It was a girls' night out at theatre tonight with some preview tickets to the new musical Marguerite. We paid for the cheap seats and so we got the cheap seats in the Upper Circle and my, was it a shite view. I'm of the opinion that if you're gonna go the theatre, avoid the upper most tier where possible. Vertigo aside, it may sound snobby and I realise that some theatres are more tolerable than others but I can't enjoy what's on stage when I'm busy massaging my sore neck, while peering through binoculars. Maybe I should just do neck strengthening exercises.
Regardless, once seated we observed that the theatre was barely half full and that there were plenty of seats in the dress circle below. Lil Miss J and I decided to try our luck for new seats and so we ran all the way down the maze of stairs to the box office, charm intact.
Me & Lil Miss J: Haaaai, we and some friends are seated on the upper tier and we can see that the theatre is not full. Are we able to get better seats?
Dude in office box: Hmmm maybe. Let me see what I can do. There are few seats in the dress circle.
Me & Lil Miss J: Cool, thanks!
Dude: Do you girls have your tickets with you?
Me & Lil Miss J: Umm, no we left them upstairs *winces* I guess, one of us can run upstairs and get them?
Dude: *tap tap on the keyboard* Nah, don't worry, here are some new tickets for you.
Me & Lil Miss J: Thank you very much!
Hmmm it seems as though my wit (not utilised here) and Lil Miss J's charm can get us girls anything. This dude didn't even bother to check if we really did have tickets! I mean I could have walked off the street and gotten into the theatre for free! Might keep this trick up my sleeve for next time. Hehehehe....
Anyway about the musical. It tells the story of an older, fallen woman who is clinging onto the her younger glory days. She embarks on an affair with a younger man. It is basically a modern (relatively speaking, it's set in the 1940s) version of the opera La Traviata. Actually, that is not true because La Traviata was based on the novel The Lady of the Camellias which is the direct inspiration for Marguerite. It's all the same stuffs.
The selling point of Marguerite was that it brought to the stage by the same team responsible for Les Miserables. The mood, stage set and score were definitely comparable, though the actual musical composer had nothing to do with Les Mis. Of course this is not a criticism and I'm the last person who is licenced to make such judgements. My personal opinion is that the songs were good but nothing ground-breaking. I'm certainly not rushing out to buy the CD. There is a sense that it is trying to capture the same audience as Les Mis but falls short and ends up a poor man's substitute. The tragic, fallen woman plot does absolutely nothing for me and it's probably because I lack empathy for such self-pitying lead characters. That being said I can see how these kinds of musical will appeal to a certain audience type. It's pretty obvious I'm not that 'type'.
One thing I will applaud is leading lady Ruthie Henshall. Again, I'm not musically qualified but her voice was just one of the most purest I've heard on stage and is deserving of her West End/Broadway superstar status. I kept thinking of my year 8 music teacher description of 'honey' and thought 'Yes! That's how her voice sounds!'.
So yeah, I will emphasise that I'm not the most qualified person on the planet to give a critique about musicial score etc but Marguerite isn't a bad musical, it just didn't leave me much of an impression. I'm happy to watch anything once, but I wouldn't be running back to see it. That being said, if Ruthie Henshall is in any other production, I'd probably give it whirl.
Me & Lil Miss J: Haaaai, we and some friends are seated on the upper tier and we can see that the theatre is not full. Are we able to get better seats?
Dude in office box: Hmmm maybe. Let me see what I can do. There are few seats in the dress circle.
Me & Lil Miss J: Cool, thanks!
Dude: Do you girls have your tickets with you?
Me & Lil Miss J: Umm, no we left them upstairs *winces* I guess, one of us can run upstairs and get them?
Dude: *tap tap on the keyboard* Nah, don't worry, here are some new tickets for you.
Me & Lil Miss J: Thank you very much!
Hmmm it seems as though my wit (not utilised here) and Lil Miss J's charm can get us girls anything. This dude didn't even bother to check if we really did have tickets! I mean I could have walked off the street and gotten into the theatre for free! Might keep this trick up my sleeve for next time. Hehehehe....
Anyway about the musical. It tells the story of an older, fallen woman who is clinging onto the her younger glory days. She embarks on an affair with a younger man. It is basically a modern (relatively speaking, it's set in the 1940s) version of the opera La Traviata. Actually, that is not true because La Traviata was based on the novel The Lady of the Camellias which is the direct inspiration for Marguerite. It's all the same stuffs.
The selling point of Marguerite was that it brought to the stage by the same team responsible for Les Miserables. The mood, stage set and score were definitely comparable, though the actual musical composer had nothing to do with Les Mis. Of course this is not a criticism and I'm the last person who is licenced to make such judgements. My personal opinion is that the songs were good but nothing ground-breaking. I'm certainly not rushing out to buy the CD. There is a sense that it is trying to capture the same audience as Les Mis but falls short and ends up a poor man's substitute. The tragic, fallen woman plot does absolutely nothing for me and it's probably because I lack empathy for such self-pitying lead characters. That being said I can see how these kinds of musical will appeal to a certain audience type. It's pretty obvious I'm not that 'type'.
One thing I will applaud is leading lady Ruthie Henshall. Again, I'm not musically qualified but her voice was just one of the most purest I've heard on stage and is deserving of her West End/Broadway superstar status. I kept thinking of my year 8 music teacher description of 'honey' and thought 'Yes! That's how her voice sounds!'.
So yeah, I will emphasise that I'm not the most qualified person on the planet to give a critique about musicial score etc but Marguerite isn't a bad musical, it just didn't leave me much of an impression. I'm happy to watch anything once, but I wouldn't be running back to see it. That being said, if Ruthie Henshall is in any other production, I'd probably give it whirl.
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