The River Previews- Page 2

[pushdabutton]

Posted: 11/1/14 at 10:56am

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Whizzer. I appreciate it as I am still trying to decide to buy a ticket to this show.

Did anyone else see The River last night?

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/1/14 at 11:39pm

I didn't much care for Jerusalem so I wonder how I'd feel about this. Sounds interesting. But there's no actual plot?

[supersam1026]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 12:10am

Just got back from tonight's show. Honestly, not the biggest fan of this one unfortunately. I've always loved Jackman and, while he did a fine job, I left just being more frustrated than anything else. There is essentially no real plot (or at least one that I was able to follow) and it also seemed like there was a lot of time spent on just watching Jackman do different things that really didn't matter. Personally, I didn't really need to see him spend what seemed like 5 minutes preparing a fish dinner!

I DID sit in the riverbank seats. I was seat BB 231. I think BB would be better than AA in this instance. Like any show in Cirlcle in the Square, the closer you are to the center, the better. I did not feel like I missed too much, but there were definitely times where I wish I could have seen the actor's faces more. The seats are basically one long bench. There is a cushion on the benches, but the backs are just a plank of wood. However, it was great to be so close to the action, you really feel immersed in the play so that makes up for the uncomfortable backs of the seats.

Also went to the stage door after. It was probably as busy as any other time at a Hugh Jackman stage door, but the barricades stretched much further (from the door of the theater all the way to the end of the sidewalk) so it was never more than 2-3 deep. He came out around 10:05 (the play got out right at 9:30), signed for everyone within reach and seemed to genuinely enjoy talking to everyone (no pictures with him though!).

I'm more than happy to answer any other questions if any one has!

[bfreak]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 7:30am

Unfortunate to hear your review of the show. I hope I really like it. That's good news about the stage door, though! Do you think I'll have a chance to be in the first row from my seats which are Row BB seats 102 and 104? (It's on the aisle). Plus, do you think my view from those riverbank seats might be better because they're closer to the center? Thank you.

[supersam1026]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 10:40am

I think BB 102 and 104 are probably perfect seats! You should be able to get a pretty good spot at the stage door as long as you're somewhat quick about it. There was no one that did not see the show waiting at the stage door at first which really helped it out.

[bfreak]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 10:53am

Thanks, supersam. And the stage door is basically the main entrance at that theatre, right?

[supersam1026]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 10:58am

Yes, you go outside, take a left and you'll see the barriers set up.

[rjm516]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 10:58am

I knew this show was about fishing...but it sounds like he's actually fishing and doing stuff with fish and cooking it and stuff during it? Is it real fish that he guts and what not?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 11:05am

Cue the eye roll

Paying $ 100 plus to see someone clean & gut a fish. Is this what theater has come down to? This play sounds so boring that it defies belief that he even got involved with the project

Hopefully it is not a real fish less PETA gets their bowels in an uproar.

We are talking about this while shows like The Last Ship are dying a slow death. Now I see why I keep Broadway at a distance. This borders on lunacy.

A serious question: Does the fish give a Tony winning performance?

Updated On: 11/2/14 at 11:05 AM

[rjm516]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 11:12am

Jesus H. it's so ignorant when people immediately go to PETA jokes when the subject of animal cruelty comes out. I'm actually asking.

[mamaleh]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 11:14am

Yes, a real fish that would otherwise be served at a restaurant is gutted, prepared and partially eaten at each performance.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 5:20pm

PETA is an easy target and everything they say is funny and unbelievable.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 5:23pm

^^^ !!!

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 5:48pm

"Is it real fish that he guts and what not?"

I remember in the Of Mice and Men thread, when someone actually asks if they murder a real dog nightly. So, just like in that thread you will probably get mocked, but the answer is no.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 5:57pm

In THAT thread you should get mocked. How would anyone think that any actual dogs were killed?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 7:24pm

Saints be praised.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 7:40pm

Not at all surprised by these reviews, the London production of this was so awful. Perhaps if they used a real fish, it would have gone better.......

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 7:45pm

By Jove, I think you have it.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 7:50pm

I guess it's non-sequitur day here on BroadwayWorld.

Anyway - reviews in London were four and five stars. Whizzer, a page or two ago wrote positively about it as did Jesse21 over at ATC.




The River at the Royal Court

Updated On: 11/2/14 at 07:50 PM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 8:04pm

"A serious question: Does the fish give a Tony winning performance?"

HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Smaxie, that's great but I was expressing my opinion of the show that I saw in London, not any critics opinions. Saying it was mind fu*k, frustrating and someone was "not a fan" aren't positive things.

[jo]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 8:06pm

Thanks, Smaxie!

Matt Wolf's review was published in the NYTimes --

>>>>The New York Times by Matt Wolf, 30 October 2012

“The River,” at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, tantalizes and teases and whets an audience’s appetites: An extended scene finds Dominic West preparing in real time a sea-trout dinner for two that should lead to a jump in sales for any fish merchants in or near the Chelsea playhouse.

Mr. Butterworth’s first play since “Jerusalem” in 2009 seared its way into the collective English cultural conscience, winning leading man Mark Rylance a second Tony Award along the way, “The River” provides a contrast in almost every way. This one takes place in a single continuous act, not three, and traffics in silence rather than making a furious noise. What it shares with its predecessor is a belief in the numinous and in personalities that defy ready analysis. One exits the theater asking questions, and enriched.

It’s perhaps best to regard this as only an interim report on what is sure to be the first of many experiences of this play and of Ian Rickson’s characteristically empathic staging of it. The tiny playing space seats a scant 93, and so intense has been demand that the Court is selling tickets only on the day, either online or in-person at the box office. Let’s just say that any effort to get in is abundantly repaid.

The pleasures begin with a bearded Mr. West playing (brilliantly) a sensualist and aesthete who inhabits a remote cabin near which runs the river of the title, as heard at the start and during scene changes. But just as waterways rarely follow a straight path, neither does a play that gradually accrues in pain and deception, self-directed as much as not, though to say much more would spoil the skin-prickling finish, which prompts a reconsideration of all that has gone before. I can’t wait to see it again. <<<<



I have read the play several times and, on each reading, I discover something new. I am seeing the show on Broadway more than once and I hope this Broadway staging further enhances what I already perceive as very mentally-stimulating piece of writing. Too bad someone posted a stolen photo of the curtain call somewhere, which discloses a major spoiler

I hope I am not writing about any SPOILER/SPOILER/SPOILER here -- but the fish references prod me to speculate, thus

Re the fish --

*Could catching fish be the symbol for someone who is obsessed with catching a prey? All those women as prey? Gutting and cooking them representing the act of discarding the one that got caught...until he moves on to the next prey? Something about what was written when he was 7 years old and had that encounter with his first fish?

*Could it be an allegory for the fish that got away ( the one someone loved but who got away), thus leaving him seeking another one...and another one? The Man also talked about that " fish story"

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 8:08pm

Now I see why people call it a mind ****

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 8:10pm

More like a boring ass play that was 79 minutes too long.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 8:14pm

This play will be the new in thing to see while more worthwhile shows wither and die on the vine.

Would It's Only A Play be running with average reviews without its cast?

Sutton now you see why I am so disillusioned

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/2/14 at 8:19pm

I wonder if that's why ______ has distanced himself from the theatre? And yet just WILL NOT SHUT UP ABOUT THE THEATRE?