Theatre 2025

I saw Evita yesterday

My God it was incredible. Ziegler is absolutely NEXT LEVEL.

The whole of the first act and the balcony scene are in particular first class and beyond.

Loses a little momentum at the end but that's mostly because of how amazing the rest is.

Go see it!
 
So, Burlesque is a bit of a mess, but I just DON’T KNOW.

The first act is the biggest problem. For such a simple film with basic plot, they don’t half find it difficult to grasp, and it’s all over the place. The small change made by making the ex husband the villain should have simplified it, but then adding the ridiculous paternity angle was just stupid. Was this the plot in Glasgow/Manchester?

You Haven’t Seen The Last of Me IS in the show. But the song list is in the programme and it’s not there, so they’ve clearly quickly added it back in.

Maybe 2 of the new songs serve a purpose. Playing Kylie in the interval was just teasing us with good music, before settling back down to some of these vanilla offerings.

Todrick Hall does seem to love himself. I was strangely sat next to some fag ash breathed whooper and screamer who seemed to find him hysterical. A handful of the jokes are funny, but a lot of them are pretty basic.

The cast are incredibly talented, but the screeching and shouting can become a bit “yeah, that’s impressive but please find the melody”. Jess Folley is clearly a Christina fan and great imitator, but a bit lacking in the acting. Glad to see Paul French is as beautiful as ever, and seems to have improved in the singing department too (finally).

It finished just before 22:20, so that’s an improvement on the reports from last week. If they could now cut 10 minutes from the first act and 5 from the second, it would be a vast improvement.

But all in all, it’s as trashy as expected and still better than the Dirty Dancing stage adaptation.
 
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Got a few days off work this week. Loved another Police Cops show last night. This time Badass Be Thy Name, a turn of the millennium Manchester rave scene vampire comedy :D

Had also been waiting for a Thursday off so I could finally see Stereophonic on a matinee, so booked a TKTS deal (I didn’t realise before that they were available online from midnight). It seems people either love it or hate it, so we’ll see.

But my fav theatre find yesterday was finding out that actor Stevie Webb, who was the funniest thing in Shucked… was actually the child who got knocked off stage by Jarvis Cocker during the 1996 Brit Awards :D

 
Ellie said:
Got a few days off work this week. Loved another Police Cops show last night. This time Badass Be Thy Name, a turn of the millennium Manchester rave scene vampire comedy :D

Had also been waiting for a Thursday off so I could finally see Stereophonic on a matinee, so booked a TKTS deal (I didn’t realise before that they were available online from midnight). It seems people either love it or hate it, so we’ll see.

But my fav theatre find yesterday was finding out that actor Stevie Webb, who was the funniest thing in Shucked… was actually the child who got knocked off stage by Jarvis Cocker during the 1996 Brit Awards :D

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I found Stereophonic just ok. Overlong for sure, but the cast were excellent and I liked the concept. I can see why it is divisive. My partner absolutely loved it though.... perhaps I don't know enough about the history of Fleetwood Mac to truly appreciate it.
 
passthatdutch said:
I found Stereophonic just ok. Overlong for sure, but the cast were excellent and I liked the concept. I can see why it is divisive. My partner absolutely loved it though.... perhaps I don't know enough about the history of Fleetwood Mac to truly appreciate it.
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The first act was really tedious. Most of it was just jibber jabber dialogue and wasn’t really saying anything. Definitely picked up in the second act.

I too don’t know all of the details of Fleetwood Mac, but with this being a faux pastiche of the band, the music and vocals just weren’t as good to be able to forgive the rest. The supposed Stevie Nicks character was just wishy washy and annoying, and the Buckingham doppelgänger was horrible. I kinda liked the other characters and wish more had been done to focus on them.

And yeah, that did not need to be so long.
 
So you thought similar to me then. I'm bemused by the rave reviews from Broadway (not sure how it has been reviewed here). I went on a Saturday evening and there was a LOT of empty seats in the stalls so I assume it isn't selling that well, but that could be down to the price

Agree about more focus on the other characters too.
 
passthatdutch said:
So you thought similar to me then. I'm bemused by the rave reviews from Broadway (not sure how it has been reviewed here). I went on a Saturday evening and there was a LOT of empty seats in the stalls so I assume it isn't selling that well, but that could be down to the price

Agree about more focus on the other characters too.
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Yes, I really liked the interaction between the studio engineers and the Christine McVie character. I’m just calling them by their FM names because I can’t even remember what they are in the play :D
 
I really liked Stereophonic but I do agree it could have been shorter. Sitting in those cramped theatre seats for 3 plus hours was not kind to my poor knees :(

I am a Fleetwood Mac nut though so I was always the target audience.
 
I feel out of place in this highbrow play chat, coming in to say that I've seen DISNEY'S HERCULES and MOULIN ROUGE THE MUSICAL in the past ten days and had a FUCKING LOVELY TIME at both :disco:

Objectively both were a little creaky, but it didn't matter. Terrific songs, lovely performances, great gowns.
 
I saw Moulin Rouge last night, and whilst it was good I think I’d only put it at a 7/10. Relative nosebleed seats which I think in this case actually was a bit annoying - normally I don’t care and am fine to be near the back, but it was a bit high and it felt like you missed a bit of the vibe. Plus super uncomfortable for whatever reason.

I guess it’s a hard one to translate fully the spectacle to the stage, which again was fine but not completely as good as I’d hoped.
 
We were in the stalls (for £30!), and with all the pre-show business I think that probably did add to feeling part of the show.

Was the audience hen party hell for you, Devil? Good lord at the state of ours, although tbh it didn't matter once the show started as it was loud enough to drown out all the drunk Lindas.
 
Finn said:
I feel out of place in this highbrow play chat, coming in to say that I've seen DISNEY'S HERCULES and MOULIN ROUGE THE MUSICAL in the past ten days and had a FUCKING LOVELY TIME at both :disco:

Objectively both were a little creaky, but it didn't matter. Terrific songs, lovely performances, great gowns.
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Loved Moulin Rouge, a really fun show. Give me that over the supoosedly high brow Stereophonic any day!
 
I can’t do jukebox musicals where the chosen songs are a massive hotchpotch of random things plucked out of anywhere. Stick to a theme of some kind! Coupled with the fact that I’m in a minority of people who’ve never even liked the film. It’s just not for me.
 
I did like Moulin Rouge but replacing 'Someday I'll Fly Away' with 'Firework' was EVIL. I felt like most of the songs added (except 'Royals') didn't really fit the brief.
 
GNL said:
I did like Moulin Rouge but replacing 'Someday I'll Fly Away' with 'Firework' was EVIL. I felt like most of the songs added (except 'Royals') didn't really fit the brief.
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They did fucking WHAT?

What else? Did they replace the Absinthe Fairy with the Michellin Man?
 
Finn said:
We were in the stalls (for £30!), and with all the pre-show business I think that probably did add to feeling part of the show.

Was the audience hen party hell for you, Devil? Good lord at the state of ours, although tbh it didn't matter once the show started as it was loud enough to drown out all the drunk Lindas.
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Mainly tourists up in the gods with me, all looking very American with their bored teenage kids. After three pints I was probably one of the Linda’s :D
 
GNL said:
I did like Moulin Rouge but replacing 'Someday I'll Fly Away' with 'Firework' was EVIL. I felt like most of the songs added (except 'Royals') didn't really fit the brief.
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I do get them updating some of it it as many of the songs in the original were relatively modern for the time, but it did seem like quite ‘easy’ choices. Only really Toxic can I remember being rather good.
 
It's QUITE the twenteens time capsule in places. Like, these are two songs not on regular rotation anywhere outside of the Piccadilly Theatre and wherever Moulin Rouge happens to be touring this week:

 
So Burlesque was ridiculous and I'm not sure how it got made when nobody went to see the original film, but it was fun to watch.

The plot was simultaneously weirdly over the top and totally nothingy.

The crux of the story is now that the Cher character is the Christina character's mother.

There is a subplot where Cher is a TERF but has a damascene conversion thanks to peer pressure. I assume this was more substantial in the four hour director's cut that tortured audiences in previews but was introduced and wrapped up in about two minutes here.

Not a single mention of AIR RIGHTS.

But it was an entertaining bit of trash with a very impressive ensemble and I did not hate watching Todrick as much as I wanted to. I don't understand how it got five stars from The Guardian though.
 
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GNL said:
So Burlesque was ridiculous and I'm not sure how it got made when nobody went to see the original film, but it was fun to watch.

The plot was simultaneously weirdly over the top and totally nothingy.

The crux of the story is now that the Cher character is the Christina character's mother.

There is a subplot where Cher is a TERF but has a damascene conversion thanks to peer pressure. I assume this was more substantial in the four hour director's cut that tortured audiences in previews but was introduced and wrapped up in about two minutes here.

Not a single mention of AIR RIGHTS.

But it was an entertaining bit of trash with a very impressive ensemble and I did not hate watching Todrick as much as I wanted to. I don't understand how it got five stars from The Guardian though.
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Since they randomly moved the setting to New York (for… reasons), I don’t think air rights would have been a valid plot point :D
 
Saw Sing Street for a second time and it really is just wonderful. Took my mum this time and she totally understood why I dragged her. I NEED a West End transfer.
 
I went to see Sing Street a couple of weeks ago and it was indeed brilliant. It was nice to have the nostalgia and familiarity, even though I've only seen the movie once. Should seek it out to watch again and see what the differences were (I don't remember the brother and the love interest each having a song, I only remembered songs from the band, so I don't know if they were added to flesh it out for the stage? I also didn't recall a sister but that's probably just my memory)

I went on a Monday and the stalls were completely full at least so hopefully that's a good sign of how this run has done, I'd love it to get a West End transfer. I have a friend who is a big fan of the movie but she lives in Portugal now and with life going on, hasn't been able to make it over for this run, would be nice if she got another chance to see the stage show rather than just settling for the merch I've bought her.
 
Jacques said:
I went to see Sing Street a couple of weeks ago and it was indeed brilliant. It was nice to have the nostalgia and familiarity, even though I've only seen the movie once. Should seek it out to watch again and see what the differences were (I don't remember the brother and the love interest each having a song, I only remembered songs from the band, so I don't know if they were added to flesh it out for the stage? I also didn't recall a sister but that's probably just my memory)

I went on a Monday and the stalls were completely full at least so hopefully that's a good sign of how this run has done, I'd love it to get a West End transfer. I have a friend who is a big fan of the movie but she lives in Portugal now and with life going on, hasn't been able to make it over for this run, would be nice if she got another chance to see the stage show rather than just settling for the merch I've bought her.
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I’m seeing it again tomorrow afternoon as I have a day off and again once before it closes by taking another friend. Just found it so incredibly uplifting, and have had the songs in my head for weeks.

Yes there are new songs that weren’t in the film, but from the same writer. It looks like they’ve added lots in compared to the US production too (I can’t imagine they would have got the opening ode to TOTP). I particularly loved Raphina’s song which was some kind of Kate Bush inspired song with the bass line to Papa Don’t Preach @Suedehead get on this STAT!

They’ve been discounting a lot, but that’s not unusual for the venue just because of the location, which is a shame. I think this would do so much better if it were placed somewhere more central. It would be perfect for the Garrick after The Producers is over.
 
New video from the upcoming Hot Mess, which is currently playing at Edinburgh and is generating some buzz!



I booked early just because of Danielle Steers.
 
I saw Evita last night and fucking hell, tens tens tens across the board :disco:

Zegler, Che and the whole ensemble were just terrific. The balcony was a goosebumps moment, but the big loud group numbers were my highlight. Loved the overwhelming spectacle and the choreography.

And never thought I'd say this but: Juan Peron IN ME NOW
 
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