Rozzi Rainbow, on 14 December 2012 - 02:14 PM, said:
I was really looking forward to this as I grew up in the 90s and like the Spice Girls' music, so I'm disappointed to see it seems to be really bad! I'd thought about going last Saturday but there were no seats left - having since read all the negative comments on here, I'm now glad I didn't waste my money, I was even prepared to pay full price for a ticket. Now I don't think I'd go even if I could get a discounted ticket, not when it costs so much for me to get down to London, and there are other shows I could see which I know I'd enjoy. That "highlights" video does nothing for me at all, in fact Mama sounds awful! I can't warm to the character of Viva at all but her mum seems a good character. I thought they'd show some of the other girls in the band, and the judges/mentors, as I thought they were significant parts. I don't think I've seen anything in the slightest bit positive about this, which is worrying. I rarely care what the official reviews say about new shows, as it's comments from places like this forum which give me an idea of what to expect. If the comments on here were a bit more balanced, I'd be more inclined to go myself and make my own mind up, but until I hear anything positive about it I just don't fancy it.
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Went today and things may be a bit more complex. Quite a few of the newspaper critics were never going to like it anyway - as they are pretentious and could never admit to liking the Spice Girls even if they did. Other people though identified massive problems with it - and they are right. It got a better response though than I was led to expect, and the critics, or logic, suggests. No standing ovation, but good applause, clapping along when the script finally allowed it and a few positive shouts. There are some funny bits that work well, and some unfunny funny bits. The audience was very predominantly young and female. Comments after overheard were along the lines of I quite liked it, it was fun anyway, and its still no better... If its attracting its niche audience, there's not much else left aimed at them,. and they were applauding rather than booing, and went out looking reasonably happy rather than angry, it may survive until they have to decide not to go again. You may just like enough of it.
Its a truly bizarre beast though. Its got some good points. Lucy Montgomery as Suzi, friend to Viva's mother nailed her big laughs, her thongwork is striking, and she sings one of the best vocals in the show . Tamara Wall is very funny, and gets a too brief chance to show what else she can do really well - after being jailed as Brooke. There's lots of potential there. Its a bit odd that they let her show off her superb abs and let her tattoos enliven a chunk of act one, but don't really exploit the fact that they have a really good singer there, and one of the best dancers around. Hatty Preston who plays Bubble (or here Bubble's modernised variant Minty) is also successfully funny. Without those three working so well , I think big chunks of the show would cure insomnia. Sally Ann Triplett works hard to keep the boat afloat, and sounds really good when she gets the chance, but even she can't harmonise with herself in songs built for 2 or 3 singers with distinctive voices to sing. There were quite a few moments when I thought how much better things would be if the group, Eternal, had been lost in a traffic jam enroute to the studio, and the story had been about the new group thrown together from Viva' s mum, mum's best friend, the Essex girl judge standing in, and any good soprano they could find who could sing Emma's tracks.
The ensemble is good and enthusiastic Much of the rest of the cast get too little to do in the book - and do it wih all degrees of success. The book looks like an abfab sketch with guests and Spice Girl lyrics thrown in, and its got too many plotlines as it tries to get to another song..Bizarrely, the programme credits a Professor for advising on emotional relationships - more bizarre when there's not enough depth to many characters. People appear and then vanish - including the rest of the group. The girls sound OK when they get a chance, and play the characters as interestingly as possible given the book. Their problem is that they sound more similar than the Spice Girls, and the group sound can't go where Melanie C. Mel B, Geri and Emma's vocals took it. If they wanted people to sound not quite like the Spice Girls, and wanted not to give them enough distinction or story to draw comparisons, they succeeded. Viva isn't given enough to make us actually care about her - Sophie in Mamma Mia and Scaramouche do far better. I thought she was most like Geri vocally, but, for better or worse, she doesn't have Geri's vivacity or vocal tone, and she may have been tiring . Its not clear why she's picked as the solo singer in the TV show , or that she's the one best vocally positioned to try and cover the group's songs solo. I thought Sally Dexter playing judge Simone was stuck with playing an Edina for what seemed interminable stretches, and Edina just isn't as convincing, or interesting as a singer or a judge, as a Sharon or Cheryl. There's something seriously odd though when you use a song in a way that makes it clear how brilliant at singing her own hits Melanie C is.
Musically, its consistently odd. There seems to be the alternative musical - that uses the songs more like WWRY or Mamma Mia - more like the original and more as big group production numbers- trying to get out. Spice Up Your Life hints at another show that might have been - but why raise hope by playing/dancing to it, and then not have anyone singing it? And, as if they realised that they had forgotten the Spice Girls, what a lot of people really really wanted, turns up at the end. Before that, it depends if you think its wise to turn one of the best Spice Girl's songs into a (good , effective) comedy sketch, when you only have a few to sing, or to sing Viva primarily as a male solo, when its really beautiful conclusion needs two matching female voices, or to choose songs that most people will have skipped on the CD to sing out in full, while leaving real favourites out. It does look like what you would get it if you dumped a big heap of lyrics in some writer's lap who didn't actually know many of the songs at all.
I thought it was worth seeing. Once anyway. I would buy a cheaper ticket though as the only advantage of a forward stalls seat is a close look at Tamara's tattoos. 9 to 5 is more fun, and has a better book and vocals . WWRY has the magnificent Rachel John, bigger numbers and was cheaper last time I sat in the same row. ...........Ghost was far better.
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