The New UK Tour


How is it?

How are the new cast?

What is the new set like? I imagine they have to change the staircases that ran up the side of the theatre in London, anyone know how?

The cast looks a lot smaller on the site, and what I presume are the "audience" have different names... is the cast a lot smaller?

Any other differences?

Any photos?! :)

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I know I shouldnt reply to my own post, but having now seen it, in case anyone else wants to know answers to these questions:

The show is very good still.

The new cast are *very* good, and some have slightly changed in character.

The new set is scaled down to simple plain scrims instead of brick walls, but these can be made transparant if the Valykrie appears behind them, have projections on them such as rolling clouds or flame effects, and flashing lights. The audience podiums are used in the way the side staircases were. There's no central pit, but they improvise well.

The audience is 5 people either side now, but the podiums are re-designed into a corner-shape so they space out well enough and look like a good amount. They work well. 2 or 3 of the audience members are the same "characters" as the DVD/London versions.

Other differences include Baby Jane sitting on her swing but not swinging, "it aint being me" having an extra 2 verses, God appearing in a starfield but not on his swing, he simply comes down stairs in the starfield onto the stage stairs, and down those. And Tremont has a completely new look/outfit.

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These scrims. What colour are they? Do they still give the feel of a Jerry Springer studio? Or do they look ugly and out of place?

Also, how do they do all the images for the Adverts, are they projected onto the scrims too?

I shouldn't spoil it for myself, but I'm taking a group up to see it in CAmbridge and after the show we've organised a backstage meeting with the cast!

By the way, I know Victoria's Secret: She's a slut!

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The scrims are plain grey but it doesnt look terrible. Before the show starts they are lit blue.

The adverts and rolling clouds, flames, falling men etc are all projected onto the scrims either as individual scrims or the scrims collectively as one large screen. And as I say, the side scrims can be made transparent to reveal the Valkyrie behind them etc.

The studio feel is still there because of the audience on-stage and the seating and stuff, but its just a shame the scrims dont look like the original brick background. So its not like London as such, but still very good. The production itself can be seen as its own beast instead of as a copy of the other one.

I liked that before the show, Steve stands with his arms folded in front of the stalls, keeping watch! And Jerry's entrance varies, either an on-stage entrance or from a door in the stalls, shaking hands with audience members etc on his way to the stage.

I'm jealous you get to do a backstage meeting, how did you arrange that?!

The best I did was having a good chat with Carrie Ellis (Baby Jane/Peaches) before the show. She was lovely.

If you have MSN and want to chat, I can show you some phone-cam shots of the set if you like :)

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"I'm jealous you get to do a backstage meeting, how did you arrange that?!"

I head up a youth theatre in my town and we made a group booking and so many of the guys coming have seen the show so many times either in London or on DVD that it seemed a waste of time just going to see the show again, so I gave Avalon (the tour producers) a ring and they said they'd be happy to organise an after show meeting with the cast. Having said that they were meant to get back to me with details of the meeting this weekend, and they haven't yet. If it falls through I will complain because they did promise.

You can basically do this with any touring production as long as you book seats for more than a group of ten. You should always contact the tour producers long in advance of the performance at your venue (preferably just after the tour is announced, it is ideal that you have purchased your tickets first though) so they are aware that people are looking to go backstage. Then, if they come back to you and are prepared to organise a meeting with you, they will ask you to contact them again two weeks before your performance to confirm details. You can directly contact the tour producers, but if you do it could take a considerable amount of time to get through to the right person, I often find it is best to first contact the venue by email detailing what you want, they will then have contact numbers/email addresses for specific people within the tour production company who can sort you out a lot quicker, this way also prepares the venue to make the neccessary arrangements.

As for MSN, just add '@hotmail.com' to the end of my IMDb screename and that's my contact address.

Out of interest, how is Rolf Saxon in the role of Jerry Springer? I only know himas the narrator of the Teletubbies!

By the way, I know Victoria's Secret: She's a slut!

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Although I can't complain about the acting in the touring production ( in fact I even preferred some actors instead of the london / dvd version) but the set and number of actors in the 'audience' did disappoint. I had been so looking forward to seeing it live having seen it countless times on dvd , but when I walked into the theatre and saw the plain scrims I just felt they had really cut costs ( i know they had various problems sorting this tour) but it just felt like a 6th form college production. Luckily I soon got into the show and forgot about all of that, and had a great time. I did however strongly feel that reducing the number of actors had a great impact on the show and there wasn't the atmosphere on stage that was present in the original show.

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I Just posted on another topic about the tour... and this thread points out some other things...yes there is a BIG compromise on set and cast but I have heard that there playing to half houses the whole time ( not that that has much to do with it) but it is a factor.





George Foreman has no finger prints.

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I saw this show last night! It was f'n fantastic! I'm planning on going to see it again on saturday in the final showing of this tour.

IMO, Most of the difference are small and insignificant.

I thought Ralf Saxon did a brilliant job, his comic timing is much better than David or Michael's.

I got this essay on the fall of Rome I didn't even know they were in trouble

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I agree! Saxon ACTS the part better.

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He even joins in a little on a song and dance, which the cast seem to have trouble keeping a straight face for...

I got this essay on the fall of Rome I didn't even know they were in trouble

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Might've been a one off, he seemed fine on that for me. In fact on one of the productions of it people were cheering loads before the "its not easy..." so they were all just stood there waiting and smiling, it was funny, heh.

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Oh yeah, it was a good cast laughing thing. It was like the encore part, where they're all dressed up like jerry. I think it's great to see them enjoying themselves. I loved it.

I got this essay on the fall of Rome I didn't even know they were in trouble

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The cast we brilliant. Shame near the end of the run at m theatre the majority of the cast were off with flu so there was only about 6 audience members. They did really well though.

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