Phantom/Love

First things first, a huge thank you to everyone who came to see 360 in either Oxford or Liverpool. We really hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, you may want to check out our Get A Little Closer page on our website. It will tell you how you can, well, get a little closer, and get in contact via a variety of glorious means. We hope to hear from you!

Over here in the office Simon has opened my eyes to something glorious. He has taught me so much over these past few months, but I think this has to be the greatest gift yet: The West End Whingers. Click the link for unbelievable amounts of joy. I laughed so much I had real tear droplets tumbling down my face. Their reviews of shows are utterly brilliant. My particular favourite is the review of Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest creation, Love Never Dies. I have yet to see the show, but am most intrigued by the extraordinary range of reviews the show has had. So, especially for your enjoyment, and to help with a potential 'should I or should I not book tickets for Love Never Dies' quandry, here is a medly of some of the best bits from the reviews I have read.

First, and possibly most crucially, here is what the West End Whingers had to say...

On the title: "what does it mean? Nothing. Of course love dies. Of course it does. What bollocks."

On the lighting: "It was a bit gloomy. So was the next scene and the one after that. In fact the whole thing was gloomy. Andrew’s advice to people with contact lenses: take eye-drops and a high beam torch."

On the end of act one: "the climax at the end of act one involves Madame Giry throwing a jacket down a stair well. As climaxes go, it’s not really up there"

On the casting: "what a shameful waste of talent"

On a more fitting alternative title: 'Paint Never Dries'


Michael Billington of The Guardian gave the show three stars in his review and on the whole was really quite positive, but not in an 'Omygod you have to see this show or you will be missing out on something totally epic and amazing' way. More in a 'yeah, it's quite good, probably worth seeing, but don't sell a vital organ in order to get hold of a ticket' way. His most quote-worthy comments were probably: "From my distant seat in row O, the performances seemed fine" (not fantastic then). According to Mr Billington the show's main problem...
"What the show lacks, in a nutshell, is narrative tension. For Christine, having discovered her employer's true identity, the big question is "to sing or not to sing?". Hmm, doesn't sound terribly nail-biting to me. I'm also guessing, since it's a musical, she probably does end up singing.

Benedict Nightingale at The Times only gave the show two stars and seemed rather miffed that it was not the original show. I hate to break it to you Benedict, but the point of a sequel is that it is similar but not identical to the first one, something you clearly have yet to grasp:"this Phantom is not the phantom we knew. The “poisoned gargoyle who burns in hell” has clearly taken an anger management course in New York...Where’s the menace, the horror, the psychological darkness?"

Over at The Telegraph Charles Spencer awarded Love Never Dies a very respectable four stars. Although he "attended Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-awaited sequel to his world-conquering Phantom of the Opera with a degree of trepidation." He seemed to like it, and summed things up as follows:"The show may ultimately prove too strange, too dark, too tormented to become a massive popular hit, but I suspect its creepy allure will linger potently in the memory when frothier shows have been long forgotten. "

Now over to members of the great general public, who we can count on for their honest opinions. The comments on whatsonstage.com include the following:

"this pointless waste of money and time"

"Fantastic - enough said! ALW's best ever"

"Tedious"

"Well, it's NOT phantom. It's Phantom meets Vaudeville, but in a bad sort of way"

"Not quite sure what show all these other reviewers went to see but it can't have been Love Never Dies. ...Have seen it twice already and would go again tomorrow!"


So, there you have it folks. I hope that has provided you with at either enlightenment or entertainment, ideally both of course. If you do go and see the show I would love to hear your thoughts.



Thanks to kimba for the photo

Luscious lists

Although many may dispute the strength of the connection and the relevance of the 'relevant' issues I frequently try to link this blog to (what do you mean Cate B's blanket dress wasn't vital news?), I do my best to make it as 'current' as possible. Yet this week I was feeling somewhat creatively flummoxed and had yet to latch onto a particular news topic which could act as the focus for today's piece. So I decided to do some foraging for inspiration and found myself trawling through the Guardian's web pages. Amongst such delightful gems as 'how do you make reading cool?' (give out free bottles of Bacardi Breezers apparently), a delicious recipe for peach and raspberry cobbler and 'Sarah v. Sam - which political wife is the best dressed?', I discovered a few very useful lists.

Now I don't know about you, but I like lists. They are very satisfying to make and to tick items off is a highly fulfilling activity indeed. Unless of course you make ridiculous lists like 'by next month I want to be able to fly, speak Mandarin and train my pug puppy how to make me breakfast and bring it to me in bed on Sunday mornings'. That would just be silly. Anyway, today the Guardian is offering some excellent lists, including 'what to do with browning bananas', and 'ten tips for writing fiction'. Handy stuff. That is if you have lots of bananas lurking around and you are trying to finally write that novel. You know, the one that was on your list of 'things to do by the time I'm... [insert relevant age]'.

Ah ha I thought! This is precisely what we need, some Hoipolloi/theatre related lists. And so, especially for you, I have created the following...

A list for today -some questions and action points:
1. Do I live in or near Oxford or Liverpool?
2. If no, could I get to either without too much schlepping?
3. If 'yes' to either of those... Am I free tonight/tomorrow/Friday/Saturday?
5. If 'yes', then go to http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ or http://www.everymanplayhouse.com/
6. Book tickets for Hugh Hughes in 360.
7. See the show and have a fantastic time.


A list for going to the theatre in general - some top tips
1. Don't arrive too early, or too late. If the former happens you will find yourself loitering around and end up spending too much money on bad wine and overpriced peanuts and will be so bored that you'll read every single flyer in the foyer twenty times thus leaving you feeling highly lethargic/drunk before you even get into the auditorium. If the latter occurs you will have to run up the stairs, and so will get hot and sweaty and feel gross and then need to do the awkward clamber over other audience members in order to get to your seat. Because you were in a hurry you forgot to turn off your phone and so half way through Act 2, during a particularly poignant moment, there will be a loud ringing sound emitting from your handbag. Chances are you won't be able to find it because it has fallen through the hole in the lining. Everyone is looking at you and with satanic stares. But there is nowhere to hide. Nowhere...

2. Most programmes contain only a small amount of information which is actually relevant to the show. To get your value for money take it home and use the excess pages for home made wrapping paper, origami practise, paper aeroplanes, or shred it and use it as bedding for the hamster.

3. In advance of your trip do some pelvic floor muscle exercises in order to increase bladder control. Ideally you will not need to go to the loo at the theatre as there is always an enormous queue. Especially in the West End. If you do need to 'powder your nose' you will spend most of the interval stuck in a line, and then will miss out on getting an ice cream. Which, let's face it, is the best part of going to the theatre.

4. Even if you have seen it eight times, and played the Dane in a 'raw, dynamic, highly physical and utterly ground breaking' production of Hamlet at the Fringe while you were at university and are thus a total expert, the rest of the audience will not appreciate you muttering along to 'To be or not to be'. It's best to keep schtum and just appreciate whatever the next 'hot young thing' is doing. Do feel free to analyse the actor's interpretation later. Brutal criticism in the bar afterwards is de rigeur. Especially after a Shakespeare.

5. Make sure you have got a)the right day and b) the right theatre. It is very easy, especially if you book tickets in bulk online, to get somewhat muddled and turn up at the venue on March 12th instead of May 12th, expecting to see Medea, but you find yourself in row F as the houselights are about to go down for Measure for Measure and then someone says 'erm, I think you're in my seat' and you double check your ticket and realise that you have got very muddled indeed. Now you need to trek all the way home feeling disappointed, embarassed and a bit angry. Never good.

So there you go folks. Please do feel free to get in touch if you have any more ideas for optimising one's theatrical visits...








Thanks to koalazymonkey for the pic

Oh the mystery!

Secret agent Marieke here, working on a top secret, high profile mission, assigned by mastermind spy and not so evil genius, Simon Bedford. I have never been terribly good at keeping secrets, which is why you are getting some sneaky hints now, but I will have to keep schtum about the finer details for the time being. Rest assured the cat will come out of the bag before too long.

Anyway the secret project is seriously exciting. More exciting than the fact that we've recently won a gold medal at the winter Olympics. Now if you read last week's post you will understand that I am a ludicrously keen bean when it comes to winter sports (a strange combination of passions I know, skiing + theatre, but maybe linked in some quirky way...? Discuss.) so this should give you at least some idea of how brilliant the secret project is.

Clues: 1. I'm going to be searching through some Hoipolloi archive material over the next few days. 2. Hugh is involved. 3. If you're based in Cambridge, then make sue you keep a bit of space during the tail end of May free in your diaries (i.e. don't go on a month long cruise around the Bahamas or something like that. Stay here. You will not regret it). 4. If you're based in London, or nearby, or not but would like to visit London, then my magical mystical crystal ball says you shouldn't go away for an extended period of time in September (so that trekking holiday in Peru you had planned - cancel it).

Keep your eyes and ears open and keeping reading the blog as more information will be leaked soon.

In the meantime, whatever you do, don't forget that Hugh is hitting the road again next week and he would love to see you in either Oxford (3 March) or Liverpool (4 to 6 March).

Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

Thanks to laurakgibbs for the photo

Hello 2010!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had wonderfully indulgent Christmases with plenty of food and prezzies, snow, carols, decorations and other lovely things, plus brilliant New Year celebrations including bubbly and countdowns and Auld Lang Syne. But alas all good things must come to an end (at least for another 365 days) and 'real life' is back. Of course it's not all terrible and here at Hoipolloi we have many exciting things on the cards. Most excitingly...Sydney. Hugh will be in there performing 360 at the festival. So if you're in Sydney,do go along. If you're not, but you need a holiday, then you should go too. Click here for more info.

As much as I would love to go along for the ride, muggins here will be remaining in Cambridge for the foreseeable future. Aside from freezing my face and fingers on my bike as I cycle around the city in my shiny new shoes, and attempting to stick to my probably un-stickable-to-resolutions, I'll be preparing things for Hugh's trip to Oxford and Liverpool in March. So if you can't make it to Sydney, but you still want to see 360, then here's your chance.

Thanks to Geraint Lewis for the picture of Hugh

Plans...

The sun is shining, it is Friday afternoon, and the smell of mulled wine being brewed for the festive season is about, but Simon and I are being very good and working hard, in spite of the potential distractions (I do like a good glass of mulled wine). As you may have seen on Simon's last post we have announced some more dates for 360, so if you missed it in Edinburgh then Spring is the chance to book in for 70 joyful minutes with Hugh Hughes either in Sydney, Oxford or Liverpool.

Simon has very bravely (or maybe 'foolishly', would be more appropriate) handed over the majority of the responsibility for the marketing of the show over to me. As 'the intern', I feel very honoured to be promoted like this, and to give you an insight into my new daily life, and to prove that we do more in the Hoipolloi office than drink tea, eat cake, and discuss red carpet fashion, here's a lowdown of how the 360 plans are going...

Our venues are booked and contracts sorted. Even though the performances aren't for a few months, all the legal stuff - pages with clauses, and lots of jargon - get signed way in advance to ensure the venue and company know exactly what the deal is. I've never been very good with big legal words, and still haven't perfected my 'official' signature, so Simon deals with the contracts.

In order to spread the word we'll need literally thousands of posters and flyers. Liverpool and Oxford - watch out for the iconic blue clouds and face of Hugh on the 360 posters hitting you soon! We are using similar print to Edinburgh, although we need to ask our designers to make some alterations to the venue and performance dates. Otherwise we would end up with rather a few confused audience members looking for Hugh at the Pleasance Courtyard in March. We're also changing the quotes on the publicity. Some lovely things were written by the press in the summer, and we're so proud that we want to put them on our flyers, and that way you can see them too. Once the designs have been finalised they can be sent to the printers and from the printers the publicity will go to the venues. In order to give people time to notice the posters, check their diaries and book tickets, we usually send print out a few months before the performances.

We always like to let friends of Hugh know directly that he will be performing again. So he has been writing some letters, and I have started writing some letters, and sometimes the venues will also send out letters too. We love email, but you can't beat a nice bit of snail mail can you?

Something else we are very keen on this time round is creating an education pack for drama teachers and students. I was mightily inspired by the ones offered by the marvellous National Theatre, so I've started making a 360 one myself. In order to get a bit of extra help from some experts I'll be visting the education department at the Everyman in a few weeks. I've never been to Liverpool before, so I'm very excited about having an adventure. I'll have quite a lot of time to kill after my meeting and before I get my train back to Cambridge, so if anyone has any 'top tips for what to do in Liverpool' then do let me know!

So there you have it, the update so far. I'll keep you informed as plans progress.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Photo by Geraint Lewis

New UK dates for 360

Just a quick blog post from a dark and wet Wednesday evening in Cambridge!

I will leave Marieke to do a far more interesting post on Friday when she's back in the office but for today, I wanted to let you know that we've just announced some further touring for Hugh Hughes in... 360.

In addition to a return to Australia to perform at the Sydney Festival (performances from 22 to 30 January 2010), we'll also be doing shows back in the UK in early March with a return to both Oxford Playhouse (3 March) and the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool (4 to 6 March).

We haven't had a chance to update the main website with these new dates but full details can be found either by clicking the individual links above or they're posted at the top of the right-hand bar of this blog.

Ok, sales message over. You can get back to your normal routine!

Posted by Simon Bedford (Producer, Hoipolloi)

Neon, brains and cake

I was most intrigued by Hugh’s recent ‘tweet’ about fluorescent clothing sales. In fact I thought I might be able to work this trend in with my ‘bed-linen chic’ collection. Sadly my trawling through news websites didn’t offer many neon revelations, although I did stumble across something else fascinating. Now I know I’ve been guilty of straying away from topic recently, taking what is essentially a theatre blog into the realms of fashion and gastronomy, however I am going to remedy this immediately with some very relevant news regarding what happens to an actor’s brain when they play a role. It’s fascinating stuff I promise...

Fiona Shaw recently had an MRI scan to assist with some brain research in London. This was very brave of Fiona. I had an MRI scan recently and can tell you that it is not at all pleasant. You get strapped down so that you can’t move and then shoved into a big tube which makes strange noises. Terrifying. Although you do get a picture of your brain at the end, which is rather exciting.

While Fiona was having her scan she recited some lines from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Personally I would’ve gone for a splash of Spike Milligan to keep my sprits up while stuck in the scary tube, but hey, each to their own. The results of the scan showed a few things. Firstly, that Fiona used more areas of the brain when reciting poetry than when counting. Good. Also, that she used the part of the brain called the ‘infra parietal sulkus’ . To me this sounds like the name of a dinosaur, but what do I know about brains? Or dinosaurs for that matter. Anyway, Wikipedia tells me that the ‘infra parietal sulkus’ is associated with memory, analysis and doing a complex transformation of a visual image. Interestingly, when they are acting, actors use a part of the brain to create a voice which is different to the part of the brain we usually use when we speak. So that’s what happens inside an actor’s brain when they’re on stage! Aren’t you glad that’s been cleared up?

The results of the experiment and other similar ones will be displayed in an exhibition on identity at the Wellcome trust. If you haven’t already been, the Wellcome Collection is WELL worth a visit. (Please excuse the horrendous joke. I just couldn’t help myself). It is a fascinating place and the cafe there is fantastic. In fact I’m going to take this moment for a bit of cake news (now a regular item on the blog): the Wellcome cafe has some of the most gorgeous cupcakes your eyes and taste buds may ever have the pleasure of enjoying.

Righty – o, from brains and cake back to our very own Hugh Hughes:

You can see him. Tonight! He is performing the marvellous ‘360’ at the Drum Theatre in Plymouth until November 28th.

Don’t forget that he’s also going to be in Sydney in the New Year. Last time he visited tickets were snapped up like hot cakes (cough, wink, cough) so make sure you visit http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/ to grab yours in good time.

One final note before I depart for now... I am delighted to share the news that Hugh will be performing 360 at the Oxford Playhouse on March 3rd 2010. Although my heart lies with Cambridge, Oxford is pretty lovely too. Why don’t you book yourself a ticket and make a fun trip to Oxford for some punting and a wander around the Ashmolean or Magdalene College’s deer park? You can’t beat a bit of fresh air and spot of deer spying now can you?

Thanks to My Name is Rom for this fab brain picture