So! Last night was the Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium. The show is very good, well staged, and the new Lloyd-Webber / Rice songs are inoffensive enough (the Wicked Witch gets the best new song, Glinda gets the worst) even though they don't really match the style of the originals. I really appreciate how they've tried to step away from the movie; they're not trying to just recreate it on stage. I just wish they'd taken an extra brave step and done a complete rewrite. Keep all the beloved songs, sure. But there's some scenes that while they can approximate on stage, it's just never going to work as well as it does in a movie. And let's be honest... This is a story we've all seen about ten thousand times. I'm sure if I was 10 years old I'd probably think it's the most amazing thing ever. It's definitely a good production. But even with new songs and occasional new dialogue, it still just seemed a bit too familiar to me with very few surprises. The star of the show was little Toto. Cutest. Dog. Ever. I couldn't watch anyone else when he was on stage. 7/10 for this one.
Today was the trip north to see the Harry Potter Studio Tour. Amazing stuff, I was there for about 3 and a half hours. Unlike the theme park in Florida, this is an actual tour. You get a cool visual headset with Tom Felton's voice in your ears, and as you wander around all the setpieces at your own pace he narrates for you, and you can stop whenever you want and watch video interviews on your little display. Really nicely presented and there's lots and lots to look at. I can't imagine any Potter-fan being disappointed.
Okay, time to head off to the theatre again!! Tonight it's Ghost. Watch this space!
No comments:
Post a Comment