Coliseum Theatre
Date: 23rd March (Friday), 7:30pm
Seats: Balcony Centre Right, E16-17
(With Richard!)
We attempted to see this show last weekend with Bri and Patrick, but we hadn't booked tickets in advance, and despite tickets being available for days and days beforehand, there were none available on the day! Frustrating, so we spent that night in and simply booked for the following Friday. Only 20 pound seats too!
We met just before the show and had Pret for dinner outside the theatre (we were cutting it a bit fine coming in from work) before getting to our seats at the one minute call! Definitely the closest to missing the start of a show I've ever been. Our seats were pretty good - I had to lean forwards a little to see the very front of the stage over the lady in front, but we could see some things at the back that gave away some stagecraft, which is always fun to see. And we were high up, but not too far.
The plot is rather odd, and G&S-ian in plot twists. Iolanthe is a fairy who was banished to the bottom of a stream for marrying a mortal, and she had a son who was a fairy down to the waist. Strephon, the son, is in love with Phyllis, a ward of the chancery, but all the peers in parliament want to marry her. She is in love with Strephon but they're not allowed to marry because they need permission from the Lord Chancellor. Strephon is seen with his mother, but she looks seventeen because fairy, and Phyllis breaks up with him for it. Long story short, they marry in the end and everyone becomes a fairy! Quite strange.
The staging in particular was odd. There were a lot of animal props and physical gags which seemed out of place during the show and were there to get a cheap laugh. The rest of the audience laughed but we mostly just thought it was strange and out of place. Some were even during songs, which seemed extra strange while people were singing in the background. It was especially good to have surtitles (above the stage!) to read as the singing was sometimes not very clear, although they stopped the surtitles when they repeated lines, which I don't think they should have done.
The cast was pretty great. I think on the whole I liked the male characters vocally better than the ladies, but everyone was good. It's quite different seeing an ENO production to a regular musical because the style of singing is so different to musical theatre singing.
Bri and I came to the same conclusions about this particular production - it was a strange staging, and not our favourite Gilbert and Sullivan, but it was definitely worth seeing and expanding our operetta knowledge.
We attempted to see this show last weekend with Bri and Patrick, but we hadn't booked tickets in advance, and despite tickets being available for days and days beforehand, there were none available on the day! Frustrating, so we spent that night in and simply booked for the following Friday. Only 20 pound seats too!
We met just before the show and had Pret for dinner outside the theatre (we were cutting it a bit fine coming in from work) before getting to our seats at the one minute call! Definitely the closest to missing the start of a show I've ever been. Our seats were pretty good - I had to lean forwards a little to see the very front of the stage over the lady in front, but we could see some things at the back that gave away some stagecraft, which is always fun to see. And we were high up, but not too far.
The plot is rather odd, and G&S-ian in plot twists. Iolanthe is a fairy who was banished to the bottom of a stream for marrying a mortal, and she had a son who was a fairy down to the waist. Strephon, the son, is in love with Phyllis, a ward of the chancery, but all the peers in parliament want to marry her. She is in love with Strephon but they're not allowed to marry because they need permission from the Lord Chancellor. Strephon is seen with his mother, but she looks seventeen because fairy, and Phyllis breaks up with him for it. Long story short, they marry in the end and everyone becomes a fairy! Quite strange.
The staging in particular was odd. There were a lot of animal props and physical gags which seemed out of place during the show and were there to get a cheap laugh. The rest of the audience laughed but we mostly just thought it was strange and out of place. Some were even during songs, which seemed extra strange while people were singing in the background. It was especially good to have surtitles (above the stage!) to read as the singing was sometimes not very clear, although they stopped the surtitles when they repeated lines, which I don't think they should have done.
The cast was pretty great. I think on the whole I liked the male characters vocally better than the ladies, but everyone was good. It's quite different seeing an ENO production to a regular musical because the style of singing is so different to musical theatre singing.
Bri and I came to the same conclusions about this particular production - it was a strange staging, and not our favourite Gilbert and Sullivan, but it was definitely worth seeing and expanding our operetta knowledge.
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