Andrew Lloyd Webber on Musicals and Political Correctness Jun 17
2023, 12:01:35 AM
He was working on an adaptation of the movie "A United Kingdom" about Seretse Khama, then Prince of Bechuanaland, and the white woman, Ruth Williams, he fell in love with. They married against all protest from both sides and were eventually rewarded, when he became the first president of independent Botswana.
It's a beautiful story, and written well, could be a great musical, and I don't think it needs someone from Botswana to create it - it would mean, that it
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Bat Out of Hell - Las Vegas Residency Nov 1
2022, 03:12:48 AM
No snark from me. Just a thank you. I don't post on the board generally because the tone is too snarky for me, but I've followed Bat since it's very first production in Manchester and I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Las Vegas. Pity about the cast, but that makes me feel better about not being able to go to Vegas to see them. Do you know how well it is selling? The seating plans don't look encouraging, but I assume that a lot of tickets are shifted last minute in a place lik
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Down to One Aug 8
2019, 11:17:18 AM
I am very certain that the cast are aware of its campness, considering there is a scene where one leading man rips off his pants to reveal bright pink undies and not long after one leading lady pushes a car into the orchestra pit, which leads to some disgruntled musicians climbing out, shaking their damaged instruments at the performers.
Sorry if the pink undies are a spoiler (do we have pink undies in NY?). Since we already know the car is not happening in New York, I don't
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Down to One May 28
2019, 04:34:56 PM
I contacted the NYCC because I had booked seats in Row AA and didn't get any notification about being reseated. They wrote back today saying that I still had my seats in Row AA and that "all the other seats in that section had been sold" - naturally I don't believe a word, I also assume they took them off sales to make room for the orchestra pit/car and that news haven't reached the NYCC box office yet. But I'm still none the wiser where we'll be sitting now 
In London the car was pushed into the orchestra pit on the right side, so I would book seats on the left side of the orchestra (lower numbers 101-112 thereabouts).
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Down to One May 16
2019, 05:25:13 PM
Yea I came back to say, sorry, I remembered wrongly. He didn't do Mon Eve / Wed Eve / Sat Matinee for a while, then started doing the Saturday matinee, so the other two did Monday and Wednesday Eve. I forgot that the Monday performance existed. Still, in NY it will be 2 shows on Sat and 2 shows on Sun, which is a massive demand on a young voice, so I'm still quite sure he'll take one of these 4 off.
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Down to One May 16
2019, 04:40:54 PM
He didn't do Wednesday Evening and Saturday Matinee in London and the two alternates went on for one show each. As his US Tour alternate Kaleb Wells is in the cast, I presume he will be doing a few shows as Strat, too, but it's anyone's guess which. Perhaps he'll also get one show each week only as it's not such a long run. I'd treat carefully around the matinees and maybe stick with Fri or Sat Evening as the safest option for the lead guy to be on.
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Down to One May 15
2019, 12:59:52 PM
Having seen the show several times in London - if they use the same set (and I'm sure they will) they cannot bring the action downstage due to how the set is constructed. There's a lot of camera work though, so they might install extra screens up on the balcony and on the very sides of the orchestra where people might be able to see what they're missing (at least in part). But I would avoid the balcony and make sure to be able to see as much of the whole stage as
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BAT OUT OF HELL Will Play 8 Weeks At NY City Center In 2019 Dec 21
2018, 04:53:59 PM
That would be me? :)
Yes, Bat is indeed selling badly, but I know many people who would be interested but simply don't bother to go because they don't want to hear Meat Loaf's famous hits translated into German. The issue keeps cropping up on their social media pages but they don't even bother to offer 1-2 performances in English to see how that would be selling (when We Will Rock You was in Germany, they translated the dialogues but left the songs in English
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BAT OUT OF HELL Will Play 8 Weeks At NY City Center In 2019 Nov 2
2018, 10:54:48 AM
The only thing you contributed is that the picture is even more skewed than previously thought, and aside from bashing the show I happen to like, really all you did was confirm my baseline assumption. You could have used sentences instead of a page that was rather snobby and condescending of another show in its own right. But I thank you nonetheless for your politesse, and I apologize if I seemed at all immature or patronizing. It was certainly not my intention to be either; we all get ca
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BAT OUT OF HELL Will Play 8 Weeks At NY City Center In 2019 Nov 2
2018, 10:15:56 AM
g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "Tell us how you really feel, sweetheart."
Thank you for your mature and not at all patronizing response - sweetheart.
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BAT OUT OF HELL Will Play 8 Weeks At NY City Center In 2019 Nov 2
2018, 10:04:40 AM
I am a quiet lurker/reader on this board, which I primarily use to keep up with what's happening on Broadway. But I can't just let this last comment stand. I am German and I have been a musical lover since before Tanz der Vampire first opened in Vienna (where I first saw it with the great unforgotten Steve Barton). I didn't like the show very much then and how and why exactly it became this phenomenon in Germany is beyond me. The show could never decide whether it w
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Wuthering Heights musical/Bernard J. Taylor Mar 27
2014, 02:30:36 PM
Both came out around the same time. Taylor blamed Richard for ruining his chances to get Wuthering Heights staged big time in London. After the Heathcliff debacle nobody was going near that story again for a while and the era of the big weepies ended anyway.
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Wuthering Heights musical/Bernard J. Taylor Mar 27
2014, 10:37:41 AM
I saw it when it first opened in Heilbronn/Germany in 1997 - it was very much helped by a great charismatic leading man but otherwise forgettable.
The same theatre did Taylor's Pride & Prejudice later which was a horrible idea from the start as the novel relies on sharp dialogue and doesn't lend itself to musicalization at all. I was bored stiff.
I also just realize it was 17 years ago. Thanks for making me feel old...
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BONNIE AND CLYDE only selling tickets until Dec. 30... Dec 7
2011, 01:44:46 AM
Can I just add as an European observer to these boards that Wildhorn is not THAT successful in Europe either as some seem to think here? Except for Jekyll & Hyde which ran a couple of years in different towns, none of his shows have done well here. "Rudolf" was a commercial failure in Vienna and did a lot less well than Vienna's other shows such as "Elisabeth" and "Rebecca", playing for less than a year. "Dracula" only had one short run in Graz/Austria. "Monte Christo" had a handful of performan
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Book of Mormon Cast Recording to be Released Digitally 5/17 Apr 26
2011, 08:50:53 AM
Is there any chance the physical CD will become available earlier, perhaps at the theatre? As a foreigner, I can't digitally download from American websites, nor do I really want to as I'm an ancient reactionary bore who prefers her music on CDs, so I was going to go shopping for CDs in New York, but I'm leaving the country on 31 May. As I have a ticket for BOM for 30 May, it would be great if I could pick up the CD there. I remember they were selling the Legally Blonde-CD at the Palace Theatre
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Official: SPIDER-MAN Brings On Consultant; 6th Delay Likely for Opening Feb 22
2011, 08:18:00 AM
What about Love never dies? I haven't seen the "revised" version but apparently it has helped to improve the show and it collected seven Olivier nominations (after the original was pretty much bashed by the critics)
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Where to stay? Jan 30
2011, 01:59:40 AM
The Milford got a complete overhaul, didn't it? It was closed when I was last in NY in September. I booked it again for my next trip in May so I'm also hoping for a freshly renovated room.
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