[sillybilly]

Well I saw Our House tonight in Bromley and I have to say...what a disappointment! They have totally messed about with it and taken 2 great songs out (Prospects and Sarah's Song) and changed the beginning. Steve Brookstein was awful-cant act-and it was generally lack lustre. The beginning now starts like an old car, really slow and painful then finally got going after Baggy Trousers.

I loved this show so much when I saw it at the Cambridge and wasn't expecting to the see the same show as a touring version but was annoyed that Warchus had admitted to 'revisiting' the musical after few years break. Re-vising....REVISITING?!?! Did more than that. He tampered with what was already a great show and had made it a lifeless dud.

Anyone else's experiences on the show? Dont get me wrong, it was still enjoyable and if I hadnt seen the West End cast I probably would have been very happy but it just seems the changes were utterly pointless and upsetting to the pre-existing Our House fans!

[James84]

I was also at Our House last night (the 9pm performance). There were a couple of understudy's on including Ellie Robertson for Sarah who I thought was excellent.

Unfortunately I was very disappointed from the start - the opening is now very weak. Steve Brookstein has an okay voice but simply can't act. As for Gwyneth Strong - a very very ropey accent made her quite unbelievable.

For the show itself - I have only ever seen the DVD of the original which has bigger and better sets but I thought the scaled down sets for the touring production worked well and there were lots of clever quick costume and actor changes to reflect the two paths that Joe could have taken. My main criticism however is that the show seems to spell out too much now - too much narration from the dad and constantly changing the colour of the doors to reflect which "version" of Joe you're looking at - it's too spoonfed. To add to the previous post - I was disappointed at the song cuts - "Prospects" had always been a very strong song and it's very unfortunate that "Sarah's Song" has been replaced by the new "NW5" which just doesn't seem to fit.

It's a shame about the changes that were made to the show as it detracted somewhat from an otherwise very unenthusiastic cast - good singing and very sharp dancing. I thought Chris Carswell as Joe Casey was excellent - reminded me very much of the original Joe in the way he sang. I also noticed Warren Sollars in the ensemble (from Channel 4's "Musicality" - he was an exceptional dancer.

There was fantastic energy overall though so if you can put the slight changes and scaled down set aside then it's worth seeing. I'd be interested to know what people who have never seen anything of the original thought of it...

[sillybilly]

I was at the 6pm performance (what an odd time) and also saw the same Sarah understudy as you. I was disappointed I didn't get to see Miria Parvin as I saw her in Footloose and she has an incredible voice. But as it turns out that they cut 'Sarah's Song' so her voice would never have been used to it's potential anyway! NW5 is a dreadful, dreadful song. Any song that rhymes 'life' with 'life' needs to be re-written. I thought her understudy was OK, considering she hadn't even officially graduated from ArtsEd yet she did fairly well. Only when she sang 'NW5' she forgot one of the words and the song didn't fit to the rhythm any more and poor actor who played Joe had to rescue her. Maybe this was the 1st time she's played it? She was 2nd understudy after all.

I also agree that the show is a little spoon-fed. It certainly didn't feel this way in the West End five years ago, if anything back then I found it a little confusing as to what was what at times. I did like the actor playing Joe (forgot his name) but thought he sounded like Frank Spencer at times. Michael Jibson (Original Cast and DVD) was perfect for the role and didn;t take to the extreme with his accent. Their similarity is that they both play[ed] the parts fresh out of drama school which seems to inject that vital fresh and youthful energy to the part.