One Touch Theatre

[MsD]

Forced into it was she?

The forum has made me LOL twice tonight. That was the second.

[ursus arctos]

[URL="https://twitter.com/nytimesarts/status/1220337813322944512?s=21"]https://twitter.com/nytimesarts/status/1220337813322944512[/URL]

I think I will pass on this one

If those stage gestures feel somewhat morally superior and banal, they are harmless next to the production’s nauseating grand finale: a breathless run-through of a sizable portion of the text we have already heard, this time performed by Marcel Heuperman, who is naked as he simulates defecation and sex acts on a large silicon pig.

[Benjm]

Aside even from the simulation of sex acts on a pig unavoidably bringing to mind the architect of our national trauma, that sounds terrible.

[Femme Folle]

My friends who brought us 'Something Rotten' have created 'Mrs. Doubtfire' the Broadway musical. It starts in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to going.

Tonight I saw Titus Burgess (of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame) perform Stephen Sondheim show tunes at Carnegie Hall. I'm no expert, but I don't think Carnegie has the best acoustics for that kind of performance (they also suffered from occasional mic problems, which didn't help). Also, he tended to stand on the left side of the stage, and as we were sitting in a side balcony, it meant that I couldn't see him for most of the show. And that's another tidbit of information I will file away for reference. But when we left the building, a taxi with its light on just happened to appear out of nowhere and I grabbed it, because, as some of you know, that, on a drizzly Saturday night is about as rare as a unicorn in NYC.

[WOM]

Saw 'AF' last night,( Berkeley Street Theatre). AF is an interpretive dance take on Animal Farm, done by First Nation [Native/Indian] dancers to traditional First Nations drumming.

I fucking hate this sort of thing.

And it was marvelous. 50 minutes and done. Powerful. Talented dancers. Tense music. Great storytelling. I was all-in by the time it was done.

[jameswba]

WOM's post reminds me that I wanted to post that I saw stage take on Orwell ; 1984, at the studio theatre in Martin. It was in Slovak of course, other than some sweetly sung, but very creepy renditions of 'Oranges and Clements'. The performance was memorable for several interesting ideas such as that rather than for hanging together as a whole, which it didn't quite.

I sometimes think Orwell said everything so clearly in his essays that 1984 isn't that essential a read anyway.

[Benjm]

I went to see The Welkin at the National Theatre yesterday. The plot concerns a group of women in 18th century Norfolk who are required by a court to establish whether another woman convicted of murder is pregnant, as this will affect her sentence. This provides the foundation for an exploration of the challenges and hardships each faces and the solidarity that they show with each other to varying degrees. The characters are well drawn as individuals and the performances are of a uniformly high standard, Maxine Peake and Haydn Gwynne heading up the cast. There was an odd bit when they all sang Running Up That Hill but otherwise it was a consistent and impressive production.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Saw The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff at Northern Stage on Saturday. Folk band called The Young ‘uns with songs inspired by tapes of the titular hero from Stockton who was on hunger marches, mass trespass walks, Cable St then International Brigade. Longstaff’s voice used very effectively.
Their between song banter was good and the photos, animations and projection made it a theatrical experience. Inspiring stories, some great songs and altogether recommend: it goes to Edinburgh, Hull and Liverpool

[Hot Pepsi]

Saw the Penn State kids do part one of Angels in America. They got a ringer - a veteran actor/acting teacher from Boston - to do the Roy Cohn part. Great job, but they only did part one, which is over three hours as it is, so they’re going to do part 2 as a free reading next month. But that the audience leaves without really understanding a lot of it and a few of the subplots just seemed extraneous. And, I think, much of the audience I saw it with don’t remember anything about the 80s AIDS panic or know who Roy Cohn or Ethel Rosenberg were. (Also, my understanding is that there’s more evidence that Ethel Rosenberg was actually guilty than there was when the play was written. I don’t know if that matters.)

I’m going to watch the version HBO did in 2003 to see how it turns out. It’s free on Amazon Prime now. Pacino plays Cohn.

[WOM]

Hamilton. Yup, that big Broadway-busting behemoth. It's phenomenal. I mean, not just interesting and great with the hip-hop and racial cast and that, but fucking great tunes...pacing...choreography. It lives up to the hype and then some. I downloaded the cast recording afterward, and I genuinely never do that. Instantly into the Top 5 ever, along with Come From Away.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'd like to see that someday if I can do it for less than $50. So I'll be waiting a while. Probably for the film, if there ever is one.

[WOM]

I've read that they're doing one of those 'filmed theatre' movies soon. ie, they four-camera the Broadway performance and show it in theatre. That would be fine.

I hope they do that with Come From Away instead of making it into a 'movie', which would really suck.


https://globalnews.ca/news/6500620/h...musical-movie/

[ursus arctos]

The Hamilton film is scheduled to come out in 2021

[Hot Pepsi]

I've read that they're doing one of those 'filmed theatre' movies soon. ie, they four-camera the Broadway performance and show it in theatre. That would be fine.

I hope they do that with Come From Away instead of making it into a 'movie', which would really suck.


https://globalnews.ca/news/6500620/h...musical-movie/

I’ve never gone to one of those, but our local place shows them. I was going to go see Benedict Cumebatch do Hamlet. But then didn’t.

[Eggchaser]

Perhaps not "theatre", but I have just come back from a Bill Bailey show. He is bloody funny.

[Ray de Galles]

We watched the free National Theatre stream of 'One Man, Two Guvnors' from 2011 tonight and I can thoroughly recommend it.

I meant to see the play on one of the original London runs but never got round to but and the show lived up to all the positive reviews at the time. You can really see how it kicked James Corden's career up several notches and how good he is with the right material.

It's up for seven days and then there'll be weekly plays from the NT's back catalogue being shown.

[slackster]

I intend to watch that over the weekend if it’s still up. One of the covid small wins is the suddenly free availability of some “high culture” highlights online. Operas and classical music too (the Berlin Philharmonic stuff’s worth watching if that’s your thing).

[Giggler]

We watched the free National Theatre stream of 'One Man, Two Guvnors' from 2011 tonight and I can thoroughly recommend it.

I meant to see the play on one of the original London runs but never got round to but and the show lived up to all the positive reviews at the time. You can really see how it kicked James Corden's career up several notches and how good he is with the right material.

It's up for seven days and then there'll be weekly plays from the NT's back catalogue being shown.

We watched that last night too. Thoroughly enjoyable. The History Boys next please, The NT. I saw the touring production and was gutted that the film wasn't as good.

[Ray de Galles]

Do we know for sure that they filmed the NT production of The History Boys? I don't recall live broadcasts to cinema being anywhere near as widespread at the time it was being performed as they are now.

[ursus arctos]

The film had the same director and the original NT cast, but was not a film of the theatre production.

[Ray de Galles]

Yes, I've seen the film but was wondering if there was also a recording of the theatre production that would initially have been broadcast live to cinemas.

It feels as if such broadcasts have become commonplace only in the last decade or so, after History Boys closed, but I could be wrong.

[ursus arctos]

Not that I could find

[jameswba]

The other night, I watched the Hampstead Theatre's production of Drawing the Line by Howard Brenton. It's about the poor guy who was deputed to draw the borders between India and Pakistan ahead of British withdrawal in 1947. The guy had never been east of Paris, knew 'bugger all' about India (in the words of his own wife) and even less about cartography, but was supposed to come up with the new border in just five weeks. If ever a literary quote summed up British incompetence in foreign and (post-)colonial policy, 'let's start with some tentative squiggles' is my nomination.

Compelling viewing, with many of the main historical players - Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Mountbatten and his wife - vividly portrayed. I'd love to have seen this live - did any OTFers get the chance?

Paul Scott's Raj Quartet is another great literary representation of this period - the fourth and final novel 'A Division of the Spoils' is set at exactly the same time as Brenton's play.

[jameswba]

Just noticed that the very first post on this thread, by Benjm, is partly about the Young Vic's A View from the Bridge. Last week, I watched a stream of a performance of this play at Nottingham New Theatre which might have been influenced by what the Young Vic did. It was student actors, audience on three sides, very spare stage that brought to mind a boxing-ring, actors in bare feet while on stage. Only Alfieri, the lawyer and narrator, spends most of his time just off-stage and gets to keep his shoes on. It was good. The actor playing Eddie overpowered it perhaps a little more than he was supposed to, but Beatrice and Marco (especially) were played with nuance.

[johnr]

Watched all of the NT broadcasts apart from the first (can't stand Corden).

Loved Jane Eyre, brilliant setting and performances.

Thought that Twelfth Night was a great production, but the performances were over-pantomimed at times, particularly Toby Belch and Malvolia, though it was a nice slant on the latter to play her as the victim of obscene bullying.

Treasure Island was entertaining enough, but I don't think that the actor who played Jim Hawkins carried the piece well enough.

Frankenstein had an amazing central performance, with Lee Miller good as well. The supporting cast were, almost uniformly, absolutely dreadful, particularly the Doctor's father.

The NT do like their revolving sets, don't they?

I used to work at the NT. I don't think I'll ever go again - I much prefer sitting indoors watching it; much more comfortable, a lot lot cheaper, much closer to the action, and I don't have to sit amongst the audience, who always tend to wind me up. Though that goes for many theatre audiences. I hope they keep these broadcasts going, as well as the cinema streams.