Mary Poppins
Aug. 27th, 2008 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teylaminhSo, it was quite good. Not as good, I expect, as the London production, but enjoyable nonetheless. The special effects were pretty awesome. :) It's completely different from the film in that several bits are in different places and there are extra characters. I have no idea how it relates to the original book, though. Even the familiar songs sound unfamiliar because of the way they're arranged. Feed the Birds is still my favourite...
I was confused about where I'd booked our seats, as it turns out, because I thought they were in the stalls and in fact they were in the circle. Quite far back, but the view was okay. I'm not used to being that high up and not being able to see people's faces properly. Thank goodness those tickets only ended up being £20, though, as I think if I'd paid full price for them I would have been a bit pissed off.
Thanks for putting it on right in time for the summer holidays, Birmingham. Srsly. I really wanted to spend good money on tickets to have to strain to hear the entire thing over chattering parents and screaming children. *rolls eyes*
On that note, people and parents of Birmingham, please note the following:
1. When the music starts and the lights go down, that is a cue to STFU. It does not mean "start talking louder to hear each other over the inconvenient orchestra" and nor does it mean "slowly dwindle to silence after about five minutes". It means "be quiet now". Thank you.
2. Please do not fill your children full of sugar when they have to sit through just under three hours of theatre. Whilst it may shut them up temporarily and stop them whinging, it only means they will become hyperactive and jump up and down. Occasionally telling them "shh" every few minutes is not good enough either.
3. Also, seat-kicking is entirely unacceptable in any situation and I have no idea why you haven't yet drilled this into your little brats yet. (Thankfully, we were initially in the wrong row and hence moved away from the seat-kickers.)
4. If your child is too young to communicate in any other way than crying or screaming, they are too young to go to the theatre. Full stop.
Having said that, one small child did provide a moment of amusement at the start. The first thing on stage is a man emerging from a chimney. Said small child shouted "HELLO!" at him. :)
At the same time, though... it's not a pantomime. I'm all for taking your kids to pantos, and I'm all for providing cultural input via the theatre... but please, for the love of anything, teach them the difference between pantomime and musical theatre. When they grow up and go to Rocky Horror they can shout out all they like, but until that point, shut them up. KTHX.
We did go to Pizza Express for dinner, also, though it transpired the voucher had in fact expired on 7th August. I checked the bloody thing loads of times, too, and still got it wrong. It only came to about £10.00 a head anyway... Paul had a Four Seasons pizza and I had a chicken pasta dish containing musrooms, red onion and lots of cheese, with pesto, which was absolutely gorgeous...
Oh, and I forgot to mention - I bought some red pepper pesto houmous from Somerfield the other and it is MANNA FROM HEAVEN, not to mention moreish. (Also, turns out I like chickpeas.)
That will do for now. Tonight we're having some of the pork in a stir fry, and attempting to watch Dan: In Real Life before the end of the night so we can get the DVDs back to Blockbuster in time... I must also edit chapter 1 and post chapter 2 of the PotC fic...
I was confused about where I'd booked our seats, as it turns out, because I thought they were in the stalls and in fact they were in the circle. Quite far back, but the view was okay. I'm not used to being that high up and not being able to see people's faces properly. Thank goodness those tickets only ended up being £20, though, as I think if I'd paid full price for them I would have been a bit pissed off.
Thanks for putting it on right in time for the summer holidays, Birmingham. Srsly. I really wanted to spend good money on tickets to have to strain to hear the entire thing over chattering parents and screaming children. *rolls eyes*
On that note, people and parents of Birmingham, please note the following:
1. When the music starts and the lights go down, that is a cue to STFU. It does not mean "start talking louder to hear each other over the inconvenient orchestra" and nor does it mean "slowly dwindle to silence after about five minutes". It means "be quiet now". Thank you.
2. Please do not fill your children full of sugar when they have to sit through just under three hours of theatre. Whilst it may shut them up temporarily and stop them whinging, it only means they will become hyperactive and jump up and down. Occasionally telling them "shh" every few minutes is not good enough either.
3. Also, seat-kicking is entirely unacceptable in any situation and I have no idea why you haven't yet drilled this into your little brats yet. (Thankfully, we were initially in the wrong row and hence moved away from the seat-kickers.)
4. If your child is too young to communicate in any other way than crying or screaming, they are too young to go to the theatre. Full stop.
Having said that, one small child did provide a moment of amusement at the start. The first thing on stage is a man emerging from a chimney. Said small child shouted "HELLO!" at him. :)
At the same time, though... it's not a pantomime. I'm all for taking your kids to pantos, and I'm all for providing cultural input via the theatre... but please, for the love of anything, teach them the difference between pantomime and musical theatre. When they grow up and go to Rocky Horror they can shout out all they like, but until that point, shut them up. KTHX.
We did go to Pizza Express for dinner, also, though it transpired the voucher had in fact expired on 7th August. I checked the bloody thing loads of times, too, and still got it wrong. It only came to about £10.00 a head anyway... Paul had a Four Seasons pizza and I had a chicken pasta dish containing musrooms, red onion and lots of cheese, with pesto, which was absolutely gorgeous...
Oh, and I forgot to mention - I bought some red pepper pesto houmous from Somerfield the other and it is MANNA FROM HEAVEN, not to mention moreish. (Also, turns out I like chickpeas.)
That will do for now. Tonight we're having some of the pork in a stir fry, and attempting to watch Dan: In Real Life before the end of the night so we can get the DVDs back to Blockbuster in time... I must also edit chapter 1 and post chapter 2 of the PotC fic...
