Theatre 2023

lolly said:
The main thing is A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE WANKERS really, isn't it? But I do think jukebox musicals have blurred the lines somewhat between what is acceptable and what isn't. And theatres using phrases like 'you'll be dancing in the aisles!' and squarely advertising at hen parties and the like doesn't help, either. And has audiences drinking in their seats always been a thing as well? I'm sure I don't remember it years ago.
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Now you can even order your drinks to be delivered TO your seat.

I like it when audiences sway and lightly clap along for a jovial jukebox show as that totally adds to the atmosphere and makes you feel like people are enjoying it. It’s actually the CHATTING that bothers me more than anything else. There are so many who just like to have a whole conversation, not even discreetly. WHY?

Grease (which might as well be a jukebox one considering how well known the songs are) was a big one last year and it’s why I resigned myself to only trying to book the front row, after so many people were openly just chatting about the differences to the film as if they were in their living room. Particularly going on and in about “I DON’T KNOW THIS ONE, THIS WASN’T IN THE FILM”… despite the fact that Mooning and Freddy My Love literally are on the film soundtrack.

Worst is when families are there and leaning over to someone 2-3 seats away to have a chat.
 
Ellie said:
Little deal I got emailed from Theatre Tokens:


We've partnered with The National Lottery to give players a free £25 Theatre Voucher to spend at any of our 300 participating theatres!

How To Claim:

  1. You'll need a Lotto ticket, Scratchcard or Instant Win Game, so head to National-Lottery.co.uk or use one you already have from playing in 2023.
  2. Go to LoveYourLocalTheatre.com and we'll ask you to enter a reference number from your physical or online ticket and then we'll email you a free £25 Theatre Voucher. To make it fair, you can claim 1 voucher per Lotto ticket/Scratchcard and per email address.
  3. You'll have 3 weeks to spend your voucher at one of our 300 theatres. But you don't have to see a show in the next few weeks, you can buy tickets to future shows - even pantos! Remember to check how each theatre accepts Theatre Tokens i.e. by phone and in-person or by email or online, as that will be the same way they accept the redemption of these special £25 vouchers.
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Thanks Ells, I just got my sisters some tickets for Six with this :disco:
 
Ellie said:
Now you can even order your drinks to be delivered TO your seat.

I like it when audiences sway and lightly clap along for a jovial jukebox show as that totally adds to the atmosphere and makes you feel like people are enjoying it. It’s actually the CHATTING that bothers me more than anything else. There are so many who just like to have a whole conversation, not even discreetly. WHY?

Grease (which might as well be a jukebox one considering how well known the songs are) was a big one last year and it’s why I resigned myself to only trying to book the front row, after so many people were openly just chatting about the differences to the film as if they were in their living room. Particularly going on and in about “I DON’T KNOW THIS ONE, THIS WASN’T IN THE FILM”… despite the fact that Mooning and Freddy My Love literally are on the film soundtrack.

Worst is when families are there and leaning over to someone 2-3 seats away to have a chat.
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The family having a full scale picnic at Charlie And The Chocolate Factory will hopefully be my lowest theatre going bad behaviour moment.

I'm not denying the embarrassingly cruddy show wouldn't have been immensely jollied up by tucking into a scotch egg, Frazzles and ASDA potato salad, but one should know there is a time and a place.
 
I recently earned £40 of Theatre Tokens just through seat reviews on Seatplan.com so used that to book another showing of Ain’t Too Proud for next month.
 
Bit on the young side, but I can see her in a turban, overacting furiously :disco:

Where do I buy a ticket?
 
I thought the LORD hated her because she ditched the Broadway production of Cats for one of her reality show gigs?

He's not usually one to forgive and forget where his erstwhile leading ladies are concerned (Carrie Hope Fletcher, Faye Dunaway and Patti LuPone to confirm).
 
Ellie said:
I’d love to see her in something but the one I saw with Glenn Close was perfect. I don’t want to ruin that.
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That was very good, but the original London production with the insane sets was the one.

Plus you got Elaine Paige or Betty Buckley (or Patti) tearing shreds out of the scenery :disco:
 
I saw Punch Drunk's The Burnt City on Tuesday.

Quite the experience, but ultimately a bit of a non-starter in the storytelling field which meant it didn't quite work for me.

Quite physically taxing too: you're walking around darkened rooms and staircases for 3 hours with a mask on, not allowed to speak and constantly banging into other punters and bits of scenery. The dancing (when you found it) was fantastic though.
 
I had Mrs Doubtfire last night. I don’t think it’s worth the ticket price but if there’s a deal then go for it. It’s very funny and updated well with expanded roles for the brother and his husband. It would be much better as a farce though because the music was incredibly forgettable.

Wicked last week was strangely underwhelming. I got a deal during Theatre Week ages ago for £25 front row dress circle. On a Wednesday, the usual expensive seats in the circle were only about 50% full, with the cheap seats behind very full. It completely ruined the atmosphere having a half empty area - honestly there were only 3 other people in my whole row.

Why couldn’t they just upgrade the people in the cheap seats behind? Or could they just not be arsed?
 
Unfortunately the writers strike means that the Ariana DeBose opening number is just dancing :(



(That jump :disco:)

 
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I think I’ll skip it.

Anyway, never seen We Will Rock You before and never really wanted to, but my mum was insisting. Managed to get a good £20 ticket deal for front stalls which was pretty good.

In other news I’m quite warmed to see that the whole first month of MJ The Musical has practically sold out nearly a year in advance (if you don’t believe me check the seat plans).
 
I will definitely be partaking of Nicma Desmond, though not at the silly prices it's going to go for in the first round. The more ludicrous, the better, quite frankly.

We Will Rock You is undeniable songs-wise, even if the book, costumes and everything else are ghastly, though it does rely on the crowd being suitably rabid for it. The Dominion was a great venue as it feels so expansive, so I do wonder how it would translate to a smaller venue.

You couldn't pay me to see MJ The Musical, but I hope you enjoy it - all 87 times you watch it!
 
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Christian said:
I will definitely be partaking of Nicma Desmond, though not at the silly prices it's going to go for in the first round. The more ludicrous, the better, quite frankly.

We Will Rock You is undeniable songs-wise, even if the book, costumes and everything else are ghastly, though it does rely on the crowd being suitably rabid for it. The Dominion was a great venue as it feels so expansive, so I do wonder how it would translate to a smaller venue.

You couldn't pay me to see MJ The Musical, but I hope you enjoy it - all 87 times you see it!
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It’s not a smaller venue as it’s at The Coliseum, so HUGE.
 
Bit of a non shock, but 42nd Street at Sadler’s Wells was a bit of a letdown for anyone who saw the recent production at Theatre Royal Drury Lane a few years ago. It’s still good, but completely scaled down without any of the wow factor. I’m glad we got our tickets in a Theatre Week discount.

Adam Garcia is a better dancer than actor and it’s nice that he joins in with the chorus during the finale just before the bows, but otherwise a bit miscast as Julian Marsh. Nicole-Lily Baisden as Peggy, again a good dancer but singing and acting are not her thing (I had the same issues with her in Anything Goes), and is nowhere near the triple threat of Clare Halse.
 
I was only wondering what happened to Adam Garcia the other day. Not for long of course.

I went to see Dame Michael in the revival of Aspects Of Love the other evening and found it rather good. I quite enjoy those small scale Lloyd Webber chamber pieces, and this is chock full of great tunes and performances, and a relatively challenging book, for him, anyway.

Plus, they only do the horrible Love Changes Everything once, rather than the three times the original production was made to suffer with.
 
Rather enjoyed the new production of The Wizard of Oz. I didn’t see the one 10+ years ago, but it was a strange hybrid of TWOZ and The Wiz, only I’d have preferred to have had songs from The Wiz rather than the new ALW written ones.

Anyway, stellar cast and I very much enjoyed the theatre emailing me yesterday to say my seat had been now classed as restricted view, so they offered a refund for half of what I originally paid… and the restriction was barely noticeable :disco:

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Loved Crazy For You. Loved Charlie Stemp and the rest of the cast were just as good :disco:

But I just hate Saturday Matinees. When I go with certain friends together they insist on them due to work/travel - one can do weekdays but not weekend evening, the other can only do weekends. But the atmosphere is always rubbish because it’s just full of OLD people. Even my 72 year old mother commented the other day that she’s sick of being amongst old people :D Seriously, the majority of the audience had some kind of mobility issue, and in a theatre with lots of steps all around, it’s infuriating to be stuck behind them all! You can only have so much patience.
 
Ellie said:
Loved Crazy For You. Loved Charlie Stemp and the rest of the cast were just as good :disco:
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We saw this Friday night! A friend was in it and honestly when I heard it was "tap, with no real storyline" I thought it sounded terrible, but actually I was absolutely swept away. Probably top 10 of all West End shows I've ever seen. The chorus line girls were the best thing about it, they were impeccably in step, and really gorgeous and funny too.

Hard agree on matinees as well. :D I still laugh at the murder mystery I saw in Brighton on a weekday matinee, full for old people unaware of how loud they were. So many mutterings of "oh 'ere she comes!", "Oh what does this one want now?" It was endearing but takes you out the moment straight away.
 
Ellie said:
Rather enjoyed the new production of The Wizard of Oz. I didn’t see the one 10+ years ago, but it was a strange hybrid of TWOZ and The Wiz, only I’d have preferred to have had songs from The Wiz rather than the new ALW written ones.

Anyway, stellar cast and I very much enjoyed the theatre emailing me yesterday to say my seat had been now classed as restricted view, so they offered a refund for half of what I originally paid… and the restriction was barely noticeable :disco:

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I was really tempted by that as another Great Uncle London trip, but ultimately decided to go for Palladium panto instead.
 
Ain’t Too Proud is closing in September, 4 months earlier than planned :(

It’s such a shame as it’s a wonderful show and I prefer it to Jersey Boys, which seems to still be going (despite the fact that I get offered free tickets to that from papering companies all the time). Maybe they were a bit ambitious with such a big theatre, but I hope the Prince Edward doesn’t go dark until MJ in March. The Drifters Girl had a longer run with I’d say lesser known music overall, but they had a smaller theatre and a star name attached :(
 
Have any of you seen Aspects of Love? Not one to turn down a free ticket, I thought well it’s famous. It’s supposed to be a bit crap but how bad can it be?

VERY BAD. It’s like what people who hate musicals imagine all musicals are like. If a fake musical within a film or TV show is made up to be a parody of something that is supposed to be bad… yeah, it’s that.

On the plus side, Jason Pennycooke and Russell Tovey sat in front of us.

You’re so ever so hard to please @Christian so I was surprised at your more positive feedback.
 
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Now I love me some Michael Balls, but not enough to see that.

I understand the more problematic elements from previous productions have been expunged, too. Or did this version still have Balls' character singing a delightful number called "Jenny Will Be A Woman Soon" about his friend's underage daughter who he wants to shag?
 
Finn said:
Now I love me some Michael Balls, but not enough to see that.

I understand the more problematic elements from previous productions have been expunged, too. Or did this version still have Balls' character singing a delightful number called "Jenny Will Be A Woman Soon" about his friend's underage daughter who he wants to shag?
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I don’t believe that number was in it, but all the problematic parts are still there. We didn’t see Michael Ball as he doesn’t do Mondays, hence the abundance of papering every Monday.
 
rhythmbandit said:
I know of a few of them by name only, and the comments seem to suggest they're great choices. Lin-Manuel Miranda appears to be a big fan of the cast, that must carry some weight.
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It didn't. :bruised:

playbill.com

New York, New York Closes On Broadway July 30

Colton Ryan and Anna Uzele lead the new Kander and Ebb musical, with additional material by Lin-Manuel Miranda and direction by Susan Stroman.
playbill.com playbill.com

There's still plans for a national tour in 2025 though.
 
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