44 replies to this topic

[Job]

Having recently attended Tim Supple's Indian 'Dream' at the Roundhouse and been singularly underwhelmed by the experience, I was wondering which other highly praised productions have left people cold. Any offers?

For what it's worth, I thought the strengths of Supple's production (some great visual moments; an effective dream-like atmosphere) were outweighed by fatal weaknesses. Several individual performances were am-dram in the extreme; the multi-lingual production ensured that only people already familiar with A Midsummer Night's Dream could hope to follow it, and - especially - the production was simply not funny. Ever.

Job

[armadillo]

Complicite's A Minute Too Late made me think I was watching a different production to the rest of the audience, some of whom I seriously thought were going to have apoplexy. I still have no idea what was so side-splitting about it.

[Jan Brock]

I have mentioned a few before, but one I haven't is "Blood Brothers" - I saw it when it first opened and thought it was total rubbish - sentimental and peurile in the worst senses of each word.

[pesa]

Mine was WICKED, I was so intrigued after all the hype i'd heard but didn't rate it at all when I saw it.
Most disappointed.

[Tulip]

A minute too late, Equus & Alchemist

[richard]

There are so many over-rated productions.  After a while the critics review the reputation, not the production.

Going back the following were over-rated:

The Scofield/Peter Brook Lear in 1962 - yawn
The Peter Brook Midsummer Night's Dream - pretentious
The Olivier Othello - though the New Statesman at the time did buck the trend by saying that Olivier's Othello was 'the kind of bad performance of which only a great actor is capable.'

More recently:

Those dreadful Henry IVs at the NT with Gambon quite awful as Falstaff.  And the Henry V - appalling.

The recent RSC Richard III - a total disaster

Equus - Richard Griffiths miscast and Daniel Radcliffe not up to it.  And the play not lasting well either.

History Boys - some good moments intermittently, but not a patch on 40 Years On.

Michael Frayn's Noises Off - so unfunny it could have been written by P.G. Wodehouse.

[Lynette]

You didn't laugh at Noises Off? Richard what have you enjoyed?

[JWC]

Michael Frayn's Noises Off - so unfunny it could have been written by P.G. Wodehouse.

I also find it hard to believe that Noises Off didn't tickle your funnybone - quite simply the most hilarious thing ever. As for suggesting that PG Wodehouse isn't funny - may you be forgiven.

That aside... to answer the question I'd nominate Jerry Springer - now THAT was unfunny

[richard]

Lynette - we were asked what we thought was over-rated - so I gave an answer.  You ask what I liked.  The following this year have been quite superb:
Ghosts (Bristol Old Vic, with the coming star of the future, Sam Crane, shortly to be in the Globe's Othello)
The Glass Menagerie - magnificent, superb in every way.
John Gabriel Borkman at the Donmar.
McKellen's King Lear and Sorin in The Seagull.

Humour is always a very personal thing - chacun à son gout and all that.  Noises Off rang no bells for me, nor did many other things that we are all supposed to like (compulsorily) - Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Porridge, Only Fools and Horses, Bread, Last of the Summer Wine, etc, etc.

[Backdrifter]

Good old richard - always grabbing the opportunity to stick the boot into Hytner's Henry V! Was that especially overrated? I got the sense reactions were divided. One I definitely agree with you on, richard, is The History Boys. I just don't get how anyone who knows any of Bennett's work can't find this to be one of his most inferior ones. As you said - it's okay, has some good lines, but I genuinely don't get how it's become this huge phenomenon. (I'm also baffled by how everyone seems to love De La Tour, I can't bear her).

The recent NT revival of Jumpers - it was just a load of disparate bits and pieces thrown in the air and left lying on the floor, yet had critics and audiences cooing and gasping at how clever that Stoppard is.

Nunn's Hamlet at the Old Vic - interesting idea to latch on to his being a "student" but my god what a lame production (and one of the worst Ophelias I've seen). But I felt I was in a tiny minority in not loving it.

Another recent NT revival, The Voysey Inheritance - although I might be skirting the margins of "overrated" here as I do recall a fair number of people looking askance at it. Again, it was okay and had some good performances, but I didn't find it as good as the notices and many user reviews suggested.