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Sunshine on Leith


framheim

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anyone been to see it yet? i went last night and i have to say, it was excellent.

obviously with this kind of thing the story is a little contrived in places so they can cram in an extra hit but it wasn't too bad and most of the songs fitted the story well. the plot was quite good and centered around themes appropriate for the songs, the audience and contempory life in scotland. it centred round ally and davey, two soldiers returning from afghanistan/iraq to get on with their lives. you follow their relationships with their family and their friends in a scotland still coming to terms with the obliteration of unions, industry and prospects under thatcher and new labour. the acting was pretty good and the singing, for the most part, was spot on. the songs were treated with respect yet were changed enough to suit the format while not quite making them show tunes.

my main critiscm is that it's a little long and a couple of songs didn't quite work. overall though a great show and it fair pulls the heart strings when they do sunshine on leith and letter from america.

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Guest DustyDeviada

Sunshine on Leith (the album) is one of my favourites, but I'm afraid I avoid these type of shows like the plague. I got my arm twisted into taking my mum to Mamma Mia once and it was a big pile of balls. Contrived is exactly the word.

Whoever came up with this concept of "recycling" pop songs should be shot.

Harumph.

*goes off to listen to some REAL musicals like West Side Story or something*

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You're a right grump today, Dusty!!

Mind you...I'm in total agreement...I'm not a fan of musicals (with the exception of Brecht/Weill ones). Probably due to once seeing 'Joseph' with Jess Conrad in it.

Maybe if the Proclaimers had been in the cast it would've had a different edge?

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Guest DustyDeviada

Well, I haven't been to any for a while, but I would say there are a lot of great musicals out there, the Rodgers and Hammerstein stuff, West Side Story, Oliver, which doesn't have one duff tune in it.

Not so keen on a lot of crappy modern stuff ie Lloyd Webber and Les Miserables (pronounced "Lay Miz" by pretentious folk including your disgraced former colleague Mr Forrester. ;) )

Went to see Spamalot on Broadway in 05 though (a couple of nights before you led us astray in the seedy underbelly of NYC) and it was fantastic.

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Fuck's sake - is nothing sacred?

What's next?

"Return To Ozzie" - a musical about the ups and downs of metal's favourite grandfather?

Expect to see the auditions for it on 15 prime-time TV hours week from next April thru October.

Witness as thousands of deluded narcissists group-hug and bubble their way to obscurity.

Fuck - I hate everything!

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Guest DustyDeviada

Ha, "spag bol".

Continuing on the "crappy musical made out of bands' songs" theme, I remember an interview with Ben Elton when the Queen one came out where he said: "Well it's just such wonderful material to work with. I mean, who wouldn't want to work with Bo Rhap?"

Cunt.

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I went last night as well (where were you sitting, Dave?). I didn't expect much of the acted parts, so I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the performances. Some of the singing was a little muffled in parts, but that may have been a PA problem or the location of my seat.

There were some aspects of the plot that could have been improved upon so that the songs were more subtly built up to, although I was glad that they didn't make too much of the fact that Plymouth is roughly 500 miles from Edinburgh. It was good to see the theatre almost full (apart from the Gods) and everyone around us seemed to enjoy it.

we were quite far back in the stalls, row r i think.

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