DOCTOR ZHIVAGO Reviews — Page 12

Enjoyed The Visit much more.

Having said that, no way Dr Z deserved the critical shellacking it got. The critics were itching for a fight and they would have roasted whatever they saw.This reminds me of a pile on in football.

Agree the love aspect was played down but to try and take a 3 1/2 movie or the novel and put it on stage was a venture designed to fail.

An E for effort as their was much to like. Had a much better time here than at BOM.

No better than 50/50 .

REALLY, Roxy? They were itching for a fight? With whom? And just how did it work that ALL of them panned the show? The collective mind?

Great that you enjoyed the show and all, as did many others, but you'll be a happier person when you give up on conspiracy theories.

Have been reading this forum since I saw the second preview and finally decided to post my long overdue thoughts:

Having seen the film the week before, what I enjoyed most was doing an extremely detailed critique in my head of the show. Overall, I thought it was a good show with a couple of really great songs, impressive staging and costumes. Some parts dragged and IMO it was a real shame to use the lyrics to Lara's theme - which I really don't like. It's a timeless song that would have worked in the moment they put it without lyrics - actually come to think of it none of the songs had particularly good lyrics. Tam was amazing as always ( ) and I was very impressed with Paul Nolan as Pasha - Kelli Barrett as Lara was pretty good but I did prefer Lora Lee Gayer's voice as Tonia - pity she had a small-ish part. I came out having enjoyed it, but there were obvious changes to be made eg. get rid of the awful projections, especially of Lara - which I just don't understand why they didn't change during previews.

The other thing is I don't understand everyone's comments about lack of love development. I saw the film for the first time the week before seeing the show and, expecting an epic love story, was surprised by how little the love aspect is in the film - Lara and Yurii are only together for about 20-30 mins out of a 3 hour film! I thought the show did a much better job of explaining, developing and showing their love.

"Hoping a show closes?
Not a very positive attitude to have but I have seen it on BWW so many times it should not surprise me.
"

I only hope that it closes so that I can see something else. I would never root for a show to close, whether I like it or not., and I just have no interest in this one. I'd much rather see something else. There is no way for me to get a refund on my ticket (I've tried) so the only way to get out of seeing it would be if it closes. We all know that it's going to close eventually, probably sooner than later.

I'm losing hope for a cast album now. There seemed to be a legitimate possibility but now that it's closing it seems less likely. If they were still planning on heading into the recording studio you would think they would have included that news with this press release.

I caught the final performance today out of curiosity. I didn't find it to be the stinker most have made it out to be, even if it did not come off as awards bait: too many repetitive, same-sounding love songs in Act 2, and a bit overblown production wise. But some of the melodies were gorgeous, and the performers gave it their all. I'd never before seen Tam Mutu on stage and was impressed with his acting and especially his singing. Still, at best, I guess my overall verdict is damned with faint praise. The show had no "wow" moments that sell tickets. The audience went wild with applause, bouquets given to the cast and whistles at the end, but there was no curtain speech. Unfortunate that so many fine performers are now out of work.