Paid Members Gus Mears Posted March 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) The local Gilbert and Sullivan Society did a performance on music hall. You know, Knees Up Mother Brown and all of that shit.It was amazing. The single most hammy 2 hours I will ever experience and all the better for it.   For a start, legit the youngest person involved was deep into there 40's. One of the men doing the Gendarmes Duet looked like he had already started decomposing and he may well have been using Kane's voicebox from 1997.  Overall, it was tremendous, some septuagenarian lady broke her wrist in the last rehearsal and soldiered on to do a staggeringly camp version of Burlington Bertie from Bow. Although the highlight was the bloke who did the Marrow Song, a charming double entendre ditty about a marrow being a phallus. This ancient guy did the fucking Ali Shuffle on stage with a giant cardboard marrow, before bopping around with it like he'd just turned his defibrillator up to 11.    A thread for me, HG and probably Chilli. Definitely King Coconut too.  One of the best things I have seen in the past couple of months is the Play That Goes Wrong. Slapstick absurdity and a set that collapses lots, it's top.  Also saw a horrendous production of Winter's Tale the week before last. Up its own arse to an absurd extent. The entire crux of the play is that Leonetes is supposed to not be sullied to the extent that he can't be resurrected in the second act. You had Leonetes here playing Phil Mitchell. Going mental every three seconds, punching his child, kneeing his wife in the gut, beating the shit out of his mates, shouting randomly. I don't know why the director felt that this was meant to make me like him in the second act.  The best part of the play was when they did this bit showing Leonetes' dead wife on the screen, lot like Taker after he got put in the casket in '93. But the technician fucked it up, so while Leonetes is blubbing and wailing as per, the screen says 'TEST, TEST. PLEASE INSERT WIRE'.  I've got Mikado in a fortnight, same all male cast who I saw do Pinafore last year and they were outstanding. Very much looking forward to it.  What are you watching in the theatre? Is it good, is it bad? Edited March 7, 2017 by Gus Mears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanky316 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Â Â Â One of the best things I have seen in the past couple of months is the Play That Goes Wrong. Slapstick absurdity and a set that collapses lots, it's top. Â Â Â It's great and well worth seeing. Gutted I didn't realise Peter Pan that Goes Wrong over new year because that looked great fun. It certainly couldn't have been worse than my youth theatres attempt at it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WWFChilli Posted March 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 I went to see Bangor Uni's Theatre group do a production of Patrick Marber's bag of bollocks 'Closer' many years ago. It was one of the most arrogant up it's own arse productions. State of it. I love shit theatre sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted March 7, 2017 Awards Moderator Share Posted March 7, 2017 Â Â Â Â Â One of the best things I have seen in the past couple of months is the Play That Goes Wrong. Slapstick absurdity and a set that collapses lots, it's top. Â Â It's great and well worth seeing. Gutted I didn't realise Peter Pan that Goes Wrong over new year because that looked great fun. It certainly couldn't have been worse than my youth theatres attempt at it... I'll third Play That Goes Wrong. Saw it in London a year or so ago and caught the UK tour in Newcastle in January. Absolutely bloody hilarious - although I saw Peter Pan Goes Wrong first so I think I prefer that (if you can't get to see the stage version there was a TV broadcast on New Year's Eve on BBC). Â I can recommend The Comedy About A Bank Robbery as well, which is at the Criterion in London. Same company but it's more of a 'straight' play rather than the Cornley Polytechnic like the other two. Also extremely funny - it's as close to a modern Naked Gun/Airplane style comedy as I've ever seen. So many gags and great moments. Â It's really cool seeing this little fringe group (of, admittedly, LAMDA graduates) go from doing shows above pubs to having three plays on in the West End, plus TV, plus touring versions, plus Broadway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Gus Mears Posted March 7, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 I like the idea of Comedy About A Bank Robbery and shall certainly attempt to catch it. Â Actually, favourite thing I've seen this year might well be Crimes Against Christmas, which was at the Theatre Royal's B-Theatre the Ustinov. It was wonderful, a cast of 4 doing about 20 characters and also the most impressive piece of ad-libbing I have seen, after an audience member fainted quite loudly upstairs and the ambulance had to come and collect them. Â New Old Friends was the company name if I recall correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikehoncho Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Going to see The Commitments (the musical) in Brum the weekend after next; should be a laugh. Â Unashamedly, I saw We Will Rock You 8 times ... 3 times from the side of the stage ... :) Â Rock Of Ages 5 times ... once from side of stage. Â Saw Chicago with Clare Sweeney, Tell Me On A Sunday with Denise Van Outen, LOADS of tribute acts (Blues Brothers, etc.) & comedians in theatres ... Evita on tour ... serious plays aren't high priority for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian 86 Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017      One of the best things I have seen in the past couple of months is the Play That Goes Wrong. Slapstick absurdity and a set that collapses lots, it's top.  It's great and well worth seeing. Gutted I didn't realise Peter Pan that Goes Wrong over new year because that looked great fun. It certainly couldn't have been worse than my youth theatres attempt at it... I'll third Play That Goes Wrong.   I'll fourth it (is that a thing?).  Great play.  I'm not always a big slapstick fan but there's enough of an underlying plot to hold this together.  Also quite a few Mousetrap references.  Speaking of which, I was a bit disappointed when I saw that.  Not sure if it was the 'legendary play' status in a sort of 'never meet your heroes' way or that I guessed who dunnit quite early on.  Still, well put together play and worth seeing if you havent.  Keen to go to Bank Robbery.  Group trip? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Coconut Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Are you real theatre buffs going to stand for Honcho diluting this thread with his Dirty Dancing bollocks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted March 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2017      One of the best things I have seen in the past couple of months is the Play That Goes Wrong. Slapstick absurdity and a set that collapses lots, it's top.  It's great and well worth seeing. Gutted I didn't realise Peter Pan that Goes Wrong over new year because that looked great fun. It certainly couldn't have been worse than my youth theatres attempt at it... I'll third Play That Goes Wrong. Saw it in London a year or so ago and caught the UK tour in Newcastle in January. Absolutely bloody hilarious - although I saw Peter Pan Goes Wrong first so I think I prefer that (if you can't get to see the stage version there was a TV broadcast on New Year's Eve on BBC).    I wouldn't recommend this. I saw the stage version and thought it was a good laugh, lots of energy and fun. The TV version was absolutely horrible, everything seemed incredibly laboured and hack. Some things don't translate well on screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 I've been wanting to see The Play That Goes Wrong for ages, just never had the chance. Â Haven't got anything upcoming any time soon though, I did want to see The Hypocrite with Mark Addy in it but it sold out ultra quick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Gus Mears Posted March 7, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) Get to it if you can Wyatt, it's perfect matinee fodder.  Actually on that, is anyone as big a matinee fan as I am? The superior time of day to catch a play (on a Saturday or Sunday anyhow). Means that I can get out at 5, catch a good restaurant before the pre-evening crush and then head to a bar/pub and enjoy the evening as a kind of double feature.  I am very lucky that my London office is 25m from the Savoy, so I can essentially get free train tickets to London a couple of time per week and potentially catch something in the area before going home. I haven't done this yet (too much going on at the theatre's round the corner in Bath) but I really want to at some point soon. Any London recommendations appreciated. Edited March 7, 2017 by Gus Mears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Are you real theatre buffs going to stand for Honcho diluting this thread with his Dirty Dancing bollocks?  Always ties in with the idiots at work thread. When asked what I was up to at the weekend (solely so they could tell me what they were doing at the weekend) and I said going to the theatre. It would always start a conversation on "Musical Theatre" which Stewart Lee accurately described as taking the worst things about theatre, the worst things about music and creating an all new cultural low. Last thing I saw was The Emperor. Kathryn Hunter performing nine parts about the last days of Heilie Selassi reigning over Ethiopia. As fully paid up ponce, I'm a member of HOME in Manchester and get good deals on tickets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted March 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 My girlfriend runs a theatre blog, so I am frequently sponging free tickets off of her. Mainly fringe stuff, but occasionally big shows. The best thing I've seen recently was The Many Crimes of Hector Cartwright, which was a fun historical crime investigation at The Vaults. I've got none of Keith's snobbery though, I will happily see any old shit, in fact I am lobbying hard for tickets to Bat Out of Hell when it starts over here. I'm not fucking paying though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Gus Mears Posted March 7, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 (edited) I have a degree of pretentious, but that's probably not bastioned in taste considering I fucking love Gilbert and Sullivan. I often break out into verses of  'Captain of the Pinafore' while raddled. Edited March 7, 2017 by Gus Mears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted March 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 Oh yeah, sorry there is a line of taste I won't cross - it's Gilbert and Sullivan. Absolute shite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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