Menier Christmas Show?

[AddisonMizner]

Posted: 8/6/14 at 4:06am

Does anyone have any ideas as to what the Menier Christmas Show is this year?

[TheatreRebecca]

Posted: 8/8/14 at 8:59am

How can they top Candide!
Excited to hear about whatever may come!

[thespian geek]

Posted: 8/8/14 at 12:46pm

Maybe they should just do Candide again...!

[luke-h***]

Posted: 8/11/14 at 1:46pm

After being rumoured for so long maybe this year we will finally see Maria Friedman's The Woman in White?

One can hope!

[AnythingGoes23]

Posted: 8/12/14 at 2:49am

I image it'll be Sondheim... Whats left? Trevor Nunn has been long rumoured to do Follies. Company I think would be great at Menier , so would Forum... however both are in workshops for Broadway revivals so may stop a new professional production.

Another long rumour is a production of Mame but Jerry Herman is holding off, last I heard, giving rights hoping for a large scale revival.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 8/12/14 at 7:47am

I would think Follies would be wrong for the Menier, the production needs a bigger theatre, with a taller proscenium, I would like to see the Young Vic do this one.

Rumoured that James Corden is going to do Forum next year on Broadway, so guess the rights have been locked in.

However Company would be amazing and I haven't ever seen it, so there is a bonus for me.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 8/12/14 at 8:57am

Corden won't be doing Forum. He's now a late night TV host.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 8/12/14 at 11:53am

yes, so I hear, take it doing both will be too much?

[AddisonMizner]

Posted: 8/12/14 at 3:56pm

I too loved CANDIDE. What a great production!

I would love them to do another Sondheim. FOLLIES would be great! FORUM could also be fun to see if they can do it.

Surely an announcement should be made very soon. Don't tickets normally go on sale at the start of September?

[binau]

Posted: 8/13/14 at 6:51pm

I really hope it's FOLLIES.

[AnythingGoes23]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 3:46am

I think a downscale Follies would be great for the show. I dont think it needs to be a big as it is- it has no hugely needed ensemble numbers except for Beautiful Girls, Who's That Woman and Loveland, everything else the scenes are two-four handers. I think a smaller scale production could really open up the characters more.

Who knows? It could be anything! I imagine Menier will announce in the coming weeks its usually onsale before or around the start of Sept

[Owen22]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 12:49pm

What happened to the "Next to Normal" rumor? Or has that been postponed until Jenna Russell is available.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 2:02pm

I've wanted to see Ruthie Henshall in Next to Normal.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 8/18/14 at 11:46am

I still think that Menier doesn't have the production values to stage Follies, remember Follies is staged in an old theater that is going to be bulldozed to make way for a parking lot, where the Menier is a modern black box theatre.

If Trevor Nunn's Follies at the Haymaket Theatre did happen it would of been glorious in an old grade 1 listed building and would really set the scene.

But if Menier did offer Follies, I would definitely see this.

[TBFL]

Posted: 8/18/14 at 8:23pm

If the Landor can do Follies, there's no reason the Menier can't!

And please dont let Ruthie's nasal singing anywhere near NTM

[AddisonMizner]

Posted: 8/24/14 at 11:42am

All of this talk of Sondheim revivals has got me thinking. What about if the Menier did SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM? It would be a London premiere and I would love to see it. There was talk of a West End production a few years ago, but it never seemed to materialise. Do you think this would work in the Menier's space?

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 8/24/14 at 3:28pm

I got no objection Follies being done in the Menier, just saying it would be better in other venues, I don't think the piece is well suited for a black box theatre, how was Follies received at the Landor theatre? I didn't see it. I would rather the Menier do Company.

[bob8rich]

Posted: 8/24/14 at 6:09pm

Follies at the Landor was utterly wonderful. It is actually pretty much a very intimate piece - it's only the Loveland Fantasy sequence that explodes into something big. And the intimate moments suited the Landor's space quite perfectly. Claire Moore was simply stunning as Sally and had me and most of the audience in tears as she unravelled at the end.

The intimacy accentuated the fundamental heartbreaking aspects of the piece of lives emotionally unfulfilled. The show's defining number - The Road You Didn't Take - worked very effectively there too.

I think Follies would be amazing at the Choc Factory - though it's probably pie in the sky to think it will be happening.

Updated On: 8/26/14 at 06:09 PM

[TBFL]

Posted: 8/25/14 at 9:54am

The Landor's 'Follies' was excellent, one of the better productions of it I have seen, though Claire Moore played losing my mind a bit too literally. The problems with such a tiny space was being too close to the actors at times. i.e the guy playing Roscoe was directly in front of me and cracked on nearly all his big notes in Beautiful Girls.... awkward.

The projections they used in Who's That Woman was very effective

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 8/25/14 at 2:10pm

By the two posts above I am still not convinced that the Menier is the right venue for this, as somewhere very intimate doesn't give the piece the required production values and the venue may prove claustrophobic and would say that the Young Vic would be the perfect venue to showcase the piece. However the perfect scenario for me is if both venues were to grapple with it in time. You can then compere apples with pears.

As a theatre fan I find it thrilling seeing a big production being re-conceived for a intimate venue and a shoestring budget.

The next thing I am going to say and you will think me mad and this is completely off piste, it just so happens I was thinking about this a couple of weeks back; I would love to see this being directed by our very own Cameron Mackintosh, with his history with the show, he seems passionate about the piece and somewhere in there is a director who has hallmarks to deliver excellence, who needs to step up to the plate sooner than later.

Permission to shoot me.

Updated On: 8/25/14 at 02:10 PM

[ajh]

Posted: 8/26/14 at 1:55am

Cameron Mackintosh is a PRODUCER not a director. He may THINK he's a director, but he's really really a producer.....


And the Landor FOLLIES was stunning, frequently more effective than some of the infinitely more lavish stagings I have seen.

Updated On: 8/26/14 at 01:55 AM

[luke-h***]

Posted: 8/26/14 at 4:45am

ajh, do you mean the Landor production? Menier have never produced a production of Follies.

I'm in two minds about whether or not this show would work at the Menier. I would love to see a full-scale revival in time; remember the rumours of Nunn's Haymarket production? I'd also love to see it revived at National Theatre, and do think it does belong in a full-scale production, but given Menier's track record, it would no doubt be excellent.

However, as wonderful as it is to see Sondheim having more of a life Off-West End in recent years, a big part of me just wants to see more fill-scale revivals of Sondheim shows. Hoping The Coliseum may put this into place.

[ajh]

Posted: 8/26/14 at 6:56am

Sorry Luke, yes of course I mean the Landor. That teaches for me for trying to write a post before coffee

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 8/26/14 at 7:09am

I am aware that Cameron Mackintosh is a producer and thought I would get crucified on here for suggesting what I did on here, Harold Prince also started as a producers, this doesn't seem to harm his career as a director and same with Cameron there is an excellent director lurking in there.

For the record I think Carrie would be wrong in the Chocolate Factory.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 8/26/14 at 7:40am

All this talk on Follies is subjective now as the Menier has just announced its Christmas show, which if I tell you, I have to keill you.