Decided to go to the theatre with a friend last night and see a bit of fringe theatre. For someone that has worked so much in this industry, I am quite picky about what I see. Mainly because I don't want to pay a lot to see a show, don't want to see a show I've worked on and I want something different, not the same sort of tosh that everyone produces.
I booked us two tickets to see a show called Tick Tick Boom. The reason I chose this was because it was about a guy turning 30 and how he wasn't copying very well with it and thinking it was a roll reversal of how I felt, thought it might be interesting (for this blog and myself).
Let's say, I'm glad I didn't buy the programme! This play unfortunately slots into the bad side of fringe theatre.
First, let's go back to before the show. After downing three cocktails each (it took us ages to get served in the place we had gone to and landed up drinking our "special offer" cocktails very quickly - they were generally good though) we headed to the venue. En route, I said to my friend that I hoped this wasn't one of these shockingly bad fringe shows, because that sometimes happens when you get offer tickets (I was thinking bad American musical trying to hard and moany). When we got there, we were told the bar was round the other side of the stage, so I suggested we sat there (who doesn't want to be near the bar at the interval!). What a huge mistake!
The show goes up late and so finally the lights dim. Nearly as soon as the first guy has opened his mouth, I am regretting my decision (we should have stayed in the cocktail bar). Guess what it is moany, American and awful! The show is a three-hander (which is fine for the right storyline) but they are trying to play too many characters. The storyline is emotionless and so I feel nothing for the characters. The bits that are meant to be funny aren't. The songs don't relate enough to the initial story ("the little green dress" and "trapped in a cage, ask the birds" - WHAT!).
Well, if the show wasn't bad enough, it didn't even have an interval. We couldn't leave. Due to me, we were the wrong side of the stage near the bar with no exit, so we had 1hr 30mins of this awful tosh! I kept apologising to my friend at different points when the lights dimmed, she couldn't look at me because it was so bad and she wanted to laugh. Thank god no one was sitting next to us, as I spent most the show with my hand on the bag getting ready to exit. I can see why we managed to get really cheap tickets.
It was a shame, as the singing/acting wasn't horrendous, they had just signed up to the wrong show. Asides from the performance itself, it was hard to ignore technical issues such as the white tape stuck to the man's neck holding the mic on, the awful designer dress the actress was meant to be wearing and the constant buzzing coming from one of the mics - it felt like amateur hour!
I have to say this show has now gone on the list of 5 of the worst fringe shows I have EVER seen, mainly because I wanted to leave as soon as it started. This is impressive as the other four include: someone being resuscitated by his own hand puppet, a man forcing patrons to do obscene and disgusting things, a cast member coming out of character to wake my dad up because he's fallen asleep and Tony Blair the musical (where the show was rubbish and it was so hot in the auditorium, we left because two of our group nearly collapsed). At least these all happened in Edinburgh, where you expect good and bad shows at the fringe, but to transfer to London - whose supporting this awful writing!
It's such a shame because there are so many great pieces out there that people should see/fund and yet this was a poor example of what turning 30 feels like and money badly spent. The only thing this show fuelled was conversation and more alcohol - I suppose at least we got something out of it : ) Oh and the lyrical title, that's because like the title of this play, the script should be blown up rather than performed!
Blog title comes from a popular track from the early 90s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AVWZwZq_QU
I booked us two tickets to see a show called Tick Tick Boom. The reason I chose this was because it was about a guy turning 30 and how he wasn't copying very well with it and thinking it was a roll reversal of how I felt, thought it might be interesting (for this blog and myself).
Let's say, I'm glad I didn't buy the programme! This play unfortunately slots into the bad side of fringe theatre.
First, let's go back to before the show. After downing three cocktails each (it took us ages to get served in the place we had gone to and landed up drinking our "special offer" cocktails very quickly - they were generally good though) we headed to the venue. En route, I said to my friend that I hoped this wasn't one of these shockingly bad fringe shows, because that sometimes happens when you get offer tickets (I was thinking bad American musical trying to hard and moany). When we got there, we were told the bar was round the other side of the stage, so I suggested we sat there (who doesn't want to be near the bar at the interval!). What a huge mistake!
The show goes up late and so finally the lights dim. Nearly as soon as the first guy has opened his mouth, I am regretting my decision (we should have stayed in the cocktail bar). Guess what it is moany, American and awful! The show is a three-hander (which is fine for the right storyline) but they are trying to play too many characters. The storyline is emotionless and so I feel nothing for the characters. The bits that are meant to be funny aren't. The songs don't relate enough to the initial story ("the little green dress" and "trapped in a cage, ask the birds" - WHAT!).
Well, if the show wasn't bad enough, it didn't even have an interval. We couldn't leave. Due to me, we were the wrong side of the stage near the bar with no exit, so we had 1hr 30mins of this awful tosh! I kept apologising to my friend at different points when the lights dimmed, she couldn't look at me because it was so bad and she wanted to laugh. Thank god no one was sitting next to us, as I spent most the show with my hand on the bag getting ready to exit. I can see why we managed to get really cheap tickets.
It was a shame, as the singing/acting wasn't horrendous, they had just signed up to the wrong show. Asides from the performance itself, it was hard to ignore technical issues such as the white tape stuck to the man's neck holding the mic on, the awful designer dress the actress was meant to be wearing and the constant buzzing coming from one of the mics - it felt like amateur hour!
I have to say this show has now gone on the list of 5 of the worst fringe shows I have EVER seen, mainly because I wanted to leave as soon as it started. This is impressive as the other four include: someone being resuscitated by his own hand puppet, a man forcing patrons to do obscene and disgusting things, a cast member coming out of character to wake my dad up because he's fallen asleep and Tony Blair the musical (where the show was rubbish and it was so hot in the auditorium, we left because two of our group nearly collapsed). At least these all happened in Edinburgh, where you expect good and bad shows at the fringe, but to transfer to London - whose supporting this awful writing!
It's such a shame because there are so many great pieces out there that people should see/fund and yet this was a poor example of what turning 30 feels like and money badly spent. The only thing this show fuelled was conversation and more alcohol - I suppose at least we got something out of it : ) Oh and the lyrical title, that's because like the title of this play, the script should be blown up rather than performed!
Blog title comes from a popular track from the early 90s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AVWZwZq_QU
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