Bloggery

Wherein a Critic Hammers Another Nail In The Coffin.

This entry was posted in Bloggery In Response and tagged Audiences Blogging on by

I don’t think I was alone in doing something of a double take when I read Michael Coveney’s post about watching a preview of Legally Blonde. Specifically the bit where he appeared to projectile vomit all over his computer screen:

“I went on Saturday night and I’ve never sat in an audience so unreal or abnormal. Weird couples, clacking hen parties, simpering teenage girls: it was like being stuck in a nightmare college campus graduation ceremony.”

Yep, still had to do a double take when I copied that over because I’m not entirely sure which part of that paragraph is the most offensive.

I was going to write a rebuttal about Coveney’s prejudices (not to mention his hardly covered misogyny and contempt for a theatre audience who had paid to see a show) but others have already said so incredibly well that I’m going to point you in their direction instead:

Carrie Dun writing at Spotlight robustly and passionately defends the audience’s right to like something critically disliked.

The magnificent Mission Paradox blog wasn’t writing of Coveney when he wrote about art’s hostility to its audiences – but, crikey, someone should send Coveney the link pronto.

Finally, and gloriously, Sans Taste has what is possibly the most eloquent response to the whole debacle.

Around the Blogs: Number 2

This entry was posted in Bloggery and tagged Blogging on by

Once again taking the lead from The Clyde Fitch Report to take a tour around what all those theatre bloggers in the UK are going on about.

At A Hectic Phase In The Life there was a reflection or two on Howard Barker.

At A Younger Theatre Jake revealed why he really, really doesn’t like one man shows.

At Carousel of Fantasies Matt brought some urban decay to the BAC.

At Confessions of a Playwright our attachment to the idea of the lone genius was questioned.

At The Corner Shop Blog it was almost time for opening night (plus a rather spectacular to-do list)

At Fin Kennedy Fin broke his hiatus to tell us his blog was going on hiatus.

At HannahNicklin.com Hannah blogged about apathy (or rather the myth of apathy), something which after the reaction to that edition of Question Time seems even more pertinent.

At Helen Smith Helen had her second dream about Playwright and one-time blogger David Eldridge.

At John Morrison The Power of Yes proved that it was continuing to underwhelm bloggers.

At Killing Time Dave Windass stepped into Annie Hall. Well, almost.

At Life in the Cheap Seats Webcowgirl saw rather a lot of one of the stars of Silence: The Musical, and rather liked what she saw.

At Miching Malchio it was the proliferation of reviews which was up for discussion.

At Nabokov NewsBlog there was some rather impressive packing going on.

At Paul in London Paul suffered for his art and went back in for the second half of Carousel: The Songs of Jacques Brel at the Barbican

At Pirate Dog Alex Sierz responded to Matt Trueman’s thoughts on liveness and in his effortlessly concise way maybe hit the proverbial nail on the head.

At Russell’s Theatre Reviews it was all about the touring production of Beauty and the Beast. I saw UK Production’s version when it was last doing the rounds 18 months or so ago and would rather have my fingernails pulled out while watching Waiting For Godot than repeat the experience. But, with the brand behind it, it seems like there are many more regional audiences to traumatise before it dies.

At Shenton’s View Mark Shenton had a timely reminder about the problems of buying theatre tickets.

At That Damn Yankee Jason Ferguson continued to explain British Theatre to Americans, this time with the aid of a fire curtain.

At The Guardian Theatre Blog Andrew Haydon considered his relationship to (man of the week) Howard Barker and, subsequently, the terms by which we judge theatre. My (limited) experience of Barker in performance has done nothing but leave me cold – though the other half of Write By Numbers would say the opposite of that – and as anti-intellectual as it might sound for me theatre is at its most compelling when it engages my heart as well as my head. In that way the title of Haydon’s piece is a no-brainer: yes, of course we should watch plays for pleasure because I can stay at home, save my money and read dry critical theorising on the internet for free.

At View From The Stalls the task was to puzzle out what actually happened in Memory Cells with even its Director getting in on the action…

At West End Whingers it was a trip to the almost universally adored Enron which which was on the cards and, perhaps inevitably, it just couldn’t live up to the hype.

Around The Blogs: Number 1 3

This entry was posted in Bloggery and tagged Blogging on by

One of my favourite recent-ish discoveries is the Clyde Fitch Report and one of the things I love about it is it’s From The Blogroll section that takes a brief look around, well, the Blogroll. So in blatant theft I’m going to start doing the same thing here once a fortnight. It’s a bit different to what I write for Whatsonstage as I’m going to stick to UK based blogs and undoubtedly be a little bit more flippant than I am over there.

So, if you’re sitting comfortably, here goes…

At A Younger Theatre Jake became part of the play and reviewed Tim Crouch’s The Author.

At Carousel of Fantasies Matt Trueman took Roger Foss to task for his dismissal of interactive audience-led theatre in The Stage. Given my documented obsession with One & Other I’m with Trueman on this. And I can say that and still be in raptures over Stoppard and Shakespeare etc etc. Because that’s what’s great about theatre. Difference.

At Confessions of a Playwright there was what can only be described as an accordion moment.

At HannahNicklin.com Hannah blogged about A City Staged and the kind of embracing of the possibilities of social media for theatre which makes me a little sick with excitement. It even made me want to have been in Derby so I could have taken part. (My only connection with Derby is an interesting evening in a club in the early noughties when my feet stuck to the floor and where I probably should have worn a polo neck. So, believe me, this is saying something).

At Helen Smith it was all about a giant knitted poem. And murder. Agatha Christie would be proud.

At Killing Time Dave Windass found paradox and Apostrophe Use Gone Mad in the same sign.

At Life in the Cheap Seats Webcowgirl quite probably could have done without having seen Jane Horrocks  in Annie Get Your Gun.

At Miching Malicho there was an adventure in the streets of York with Belt Up production of The Trial.

At Paul in London the interval of Mother Courage led to the revelation of what Rah-Rah Gay is.

At Pirate Dog it was all about a monkey upstaging Kevin Spacey on stage at the Old Vic. Which almost makes me want to see Inherit the Wind.

At Postcards from the Gods Andrew Haydon most definitely didn’t agree with Michael Billington on David Hare’s The Power of Yes.

At Russell’s Theatre Reviews the Young Vic’s production of Annie Get Your Gun continued to astoud – so much so that it was re-christened Annie Get Your Act Together.

At Shenton’s View Mark Shenton discussed the questions that the launch of Love Never Dies failed to answer. But not – WHY? For the love of God, why?

At the Guardian Theatre Blog Lyn Gardner sent out a plea for more Rupert Goolds in British theatre. Goold had me at his production of Six Characters in Search of an Author which delighted me more than almost anything I saw in the first few months of living in London. Also if we are to go by his photo on Gardner’s blog then he also has rather impressive hair. So winning all round.

At View From The Stalls there was Shakespeare aplenty in Lend Me Your Ears.

At West End Whingers it was third time unlucky for Annie Get Your Gun and, well, you should just go and read as it’s the Whingers doing what they do best.

Slight Return

This entry was posted in Bloggery Thoughts and Flirtations and tagged Life & Everything Else on by

Just over a week ago I packed my bags, bundled myself into a National Express coach and (once the seemingly never-ending journey had finished) spent what turned out to be a slightly longer than anticipated break in Leeds. I’d vowed to have a work-less, theatre-less week and though I was nearly distracted by a production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle at  an old haunt of mine I actually managed it. Then I ended up re-visiting years gone by first on a friend’s then on my parents’ bathroom floor and, well, nice end to a holiday and all that.

But now I’m back in London and it does mark, I suspect, the moment where I pick up in earnest everything I need to be doing. A year ago this week I started my MA and now, as I returned the last of my library books, it’s another sort of challenge.

First up? The 513 new theatre related blog entries that have collected in my RSS reader in my absense. I may be some time…

Blog Round Up: 22nd September

This entry was posted in Bloggery In Response and tagged Columns Music One & Other on by

Lots of link love today:

Over on Troubled Diva there’s a write-up on spending an hour on the plinth. Though I found myself dancing in my living room there was something really a little special watching the live stream and seeing the comments on twitter feeling as it did that I too (though I do not know Mike) was part of the event. I have, however, been singing ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ for the best part of the last week.

Lily Allen started a blog opposing illegal file sharing and, though I’m not entirely confident about it, it might actually open up some sort of debate about the whole issue.

And I shared my obsession with the Royal Opera House‘s Twitter Opera with the readers of Whatsonstage before theatre bloggers got all serious on me.