The Luvvie Duvvie Theatre Discussion

[Seat68]

I go to the theatre a fair bit but not sure I have anything booked in any time soon. Last one I saw was Withnail and I at the rep, it was good, but not great whereas 2.22 also this year was fantastic. 

[chrisp65]

My lot were very lucky, they got very early tickets to see Hamilton when it was first in the U.K. and they thought it was stunning, brilliant. They do a lot of London theatre trips, it’s their thing, I generally act as taxi driver then just knock around Soho for the day trying to score fake viagra and cheap dub.

 

I did recently go to see the musical Come From Away, which whilst Inwas in there watching it I thought was perfectly enjoyable. Once out, literally still walking back to the car, I realised I couldn’t remeber a single tune from the show.

[Lichfield Dean]

7 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

My lot were very lucky, they got very early tickets to see Hamilton when it was first in the U.K. and they thought it was stunning, brilliant. They do a lot of London theatre trips, it’s their thing, I generally act as taxi driver then just knock around Soho for the day trying to score fake viagra and cheap dub.

 

I did recently go to see the musical Come From Away, which whilst Inwas in there watching it I thought was perfectly enjoyable. Once out, literally still walking back to the car, I realised I couldn’t remeber a single tune from the show.

I've heard good things about Come From Away. Sounds like an interesting story at least.

Edited July 7 by Lichfield Dean

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, Lichfield Dean said:

I've heard good things about Come From Away. Sounds like an interesting story at least.

Yep, good show, quite funny, if you like a musical you should definitely go and see it. No ear worm to walk out humming, but then I guess it wasn’t the usual formulaic show from the usual suspects. It can’t be a coincidence my lot see a lot of this stuff and they’d probably rate Come From Away, Hamilton, and Sunshine On Leith as preferable to much of the Lloyd Weber output.

[DaoDeMings]

1 hour ago, Seat68 said:

I go to the theatre a fair bit but not sure I have anything booked in any time soon. Last one I saw was Withnail and I at the rep, it was good, but not great whereas 2.22 also this year was fantastic. 

Got a free ticket to 2.22 at the Grand in Wolves - it was excellent 

Edited July 7 by DaoDeMings

[Lichfield Dean]

21 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Yep, good show, quite funny, if you like a musical you should definitely go and see it. No ear worm to walk out humming, but then I guess it wasn’t the usual formulaic show from the usual suspects. It can’t be a coincidence my lot see a lot of this stuff and they’d probably rate Come From Away, Hamilton, and Sunshine On Leith as preferable to much of the Lloyd Weber output.

Yeah the Lloyd Webber stuff is always pretty basic. He does come up with some memorable melodies, but and the staging is always top notch, but it's almost always very shallow and lacking in depth. I've seen Phantom and actually struggled to work out what was actually going on, but it had some hit songs and whatnot.

[Xann]

There's a world of difference between say Rodgers & Hammerstein's output and Lloyd Webber trash.

 

[TheAuthority]

17 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Ah treading the boards…the roar of the greasepaint…

I kinda like Beckett’s stuff.

There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet

[TheAuthority]

When I lived in NYC I got to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman play Willie in Death of a Salesman.

Although the play is a comment on American society and doesn't resonate with me to the same degree as people born and raised here, PSH embodied that character in a way I've never seen anyone inhibit a written persona. It was spell-binding.

 

[il_serpente]

Another thumbs up for Hamilton.   Saw it on Broadway exactly a week ago.   It was incredible.   I went in with high expectations and it exceeded them.

I saw The Book of Mormon on Broadway a dozen years ago and it was also fantastic.

I used to go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival every year.   Of the dozen or so plays they do each season, with actors in the repertory company having roles in 3 different plays that run concurrently.  They have an outdoor Elizabethan theatre as well as a modern indoor one and a very small, intimate one.   Of the dozen or so plays each season, only 4-5 are Shakespeare, so there's a great mix.   I've seen some fantastic productions of well known plays (Tom Stoppard's Arcadia), excellent lesser known and world premieres, as well as some horrible productions that our group of friends still make fun of 20 year later, like Henry James' Turn of the Screw, which I referred to as A Good Nap Spoiled after fighting off sleep (I was in the front row of a tiny theater for a matinee and couldn't allow myself to nod off despite the fact that I had just been on a 40 mile bike ride all morning and had a big lunch right before the show).

[Anthony]

21 hours ago, DaoDeMings said:

Saw a NTL screening if Nye a few weeks ago starring Michael Sheen. It was incredible would strongly recommend.

Me too. Really good.

[Anthony]

The other half is well into theatre/musical theatre - she's been performing since she was about ten. As a result, one very early stipulation if we were going to have a relationship, was that I would go with her to the theatre. Fine by me - she does all the research, then I go with her most of the time. That said, thankfully she rarely suggests musical theatre. Anyway, she knows her stuff and her opinion carries weight. We've seen some really good stuff, a few that were kind of OK, and a couple that were astonishingly poor. I'll leave out the OK ones:

The Good Person of Szechuan in Hammersmith. Absolutely awful. The original play itself is good, but my god, they absolutely butchered it. The staging was embarrassing, one of the actors was nearly quite good, the rest were awful. We left halfway through, which is unheard of.

Good on NT Live. David Tennant not doing his normal manic thing. Good and powerful.

Dear England in the West End. Really fun. GF not into football at all, and she really enjoyed it and began to understand what Southgate's done. (Obvs watching this year's Euros, she sees what he hasn't done too)

Nye on NT Live. Michael Sheen in a play about the founding of the NHS. Show you how close the creation of the NHS was to failure at every point. Again, really good, well staged, and quite informative.

The Flea at the Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick. Best play I've ever seen. Best play she's ever seen in over 40 years going 2 or 3 times a month. We were in the Wick looking for a place for a pint, and realised there was a theatre there. Looked it up when we got home and took a punt on a play that sounded interesting. It's (very) loosely based on the Cleveland Street Scandal in late Victorian period - the discovery and exposure of a gay brothel that has some important people as regulars. Anyway, it's fun and funny, the staging is very clever and the script is excellent. The actors are all very young and fresh out of drama school: they are phenomenal. They nearly all play two roles and are so different and believable in the two roles. It really felt like we were watching the superstars of the future. We were so blown away at the interval we could barely speak. We saw it last year, and it's coming back for another month the 7th of October to the 9th of November. I know it's that there London, but my god it's worth the trip. Right by Hackney Wick Station, which is one stop from Stratford (i.e. the Olympic Park and all that)

There's more I think,  but I have stuff to do.

Musical theatre though, can (mostly) get in the sea.

 

[tomav84]

On 07/07/2024 at 11:56, bannedfromHandV said:

The Book of Mormon is an absolute riot, whether you like theatre or not, one of the best things I’ve ever sat through - any thing, not just theatre.

Only went for the first time a few years ago as the missus is partial to it, have to be honest, as a once a year thing to do I quite enjoy it now, been to see Wicked and Phantom as well as Book of Mormon, Phantom was a bit too much for me to be honest but it’s the missus’ fave.

seen book of mormon 4 times. pissed myself laughing every time.

[bannedfromHandV]

3 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

seen book of mormon 4 times. pissed myself laughing every time.

Yeah I’m going back to watch it for a second time later this year when it hits Manchester 

[tonyh29]

We go up to London a fair bit for Theatre   , wont be one for the purists but my Neighbour Totoro is probably as close to perfection as you'll get on a theatre stage 

Saw Woody Harrelson and Andy Serkis a few months back in a small theatre that was pretty cool , you could almost reach out and touch them , though they both got upstaged by Louisa Harland (imo) 

think the last one i saw was with my daughter was the Unfriend with Lee Mack 

Next one I have planned is Dr Strangelove with Steve Coogan , but I'm sure I'll spontaneously book something before then 

If it comes back to the Uk , then "The Shark is broken" is one to look out for , based around the filming of Jaws and the arguments between Shaw and Dreyfuss  during delays in filming ... Robert Shaw's son plays his role , definitely don't need a paternity test for that one 

[chrisp65]

Just back from a weekend in Worcester for the Worcester Fringe event.

Really rather grand all told. Some patchy acts that could have done with a bit more rehearsal time, some genuine talent, some work in progress comedy, some exceptionally good lip sync drag. Also, probably the most I’ve had to drink in several years.

 

[VILLAMARV]

On 07/07/2024 at 13:46, DaoDeMings said:

Saw a NTL screening if Nye a few weeks ago starring Michael Sheen. It was incredible would strongly recommend.

 

On 08/07/2024 at 11:43, Anthony said:

Nye on NT Live. Michael Sheen in a play about the founding of the NHS. Show you how close the creation of the NHS was to failure at every point. Again, really good, well staged, and quite informative.

I also went to see a screening of this and thought it was really good. National Theatre though I suppose, so we should expect good production values and all that. The main thing though I wanted to add was about the screening bit which I've always shied away from, thinking it must be a little bit contrived but actually it was something I'll definitely do again, especially over here in the rural hills where our little local theatre/arts venue is unlikely to attract many touring acts and needs all the support in numbers it can get.

[mikeyp102]

Back to the Future is amazing. 
Moulin Rouge was very good. 
Harry Potter good. 
All in London. 
 

Saw And then there were none,  in Brum, not as good. 

[Brumstopdogs]

Saw Heathers in Windsor and the kids loved the show - the venue there is very quirky.

Went to see Hamilton in London yesterday. Really great production and would recommend.

[choffer]

Slave Play yesterday. Won a load of awards on Broadway, lots of column inches written about how contentious the subject matter is. 
Even the missus who was keen to see it, didn’t think it was much cop. The only highlight for her was that Jon Snow off of GoT getting his kit off (much less in the way of column inches. Must’ve been cold).