46 replies to this topic

[Honoured Guest]

You can't predict future production schedules by extrapolating from the past, especially now that the next season will be Gregory Doran's first.

For years, the RSC did lengthy annual tours of two plays in its mobile auditorium, which it set up in leisure centres, etc., The plays weren't always the "top hits". I remember The Blue Angel, Brecht and Weill's Happy End, Edward Bond's Bingo, The Winter's Tale (!)

[igb]

Sorted by popularity, to highlight Twelfth Night, and with an attempt to indicate venue as well.  I _must_ do some real work instead.  High-res here.

[Epicoene]

Honoured Guest, on 22 August 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

I'd suggest Simon Russell Beale is virtually unknown outside regular South Bank and Stratford audiences. His name would mean nothing to most regional theatre audences.

Again the condescending elitist attitude to regional audiences. About 1 million people watched him as Falstaff in the Hollow Crown, is it reasonable to assume that not enough of those people are within range of Bath or Newcastle to support a 5-day run of a play with him in it ?

Interesting you say there are "plenty" of tickets for Timon of Athens - the place was rammed full just a short time ago when I saw it.

[Honoured Guest]

Epicoene, I am part of a regional audience and I talk to people! I took a break from theatregoing in London and Stratford for a very few years and in that time I started to not even recognise the names of many of the stage actors that are currently raved about on this forum. Before The Hollow Crown, SRB had few broadcasting events - I can only recall Widmerpool and Smiley, and both of those would have been noticed only by niche audiences. And he has zero cinema weight. And I don't think he's ever played in productions by the likes of Bristol Old Vic, Sheffield Theatres, etc. - unlike many of his peers such as Gerard Murphy. Bath is a special case because it has a wealthy theatre-savvy audience and it receives probably more NT / RSC / Headlong etc. productions than anywhere else. Newcastle is a different special case because the RSC has played whole seasons there almost annually for decades.

It really is the case that audiences rate actors who they have seen and SRB has hardly ever been seen outside Stratford, the South Bank and the olde days of the Barbican.

It was someone else talking about the ToA advance bookings. I thought it a silly comment to imply that a performance two months hence will be half empty because it's only half-booked currently.

[Epicoene]

Honoured Guest, on 23 August 2012 - 09:51 AM, said:

Epicoene, I am part of a regional audience and I talk to people!

I see. Bath people are "theatre savvy" and Nottingham people aren't ?  Let's think of a few more "theatre savvy" places: Machester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, Richmond, Brighton, Sheffield ... oh, there are quite a few aren't there ? The RSC seem to tour these RST-originated productions to this type of larger venue - in my view they could easily tour something not on the current school syllabus.

My general point stands. Why should the RSC only tour popular plays rather than make them popular by casting people these regional dullards would know - I mean like they are doing in Stratford with their TV-friendly productions of Much Ado and Merry Wives ?

[Honoured Guest]

The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, The Winter's Tale - These are the initial three RSC tours over the first 18 months of resumed national No.1 touring after a gap of several years. They aren't all the most popular plays and they don't have tv casting.

However, the RSC's national audience has dwindled through neglect while they've bunkered down in Stratford. There's strong competition from regular Shakespeare touring by Propeller, Shakespeare's Globe, Northern Broadsides, Headlong, etc..

Touring shows are booked by local theatre managers who assess the likelihood of their appeal to their audiences.

Much Ado is an entirely British-Asian production which would have been perverse to exclude Meera Syal.

Anita Dobson (Mistress Quickly) has a lengthy record in serious theatre.

[igb]

Honoured Guest, on 23 August 2012 - 09:51 AM, said:

It was someone else talking about the ToA advance bookings. I thought it a silly comment to imply that a performance two months hence will be half empty because it's only half-booked currently.

It would be a silly comment to imply that if that were what I were implying.  How many tickets for the Tennant Hamlet were there eight weeks before curtain up?  Certainly not 400 per show.

[Honoured Guest]

The concurrent Tennant minor Shakespeare (Love's Labours Lost) played just a handful of Stratford performances (plus a Newcastle week?) and didn't risk a London showing.

[Bamba]

I live here and try and see as many plays as possible, but my visits have been severly dwindling in the past few years as I feel there are more and more repeats.  I would really like to see Pericles, which only has a couple of days runs (not popular enough?) and especially Othello, which is never on.  I missed Taming of The shrew and merchant of venice which is my own fault but I am very disappointed with these line ups!!
Am very excited about seeing Galileo though!

[Epicoene]

Honoured Guest, on 23 August 2012 - 11:17 AM, said:

The concurrent Tennant minor Shakespeare (Love's Labours Lost) played just a handful of Stratford performances (plus a Newcastle week?) and didn't risk a London showing.

When you say "risk" you imply it was a commercial decision not to transfer it to London. I don't think it was.