One Touch Theatre

[WOM]

We just snuck Jesus Christ Superstar in under the wire. The next play in our season, Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt has just been cancelled.

I'm shitting it a bit, as I have Sparks, Fucked Up and Kraftwerk in the next six months. If they fall, this will be the Spring of our discontent to match no other.

[ursus arctos]

That was going to be the North American premiere.

I imagine that the Omicron related closures on Broadway have substantially altered the economics.

[WOM]

I was looking forward to it. What a disappointment overall...."We're back baby"...."wait...no....no we're not".

[ursus arctos]

Jagged Little Pill announced that it was closing permanently yesterday, followed rapidly by wags observing that the news wasn't really ironic.

[WOM]

Come From Away opened again (here) just last week. I'm sure it'll be gone again before the week's out.

[ursus arctos]

Omicron has been a hammer blow to "serious theatre" here.

Not only does its audience overlap massively with those most susceptible and those most wary of exposure, but entire productions can be banjaxed by a single performer or director testing positive.

To the extent "Broadway" continues to exist during this wave, it will be cruise ship-type productions of "brand name" musicals that both attract a primarily tourist audience (which is less wary of exposure) and can draw on a relatively bottomless pool of replacement talent with experience in touring productions.

[Benjm]

The next play in our season, Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt has just been cancelled.

I hope you get another chance to see the play, WOM. We went during the autumn run in London and it is very good. I associate Tom Stoppard with being a bit smart aleck-y but this, while undoubtedly clever, has a real emotional punch too. The situation and story has considerable similarities with that of my mother-in-law's family, although they were in Poland rather than Austria, and she was in bits after she went to see it.

[ursus arctos]

Well, that's gone directly onto my list, then

[slackster]

Sort of theatre…

Just back from a local cinema screening of Verdi’s Rigoletto live from the NY Met. Enjoyable experience, with some behind the scenes interviews in the break which added to my understanding of the show.

Rosa Feola as Gilda has such a beautiful soprano, but the whole cast were top notch.

[Sits]

And talking of sort of,theatre: just enjoying BBC Arts’ special recording of the West End Uncle Vanya recorded early in Covid times. Really good cast, lighting and production.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Went to the opening night of Red Ellen at Northern Stage last night. It turned out to be a covid-related 1st full dress rehearsal which showed in some performance s but overall it was pretty good stuff.
The staging was lively and engaging and I've come to forgive Vera -style "Geordie" accents so that didn't bother me but there was one clunky moment involving Hemingway and Dos Passos.
It's about Ellen Wilkinson, Jarrow MP in the 30s who led the 'Crusade'. My pal was one of the historical consultants on it and has written a biog of her so I knew the stories.
Funnily enough he wasn't there but we met a woman in her 80s over from Australia, daughter of a marcher, very keen to talk about it, so I gave her his email.

[Jon]

That looks good, FIGS. I'd definitely see it it it came down to the Midlands. To my shame, I only learnt about her a few years ago after reading Stuart Maconie's book on the Jarrow March.

[WOM]

Saw Boy Falls From The Sky at the Royal Alexandra Theatre last night. Part of our subscription series. Written by and starring Jake Epstein, a Toronto actor who was on Degrassi and then went on to great success in touring theatre and then Broadway, in Spring Awakening, American Idiot, Spider Man and Beautiful. Basically a one-man (with a small band) about theatre / acting life, and the successes and disappointments that go hand in hand.

One act...80 minutes.

Very good.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I was at Kes last night, in (aptly) Keswick, with daughter and her mother. I trusted my ex to drive and she turned up 20 minutes late, then went the scenic route, meaning we only just made it in time, and we were on the front row so had to take our seats with everyone else watching and tutting.

Anyway, it was done as a three hander, one male playing Billy, another playing all the other speaking parts and a female doing ambient singing and background roles (including the kestrel in an abstract way). It was captioned, which helped me considerably, and it was only on for an hour which also helped as I had had two of those small cans of Camden Pale in the car on the way (of course if we'd gone the quick way I would only have had time for one...) so it was a quick dash from the front row to the gents at the end. Went to the bar afterwards and bumped into one of my cousins for the first time since pre Covid. So all good in the end and it was only a tenner.

[Gangster Octopus]

What's the scenic route from Carlisle to Keswick?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Via Caldbeck.

[Gangster Octopus]

Even a tourist like me wouldn't bother going that way without reason.

[Benjm]

I went to see Scandaltown, a(nother) new play from the prolific Mike Bartlett, at the Lyric Hammersmith last week. It is an updated take on restoration comedy, with self-consciously archaic nods to the form, and fairly broad in its pokes at generational differences, politics, media and London life. Not an instant classic, but the costumes are bright and spectacular and the cast, led by Rachael Stirling, make the most of the material, so an entertaining couple of hours overall.

[Ray de Galles]

Took my mum to see the revival of 'My Fair Lady' (which has transferred from the Lincoln Center NYC to the ENO Coliseum) last night. She's always loved the film version so I grew up with it and it's still a favourite of mine.

It's an absolutely beautiful show, visually stunning with a really impressive staging which is perfectly suited to the venue. The cast is very impressive and if there's any justice it should make an absolute star of Amara Okereke whose voice and presence as Eliza are luminous. Harry Hadden-Patton is a great Higgins and I really enjoyed the supporting turns from Malcolm Sinclair, Maureen Beattie and Stephen K Amos (who made a surprisingly good Alfred P Doolittle despite having no musical/theatre background I'm aware of).

The songs though, *the fucking songs*, are of course amazing. It's easy to forget quite how many classics there are in the show. I don't think I've ever been to a musical before where so many of the audience at the intermission and post-show find themselves unable to stop themselves singing the tunes they've just heard. The current cast and creatives more than do them all justice too.

I've read a few relatively lukewarm reviews and, having not seen it in the theatre before, perhaps there have been better revivals but I loved it

[ursus arctos]

Very glad to hear that.

It had a good run here, though being pre-pandemic it seems almost as long ago as the Rex Harrison version I saw on Broadway as a kid

[WOM]

We had tickets to last Friday's performance of Room. But Mrs WOM read the book and hated it and then, inexplicably, watched the movie and hated it. So we gave the tickets away.

I loved the book and had no idea there was a movie.

[Benjm]

I went to see The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre the other day. It tells the story of Nathuram Godse, the man who assassinated Gandhi. The production makes full use of the big rotating stage in the Olivier Theatre and is filled with striking visual imagery and movement. It is an ambitious and wide ranging play in tackling the both the wide history of India's independence and the individual story of how Godse is drawn towards a harsh Hindu nationalism. He is made human and believable in Shubham Saraf's central performance and the cast are uniformly excellent. Despite two thirds of the circle seats being priced at £20, the performance wasn't all that full, which is a shame for a highly entertaining and thought provoking couple of hours of theatre. The lack of a London stage big name may be a factor in this, lingering Covid fears possibly another. Of course, the play serves as a reminder of how little of global history and Britain's place in it we are taught here.

Another recent visit to the National was for The Corn is Green in the smaller Lyttleton Theatre. This is a revival of a semi-autobiographical play from 1938 about a talented boy who is propelled from a future in the mines to Oxford by a determined school teacher. It is old fashioned in parts but the production presents both those elements which now seem distant and those which are still relevant without beating the audience over the head as to the resonances. An onstage chorus of miners provide harmonious backing throughout, lest anyone forget where it is set. It is very much a star vehicle for Nicola Walker, who more than carries it, whether verbally sparring with the twittish local squire or providing emotional shading to her character's brisk public manner. The performance that I attended was held up for 50 minutes due to two medical emergencies, with the auditorium cleared at one point. It was fascinating to see the actors come back on after the interruption and just pick up from where they left off, disbelief instantly resuspended. With some rejigging in the supporting roles and one actor having to read from a script as well, due to Covid absences, there was a definite show must go on feel and the cast got a deserved standing ovation at the end.

Girl on an Altar at the Kiln in Kilburn is a terrific retelling of the story of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. It's a co-production with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and the non-specific modern, expressionist presentation is visually very striking. Another great cast, headed by Eileen Walsh and David Walmsley bring the characters vividly to life. It is a serious play but there are touches of dark humour and the drama keeps up a strong momentum through most of the two and a half hour running time.

[delicatemoth]

It was fascinating to see the actors come back on after the interruption and just pick up from where they left off, disbelief instantly resuspended.

I've compared performing to sport, in that one seeks a state of 'flow', where time appears to slightly slow down and you can simultaneously fully inhabit the performance in the moment while holding in mind such technical aspects as positioning, script (if any) and cues.

[Benjm]

I've compared performing to sport, in that one seeks a state of 'flow', where time appears to slightly slow down and you can simultaneously fully inhabit the performance in the moment while holding in mind such technical aspects as positioning, script (if any) and cues.

So much discussion of acting in my younger years was focussed on film actors, specifically method actors and their preparation. Over the years I've come to think that this might actually be one of the less interesting areas of the art.

[delicatemoth]

I always thought that method was just taking Stanislavski techniques too far.

Non-musical performance is about embodiment for me. Using your body (including voice) as an instrument to convey feelings, images and ideas. Not saying I don't like naturalistic work at all, but I want something more visceral than just a well played slice of life. I fucking love Lorca and Brecht, and Sarah Kane. I was privileged to act in a staging of a scene from 'Blasted' and it was amazing.