The Tempest, 23/04/2012
just reposting some comments made on the merlin_network, for posterity. or some such.
i glad to see that there are at least a few tweets that do not go on about colin being the most amazing singer in the world.
while colin did admirably at the singing parts (of which Ariel has many) especially for a guy who has professed his non existent talent and slight fear of singing, he is not a singer, bless him.
he did well. much better than i feared he would. he was also backed up by three very talented female singers, which makes it a lot easier to hold pitch. when he did the last song on his own, he did really well at the start, and then lost pitch and went into a bit of a wobble. which wasn't a huge deal and I'm sure he'll improve. but it happened.
The thing I like about opening nights is that things aren't perfect. I like seeing the first and the last show, because they're generally the worst ones. And hey, if that holds true, this run is gonna be great, because last night was very very good.
There were a couple of fumbled lines, a few prob problems, and i am sure colin is going to get more confident on his stilts, but last night, he spend a lot of time stepping in place, to keep his balance. again, not a huge deal.
The dance routine that all the actors and musicians did at the end of the play was fun, but it looked like they had decided that they were going to do it about half way through the interval. everyone at some point lost track of what they were doing or in what order they were supposed to do thing. again, that's why I like first nights, they're fun. and seeing the faces of actors that have just got through their first night and made it all the way to the end? it's lovely. it's a bloody rush, the relief and delight on their faces.
I don't understand why people feel the need to say everything he does is the most amazing thing ever. we're all here cause we think he's talented. Ridiculously so, I agree. And we're fans, but that doesn't mean he can do no wrong and it doesn't mean one isn't allowed to criticise the boy or things associated with him.
It was a good play, the acting was good. I disliked Trinculo's accent hugely. I appreciate it is a funny accent. I did not think it worked. but that's ok. I liked the way Prospero was played. Fun, rather than menacing. I prefer that. I disliked the spirit's costuming, as I thought that the costume hugely worked against all of the - intense - physical performance and hard work that was going on. The stiff skirts hid any flowing, elegant movement and very often made colin and the other spirits look just a touch clumsy, which is unfortunate and I don't understand the choice in outfit. But fair enough.
the audience was for the most part fine. but christ, there's always some, isn't there? there were people eating all kinds of snacks (bought and brought) with all the rustling, crunching and crinkling noises in the world. 3 different mobile phones went off throughout the show. People were turning up between 5 and 25 minutes late and then being obnoxious and noisy about getting to their places... i do wish people would get banned from theaters for not knowing how to behave. sigh.
Ariel's characterisation was interesting. Seemed to me a decision had been made (director or colin, who knows) to play Ariel very non human and slightly bemused by humans, which works nicely. Colin spend a lot of his time crouching in corners and on top of things, observing the scenes, with wide eyes (enhanced by white make up) and a very very immobile face (again enhanced by the make up, which smoothed out most of his features) and a lot of very deliberate blinking and concise head movements. it reminded me of a reptile, which was interesting.
He did a lot of climbing on boulders and had specially placed hand holds along one of the back walls leading to a hole on top of the wall that he could pop in and out of, from behind the scenes. He also had hand holds placed along the bottom of the floating platform in the middle of the stage, which he used like monkey bars, in a fairly impressive way. His first entrance consisted of running on stage, leaping onto a boulder, pushing himself off into the air and landing in a roll. All of which was almost worthy of the gasp it received from the audience, however I think that may have been emphasised by the high percentage of fans in the front 5 rows.
Later on he runs across one of the boulders at the back and jumps at the underside of the platform, where he catches himself on the hand holds, moving along 3 or 4 of them, before dangling by one arm.
It was all very impressive. I wass outside having a smoke during the interval and walked past a group who were just looking at the programme and overheard them going "Ariel appears to be played by... one Colin Morgan... hmm. very athlethic, isn't he?". indeed.
He also excited with a cartwheel and I said to my friend afterwards that that was the most messed up cartwheel I'd ever seen anyone do and she pointed out that yes, she thought the same, and "he's good at them, too!" at which point i remembered that of course colin does like his cart wheels. i'd forgotten. so I assume that was actually a blunder, rather than he's suddenly crap at them.
most of the physical entries and exits were very nicely done, however the first exit and the launching himself at the "monkey bars" did make me worry about him, as they are both rather energetic and it seems so easy to miss that step at the back of the boulder or slip or not roll nicely enough... i dunno. just looked like the kind of action where one might loose a few teeth. fingers crossed that shan't happen.
anyway, christ this turned into a ramble. a two part ramble. sorry about that.
ah well, someone might care.
**
yeah i used to do that... but i've been doing this fandom thing for too long. i get bored of worrying, to be honest. I know mine wont be the most popular opinion, but that's ok.... hey ho.
it's just... i left the tempest last night, turned my phone back on (cause unless some people who go to theater, i know to bloody turn it off in the first place. grr.) and had 9 tweets within 5 seconds, 4 of which i believe, talked about colin having "the voice of an angel"... as i said, he did really really well. so much better than his claims about being a shit singer (and katie's, come to think of it) made me believe. i had been worried about it. but he is not a singer. and there is nothing wrong in saying that. the boys talented enough as it is, it's ok to not be a 100% at something that is not your chosen profession.
yeah, i get what you're saying about the adrenaline and the element of danger. i'm all on bored with that. quite happy to take risks and get the adrenalin rush. it's just not generally in front of a sold out house. i just couldn't quite shake the image of him slipping and bashing his face on the stage. which i am sure wont happen. I am sure the costume shoes (again, what a strange choice. white clunky ankle boots. weird.) were picked for their very good grip and i'm sure he'll be fine.
but yes, boy spend a lot of time wrapped around pillars, dangling from things, and at one point entered the arena side stage and walked along the banister of the front row floor boxes. unnoticed by quite a lot of the audience, which was funny. he can be surprisingly subtle in a furry rose top and huge skirt. who knew. haha
and yeah, dvd is definitely happening, however not until 2014 i am afraid.
**
oh also, you might appreciate this. i have no idea what was going on there but... I assume it was because the final dance had already gone haywire, or possibly because mr morgan had lost the plot a bit at this point, but they were all clapping and dancing, spread along the front of the stage and the different groupings from the play did different little "set dances" and i think it was when it came around to prospero, miranda, ferdinand and ariel and they'd all gone wildly out of sync and were laughing, but colin just sort of gave up, and instead of following the dance routine, he decided to do bunny ears at the audience. which was very funny and very cute.
they will also have to increase the amount of hairspray used starting today, as his hair was very solidly slicked back for the first half, and then single strands started to fall into his face. and for some reason it was not fixed during the interval. so he played the end of the first half and the entire second, with a few strands of hair dangling into his face. not a twitch. i was amazed. it would have driven me insane. the second he could break character, after the dance, to take a bow, he was running his hands through his hair slightly frantic, pushing it all back and getting it out of his face. again, quite funny, quite cute.
i glad to see that there are at least a few tweets that do not go on about colin being the most amazing singer in the world.
while colin did admirably at the singing parts (of which Ariel has many) especially for a guy who has professed his non existent talent and slight fear of singing, he is not a singer, bless him.
he did well. much better than i feared he would. he was also backed up by three very talented female singers, which makes it a lot easier to hold pitch. when he did the last song on his own, he did really well at the start, and then lost pitch and went into a bit of a wobble. which wasn't a huge deal and I'm sure he'll improve. but it happened.
The thing I like about opening nights is that things aren't perfect. I like seeing the first and the last show, because they're generally the worst ones. And hey, if that holds true, this run is gonna be great, because last night was very very good.
There were a couple of fumbled lines, a few prob problems, and i am sure colin is going to get more confident on his stilts, but last night, he spend a lot of time stepping in place, to keep his balance. again, not a huge deal.
The dance routine that all the actors and musicians did at the end of the play was fun, but it looked like they had decided that they were going to do it about half way through the interval. everyone at some point lost track of what they were doing or in what order they were supposed to do thing. again, that's why I like first nights, they're fun. and seeing the faces of actors that have just got through their first night and made it all the way to the end? it's lovely. it's a bloody rush, the relief and delight on their faces.
I don't understand why people feel the need to say everything he does is the most amazing thing ever. we're all here cause we think he's talented. Ridiculously so, I agree. And we're fans, but that doesn't mean he can do no wrong and it doesn't mean one isn't allowed to criticise the boy or things associated with him.
It was a good play, the acting was good. I disliked Trinculo's accent hugely. I appreciate it is a funny accent. I did not think it worked. but that's ok. I liked the way Prospero was played. Fun, rather than menacing. I prefer that. I disliked the spirit's costuming, as I thought that the costume hugely worked against all of the - intense - physical performance and hard work that was going on. The stiff skirts hid any flowing, elegant movement and very often made colin and the other spirits look just a touch clumsy, which is unfortunate and I don't understand the choice in outfit. But fair enough.
the audience was for the most part fine. but christ, there's always some, isn't there? there were people eating all kinds of snacks (bought and brought) with all the rustling, crunching and crinkling noises in the world. 3 different mobile phones went off throughout the show. People were turning up between 5 and 25 minutes late and then being obnoxious and noisy about getting to their places... i do wish people would get banned from theaters for not knowing how to behave. sigh.
Ariel's characterisation was interesting. Seemed to me a decision had been made (director or colin, who knows) to play Ariel very non human and slightly bemused by humans, which works nicely. Colin spend a lot of his time crouching in corners and on top of things, observing the scenes, with wide eyes (enhanced by white make up) and a very very immobile face (again enhanced by the make up, which smoothed out most of his features) and a lot of very deliberate blinking and concise head movements. it reminded me of a reptile, which was interesting.
He did a lot of climbing on boulders and had specially placed hand holds along one of the back walls leading to a hole on top of the wall that he could pop in and out of, from behind the scenes. He also had hand holds placed along the bottom of the floating platform in the middle of the stage, which he used like monkey bars, in a fairly impressive way. His first entrance consisted of running on stage, leaping onto a boulder, pushing himself off into the air and landing in a roll. All of which was almost worthy of the gasp it received from the audience, however I think that may have been emphasised by the high percentage of fans in the front 5 rows.
Later on he runs across one of the boulders at the back and jumps at the underside of the platform, where he catches himself on the hand holds, moving along 3 or 4 of them, before dangling by one arm.
It was all very impressive. I wass outside having a smoke during the interval and walked past a group who were just looking at the programme and overheard them going "Ariel appears to be played by... one Colin Morgan... hmm. very athlethic, isn't he?". indeed.
He also excited with a cartwheel and I said to my friend afterwards that that was the most messed up cartwheel I'd ever seen anyone do and she pointed out that yes, she thought the same, and "he's good at them, too!" at which point i remembered that of course colin does like his cart wheels. i'd forgotten. so I assume that was actually a blunder, rather than he's suddenly crap at them.
most of the physical entries and exits were very nicely done, however the first exit and the launching himself at the "monkey bars" did make me worry about him, as they are both rather energetic and it seems so easy to miss that step at the back of the boulder or slip or not roll nicely enough... i dunno. just looked like the kind of action where one might loose a few teeth. fingers crossed that shan't happen.
anyway, christ this turned into a ramble. a two part ramble. sorry about that.
ah well, someone might care.
**
yeah i used to do that... but i've been doing this fandom thing for too long. i get bored of worrying, to be honest. I know mine wont be the most popular opinion, but that's ok.... hey ho.
it's just... i left the tempest last night, turned my phone back on (cause unless some people who go to theater, i know to bloody turn it off in the first place. grr.) and had 9 tweets within 5 seconds, 4 of which i believe, talked about colin having "the voice of an angel"... as i said, he did really really well. so much better than his claims about being a shit singer (and katie's, come to think of it) made me believe. i had been worried about it. but he is not a singer. and there is nothing wrong in saying that. the boys talented enough as it is, it's ok to not be a 100% at something that is not your chosen profession.
yeah, i get what you're saying about the adrenaline and the element of danger. i'm all on bored with that. quite happy to take risks and get the adrenalin rush. it's just not generally in front of a sold out house. i just couldn't quite shake the image of him slipping and bashing his face on the stage. which i am sure wont happen. I am sure the costume shoes (again, what a strange choice. white clunky ankle boots. weird.) were picked for their very good grip and i'm sure he'll be fine.
but yes, boy spend a lot of time wrapped around pillars, dangling from things, and at one point entered the arena side stage and walked along the banister of the front row floor boxes. unnoticed by quite a lot of the audience, which was funny. he can be surprisingly subtle in a furry rose top and huge skirt. who knew. haha
and yeah, dvd is definitely happening, however not until 2014 i am afraid.
**
oh also, you might appreciate this. i have no idea what was going on there but... I assume it was because the final dance had already gone haywire, or possibly because mr morgan had lost the plot a bit at this point, but they were all clapping and dancing, spread along the front of the stage and the different groupings from the play did different little "set dances" and i think it was when it came around to prospero, miranda, ferdinand and ariel and they'd all gone wildly out of sync and were laughing, but colin just sort of gave up, and instead of following the dance routine, he decided to do bunny ears at the audience. which was very funny and very cute.
they will also have to increase the amount of hairspray used starting today, as his hair was very solidly slicked back for the first half, and then single strands started to fall into his face. and for some reason it was not fixed during the interval. so he played the end of the first half and the entire second, with a few strands of hair dangling into his face. not a twitch. i was amazed. it would have driven me insane. the second he could break character, after the dance, to take a bow, he was running his hands through his hair slightly frantic, pushing it all back and getting it out of his face. again, quite funny, quite cute.