The Shop Is Staying Open !

http://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/index.php?page=89&show=314#

THIS IS GREAT and such a BIG venue, I wonder (and hope) if it will do The Mayflower, which is bigger, but not so much with balcony closed!

We saw this at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge, which had just the right size stage. Great production.

There's nothing worse though than a show designed for a smaller stage being marooned in the middle of a huge area.

Even The Producers seemed lost in Drury Lane, compared to the neater St James in New York.

I think the Mayflower is too big for this show. Don't get me wrong, I would still rush to see it and have a great time but it is a tiny set and a huge stage. Also there are only 2 weeks free from August to the end of the year at The Mayflower, not sure if either would fit with the tour

We live in Norwich, so the Theatre Royal is our main venue. The stage there would have been to big for Shop.. def too high, maybe too wide...but great for bigger musicals, opera, and RSC/National plays .

The Arts is definitely better for plays (more intimate, better acoustics), and good for smaller musicals...but what's with the zero lobby area!

I missed this when it was in Cardiff back in March (I was away in London ironically!). From what I've read it seems to be a grewat production, so I'm gutted to have missed it. And the rest of the tour venues are a bit far off the beaten track for me unfortunately.

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I saw this in Sheffield a few weeks ago. It was OK but not as good as the original (1980s) London production or the West Yorkshire Playhouse production of about five years ago.

Sylvester McCoy was good and, although I wondered if he might have been a backing track, Mike McShane came out and took a bow at the end.

I was amused to overhear some comments from a couple of teenagers in the audience talking about the actor playing Seymour:

"Do you think that nervous twitch is genuine or is it something he puts on for the performance?"

"I don't know, and I think I'll regret saying this, but he's kind of cute."

Anyone know if Mike Mcshane will be in this show when it comes to Woking at the end of May? I have seen him and Clive Rowe as the voice of the plant and I think they are both great. I just prefer Mike Mcshane as the plant.