Best West End Musical

lauratkd

Hi all

I want to bring my sister to a musical in London for her 21st. We've already seen Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. Any other suggestions???

THanks

shazpunk

Wicked...best bay far, words actually can't decribe it! Its just amazing!!

wet-paint

+1

QuadLeo

shazpunk wrote: »

Wicked...best bay far, words actually can't decribe it! Its just amazing!!

I'm not so sure. I watched Wicked last week in London. Technically it was amazing. The lights, sound and stage craft was fantastic. The lights were mind blowing, so many effects and it was really smooth. Most of the musical numbers were great, but I felt the entire 2nd act was weak, especially because the 1st act was so good. And Elphaba didn't fly at the end of Act 1 :mad: . It was strange to see her with a broom in her hand singing 'defying gravity' and not leaving the ground. It was still a great number though.

I'd recommend Billy Elliot. I also watched it last week. It's the best musical I've ever seen and I've seen them all really. I'm not into big chorus dance numbers or anything like that but there's something about this show that is special. Again the set and stage craft are amazing and the sound design is cool too. Choreography and that stuff is execellent also. All the cast are brilliant.

If you're going to London to see a show I'd recomment seeing the two shows, Wicked and Billy Elliot. Try to go on a day where one has a mattinee. That way you can see both on the same day. And let us know what you think.

owlwink

Strangely enough I really enjoyed the Lord of the Rings west end show. Amazing.....................

QuadLeo

I've heard Lord of the Rings is good. The set and costumes are meant to be really good. I've been told the music isn't great though. It seams to be doing well in London.

owlwink

Yeah amazingly it's still holding strong. The music was mediocre, but the set and effects definitely made up for it......

ellenmelon

QuadLeo wrote: »

And Elphaba didn't fly at the end of Act 1 :mad: . It was strange to see her with a broom in her hand singing 'defying gravity' and not leaving the ground. It was still a great number though.

what? what a naff end to the first act. id be annoyed because defying gravity is one of more well known songs from it so i know how the sequence goes, if you know what i mean?

QuadLeo

I know. I was pretty dissapointed. But that's what annoyed me most; The audience was 50% teenage girls who are past the high school musical thing and they still gave a standing ovation at the end of act 1. The number was definately worthy of a good ovation but not standing. The equipment didn't work! Fair play to the cast though. They kept going as if nothing was different. You wouldn't notice if you didn't know what was supposed to happen. Probably why loads of people stood up and cheered.

AbitDramatic

Wickeds pretty awesome, Avenue Q is hilarious..... Billy Elliot is awesome as well.....
I personally want to see Mary Poppins next. Lol

QuadLeo

Mary Poppins is really good. I loved it! Do you think Wicked will come to Dublin? I know it's a huge production but it's the type of show that would do well. Miss Saigon was here for a few months and I'd say Wicked would be even more popular. It would be good to see it in the Point when it opens again.

Curvy Vixen

Depends on what floats your boat really. I loved Avenue Q, Mama Mia and Dirty Dancing. OH loved Phantom and Mary Poppins! All quite different but all fab!

athtrasna

AbitDramatic wrote: »

Wickeds pretty awesome, Avenue Q is hilarious..... Billy Elliot is awesome as well.....
I personally want to see Mary Poppins next. Lol

You'll need to hurry up then - Mary Poppins closes this year, September I think. It is going on tour but believe me you'll want to see it in its current home as there's no way they can bring all the effects etc on tour!!

Wicked will never come to Dublin as a professional show in its current incarnation. The staging is just too huge and we don't have a venue and even the extended Point couldn't cope. I did the Behind the Emerald Curtain tour of Wicked in NYC and they showed the logistics of Wicked sets etc and no way would it work here unless we were to purpose build a venue. Add that to the staging costs, it would need to sell out every night to even come close to covering the costs.

As for what's best in the West End - horses for courses really. My absolute favourite is Wicked but I rate Billy Elliot, Avenue Q and Spamalot very highly too and would find it very hard to chose between them!

wet-paint

QuadLeo wrote: »

I'm not so sure. I watched Wicked last week in London. Technically it was amazing. The lights, sound and stage craft was fantastic. The lights were mind blowing, so many effects and it was really smooth. Most of the musical numbers were great, but I felt the entire 2nd act was weak, especially because the 1st act was so good. And Elphaba didn't fly at the end of Act 1 :mad: . It was strange to see her with a broom in her hand singing 'defying gravity' and not leaving the ground. It was still a great number though.

Aye, I was there at that performance too. Sure did you not hear her shout "Stop" as

they started to lift her up?

I wasn't happy with that performance at all. Did you notice the other big Fcuk up in Defying Gravity? Pilkington knocked off Kerry's bloody mic as she wrapped the cloak around her! Her mike went dead for a few seconds, and then you could hear her gradually fade in as the sound engineer brought up the levels in Glinda's mic to compensate. Strangely, she'd have been ****ed once they separated, and they'd have had to fix the mic, but it was covered by the lift slipping, and Kerry dropping the broom. And how would yuou have not noticed the mistake, they had to drop the curtain for five minutes! You could hear the stage manager roaring out from side stage to mind the curtain as they dropped it.

I went down to the sound engineer after after the show to have a word with him, auxiliary percussion mic sounded way too loud, did you notice that? It was really intrusive, but it seems that the percussionist is simply playing way too loud, and the engineer was having major issues with him. He also said that Kerry felt uncomfortable in the harness, she had felt something give, and didn't want to continue. She does this eight times a week, so I figure she'd know.

I was majorly disappointed that it had to happen during the best song of the show, and yeah, the second act did seem a little lacklustre in comparison, but they were still bang on form for "For Good" which was beautiful. But did you not hear Kerry's blast of a performance when she came out to finish of Defying Gravity? Blew my socks off she did. What a dynamo. She's off to reprise her role in the Broadway version from June, so I'd advise people to get over to the West End before that.

QuadLeo

I wasn't at that performance anyway. I think it was last monday I went to see it. Maybe tuesday. I can't really remember. But all I noticed was that she went upstage towards the rig to fly and she turned around and came back downstage to the action. Everything carried on as normal and she finished the number and the act. I did notice the mic problems when she put her cloak on, so maybe it was the same night. They didn't drop the curtain when I was there and they never retuned to do the number again. I dunno maybe they just had a bad few nights. New stage manager or tech crew maybe.

athtrasna

Sorry you guys had a bad experience at Wicked but perhaps you could consider editing your posts as you are giving away major spoilers for the non Wicked scholars!!

Kerry Ellis is an amazing Elphaba - I've seen 5 different ones in 6 performances in 4 different cities and it's a close call between her and the original Idina Menzel. I also loved Eden Espinosa in NYC. Diane Pilkington is a good Glinda, much better than her predecessor Helen Dalliamore!

Incidentally, all the leads have multiple mikes, I know there's one in Elphaba's hat and hairline as well as on her dress so I'm surprised to hear there were sound issues with one mike being disturbed?

wet-paint

Apologies, done. It was the wednesday Matinee that the problem was, so that's pretty sh1t that there were other problems that week, I feel bad for them. I've seen Menzel too, and I think Ellis beats her hands down. I adore the West End setting too, the Apollo Victoria is beautiful.
I agree with your point on Pilkington, she has brilliant comic timing, and can pull jokes out that I never heard before.

Maybe the mikes all have a common transmitter that could have been knocked off somehow? I know the engineer was sweating big time until he was saved by the above mentioned fúckup.

QuadLeo

I've done sound for a lot of shows in Dublin over the last few years; nothing major or anything but the principals always had back up mics and they were on a separate pack and frequency. It's hard to know what could have happened but they'd want to sort it out cos 2 major fcuk ups in one week isn't good.

Unshelved

Hairspray - absolutely tip-notch, terrific cast, brilliant score plus the chance to see Michael Ball in a dress.

What's not to love?

Brimmy

Avenue Q.

Assuming your sister has a funny bone.

ellenmelon

random side note : kerry ellis was in "we will rock you" wasn't she? (by the way, i would recommend wwry, for the pure fact that it is cheesy as hell and you will know all the songs lol).