Theatre Reviews & Recommendations, What Have You Seen? What Are You Going To See? What's Your Fave? Options

[angelfan]

I'm going to see a different theatrical experience tonigh in the form of Slava's Snow Show.

[Lovely_Head]

Two of the best I've seen were The Tempest and Don Carlos, both starring Derek Jacobi with Claire Price as his daughter in the former and wife in the latter.

I also loved Pam Gem's Piaf with Anna Jane Casey in the lead and the northern ballet's Dracula.

There was a production here of The Crucible a few years ago which was excellent - I went twice - but generally I don't enjoy performances of Arthur Miller plays.

[buzz8976]

I'm off to see Evita tonight will let you know how it goes later.

[nelde]

We're going to plays with our German teacher quite regularly. The last (and best) we saw was The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute.
It was great, both the story and the staging. Plus it had a naked man
The theme is very interesting. We talked about it very long, what may art do? Is art allowed to do anything? Does art has to be made under any circumstances?
Really fascinating, you should see it, if you can.

[buzz8976]

Evita was awesome, if it's coming near yo go see it. I loved it

[Ebenezer88]

^^^

Glad you enjoyed it, did you cry at "You must love me"?

If you didn't you have a heart of stone .

[ATD]

^^^

Glad you enjoyed it, did you cry at "You must love me"?

If you didn't you have a heart of stone .

I'll bet he didn't, he's well 'ard is our Buzz

[angelfan]

I didn't enjoy Evita as much as the first time I saw it. It has lost a lot of the satirical humour and is trying to hard to recreate the movie. They also changed the pace at which she died.

[DARRENJ]

I prefer musicals, highly reccomend Wicked, but saw The History Boys recently and also very good

[darker_phoenix]

Why all this howling, hysterical sorrow?

[buzz8976]

^^^

Glad you enjoyed it, did you cry at "You must love me"?

If you didn't you have a heart of stone .

Oddly that scene wasn't that emotional, which is a shame.

well 'ard is our Buzz

I've told you not to talk about that in a public forum

I didn't enjoy Evita as much as the first time I saw it. It has lost a lot of the satirical humour and is trying to hard to recreate the movie. They also changed the pace at which she died.

It did seem to follow the movie exactly, having not see it before the film came out I don't have anything else to compare it too. It was still really good though.

This post has been edited by buzz8976: Nov 14 2008, 11:01

[Nosferatu]

I'll probably only see one more show this year and that'll be "Osage County" at the National at the end of this month. Apparently its an epic 3 hour + play so I think that'll do me for theatre this year, lol.

Next year looks like I'll be going even more, I've already booked up to see "Over There" at the Royal Court, "Loot" at the Tricycle and "New Boy" at the Trafalgar Studios and will probably be booking more after Xmas.

[angelfan]

I'll probably only see one more show this year and that'll be "Osage County" at the National at the end of this month. Apparently its an epic 3 hour + play so I think that'll do me for theatre this year, lol.

Well although I'd like to see it it will have opened and closed by the next time I'm in London so I'll just have to catch the movie they're making of it.

My next show is West Side Story in just under a fortnight. Then I've got The Witches of Eastwick in December. Next year I'm planning on going to see An Inspector Calls (again), Boeing Boeing (again) and Little Shop of Horrors (again).

[buzz8976]

Angelfan let me know what you think of West Side story it's coming to us at the start of the new year.

[syntax_aus]

I've seen Phantom, Miss Saigon, The Sound of Music, War of the Worlds.
Phantom was the best followed by the Sound of Music then Miss Saigon.

Took my two teenage daughters to see Phantom last year and even my 15 year old who loves head banging music thought it was excellent. Unfortunately Rob Guest, who played the phantom, died recently.

Loved Phantom so much I have already booked front row seats, for May 09, to see it again (Anthony Warlow playing the phantom here in Australia)!

There is nothing like a good live musical to transport you away temporarily to a fantasy world!

[angelfan]

I went to see Phantom for the second time when I was in London last month and realised I'm not really a fan of the show.

Angelfan let me know what you think of West Side story it's coming to us at the start of the new year.

I will do. I've seen it before but I know this has been slightly contemporarised (sp).

[Nosferatu]

I'll probably only see one more show this year and that'll be "Osage County" at the National at the end of this month. Apparently its an epic 3 hour + play so I think that'll do me for theatre this year, lol.

Well although I'd like to see it it will have opened and closed by the next time I'm in London so I'll just have to catch the movie they're making of it.

My next show is West Side Story in just under a fortnight. Then I've got The Witches of Eastwick in December. Next year I'm planning on going to see An Inspector Calls (again), Boeing Boeing (again) and Little Shop of Horrors (again).

Oh right, thats cool. I didn't know they were making a film out of it.

[angelfan]

The Weinstein Company has snapped up the film rights to August: Osage County, a darkly comedic, Pulitzer and Tony-winning stage play which begins an eight-week run in London, at the National Theatre, from November 21.

Harvey Weinstein will produce the film, along with Jean Doumanian and Steve Traxler, and has tapped up the play’s author, Tracy Letts, to write the adaptation.

She’ll have a heck of a job – August: Osage County is a three-hour plus epic about the reunion of a dysfunctional family that features drug abuse, suicide, and incest, amongst other things.

But Weinstein clearly has great belief in the project, and in Letts. "I've loved the writing since I was given a 240-page script for a three-hour play that starred nobody, that had no workshop," he told Variety. "My reaction was similar to the feeling I had when I read Quentin Tarantino's script for True Romance. Tracy has that kind of voice."

Weinstein, who is an investor in the stage play, hopes to have the film version in cinemas by 2012.

[6y7uh]

Saw 'The Hired Man' yesterday.
Totally not impressed. Got much better during the second part but definitely not great.
The lead's voice was AMAZING though!
And was such a nice guy

[angelfan]

Well I went to see West Side Story last night and thought it was excellent. However now that I'm listening to the soundtrack there were quite a few changes in terms of the score. Several numbers have been moved about. America was only sung by four of the Puerto Rican girls. I had already read that most of Somewhere was sung offstage during the ballet sequence. Despite all the differences I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

The set was quite simple but very effective. Two large wooden frames designed to look like the fire escapes of American apartment blocks. Most of the time they were on either side of the stage but brought together when Tony visits Maria and they sing Tonight (when they part Tony is standing on the stage and Maria is still on the "balcony" and it moves back from him so it really gives the impression of them leaving each other). On the lower right hand side of one frame was a door which was used as the entrance to Maria's bedroom, the entrance to Doc's diner and the entrance to the bridal shop.

It was also effective for the Quintet where each frame was brought in at an angle with Anita on the left side frame and Maria on the right side.

They did slightly update it in terms of the costumes worn by the cast (the Jets were primarily dressed in shades of green with jackets with Jets written on the back and the Sharks were dressed in pastel colours). Some of the language was updated too with the Puerto Ricans sometimes referred to as Spics (or simply PRs).

I would definately recommend seeing the show whether you've seen it before or not.