Free Theatre/Concert Tickets Discussion Thread

[asamaic]

Well, I'm not big on West End musicals, I can be quite tough and I'm certainly not a housewife - and I loved The West End Men! I was surprised, I must confess I was expecting to like it about as much as raj101. It did well to win me over.

Hadn't heard any of them sing before, if you exclude Matt from his Busted days, but I thought they were all great. I fell a little in love with David, Fix You is one of my favourite songs and I felt he turned it into a piece of musical theatre, rather than attempting to rip off Chris Martin.

Also loved a bit of Seal, thought Glen had the right voice to kick off the chorus - "Bay-byy!"

Matt perhaps wasn't as strong, but man, he's got rhythm. Let's go salsa dancing. You can serenade me too.

Lee was ok. But the others were very good indeed. Standing ovation today too - and I actually joined in for once. Told you, I'm tough. Don't see as much West End as some of the others here, but I can see up to half a dozen plays on an average week, so I'm not shy in identifying crap.

Didn't run into any FMUKers! Go on, where were you all hiding? I was in row M of the stalls - make me jealous, were you in the premium seats?

[jojojoanne]

I absolutely loved this show!! Some of them songs sent chills right through me!!

[Rainey]

went last night.

lots of housewives, very few men in the crowd (I think).

Good opening but very slow in the middle. the pop songs (busted, wtf?) were used to break up the West End hits so it was understandable that they were generally not well worked out, though the voices were good all the way through - just probably not rehearsed properly. Good finale, but then it was Les Miz and Queen so it was never going to be a bad ending. God knows why people were giving it a standing ovation, I guess that's alcohol for you. I think the song list needs improving if you are going make this a premium show. Perhaps it was the choice of pop songs - Coldplay sung in falsetto is always going to sound like a cringeworthy imitation of Martin, whose voice isn't even very good anyway, so why bother imitating his falsetto style? Fix You would have sounded better interpreted freshly tbh. Likewise none of them could get close to the quality of Seal's vocals on Kiss From a Rose. Oh, one of the singers looked like one of Bros. mm ok Bros are twins, so he looked like them both lol, but I mean he looked like Bros look now (ie the version that turns up in crap movies like Death Race 3).

Damn good way of making money though, nicking all the west ends songs for a minimalist budget stage.

My favourite performer? The bespectacled spanner* of a pianoman, who was in a geekily grinning groove.

* Spanner = Northern slang for someone skinny at school who wears big thick specs, is crap at all sports but has a geeky secret interest in something weird like collecting stick insects or playing the piano.

I went to the matinee performance today, the theatre was quite full and I was in the Dress circle, view wise the seats were great, leg room wise they were worse than Easyjet! Overall we enjoyed the show, but agree with the poor review of the Coldplay & Seal covers, in fact I thought David Thaxton looked rather uncomfortable singing the Coldpaly cover and during the instrumental his attempts to 'rock out' left him looking like a constipated chicken, my son actually asked, 'What's he doing?'! However, in the Les Mis song his voice was by far the best.

Sadly, I didn't particularly warm to Kerry Ellis, thought she made it all a bit too cheesey, but with an average audience age of 70 it was probably what was required.

I have to agree the pianoman as we also called him was also our favourite 'performer', it was like the music was flowing right through his body, now matter what was happening centre stage, I found myself glancing over at him.

[raj101]

I have to agree the pianoman as we also called him was also our favourite 'performer', it was like the music was flowing right through his body, now matter what was happening centre stage, I found myself glancing over at him.

I'm modelling my life on this guy.

Probably a bit much too expect them to match Seal, he has one of the best soul voices of the 20th century, my bad.

[asamaic]

The MD, David White? Agree, loved him too. He looked so delighted at the end of every song.

[Rainey]

The MD, David White? Agree, loved him too. He looked so delighted at the end of every song.

Yes, you could tell just how passionate about music he is, accidental star of the show.

[Timbo]

I was also at the matinee today. Row A in the stalls (was actually the third row as they have rows AY and AZ) great seats. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought it would. Thought David Thaxton was great, also enjoyed Kerry Ellis and the choir.
My friend is the sound engineer on the show and I spoke to her afterwards. She told me that Lee was not well today and that is why he didn't sing Fix You (he usually sings it) and David had stepped in at the last minute. They also cut the duet between Lee and Kerry for the same reason.
The only part of the show I didn't like was the opening to the second half; a medley of songs from West Side Story that just didn't work for me.

[caitlinmorton]

Saw West End Men today at the matinee as well. Cliveas and I combined our available +1's so that prettyxcool's friend and her boyfriend could go together. Cliveas and I were sat in Row F of the Dress Circle, just off center, really nice seats, the Vaudeville theatre is tiny!

I really really enjoyed this, big thanks to yogi for the tickets. Thought they were all great, and really lovely to hear loads of songs I recognized (musical theatre buff here), though found it funny that in the programme they totally got the name wrong on one of the 'RENT' songs (supposed to be 'What You Own' not 'America'). I actually liked Kerry Ellis more than I thought I would, though could have done without her during 'Out Tonight', would have preferred that be done by the boys.

My highlights were definitely 'Fix You' and 'Til I Hear You Sing', as well as the Les Mis Medley, and also the fun bit where they sang a bunch of songs ('Edelweiss', 'Send in the Clowns', etc...) to the same riff.

Just wondering, has anyone seen the fifth man, or was he cut after they made the programs? Definitely wasn't there today and the Bombay Dreams song was cut as far as I could tell.

All in all a bunch of good fun. I went in knowing I had seen Lee Mead before (in 'Legally Blonde'), but by the end of the show I realized I had also seen Matt Willis as Fiyero the last time I saw 'Wicked', and David Thaxton play Raoul when I saw 'Love Never Dies' (I remember now thinking that Raoul was better than the Phantom). I would have pa*d for tickets, definitely. Wanted to just from seeing the posters in the Tube. Really glad I went, and lovely to meet Cliveas as well.

[mupton]

We saw LAMDA's Clybourne Park at the Lyric Hammersmith; I am theatre regular and I have to say it was the best thing I have seen this (and top 3 of last) year. The Play is a very strong piece of writing. It is very funny (and there was a good atmosphere in the house) but the performances matched it. It was a blast.

There are some performance this week, and it is free.

[canadian_turtle]

Newsies will be coming to the West End next Spring, according to Baz in the Mail - Piccadilly or Savoy the likely venues.




FINALLY!! This was one of the best shows I saw in New York last week and, well, period. It's absolutely amazing!