Much Ado About Nothing! Details & Pics.
Jun. 5th, 2011 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magog_83So, I am back from London and seeing Much Ado About Nothing. I can honestly say that was my favourite birthday present EVER and well worth not getting anything on my actual birthday in January. I was worried that something would have happened to prevent Catherine Tate or David Tennant performing, right up until the curtain went up. But nothing did and they were present and correct. I should admit first, Much Ado is my favourite Shakespeare play and I have seen it before, so I may have been biased!
BEWARE PLAY SPOILERS.
I absolutely loved the play and all the performances. It was set in the 1980s and the changed setting allowed for loads of great little additional comic touches, from the awful fashion to the giant stereos and Rubik's Cubes, and best of all, David Tennant's mini casio keyboard in the scene where he is trying to compose a song for Beatrice. Honestly, that scene was a good few minutes long, just of him trying to rhyme 'love' with 'above' and accidentally turning on the cheesy casio backing tunes several times and trying to shut them up again. The audience was dying. Then his 'song' turned into 'When the Saints Come Marching In' halfway through :D :D
There were also AMAZING extended slapstick scenes for the moment when Benedick 'overhears' Beatrice's feelings for him, and vice versa. They were doing some painting in the house in time for Hero's wedding and this allowed DT to slowly but surely become increasingly covered with paint at the scene progressed, until he was absolutely COVERED and then he comes forward and is all lovestruck and beaming :D That same scene also had a wonderful moment with the ever-cheesy 'Sigh no more' ballad, where Balthasar starts singing and DT is pulling all sorts of faces. Then Claudio leans against a pillar, all cheesy and like he's in an Il Divo music video and joins in and DT looked so horrified and disgusted that I thought the lady next to me was going to fall off her chair laughing. There were many moments like that, where they managed to eek out double the humour from an already funny scene, with just a well placed pause, or a look to audience. Like when Leonato is 'revealing' Beatrice's feelings for Benedick. In this one, it was played as Leonato really reaching for stuff to say and then he gets all carried away and starts with the,
She doth indeed; my daughter says so: and the
ecstasy hath so much overborne her that my daughter
is sometime afeared she will do a desperate outrage
to herself.
There is this hilarious pause, and then the Prince does a clear "WTF was that, dude? OVERKILL" expression, whilst Claudio is making desperate "NO, NO, NO" gestures in the background.
When it was Catherine's turn to 'overhear', Beatrice ended up hiding under a sheet that slooooowly and not-at-all-subtly moved across the floor to better listen in. Then she got hoisted on a pulley the man painting the ceiling was using and spent the rest of the scene alternately listening in and looking cheesed off to the vast amusement of the audience.
Obviously the second half was more serious, but that was done really well too and the wedding scene was as frightening and dramatic as it should be. Actually the more serious it got, the more the love story between Benedick and Beatrice became apparent (as it should) and the more you were just rooting for them. Catherine and David played that really well, a mix of serious and yet still sparring and snarky and a bit shocked about their feelings and occasionally finding it hysterical that they were actually saying these things to each other.
Also, when Benedick said "Serve God, love me, and mend", I could not have been the only person who swooned. They were lying on two sun loungers, with their heads tilted to look at each other, and the way he delivered the line was so tender and just PERFECT, and then she smiled back, all soft. ::swoons again:: Naturally, everyone went completely mad when they finally kissed.
They ended on a dance! A proper, full on boogie with DT and CT in the middle but everyone else really going for it. It looked so much fun, everyone was laughing and cheering. Actually, the audience were fantastic the whole time, it seemed like everyone was having so much fun and cheering and laughing and clapping along and the cast really played up to it.
Afterwards, mum asked if I wanted to go round to the stage door, but I didn't think there would be much point so I said no and we went out the front and tried to cut back to the street we needed. But we ended up walking straight into the stage door crowd instead! So I though, "sod it" as I was there I would try and get some pics. I must say, both DT and CT were brilliant with everyone. They spent ages there, signing and posing for pics, and were unfailingly friendly and asked people where they had come from, and thanked them for coming. It was a really good-natured crowd and everyone seemed to go away happy.
Here are a few (excuse the blurriness) and a pic of the programme. The first pic of the stage door is REALLY blurry, but it was my only pic of Catherine Tate!
There is a related post to come yet, it seemed I had some mini stowaways in my luggage ;)
BEWARE PLAY SPOILERS.
I absolutely loved the play and all the performances. It was set in the 1980s and the changed setting allowed for loads of great little additional comic touches, from the awful fashion to the giant stereos and Rubik's Cubes, and best of all, David Tennant's mini casio keyboard in the scene where he is trying to compose a song for Beatrice. Honestly, that scene was a good few minutes long, just of him trying to rhyme 'love' with 'above' and accidentally turning on the cheesy casio backing tunes several times and trying to shut them up again. The audience was dying. Then his 'song' turned into 'When the Saints Come Marching In' halfway through :D :D
There were also AMAZING extended slapstick scenes for the moment when Benedick 'overhears' Beatrice's feelings for him, and vice versa. They were doing some painting in the house in time for Hero's wedding and this allowed DT to slowly but surely become increasingly covered with paint at the scene progressed, until he was absolutely COVERED and then he comes forward and is all lovestruck and beaming :D That same scene also had a wonderful moment with the ever-cheesy 'Sigh no more' ballad, where Balthasar starts singing and DT is pulling all sorts of faces. Then Claudio leans against a pillar, all cheesy and like he's in an Il Divo music video and joins in and DT looked so horrified and disgusted that I thought the lady next to me was going to fall off her chair laughing. There were many moments like that, where they managed to eek out double the humour from an already funny scene, with just a well placed pause, or a look to audience. Like when Leonato is 'revealing' Beatrice's feelings for Benedick. In this one, it was played as Leonato really reaching for stuff to say and then he gets all carried away and starts with the,
She doth indeed; my daughter says so: and the
ecstasy hath so much overborne her that my daughter
is sometime afeared she will do a desperate outrage
to herself.
There is this hilarious pause, and then the Prince does a clear "WTF was that, dude? OVERKILL" expression, whilst Claudio is making desperate "NO, NO, NO" gestures in the background.
When it was Catherine's turn to 'overhear', Beatrice ended up hiding under a sheet that slooooowly and not-at-all-subtly moved across the floor to better listen in. Then she got hoisted on a pulley the man painting the ceiling was using and spent the rest of the scene alternately listening in and looking cheesed off to the vast amusement of the audience.
Obviously the second half was more serious, but that was done really well too and the wedding scene was as frightening and dramatic as it should be. Actually the more serious it got, the more the love story between Benedick and Beatrice became apparent (as it should) and the more you were just rooting for them. Catherine and David played that really well, a mix of serious and yet still sparring and snarky and a bit shocked about their feelings and occasionally finding it hysterical that they were actually saying these things to each other.
Also, when Benedick said "Serve God, love me, and mend", I could not have been the only person who swooned. They were lying on two sun loungers, with their heads tilted to look at each other, and the way he delivered the line was so tender and just PERFECT, and then she smiled back, all soft. ::swoons again:: Naturally, everyone went completely mad when they finally kissed.
They ended on a dance! A proper, full on boogie with DT and CT in the middle but everyone else really going for it. It looked so much fun, everyone was laughing and cheering. Actually, the audience were fantastic the whole time, it seemed like everyone was having so much fun and cheering and laughing and clapping along and the cast really played up to it.
Afterwards, mum asked if I wanted to go round to the stage door, but I didn't think there would be much point so I said no and we went out the front and tried to cut back to the street we needed. But we ended up walking straight into the stage door crowd instead! So I though, "sod it" as I was there I would try and get some pics. I must say, both DT and CT were brilliant with everyone. They spent ages there, signing and posing for pics, and were unfailingly friendly and asked people where they had come from, and thanked them for coming. It was a really good-natured crowd and everyone seemed to go away happy.
Here are a few (excuse the blurriness) and a pic of the programme. The first pic of the stage door is REALLY blurry, but it was my only pic of Catherine Tate!
There is a related post to come yet, it seemed I had some mini stowaways in my luggage ;)
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 07:33 pm (UTC)It sounds a really fun and well produced production. Yay for enjoying it all.
And wow that's a mob outside the stage door.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:18 pm (UTC)I wish I could go again now! Sadly I can't, but it would be great if they decided to make a film of it like Hamlet.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-08 03:13 pm (UTC)http://www.digitaltheatre.com/production/details/much-ado-about-nothing-tennant-tate
I already did, the quality is awesome.
I agree, the play was so wonderful. I saw it in June (that's where my icon happened) and immediately said that I want to go again. Luckily we got tickets from the lottery so we could go again for just 10 pounds. Here are my stage door pictures and autographs:
http://dieastra.livejournal.com/29928.html
Greetings from Germany
Astra
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 07:35 pm (UTC)Glad you had fun!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 07:42 pm (UTC)(Are you teasing us that there is going to be a Mini-Them story? I can hardly contain my excitement!:D)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:20 pm (UTC)They seemed to be a perfect match for Beatrice and Benedick, it made for such a fun performance!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:24 pm (UTC)Hurray for doubling your enjoyment!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 07:45 pm (UTC)(PS: I saw today there is a M/A prompt on the kmm that says 'Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing'. That would work so well...)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 08:24 pm (UTC)am curious about the how they played the officers and if dogberry was any good. i've only seen a few renditions of him that i've liked.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:30 pm (UTC)That sounds like a brilliant wedding, I can't think of a better play to use <3
The officers were pretty funny, although I think that was the one area where I did prefer the officers I saw before in Bath (it was set in the Napoleonic wars). This Dogberry was played like some sort of ex-military man in his 40s, very officious and everything (of course) and he was funny, but the man I saw in Bath was especially hilarious. The watchmen were both elderly men in bright orange security jackets who kept drinking wine and sleeping on the job!
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Date: 2011-06-05 09:49 pm (UTC)i needed one icon for shakespeare and have always loved that line. i didn't make it, and i don't use it v. often, but it comes in handy at times :D
(the wedding was nice, too bad it didn't take :P we should have known it was unwise to pattern our invitations after the capulet's servant's entreaty (and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine.), it obviously didn't bode well).
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 08:58 pm (UTC)And seeing Catherine Tate and David Tennant at the stage door must have been so exciting too! But that's really quite a crowd there O.o!
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Date: 2011-06-05 09:31 pm (UTC)Yay, a fellow fan! I first read it at school, and I just fell in love with it from Beatrice and Benedick's first hilarious meeting.
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Date: 2011-06-05 09:55 pm (UTC)Near where my grandma lives there is this castle where they perform one of Shakespeare's plays every year under the open sky. About three years ago they did Much Ado About Nothing and I just loved every second of it - particularly though the dialogue and wittiness between Beatrice and Benedick. They were just hilarious! They're definitely one of the great literary couples for me :D!
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Date: 2011-06-05 09:02 pm (UTC)It must have been awesome.
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Date: 2011-06-05 09:05 pm (UTC)to see this play with David Tennant and Catherine Tate, it´s so great Magog,
agree a wonderful birthday present :D
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 09:07 pm (UTC)Me and my exclamation-mark abuse will be going elsewhere now. *shamefaced*
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Date: 2011-06-05 09:37 pm (UTC)I am so jealous you still have it to go and see! I saw it once before in Bath (as part of the Peter Hall season) and I really enjoyed it then, but this one was just a thousand times funnier. I think that was almost entirely the fault of David Tennant's ridiculous face <3 <3
ENJOY IT!!!!! <--- flagrant exclamation abuse. WHAT OF IT?
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 03:59 pm (UTC)This sounds so fun! Much Ado holds a special place in my heart cos it's the first Shakespeare play I've ever read.