Weāve got one for TV, weāve got one for Movies, why not one for the OG arts entertainment: Live Theatre and/or Musicals?
What have you been watching? Whatās been good Theatre popping up near you? Spread the word.
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I was lucky enough to have my parents book me a ticket to see āBoy Falls From the Skyā, theyād seen it a few weeks ago and figured itād be up my alley ā they were right.
Itās a one-man show (with accompanied musicians) by once-successful Broadway actor Jake Epstein. I say once-successful, because this is a moving, funny story about Jake achieving his dreams to be an actor, and going about all the struggles and hardships that led him to quit, at least for a time.
Itās very well-made, and I guess I have to give props to the set/prop designer. The stage and proscenium is very open, with speakers, cords and boxes strewn about, curtains removed, and in the middle is a cut-out, small loft apartment set. Lots of things and posters stuffed in bags make the thing feel really lived-in, which makes it really surprising that barely any of it is used! Itās mostly set dressing to convey the tone of his living arrangements, and I liked that detail.
The show is entirely performed and spoken by Jake Epstein, with some musical numbers from musicals heās enjoyed and musicals heās been in. Famously, heās āsurvivedā a good stint as Spider-Man in the infamously failed Broadway musical, which he talks about, as well as the many other struggles of rejection, injuries, famous people heās encountered, and people asking āsoā¦ what was it like??ā
Itās very fun, and I hope that if it goes on tour elsewhere, you should go see it too! A nice, quick way to spend a night out.
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Honestly, I probably should be seeing more theatre considering I live just outside Edinburgh, and can get to Glasgow in an hour and a half, and both have pretty strong theatre scenes. Itās just how expensive tickets can be and that I hate crowds and people.
Back nearly 10 years ago, me and mum went to the theatre every couple of months for plays. Some were good, someā¦ not so good. I remember going to a play that was a sequel to Macbeth. Most boring thing Iāve ever seen. Saw an adaptation of Kidnapped that was so terrible we walked out in the intermission. They decided to do a āāāfight sceneā"" by strapping Go Pro cameras on a man, then had that man fight another man with prop swords, whilst also using paper cut outs of stick figures to represent more men in the sword fight, with the camera broadcast to the scene behind them. I think it was the only time I remember the audience just being utterly silent, I think out of embarrasment. Saw a comedic take on Oedipus, called Oedipussy, I remember that was alot of fun.
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As a former stage school kid, Iām very excited about this thread 
Iām really enjoying the unofficial Bridgerton musical at the moment - the people who wrote it are super talented! Really hoping it gets turned into a proper production and goes on tour because I think itād be amazing on stage.
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āWhispersā Pssstā¦ Yeah come here i got a musical for yerā¦ Its a bit SHIT so watch out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tPOfFXWZc
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Careful of those Dreamworks snipersā¦
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Harry Potter & The Cursed Child
Fuck JK Rowling. 
Thanks to my parents for gifting us their subs tickets.
The play was good, at times. The Actors were great fun, especially at recreating some of the feel of the movie actors everyoneās come to know and love. The special effects were outstanding.
- Thereās a quick change right on stage just 20 seconds into the play, really impressive and had me do a double-take.
- Plenty of hidden stage wires and characters/objects āfloatingā in the air, very convincing and sneaky.
- Powerful flame effects when used. We were close to the stage, off on the far side, for me it was actually blinding at times. Had to close my eyes.
- Some fun dance/movement choreography to set up scenes.
- Some good piano and electronic music. At one point it almost goes dubstep which I didnāt like.
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When the Dementors appear, and one flies over the audience, it was awesome! Iām sure the one over the audience was a puppet instead of a person ā wink, wink, Spider-Man ā but it was great. (Theyād shut down the theatre for 3 months last year for renovations for this play, and I was sure it was because some had to be for above-audience work. Glad to be right.)
- Lighting is really well-done. The stage is very deep, making the back half bathed in darkness. So characters coming in and out of scene, needing to do disappearing acts, or objects coming into view in āmagical revealsā is great.
- Thereās a Polyjuice potion scene where actors hand-off costumes in real-time at-the-same-time and it was very cool.
The story itself wasā¦ quite bad? Parts I liked, more parts I reeeally didnāt like. It felt pretty fan-fictiony.
Itās like a cross between Harry Potter and Back to the Future Pt. 2 and thatās not the kind of story Iām looking for.
The second half with the whole āconvince-person-Iām-from-another-timelineā was tropey and silly in execution. The massive HP-lore-dump from Scorpius towards Snape was even more silly and fan-fictiony. Thankfully it only takes about a quarter of the second act so itās over quite quick, but then they keep going with the time-travel plot, convoluting it even more, andā¦ I just really didnāt like it here.
Delphi is actually Voldemortās child. Honestly surprising because I expected him not to have a child at all.
But no! He does! And itās with Bellatrix! And they even mention he had a child with Bellatrixā¦ and now THAT image is in my head and I hate it SO MUCH 
The plot also felt like Disneyās Star Wars sequels, with how attached everything was to nostalgia and previous lore.
Oh yeah, the bookās epilogue train scene. Time-turner stuff again but way more complex. Hey remember Cedric? Remember Cedric? Remember Cedric? Look its the 4th movie! Hey its that Polyjuice Potion scene to sneak into the Ministry! Remember Moaning Myrtle? Huh? Look its Lily and James! Hey you know how they died? Weāre here, in the past now, and itās gonna happen! Hey look Umbridge is here, you like Umbridge right? And Snape? And his love-story backstory? And all these characters teaming up? Look theyāre all together wow!
It felt very contrived and claustrophobic in terms of am expansion to the story. I would have much preferred stuff that didnāt rely so much on beloved, too-well-known past events.
The costumes were really nice though. Loved the actor who got to play Dumbledore with the huge beard.
Also this play is gay (not Rowling making a gay love story?!) But really not gay enough. All that just for a hug?
There were so many moments between Scorpius and Albus that screamed Young Adult coming-of-age romance story, but it just dances around it at the end really.
Maybe it was written by her, maybe it was one of the other two writers. But something held it back from where it should logically go.
Best line though:
Draco Malfoy: We. Can. Hug. Too. If. You. Want. Sonā¦ 
Fantastic delivery. 
Give me more stuck-up but slightly open-hearted Draco Malfoy
Fuck JK Rowling.
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I saw the stage musical of Singinā in the Rain tonight
Iām dead tired right now after a very long day so Iāll say more later
It was really fun I really enjoyed it. Great story about a Hollywood film company adapting to a new era of āTalking Picturesā. They had a great use of pre-recorded effects projected onto the stage, to show off the silent film theyāre working on, vs. later on, the talking picture they shift it towards. Very well made.
Somehow never seen the film (actually, maybe I have? But I think I was very young so I forget) but thatās going on my watch list for sure now.
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Get some rest then, you need it. 
I think I saw a film a long time ago that was about this Hollywoodās change of silent movies to ones with recorded voices too. I am not sure if itās the same one, but itās certainly a big change that actors couldnāt get used to.
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Yāall need to go out and see the arts more 
hehehe
Went and saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat tonight.
Itās a very impressive, energetic, fun musical.
Based on this old Bible story about this guy called Joseph, a massive ādreamerā and sees great success in his life. He is one of 12 sons of an old man called Jacob. Now, Jacob loves his son Joseph the most, so he gives him this āDreamcoatā that has every shade of colour imaginable patterned on it, and is lined with gold. The other 11 brothers all get very jealous of him, so they sell him off to be a slave, and the play chronicles how Joseph manages to escape that life using his skills at ādeciphering dreamsā.
The musical is full of different genres and styles ā country/western, jazz, french ballads, can-can, tap-dancing, rock, etc. with impressive choreography. My favourite bits were the Pharaohās song, as it portrays this Pharaoh as an Elvis impersonator, singing in that Rockabilly-style (I think?) And thereās also the āThose Canaan Daysā near the end of the musical, which has a heavy french ballad style, with heavy-accented lyrics too 
If I find the time tomorrow Iāll see if I can find which cast recording might be best to post some songs
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great, didnāt even need to read anymore (ofc i did because itās you: smile:)
Itās an amazing experience, i think iāve watched it like 5 or 6 times, brilliant: 
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Okay, so, Hamilton was very fun.
This is actually my second time seeing it ā I was super lucky enough with my family to have seen it back in March 2020, just half a week before they shut down the show and lockdowns started.
This oneās an entirely different cast and they still did a good job. Mostly.
The play is great fun overall, fantastic use of lyrics and music.
To get some negatives out of the way:
it wasnāt entirely audible. The orchestra microphones are probably turned up way too loud, eclipsing the vocal performances quite a bit.
The actor who played Lafayette had a horrible french accent. I think he pushed it way too far, which put it into this completely non-understandable dialect. I barely understood 90% of his lines unfortunately. When he swapped to Jefferson in Act 2 he was a lot better without the french accent.
Itās her big number, I donāt know if the vibe was a bit off on stage tonight, but Angelica was just-slightly off tempo for much of āSatisfiedā which was unfortunate. Eh, Live Theatreā¦
ā¦
However! I had a really fun time anyway and here's the good:
The women in this production were fantastic. The schuyler sisters had amazing voices, really powerful.
Since today was Intl. Womenās Day, they had all the women cast members and stage hands line up for a bow at the end too! Awesome!
Much of the cast seemed to be enunciating their words for much of the performance. It took away a little from their singing or rapping performances, but I could understand their lightning-fast lyrics a lot easier this time around.
The guy who played Aaron Burr, Manuel Stark Santos, was so freakin captivating. He drew my attention every time he was on stage, I canāt explain it, but he had such a driven, commanding energy that I really loved.
The musical itself is once again just a stunner! Lin-Manuel Miranda may have a lyrical style that weāve all gotten used to now, but itās really good! Rapid rhyming, repetition, layering, and a heavy use of leitmotifs throughout the musical and in specific numbers (Non-Stop, The World was Wide Enough) make such a cohesive story and journey through this musical. Itās still very impressive to me.
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