767 replies to this topic

[Max Von Mayerling]

Steffi, on 25 January 2013 - 12:18 PM, said:

They've started selling days seats for £20 now. I got middle of row K in the stalls for tonight. Got low expectations after seeing the "highlight" clip and reading the reviews but will reserve final judgement until I've seen the show.

Be sure to let us know what you think of it!

[Steffi]

Back from seeing the show and I have to say it's a bit of a mess. There is so much talent in the ensemble but the guys and girls are hardly more than walking props. Such a shame! I wasn't that impressedby the leads I have to say but then the material they have been given is rather dreadful. Loved Simon Adkins and wish his part had more stage time.
The story is so random. I couldn't really care for any of the characters because I found the whole thing just boring.

Spoke to two people in the cast I know and they said they're going to put more dance numbers in to give the whole thing more life. Something they should have done right from the start. The audience clearly enjoyed the songs but to me it looked like they would have rather seen a 2 hours Spice Girls tribute concert.

I'm tempted to go back once the changes have been made just to see if the show has improved - only if I can get a cheap ticket again though.

[MrBarnaby]

How long is Simon Adkins going to continue to play these hideous gay characters? I'm gay and am not touchy at all about camp characters in things but his character in this is actually offensive.

No overhaul is going to save this show... It's fundamentally terrible and the word is out there . Before we know it we will have a wave of new shows- Mormon, Once, Charlie.. People will be wanting to see them instead.

[djp]

popcultureboy, on 25 January 2013 - 05:50 PM, said:

Yes there is. They don't have a sufficiently large catalogue of songs to draw from though and even the most die hard fan doesn't rate their third (and final) album. Very few of their songs could be considered memorable or classic (before seeing this, I literally only could recall two of them).

Why they are using the story they are is baffling. It would have been smarter to completely steer clear of any girl group or X Factor comparisons and have a completely unrelated story. Although that could have possibly shown the songs up even further. I don't know.

There's classic musicals out there, still selling well, with only one or two really  good, or in some cases moderately good,  songs,  and some new ones turning up to decent reviews  with none - WWRY and Mamma Mia are overloaded with top numbers compared to most musicals.  There's also probably enough in the SG's catalogue to fill a show. There may be an issue finding songs that have enough bite and point to be used at particular moments in a story. They have already experimented with an  answer to that though - which is to use the girls solo hits - where there's considerably more big hits with  story potential than they have used so far. I think there's  enough there if they use all that they have. At the  moment,  they are underusng most big numbers, truncating many,  ignoring several, putting fewer big performance numbers in than their tour showed worked,  and not using some of the bigger solo numbers that could have been shoe- horned into a story. There might be issues using songs -  like its raining men -   which is  big show number waiting to be choregraphed - and they might not want to use three or 4 of the girls solo work but leaving one exception, but they did have more options they might have used.

[mjr]

There is elements of Love Never Dies hanging around this show with the whole rehearsing in the day, old show at night thing they have got going on!

[ptwest]

This goes back to the point I made a few pages back - a Spice Girls show should be frothy, frivolous and OTT, rather like the songs and group themselves. The songs are not weighty enough to carry a deep story - and any show that is forced down the line of album tracks and solo hits to fill out the evening is in trouble unless you have a huge back catalogue of great songs to choose from. I wonder how many Spice Girls fans these days listen to the third album or get beyond the singles on the first two?

Admittedly I have not seen the show, but from everything I have read there would have been more fun, drama and story if they had simply told the Spice Girls Story. You've got the struggle to be famous, big success, fall outs, break ups, then the big happy ending (so long as the story stops with the reunion!). Still would probably be cack but at least be entertaining along the way...

[Showstopper]

Saw this the other night! The singing is poor..and looks like a school concert half the time.

[Showstopper]

Oh and I think Joseph by The Lord  is 100 times better!

[Snciole]

Oh God! My friend (and colleague so she has many opportunities to encourage me) said we should go because we are 24 and 25 and this is our "era". I am not a musicals person at all so was expecting to collapse of sheer "They're singing again" exhaustion.

It has no redeeming features. Some of the talented singers aren't used enough (Lucy Montgomery in particular who had a face like thunder in the documentary-no wonder) and the use of obscure 'Forever' songs annoyed me. On the whole the book is awful; Jennifer Saunders, a woman usually ahead of her time when it comes to comedy, hs no idea how people speak. We also wondered if such a lush would be allowed to adopt, maybe Social Services were less fussy in the 1990s.

The highlight was the audience cringing (when they weren't walking out like the couple next to me did). In particular the 2 become 1 scene (it never ends) and the multiple use of Headlines. There was a great moment when Sally Dexter's Simone screamed "WE'RE GONNA MAKE THE HEADLINES" and a woman behind me went "OH NO!" because we all the song was coming again.

[Distant_Cousin]

ptwest, on 27 January 2013 - 10:23 AM, said:

This goes back to the point I made a few pages back - a Spice Girls show should be frothy, frivolous and OTT, rather like the songs and group themselves. The songs are not weighty enough to carry a deep story - and any show that is forced down the line of album tracks and solo hits to fill out the evening is in trouble unless you have a huge back catalogue of great songs to choose from. I wonder how many Spice Girls fans these days listen to the third album or get beyond the singles on the first two?

Well they're not really fans then are they if they can't even get as far as the Spiceworld album tracks?! Doesn't say much...