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    #26
    A friend of mine, who rides a Harley Davidson, was part of a group of Harley riders who were filmed driving through London as part of a promo for the Bat Out Of Hell thing. He didn't get a free ticket, though...

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      #27
      Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
      I'm still annoyed I couldn't persuade anyone to accompany me to 'Bat Out of Hell' on it's London run recently. I realise there is a very good chance it was rubbish (the plot sounded a bit 'We Will Rock You') but it is one to be seen.

      I think it's coming back to London next year and will drag the daughter to it.
      As reviewed over in One Touch Theatre, the music and dance numbers were amazing. The story and book were dogshit awful.

      And I don't mean 'absurd, like We Will Rock You or Rock of Ages'. But just plain crap.

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        #28
        Ah, thanks. Not sure I was aware of 'One Touch Theatre', is it a thread in this part of the forum?

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          #29
          Indeed. 8 links below the current one.

          https://www.onetouchfootball.com/sho...-Touch-Theatre

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            #30
            Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
            I was about to go to a local production of My Fair Lady until I found out it was in Bavarian.
            When I was on a school exchange trip to Germany my host family (clearly at a loss what to do with this snotty teenager) took me to see a local production of Oklahoma!. I've never seen it in English, so the tunes are still stuck in my head as "Was für ein herrlicher Morgen", etc.

            Presumably there are plenty of schools in non-English speaking countries that put on musicals (for one thing, you can rope in a lot more chorus kids and sell more tickets than for plays), so millions of traumatised kids must have had their own earworms featuring Rodgers & co in Portuguese or whatever.

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              #31
              Off to ‘Hamilton’ tonight with the entire family. Very excited as my younger daughter has got me hooked on the cast recording since last Easter.

              Les Mis over Xmas was predictably excellent, spent large parts of it in tears post ‘Can You Hear The People Sing’ (i.e. almost the entire second half).

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                #32
                Catching up in this thread, I’ve now seen Hamilton twice this year and it is the total masterpiece everyone says it is. An absolute must see.

                Took my (then) 14 year old daughter to ‘The Book Of Mormon’ a while back as discussed above and we both had a fantastic time. Hysterically funny throughout and the tunes are pretty good too.

                I’ve got tickets for the family to finally see ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ before it finishes its run just after Xmas, worth a punt purely based on how much I love the album.
                Last edited by Ray de Galles; 20-11-2018, 09:42.

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                  #33
                  I finally got to see Hamilton at the end of October and enjoyed it very much. Earlier in the year I saw Kinky Boots, which was great fun.

                  I have seen two musicals in London: A Chorus Line (in 1977, my first stage musical) and Jerry Springer: The Opera (2004, I think).

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                    #34
                    So you came to London to watch American musicals?

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                      #35
                      No, they were just happy coincidences. I don't think that Jerry Springer: The Opera was American though.

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                        #36
                        No, it wasn’t. Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas were it’s creators.
                        Last edited by Ray de Galles; 04-12-2018, 10:02.

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                          #37
                          Book of Mormon was, indeed, most excellent. Cannibal, The Musical, by the same team, was fine, but not great.
                          Bat Out of Hell was....er....great music, great staging, and utterly dogshit book. Jim Steinman can write epic, soaring songs and crashing, boring dialogue.

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                            #38
                            Originally posted by Femme Folle View Post
                            I don't think that Jerry Springer: The Opera was American though.
                            D'oh! Of course it wasn't.

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                              #39
                              Originally posted by WOM View Post
                              Book of Mormon was, indeed, most excellent. Cannibal, The Musical, by the same team, was fine, but not great.
                              Bat Out of Hell was....er....great music, great staging, and utterly dogshit book. Jim Steinman can write epic, soaring songs and crashing, boring dialogue.
                              I'd never been to a West End musical in my life* til a few weeks ago when I gave into my daughter's nagging to see Mamma Mia, and used some comp rail tickets for a London trip. Not wanting to enter this world half arsed I also got us tickets for Heathers and Bat Out of Hell.

                              Heathers was the most enjoyable of the three, even if I spent most of the evening inwardly grumbling about differences from the movie - the characters weren't cynical enough (particularly JD), the movie's dark humour was mostly brightened up or lost completely, and some of the subtler content was hammed up unnecessarily. However it did have a fervent following from my daughter's demographic (which surprised me given it was a near 30 year old cult movie which has rarely shown up on UK TV), including adoring crowds waiting for autographs afterwards.

                              Mamma Mia was as expected, slick and professional and identical to the movie (I know). However in retrospect it seemed most of the audience sat patiently through the show for the singalong, dancealong finale.

                              Agree with the above, Bat Out of Hell was well staged (with the split stage and video screens) and the songs are immortal, but the story line was baffling and the acting cringeworthy. Daughter was completely confused but ever since has been asking me to play songs from the album whenever she's in the car with me.

                              Now that I've visited this strange underworld and survived, I may consider going back in.

                              *I did take daughter to see The Lion King in Edinburgh a few years ago, so the concept wasn't completely alien to me.

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                                #40
                                My daughters went to see 'Heathers' last night and loved it. It seems to have a very 'Rocky Horror' vibe with plenty of the audience in costume and, they tell me, more of a rock concert audience participation in and response to the songs.
                                Last edited by Ray de Galles; 21-11-2018, 13:16.

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                                  #41
                                  We're very fortunate that Toronto gets pretty much every big touring musical, so I've seen most of the biggies. The notable exceptions being Miss Saigon and The Lion King, both of which sat down here for years, and which I had absolutely no inkling to see. But for the usual suspects; Phantom, Cats, Bat Out of Hell, Mormon, Rock of Ages, Tommy, etc etc, we make the time. And I'm going to say it again; if you have a chance to see Come From Away, take it. It's one of the most thoughtful, emotional, insightful and rewarding things I've ever seen on stage.

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                                    #42
                                    I'll repeat my recommendation from the One Touch Theatre thread for people to see 'Hadestown' if they get the chance. Very different from most "West End/Broadway" musicals but impressive.

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                                      #43
                                      Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
                                      My daughters went to see 'Heathers' last night and loved it. It seems to have a very 'Rocky Horror' vibe with plenty of the audience in costume and, they tell me, more of a rock concert audience participation in and response to the songs.
                                      Yep, it was very different from the other two I saw, both in terms of demographic and audience engagement. Plus of course there is a range of merch available for those who want to dress accordingly - in fact when we got to the theatre there was a long queue for what we assumed was entry, only for a steward to come along the line and say it was the merch queue, next door for entry (for which we could stroll in).

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                                        #44
                                        Theatres are almost universally shit at selling you anything on-site: merch, refreshments, etc. There's a single 15 minute intermission to pump snacks into people, and they have one standard-issue Gladys working both the cash drawer and the bottle-opening/wine-pouring/snack grabbing. It's bonkers.

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                                          #45
                                          ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ was a car (or bike, to be presice) crash of a show but enjoyable and charming nonetheless. Without the quality of Steinman’s wonderful songs (and such songs!), huge production and sheer gusto the cast put in to it there would be much there but the family enjoyed it even though they don’t share my Jim and Meat obsession.

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                                            #46
                                            I work in theatre, last year I did a contract for Mountview. One of their shows was 9 to 5 The Musical. More than pleasantly surprised, good songs, zips along quickly and leaves you with a smile a smile on your face. Worth checking out at The Savoy next year.

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                                              #47
                                              I can't believe that we've got three theatre threads on the go (if you include the panto one in World).

                                              At this rate it's only a matter of time before we knock Books right off its fucking perch.

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                                                #48
                                                If my Kodi stream wasn’t jerky piss poor tonight I’d have loved cosying up to the Musicals documentary on BBC4. Yer musicologist presenter man is brilliant. Watched half a season of that It’s only sunny in Philadelphia thing on Netflix instead.

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                                                  #49
                                                  We went to two shows on successive nights: Last night it was Kinky Boots, tonight Rocky Horror Show.

                                                  Kinky Boots was wonderful. The performance we went to had the understudy in the role of Lola/Simon, which was quite fortuitous, since the actor is a friend of a friend. He was superb. The whole production was magnificent, as one should now expect from South African productions.

                                                  The tickets for Rocky Horror were a Christmas gift. I hadn't planned to go, because much as I enjoyed the first half of the film, I hated the second half. But I'm so glad I saw it. The show's second half is dark (and lacks the showstoppers of the first), but it wasn't as bad as the movie's. The production was really good. And it included the actor to have set a world record for having played Riff Raff, Kristian Lavercombe, who has played the role more than 1700 times.

                                                  Next month we'll see The Producers. I'm a little apprehensive because I've found both Leo Blooms in the movie versions insufferable. On the other hand... Springtime for Hitler.

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                                                    #50
                                                    We took the family to see 'Dear Evan Hansen' for my 16 year old daughters birthday a few weeks ago and all really enjoyed it. The show was leavened with more humour than I expected and resonated with an age group wider than the teen/millennial one I imagined it might have been pitched at. There's probably as much in it for parents as there is for teens themselves.

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