This is a musical adaption of the classic TV comedy and later movies about the creepy and kooky Addams Family.
It started a few minutes late as the audience made their way from the bars to their seats, and again after the interval due to toilet queues, but it was pleasantly surprised to see the number of audience members wearing face coverings (more than 50% from what I could see) despite no PA announcements reminding them and just front of house staff walking around with a sign.
It was funny, with some good new songs (although the classic theme was played it wasn’t sung) and dances.
I got an on the day £25 Rush Ticket through TodayTix. The face value of the seat seemed to be about £85.
This was Brilliant and so much better than I thought it would be. I hadn’t seen the stage show before but I was familiar with the film.
In my view, the live performance I saw surpassed the film. It was like a musical farce with songs from ABBA.
It was a funny, entertaining and uplifting tale of a bride who wants to find her dad before she gets married but finds out that her mum was very popular when she was younger, and there are 3 potential dads. She secretly invites them all, and hilarity and confusion ensue.
Although some selfish and stubborn people were flouting the law by not wearing masks, the Novello staff couldn’t have done much to pursue the minority – short of physically checking them out. This was the first time I had heard multiple announcements made in the auditorium telling the audience that it was 5, 3, 2 and 1 minutes until the performance started (and again at the end of the interval) and as part of a couple of these also said that everyone needed to wear face coverings.
The audience was surprisingly well behaved (a massive contrast to yesterdays audience at the matinee of Pretty Woman). A couple of people tried to film bits, but front of house was good at spotting them.
There were only 2 very minor problems – due to how they are set up to reduce covid, it wasn’t possible to get merchandise at the interval it the end (as the exit at the back if the stalls led to the street and it was possible to get into the foyer due to the people leaving. The other thing was a problem with cracking mics during one of the songs, burly they did not diminish the experience enough for it to affect the score.
I got a £25 Rush ticket from TodayTix to see this show.
It is based on the film and pokes a bit of fun at it too, as the audience knows and anticipates the famous bits and lines.
The show had a lot of easily forgettable new songs, which made it drag on a bit, and some of the scenes were so short it was hardly worth changing the little bits of the set.
They did ask for covid passes, and there was an announcement before it started saying masks should be worn whilst watching the show, but unfortunately, the majority of the audience ignored this. This was not the only poor behaviour from the audience. any it seemed incapable of getting to their seats in time, knowing the alphabet so they could find their row or understand how to count from one to find their seats, as they were reluctant to leave the bars, and either a lot of them had bladder problems or diuretics was on the copious amounts of alcohol they were consuming. They kept the front of house staff very busy in the circle. However, it was very convenient to be as to enter through an emergency exit that went straight to the circle.
I finally decided to see this after I got a £20 day stalls ticket from Disney Day Seats to see this stage adaption from the film, which itself was (very) loosely based on Hamlet – but with animals ruled by lions
It doesn’t have the same level of special effects as some other musicals in London, but it does have some of the best quality puppets in theatre.
It followed the film quite closely and had a couple of extra songs added.
There was a disappointingly low number of people wearing mandatory face coverings, which in this production are even more important due to the cast getting quite close to some people in the stalls and boxes.
I got a day seat bargain of a £25 day seat Rush Ticket in the stalls from TodayTix – using a credit voucher I got when a performance of the same show 2 weeks ago was cancelled due to covid.
This is a musical stage adaption of the famous sitcom about the Trotter family of Peckham, London.
It is aimed at fans of the show (which seemed to be the whole audience) and was very funny.
At the start, most people were entering the stalls complying with the mandatory face masks, but by the interval, it was disappointing that quite a few felt it didn’t apply to them, and they didn’t want to protect others.
I had got a day seat/rush ticket on TodayTix for the matinee of Only Fools and Horses Musical, but when I turned up at the Theatre Royal Haymarket the notices outside said today’s performances were cancelled. As I was already in central London I tried to find an emergency replacement but TodayTix had no rush tickets left for matinees.
I checked Magic Goes Wrong and got a seat in their lowest price band. The Apollo is only a few minutes walk from the Theatre Royal Haymarket and my e- ticket arrived while I was queuing at the box office.
I saw the show pre-lockdown with the whole original cast, and I knew there had been some changes. It was still incredibly funny, and there was still a lot of audience interaction.
The view wasn’t perfect as I missed the very far left-hand side of the stage, but I don’t feel I missed very much (and everything I could see was great). Probably at least half of the audience complied with the signs asking them to wear face masks – which is higher than most other west end theatres I have been to under the current restrictions.
This is a stage adaptation of the BBC sitcom from the 1970s about Tom and Barabra Good’s quest to self-sufficiency while living next door to Jerry and Margo Leadbetter in The Avenue, Surbiton.
It referenced several storylines from the TV show (fans in the audience knew the punchlines early) with some new ones that weren’t in the TV show. The cast also did well pretending to be the characters everyone in the audience loved despite not being the late greats Richard Briers and Paul Eddington or the fabulous Felicity Kendall and Penelope Keith.
The fact it was playing reasonably local to Surbiton and also referenced nearby Kingston & Twickenham a few times added to the laughs.
The audience had probably over 50% wearing face masks, and the covid pass checks on the door didn’t hold up getting in the theatre. They also had seats for £13 & £18 in the stalls where you had a good view of everything on the stage – those further forward were possibly disadvantaged as the set was raised to allow it to revolve between the Good and Leadbetter homes.
This was my 3rd time seeing this play but the first since their forced “interval”. The worlds longest running play is now in its 69th year and I saw performance 28,413. Knowing who done it doesn’t spoil future visits as you can spot more clues.
I got a front-row day seat from the official website for the play, and the day seat cost £19.52 (as 1952 was the year it opened). As the curtain went up, I could smell the musty old wooden furniture on the set (even through a mask), but it went away after a few minutes, and I could see the props very well – although one photo frame on the mantle pies seemed to be empty.
There was an understudy Paddy Duff as Detective Sgt Trotter, and he did very well in that role as did everyone else in Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery featuring very popular fashions of a dark coat, light scarf, and dark felt hat – perhaps they should add those items to their merchandise!
The matinee wasn’t particularly crowded, which was a shame for the show – but very good for social distancing, and I was pleasantly surprised that over half the audience were doing their bit by wearing face coverings (putting many big-budget musical productions to shame on the mask from)!
It had a surprising amount of laughs for a murder mystery and (with the Play that Goes Wrong) is one of only 2 productions currently in the West End that I have seen 3 times each – and I would be willing to see both a 4th time.
This musical adaptation of the 1980s film about women getting their own back on their patronising and sexist boss was a lot funnier (& a bit ruder) than I expected.
I managed to get a bargain ticket for £13 in the dress circle and the view was great.
It was an entertaining evening, with the main letdown being the lack of reminders for the audience to wear face coverings to help keep venues like this open. It was possibly less than 10% doing their bit by wearing face coverings which is the least I have seen at any theatre since the last lockdown ended.
This is based on the hit Disney film of the same name about Princess Anna and Queen Elsa.
For a matinee of a school day it still had a suprsi fly high number of children in the audience ( although some seemed too young for school)./it also had quite a lot of people without children. Despite signs and an announcement – and free masks available from the thrleatre a lot of the audience did not bother wearing them to help keep theatrescopen!
There was quite a bit of disruption with talkin, crying, singing sling moving around general disruption (including phones) but the front of house staff did their best to shush people or tell them to turn off phones and cameras.
It had some new songs and all the songs from the film – it also included links to Frozen 2, such as the line “Samatha?”. It also had lots of magical effects.
I had a £20 day ticket from the Disney Tickets website. It was slightly to the side, and the far right of the stage was blocked, but most of it could be seen. The full price was £79.50 and had I paid that much I would expect a much better view.
If you don’t like Frozen you probably wont like this, but if you do it is like a warm hug (or should that now be hygge)?
