[applesarenice]

Has anyone else been to see this yet? I went last night, and thought it was chronically bad. It looks really cheap and nasty, there's some revolving sets on it which made Too Close To The Sun look slow, and despite really wanting to like Anna Friel, I found her performance to be flat, devoid of any charisma and ultimately very disappointing, not even random nudity (both male and female) could save it.

The best thing about it was the cat.

PS I've been a bit more eloquent about it here (but not much): http://oughttobeclowns.blogspot.com/2009/0...t-tiffanys.html

I'd be interested to hear what anyone else thought.

[hildyesterhazy]

I saw a preview of Breakfast at Tiffany's on Saturday evening and have to disagree with some of your comments.

I think the set and costumes by Anthony Ward are wonderful a Tiffany blue sky and costumes evoking a very stylish 40s period – Anna Friel looks fantastic in her frocks! I think the two fire escapes are great – a sort of West Side Story meets Oklahoma. I guess as it's a preview, that their still making some changes to get the show right.

The choreography (by Wayne McGregor) is stylish and chic but I'm surprised that they employed a choreographer to work on a play – there are only about three dance numbers.

I found it a little difficult to hear Anna when she was on the walkway at the back of the stage, but she has a fantastic voice and sings three songs – People Will Say We're in Love, Speak Low and some folk song I hadn't heard before.

The Theatre Royal have gone all out on this – there's a great supporting cast James Dreyfus who is brilliant as Holly's agent; Dermot Crowley as Mr Bell. It's a very entertaining evening and although they need to take some time off the first half, I think by the time it opens this will be a real hit.

I actually loved the cat too – I didn't think it was real at first but in the scene when Holly kicks it out, I was moved to tears!

[itsuckstobeme]

Oh how my heart skipped a beat when I heard this was coming to the Haymarket, and oh how my heart sank as I was leaving the theatre last night after one of the previews.
This could have been sooo good, but everything about it was distinctly average. I never really rated Anna Friel as an actress and last night proved to me why. The role of Holly is too big for her. With a setting of 1940s New York, the set could have been so glamorous, sumptuous and evocative. Instead all we get is two domineering stairwells rotating constantly that did nothing for me. And what is the West End's obsession with fake snow lately? Hamlet, The Shawshank Redemption, and now here? And as for the audience, I felt like I was in a doctors waiting room with all the coughing, sneezing and sniffing, I actually felt sorry for the actors. Even Joseph Cross disrobing didn't get me excited (oh ok maybe just a little ). Only see if you can get cheap tickets.

[gandalf]

In my view a totally pointless adaptation. It looks cheap, is too episodic and the actors are too lightweight. One laugh - when Joseph Cross took his kit off in Act 2 an old lady shouted out "I'm going to be sick".

Suggest you rent the DVD and make a donation to a cat welfare charity rather than pay to see this one.

Shame - I was looking forward to it.

[paultheatre]

[quote name='hildyesterhazy' date='Sep 15 2009, 05:59 PM' post='87340']


Hmm...someone seems to be involved with the prod (note hild's joining date!).

Disappointing production, but then yet ANOTHER film-stage. It did try and be different, by adapting from the novella rather than the film, but still. Uncharismatic leads: why were they cast? It's coming to something when the mad lady from upstairs has the most stage presence and makes you sit up and want to be involved. Saw an early preview too, but if you haven't (and if it hasn't been cut) look out for the "horse riding in Central Park" scene...OMG, what were they thinking?!?! Also, the nudity was NOT a surprise: I don't know why I got this feeling, but in act one i thought "I bet Friel gets her kit off", and voila. Then Joseph Cross went full frontal in act 2... Cheap tricks though. No passion, no drama...what's the point?

[Millie Dillmount]

loved it! very impressed by both the leads

thought it was very amusing when during the central park scene the wooden boat chugged across the stage, and kept stuttering, and then stopped and was retrieved by the long arm of a stage manager!

[smore31]

This production seems like a lame attempt to write a cod Tennessee Williams play based on Capote's novella.

The performances are universally flat, and Joseph Cross's Alabama accent is anything but. (I lived there for 18 years - help!) Anna Friel, who I have enjoyed on stage many times has no spark, life, or even sex appeal as Holly, despite her well trumpeted nude scene.

Worst of all was the set. Anthony Ward and Sean Mathias have both spent aeons in New York. The two revolve are meant to be New York fire escapes. But they are painted white, and built like cruise ship ladders, not fire escapes - making me wonder why this was Anything Goes with no music.

Ms. Friel's blonde hair (wig?) is painful to behold, and the whole evening is still-born - and as far as I can tell, beyond saving.