Live Theatre / Musicals

[rob@rar]

Saw "Hamlet Hail to the Thief" last night at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. It's a mashup of Shakespeare's play and Radiohead's Hail to the Thief album from 2003. It was utterly glorious.

The play was edited down to a single act of about 1hr40m, but covered the key parts of the story, all the principal characters and all the speeches you expect to hear. But all this was infused with Radiohead's music at stadium-concert volume, including a couple of songs sung by Hamlet and Ophelia, with lots of choreography which both illustrated the characters and brought huge energy to the stage. Set design, projection-mapping and sound design were all stunning:



This was a brilliant take on one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, at the RSC itself just a short walk from Shakespeare's birthplace. It's on for another week in Stratford and I do hope it gets performed elsewhere; if it heads to the US I'd urge you to see it. It's astonishingly good theatre. But if you can see it in Stratford (I think there are some tickets still available), it's a wonderful experience to spend some time exploring Shakespeare's life by visiting his birthplace then seeing one of his plays brought bang up to date despite being written more than 400 years ago. This is what BroadwayWorld.com made of it.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I guess? I do think this season of musicals were weak (other than Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending).

Dead Outlaw is fantastic.

 

[oliverblackwood]

Dead Outlaw is fantastic.

I fully support it. A masterpiece!

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Not to get too far ahead and remove Tony talks, but for a fall (early Oct) trip, do we have recommendations for what I should see? Looking to see 3-4 shows. I’m not aware of new falls shows and am wondering what shows from this seasons are a must for Broadway. My boyfriend and I are close enough to Boston and Providence to see any show that will tour if we want to.

 

[PenguinCowboy]

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ Spinoff ‘Masquerade’ Plans Six-Week NYC Run, Announces Attire Requirements For Attendance

Woof. A 6 week run (tight), black/white/silver dress code (I actually like this), and BYOM (I am kind of shocked not shocked, you'd think that for $200+ they could spring for a piece of plastic, but also $$$)

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ Spinoff ‘Masquerade’ Plans Six-Week NYC Run, Announces Attire Requirements For Attendance

Woof. A 6 week run (tight), black/white/silver dress code (I actually like this), and BYOM (I am kind of shocked not shocked, you'd think that for $200+ they could spring for a piece of plastic, but also $$$)

Six weeks is a standard immersive ticket launch, SNM was "six week engagements" for over a decade. As for the masks, I get both sides of the debate. On one hand, supply them jerks. On the other, L&T had tons of mask issues for guests with glasses and such so them throwing their hands up and going "bring your own is ok!" is a solution to that.

 

[Clive]

Yeah, I think this is fine. $195 is about what was expected for pricing. As long as the masks offered on-site are inexpensive (in the $5 range), I don't think it's a problem.

This will obviously run for far longer than six weeks, presuming it sells (it will).

 

[PenguinCowboy]

Yeah, I think this is fine. $195 is about what was expected for pricing. As long as the masks offered on-site are inexpensive (in the $5 range), I don't think it's a problem.

This will obviously run for far longer than six weeks, presuming it sells (it will).

$5 for anything in NYC is definitely a hope, haha. I am thinking maybe $15 or so, but it would definitely be kind of schiesty if they are requiring it. They could always also offer a range, from cheap "gets the job done" ones to more elaborate.

I think I would have appreciated an open ended policy to allow you to bring your own, or one provided for free. I do totally understand the cost aspect and supply chain issues, though.

I think the initial rush will help with selling the 6 weeks, but with the recent overnight disappearance of L&T, I do have some PTSD about "limited engagements" (even though I am fully aware that was entirely an Emursive issue, not a format-wide one).

Definitely still stoked on it, and I am excited to see what comes of June 30th, but still some interesting decisions.