Shows

Time to review some of the shows I've been to lately.  First up, The Phantom of the Opera.   I saw the touring production at Edinburgh Playhouse.   Despite knowing the music inside out and having seen the film version many times I'd never seen it on stage before, and I have to say it was utterly brilliant.   The music is, of course, wonderful, and the story is so strange and powerful.   I was very impressed with all the casts' performances too.   I wasn't too sure about Christine's voice to start with, but as the show progressed she really grew on me.   The sets and lighting were also fantastic.  Some of the effects they acheived were just spectacular.   The chandelier was covered in dust sheets during the first scene, but then for the next the dust sheets were suddenly sucked into the chandelier, quick as quick!   During the boat scene the stage was flooded with so much dry ice that you couldn't see the stage at all.   You could rally believe there was water there!   And the set was huge and multi-storied and could be spun round and had disappearing steps for the actors to walk down.   It was all so impressive.   So lavish!   I got so sucked in!   I hadn't enjoyed a show that much for a very long time.   Just wonderful.  

Next, that old Christmas favorite, The Nutcracker.   I saw the Scottish Ballet's production of it at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.   It was gorgeous, but not what I was expecting.   Other productions I have seen fairly light on story content, and just had lots of dancing, but this one incorporated lots of elements from the original Hoffmann story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.   It was very interesting, though I suspect many people who didn't know the original story were left rather confused as to what was going on.   The dancing was great and choreography was fresh and beautiful, with some unusual touches, for exampe the Arabian dance was performed almost entirely on the shoulders of other dancers.   There was also some very good use of masks, to emphasise the point of the transformations between dolls and real people, and the putting on and removing of masks was so slick that you couldn't see the changes at all until they'd happened.   Amazing!   The music from The Nutcracker remains to this day some of my favorite pieces of classical music.   I always leave humming all the tunes.

And finally, Cats.   Yes, another Andrew Lloyd Webber.   Cats has always been a firm favorite with me.   It's such an unusual and beautiful show.   I saw the touring show at the Playhouse, and really enjoyed it.   Having seen it in London, I have to say the West End production was better.   This show had a noticeably smaller cast, and the audience was further away from the action.   It was still awesome though!   the singing, sets and costumes were stunning, as usual, though I did think a couple of the characters weren't as good dancers as they should have been.   Skimbleshanks, for example, just couldn't jump as high as the Skimbleshanks I saw on the West End.   Mistoffolees was brilliant though!   The orchestra were also hidden!   The orchestra pit had been taken over by set, and I still have no idea where they actually were!   Though this show may not have been the best production I've ever seen, it was still excellent and I went home and immediately watched the whole thing through on my computer and listened to the songs many times over the next few days.  

       

More Shows

I'm back!   What did I miss?

Here's a review of the shows I've seen lately:   Up first, Chicago.   This is one I'd never seen on stage before and only really knew it from the film version.  I must say I really enjoyed it!   It had Ali Bastian playing Roxie, and I thought she did a really good job.   Her singing and dancing were impressive, though for me the real star of the show was Bernie Nolan playing Mama Morton.  What a voice!   Though I suppose that comes at no surprise.   I wished Mama Morton had more songs!   Velma, Billy and Roxie were all thoroughly unlikeable and Amos was very sad indeed.   The costumes were small and sexy and the staging was really interesting.   The band was onstage, which doesn't often work, but in this case I thought it really did.   They were placed right in the middle of the stage but they didn't seem to get in the way at all.   The cast just moved round them and even used them occasionally as extras, which I thought was a cool touch.   They also had ladders at the sides of the stage so some of the singing was done in midair.   The rest of the set was very minimal though.   Simple and sharp.   The Cell Block Tango was, of course powerful and really sexy.   All in all, a really good night out!

Next Oliver!   This was another one I only knew from the film version, which I saw about fifteen years ago.  I really don't remember it being so dark!   When I thought about Oliver! loveable cockney urchins and cheerful songs like Be Back Soon and Consider Yourself came to mind.   My memory seems to have glossed over the alcohol abuse, prostitution and domestic violence.   Nancy's murder really was a particularly nasty scene.   Despite the darkness it was a really good show.   Very funny, with excellent singing and dancing.  What really stood out for me were the kids.   They were amazing!   Not one single step was out of time, and some of the acrobatics were truly impressive.   They were tight.   Brian Conley was also excellent as Fagan.   Very slimy and very funny.   The scenary and lighting were also pretty spectacular with huge, detailed two storey sets creating lots of very clever optical illusions and lots of scene changes.   I particularly liked Fagan and the boys' den.   Very well done and exactly like I imagined it should look.   Bill Sykes was also suitably nasty and scary.   So not my favourite show, but this was a really good production of it.

And lastly Starlight Express.   I'm a big Lloyd Webber fan, but I didn't really know what to expect from this one.   Going in I knew precisely four things about it:

1. It's about trains
2. The cast is on rollerskates
3. There isn't really a plot, a bit like Cats
4. The song "Starlight Express"

And numbers 1 and 3 turned about to be wrong anyway.   It's not about trains, it's about toy trains, and a little boy playing with them in his bedroom late one night.   Yeah.   Surely this is the final proof we needed that you really can write a show about anything.   And there is a plot.   It's all about a race the toy trains are having.   Yep, just one race.   And they managed to make an entire musical about it.   The songs were great, with some really catchy tunes, though perhaps there weren't as many good ones as in some other Andrew Lloyd Webbers.   And the cast being on rollerskates there wasn't a lot of dancing in the conventional sense.   There were, however, plenty of impressive roller acrobatics and lots of nice skating formations.   And because the cast needed a lot of space the sets were pretty simple.   Just a few arches for the train sheds and a few other bits and pieces.  The best bits for me were the costumes and lighting.   The costumes were huge, shiny, over the top and very very eccentric.   The cast looked like something out of an acid trip, with big hair, bright colours, loads of glitter and even flashing lights on them.   The lighting team went all out too.   The lighting in itself would have been worth seeing as a show, even without all the rest of it going on.   They really showcased what lighting is capable of doing.   At a couple of points they lit the audience up with hundreds of tiny lights floating all around us.   It was like being surrounded by hundreds of shooting stars!   Oddly, there were very few female characters in it.   Just four ladies, playing coaches (Dina, the dining car, Buffy, the buffet car, Duvet, the sleeper, and Pearl, the first class carriage) but despite this the girls, in their tiny costumes and retro hairstyles, really made their voices heard.   Good job, ladies!

I have to say though, I wish I'd seen this in London.   When the actual race parts were on they played a 3D movie, which worked very well, but apparently in London they have special tracks so that the cast can actually do the race and they come right out into the audience.   Seeing that would have been pretty sweet.   All in all, though, really good show.   A bit different and fantastic to look at, with some great tunes.