Going to the theatre

[Shaz]

Thought I'd start this thread, as we seem to talk about theatre and plays in other threads and it would be nice for that chat to have a home of its own, as I like hearing about what plays Philip and other people have seen . . .

I saw John Osborne's The Entertainer in London at the weekend and was blown away by the production. Robert Lindsay was outstanding in the role Laurence Olivier made famous.

And the play, which dates back to the 1950s and refers to the Suez crisis, was horribly relevant for today, with a controversial war, casual racism and constant discussion about the fact the country is going to the dogs.

[philipchevron]

I saw Vanessa Redgrave tonight in The Year Of Magical Thinking, adapted by Joan Didion from her own novel, at the Booth Theatre New York. It's still in previews, so I won't be harsh to work in progress, but my sense is Redgrave is being a little too respectful of the material. Grief is such a powerful thing, but also personal. In "performing" Didion's grief for her dead husband and daughter, Redgrave has yet to find a way to convince us this is also her experience.

[TheIrishRover]

Mr C, I've gotten the impression you're something of a theatre enthusiast, so I've taken it upon myself to ask a question. Just out of curiosity, what genre would you consider your favourite? Do you prefer the classics, comedies, dramas, what?

Personally, I like a lot of the more historic classical plays, but then again I'm probably just using theatre as a way of pretending it's still 1400 and people still use thou. I'm such a Renaissance faire freak-show it's not even funny

[philipchevron]

Mr C, I've gotten the impression you're something of a theatre enthusiast, so I've taken it upon myself to ask a question. Just out of curiosity, what genre would you consider your favourite? Do you prefer the classics, comedies, dramas, what?

Personally, I like a lot of the more historic classical plays, but then again I'm probably just using theatre as a way of pretending it's still 1400 and people still use thou. I'm such a Renaissance faire freak-show it's not even funny

In truth, I don't have a favourite "genre". There were as many bad plays written in the reign of Elizabeth I as there have been in Brenda's reign. I go to see a lot of theatre not because I love lots of theatre but because I love so little theatre, and the only way to get to the diamond is to scrape your way through the coal as well. I am usually appalled by how poor most dramas, operas, musicals and comedies are. But every now and then you leave a theatre knowing something about yourself or about the world which you didn't know you knew. An instant of transcendence and comprehension which happened for maybe just a moment or two in the preceeding 2 hours, a moment shared only by you, the actors, and the other 500 or 1500 people present but, because it happened at all, of vital importance to the well-being of the world. The Greeks, as with so many other things, knew this. Almost as soon as they invented democracy, they invented theatre to keep holding it to account.

I do, however, share your enthusiasm for history plays, or at least Shakespeare's history plays, as he scrutinised not so much power itself as what it is about power which seduces, corrupts and ennobles people.

[territa]

Philip, how wonderfully put. But I'm curious, where does the panto fit in?

[philipchevron]

Philip, how wonderfully put. But I'm curious, where does the panto fit in?

Well, panto [in the UK and Ireland at least] is usually the first place children experience this feeling at any level. I don't suppose there are many children today who can boast, as I can, that they got to see a performer as truly great as Jimmy O'Dea in person, or even as truly good as Maureen Potter, Cecil Sheridan, Noel Purcell or Jack Cruise, for that matter. I still see pantos in Glasgow or Dublin every year just in case I'm wrong about this. Sadly, I never am, but I keep faith with panto because it had such a transforming effect on my life as a little boy.

Incidentally, I first saw Agnes Bernelle as Robinson Crusoe at the Gaiety in Dublin in 1960, opposite Mr O'Dea. I did not know this until many years later, when I became her theatrical apprentice, but there was something inevitable about it. Agnes had played Principal Boy at the London Palladium for several seasons, so she was something of a Panto starlet before she was, well, Agnes Bernelle. It was customary at the Gaiety for a time to import the production and principals from London and supplement with local Stars in over-the-title billing.

[Shaz]

I think the history of panto and where it is now are two separate things. As I understand it, panto has traditionally attracted a number of performers who were in effect panto specialists -- you wouldn't see them on TV, for example, during the rest of the year.

Now pantos seem to be jam-packed full of C and D list celebrities from minor soap operas.

[Mark_Wafc]

I think the history of panto and where it is now are two separate things. As I understand it, panto has traditionally attracted a number of performers who were in effect panto specialists -- you wouldn't see them on TV, for example, during the rest of the year.

Now pantos seem to be jam-packed full of C and D list celebrities from minor soap operas.

On the subject of Pantomime, but slightly off topic I found this superb clip on Youtube recently. Its one of the few remaining clips of the Rochdale born comedian Norman Evans, who was a massive star in the 40’s and 50’s and appeared many times as dame in Panto and even became a star on Broadway!

His act was a major influence on Les Dawson who reprised it for the famous ‘Cissy and Ada’ sketches with Roy Barraclough

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_n5IuYiD3k

[DownInTheGround]

I think the history of panto and where it is now are two separate things. As I understand it, panto has traditionally attracted a number of performers who were in effect panto specialists -- you wouldn't see them on TV, for example, during the rest of the year.

Now pantos seem to be jam-packed full of C and D list celebrities from minor soap operas.

And of course, people who used to be on Gladiators.

[philipchevron]

I think the history of panto and where it is now are two separate things. As I understand it, panto has traditionally attracted a number of performers who were in effect panto specialists -- you wouldn't see them on TV, for example, during the rest of the year.

Now pantos seem to be jam-packed full of C and D list celebrities from minor soap operas.

And of course, people who used to be on Gladiators.

And Mr Blobby, Postman Pat and Barney. The real ones.

[philipchevron]

I think the history of panto and where it is now are two separate things. As I understand it, panto has traditionally attracted a number of performers who were in effect panto specialists -- you wouldn't see them on TV, for example, during the rest of the year.

Now pantos seem to be jam-packed full of C and D list celebrities from minor soap operas.

On the subject of Pantomime, but slightly off topic I found this superb clip on Youtube recently. Its one of the few remaining clips of the Rochdale born comedian Norman Evans, who was a massive star in the 40’s and 50’s and appeared many times as dame in Panto and even became a star on Broadway!

His act was a major influence on Les Dawson who reprised it for the famous ‘Cissy and Ada’ sketches with Roy Barraclough

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_n5IuYiD3k

He did indeed triumph at the gala reopening of the Palace Theatre in Times Square, the absolute Apex of Vaudeville success.

[territa]

My father would take us to the Watergate when I was a child. Before the infamous apartment building of the same name was built on the site, there was a three-sided barge floating at the Potomac's edge large enough to house a symphony orchestra. We would sit across the street on concrete steps up the side of a hill, in the open evening summer air, and watch the sun set and the moon rise mirrored in the water, while listening to, say, the 1812 Overture, complete with a real cannon being shot off at just the right moment. He took me there to see a Gilbert and Sullivan musical. I loved the music, but fell asleep at some point and don't remember getting home.

The great childhood memories are never lost.

[philipchevron]

Curtains, the new Kander and Ebb (and others) tuner at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre is a lot of fun. It does something Steve Sondheim claimed couldn't be done, I think I'm right in saying, in that it combines good old fashioned musical comedy with a Whodunnit. David Hyde Pierce [Niles from Frasier] has become quite the Broadway song and dance man. He plays a detective who investigates backstage murder at an in-trouble-on-the-road-pre-Broadway musical in 1959. In the process, he not only solves the murders but rescues the show and gets the girl. It is pure escapism, but there's nothing the matter with that when a show is as rich with the gift of laughter as this one.

It opens tomorrow night and will be a massive hit.

[Benno]

I have a complaint about the price of good opera in canada
i wanted to see Shostakovich's "Lady macbeth of mtensk"
(mmmm aria of the black consciousness...)


guess how much?

no, really, guess...

190bucks!
and im a fucking student looking for some culture!
should be hugely discounted for me

also, i would give an arm and a leg to see einstein on the beach
has anyone here actually seen it?

[philipchevron]

Lady Macbeth............ is a terrific piece of work.

190 bucks is still comparatively cheap compared to Covent Garden or Met prices. Opera is a massively expensive business to put on. That said, I'd be surprised if they do not have inexpensive ($10 to $20) seats in the Amphitheatre too, as London and New York do. In a well-designed Opera House, the acoustics will be good up in those seats, though you will also understand why theatrical binoculaurs are usually called Opera Glasses.