:21 AM.
Any Kristin Scott-Thomas fans? She's back in the west end -
http://www.whatsonstage.com/news/the...+Betrayal.htmlAs previously tipped, Kristin Scott Thomas will star in Ian Rickson's revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal which will open at the Comedy Theatre on 16 June (previews from 27 May 2011) with a cast also led by Douglas Henshall and Ben Miles.
Famously played backwards in time, Betrayal - one of Pinter’s most oft-revived plays - traces a seven-year affair between art gallery owner Emma and literary agent Jerry, the best friend of her publisher husband Robert, from its poignant end to its first illicit kiss.
If Colin Firth was her co-star (as was first mooted) i think i'd be there. As it stands i'll probably wait until she does something that interests me more, that isn't at such a horrible theatre.
I loved Clybourne Park immensely.
The writing was so sharp and clever. I think it was the only time I've ever been shocked at the theatre too. The humour started so gently and really built and built into something totally different by the end.
I wouldn't say I've seen loads of race plays, but I've certainly seen a few ham fisted fringe theatre attempts that were a bit crass. I thought this was a wonderful commentary and very well judged. It could so easily have veered off and become either offensive or tired but I thought it became neither.
I need to have more of a think about it all to form my own conclusions but, yeah, I think it's totally deserving of all the hype. Spectacular.
Oh i'm pleased you liked it. I think i must have been a BIT TIRED or something the night i went. I have the text somehwere, i'll give it another read.
I saw Wastwater last night, at clybourne park's original royal court HOME. It's a bit indulgent as a play in the sense that it's three duologues that are only sort of connected, and it's not really ABOUT anything (although there are themes), but i really quite liked it.
I was still glad when it ended and i can understand WHY about half of everyone has hated it (and my mate REALLY could not stick it), but i am not in that club, because the acting was generally great (though i was a bit let down by simon amstell's tv grandma Linda Bassett), and the dialogue sparkled nicely. And it was wonderfully SICK at various points, but only felt like it was trying too hard at one point (when one character pissed himself for no apparent reason). I would give it EIGHT out of TEN and i'm not even sure WHY. I do think Simon Stephens is a great writer though, and it deffo showed here.
Also a special pat on the back to whoever designed the three very different and very big sturdy sets, and had them change over so quickly. It was like actual magic, and worth the ticket price alone (since it only cost us eight quid each).
I'm seeing my FIRST EVER HAMLET this week. I figured i'd waited long enough. Some cunt ruined the ending for me though
I've had such a barren year for theatre thus far and i'm actually quite disappointed in myself. My most reliable theatre buddy is now TOO IN LOVE to find the time, it would appear.
I've just been given tickets to see the new production of Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and so i'm hoping this will trigger a flurry of theatre going over the coming weeks. Not been to Stratford-Upon-Avon since i was a kid and so i'm going to make a wee trip of it and, as it falls in my week off work, stay a couple of days on my travels.
And I must see Clybourne Park next. I keep hearing such good things.
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