Theatre Thread

[organizedkaos]

Oh I saw Slave Play recenly. Which has just ended it's run so recommending it is probably useless. I loved it but it's the sort of thing that's totally up my street. A bit scrappy, erudite and weird - conveying a perspective on modern society that is coming from a person greatly different than I am. Jeremy O Harris said that art is all "half thoughts" and that's definitely this.. If you can enjoy things for being half thoughts rather than some comprehensive statement it shines.

Anyone trying to suggest or engage with it as some sort of powerful treatise on racism and white guilt and whatnot it will find it lacking. As a very witty, subversive and clever comedy it's great. It's trying to provoke a little but knows it is and is questioning that too? There's some genuinely very thoughtful and well observed parts but it's also just really interested in throwing out a lot of ideas and jokes and mocking most everything. The characters are all too wrapped up in their own shit to actually deal with anything in any meaningful way and I'm fairly sure that's the point. Simulated pegging was certainly a new theatre moment for me. Also Jon Snow has a reassuringly small penis for a sex symbol

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Used our National Theatre at Home to watch Fleabag, still a great show!

[Frankie Crisp]

We went to watch Wicked last weekend. I hate musicals, but it was a present for my folks and do you know what, it was ace!

About twenty minutes in I regretted it as it really didn’t click, but soon after it got its groove and really played out well. The big mad Oz robot and the flying monkeys made the show; I didn’t see how it could all work until those bits popped up. It was stunning after that point.

It was as the Apollo Victoria. Don’t get a pint unless you’ve got at least four numbers on the lottery.

 

[Carbomb]

Was at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at The Globe last night for All's Well That Ends Well.

I love going to the SW; it's an absolutely gorgeous little theatre, and the plays being done all by candlelight, Jacobean-style, really adds something.

The production, whilst not quite as strong as Much Ado and Comedy of Errors, was still very good. As always, excellent performances from the cast, and the musical performances from the orchestra and singer were top-notch.

As a play, AWTEW is considerably more problematic than most of Shakespeare's comedies, but this was very well done in spite of that. This version was played with a tone much darker and more sardonic than the aforementioned two; it felt much less light-hearted and silly, and very cynical and claustrophobic in some places (I do wonder if that might have been a factor in the decision to hold it in the Playhouse instead of the Globe theatre itself).

If you can get to it, I do recommend it. The Globe has been knocking it out of the park the past year or so, in my view. They usually do well, but this year I haven't disliked a single thing I've seen. I'll be seeing Chekhov's Three Sisters at the Playhouse next month, and Cymbeline at the Globe in March. Looking forward to those.

[Vamp]

Just come back from The Nutcracker. I've seen a handful of ballets but never The Nutcracker before. It's a big sugary production and quite the spectacle. It's not necessarily the most dynamic or exciting ballet, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as a starting point for anyone over 10, but there's something warm and quite charming about it. 

It doesn't help that the original plot is rubbish. You get something that's very unbalanced with all the story in the first half and all the dancing in the second half. I guess it'd be too controversial to change but I can't help but think it'd be better if someone went "fuck it" and fixed it so there's actually some sense of drama in the second half. But then that's probably not the point.

Beautiful dancing though. It confirms my opinion that ballet and wrestling are basically the same thing, just one gets a better audience.

[BomberPat]

I saw The Importance Of Being Earnest at the National last night.

Absolutely brilliant. It opens with a big elaborate and very camp song and dance number, which worried me that it might take some liberties with the source material and try and restage it as something it isn't, but thankfully it's just topped and tailed with the big dance productions rather than them being spread through out. No complaints about that, then, nor, admittedly, for opening the curtains to reveal Ncuti Gatwa in high heels and hot pants. That's fine, thanks.

The dialogue is obviously very stagey, and often turns to overlong monologues to get to a bon mot, because that's what Oscar Wilde does, but everyone is clearly having so much fun with the material that it never feels stuffy, and the little moments where they do play around with the script or break the fourth wall are all genuinely unexpected and brilliant. A lot of the focus will be on Gatwa, and he is absolutely brilliant in it, but Hugh Skinner as Ernest/Jack is incredible, and pretty much the entire supporting cast get some great bits of business. Sharon D. Clarke plays Lady Bracknell less as a society lady, and more as a domineering Afro-Caribbean matriarch, and it's terrifying. 

I recently saw a gender-swapped production of Cyrano, that was excellent, but I joked coming out of it that you can't throw a rock in an English theatre without landing on a feminist or queer reimagining of a classic play. What I liked here is that they just let the queer undertones of the story play out, and threw in little bits of physical comedy that lean into it, but never felt the need to push the script itself any further than that, and I think it worked much better for it; a lesser production might have been tempted to subvert things or try too hard.

Can't recommend enough.

[Chris B]

On 1/17/2025 at 11:14 AM, BomberPat said:

I saw The Importance Of Being Earnest at the National last night.

Absolutely brilliant. It opens with a big elaborate and very camp song and dance number, which worried me that it might take some liberties with the source material and try and restage it as something it isn't, but thankfully it's just topped and tailed with the big dance productions rather than them being spread through out. No complaints about that, then, nor, admittedly, for opening the curtains to reveal Ncuti Gatwa in high heels and hot pants. That's fine, thanks.

The dialogue is obviously very stagey, and often turns to overlong monologues to get to a bon mot, because that's what Oscar Wilde does, but everyone is clearly having so much fun with the material that it never feels stuffy, and the little moments where they do play around with the script or break the fourth wall are all genuinely unexpected and brilliant. A lot of the focus will be on Gatwa, and he is absolutely brilliant in it, but Hugh Skinner as Ernest/Jack is incredible, and pretty much the entire supporting cast get some great bits of business. Sharon D. Clarke plays Lady Bracknell less as a society lady, and more as a domineering Afro-Caribbean matriarch, and it's terrifying. 

I recently saw a gender-swapped production of Cyrano, that was excellent, but I joked coming out of it that you can't throw a rock in an English theatre without landing on a feminist or queer reimagining of a classic play. What I liked here is that they just let the queer undertones of the story play out, and threw in little bits of physical comedy that lean into it, but never felt the need to push the script itself any further than that, and I think it worked much better for it; a lesser production might have been tempted to subvert things or try too hard.

Can't recommend enough.

Managed to get Friday Rush tickets after reading this review, so went last night. I somehow have never seen or read The Importance of Being earnest, and absolutely loved it. We had an understudy playing Lady Bracknell, but she was also fantastic. And yeah, entire cast is great, and the way they kept everything moving and played up - really fun stuff.

It's doing the cinema rounds in the next few months with NT Live. Well worth the visit if you get the chance.

[Chris B]

Double post, sorry, but I only learned about the Friday Rush thing last week.

Basically, on a Friday, they release £10 (or similar) seated and standing tickets for major productions. But it's kind of a lottery. Basically, they put the links up between 12.30 and 1pm,  and you register. You then join a waiting room at 1pm, and if there are tickets available, you can book them. There are about 50-100 each week.

They say the numbers are random, but I joined on desktop within the first minute of the link going live, and on my mobile about ten minutes later. On desktop, I was given 35 in the queue, and on mobile, 3,500. So I reckon the closer you are to the time, the higher up the queue you are. 

So it's a little bit of a lottery, but I got two restricted view for £10. They were more like private box, tbh - probably had the most space of anyone in the theatre. Couldn't see all the upstage left, but that's generally not a part that's used for much important.

 

[Carbomb]

There's also Central Tickets, if you register with them. Usually morning releases.

Also, the Royal Court Theatre often has 10p tickets, but as you might imagine the view is rubbish. Depends on what your tolerance is.

[Weezenal]

TodayTix is pretty good if you live in London. Can get £25 rush tickets for for a alot of the popular ones on the day from 10am on the app. Have to be quite lucky for the really popular ones like Wicked or Hamilton but most days you'll get something with a decent seat.

[Monkee]

I’ve got tickets to see The Tempest this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it as I’ve never seen a live production and I’m interested to see how they work the gender shift for Sigourney Weaver.

I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that it actually goes ahead considering I had tickets for Romeo & Juliet (Tom Holland) and Macbeth (David Tennant) and both got cancelled due to cast illness. My track record’s not looking good.

I’m seeing Elektra (Bree Larson) and Much Ado (Tom Hiddleston & Hayley Attwell) in the next couple of months too and I’m really excited about both of these. I like big names doing plays like this to encourage people to the theatre but I wish the average price off all tickets would come down - then there wouldn’t be an issue with getting bums on seats and make it more accessible and affordable.

Edited January 24, 2025 by Monkee
‘Romero & Juliet’ is a totally different theatre experience

[BomberPat]

not to put too much of a dampener on things, but the reviews for the Tempest have been dreadful - to the point of suggesting it might be the death knell for "Celebrity Shakespeare". I only know a couple of people who went, and they said it's Sigourney that really drags it down and the rest of the production is fine. Hopefully they just caught a bad night and it's better for you!

[Onyx2]

7 hours ago, Monkee said:

I wish the average price off all tickets would come

? A friend mentioned Sigourney doing Tempest and wondered about going. Cheapest when we looked were £35, and the view would have been rotten. So after train and a pre-theatre meal it would've been a ~£75 night out for me alone. Just doesn't cost in. 

Even at the low end of the spectrum, there's a 'Goes Wrong Show Importance of Being Earnest' post Edinburgh thing my daughter would lap up that's in a modest theatre (600 seats?) round my way, and that's a £100 night out for three of us. I can't take a punt at that price. 

[FLips]

Aye I had a text this morning from a mate who fancied seeing War of the Worlds with us and I had a look and the tickets are upwards of £85 for shit seats. There aren’t many left so hoping they sell out so I don’t have to commit to it.

[Gus Mears]

I've booked a few in advance of moving to London next month, so I have a few evenings to look forward to while I try to build a new friend group from scratch.

Cymbeline at the Globe.

Oedipus at the Old Vic .

Dear Martin at the Arcola.

Also, many thanks to Pat for mentioning the reviews for The Tempest, because I was really tempted to book and would rather spend that on something better based on what I've now read.

I am really looking forward to having theatre on the doorstep every day if I want (within reason reason given some of the prices). I swear where I live currently has basically been panto for 3 months.

Edited January 24, 2025 by Gus Mears