Yes, I heard a few people who saw it in empty cinemas, but then, depending on the cinema and the time you go, I've seen billion dollar blockbusters in empty cinemas. I think overall the huge success of NT Live suggests there is a strong audience for good plays done well.
I agree with you about the title. It is virtually meaningless and therefore utterly forgettable.
I disagree with you about the performances and I speak as someone who saw Burton and Gielgud performances on stage and who also met them both offstage. Gatiss's performance is brilliant and an almost uncanny impersonation, so I take issue with you there. Playing real people many will remember is always a challenge. Michael Sheen rises to it brilliantly. It helps that he is a great actor and an uncanny mimic. There are however other ways of doing it and Johnny Flynn (who looks nothing like Burton) took that route. I thought his performance was brilliant. He got to the essence of the man. A complicated unhappy man who was the greatest actor of his generation and who largely abandoned the stage.
I was taken to see him in Henry V as a child. It was probably the best thing he ever did . It changed my life and made me decide to work in the theatre. Coincidently Simon Schama saw it too as a child and said it changed his life .
As for not believing the depiction of Burton and Taylor. Everything I've read about them points to them as being exactly as depicted.
Sam Mendes directed it beautifully. Thank God for NT live. Long may it continue.
I felt the exact opposite, in terms of Gatiss and Flynn. Gatiss got the essence, Flynn got the walk and the voice right. And Thorne certainly got Taylor and Burton right. I just felt the actors didn't bring any depth to that element of the script.
I saw it in the theatre not the cinema. That can make a difference. Anyway we will have to agree to disagree. It is definitely worth seeing however
100% worth seeing
but the cinema I saw it in had me and half a dozen others. But it was a terrific show.
Yes, I heard a few people who saw it in empty cinemas, but then, depending on the cinema and the time you go, I've seen billion dollar blockbusters in empty cinemas. I think overall the huge success of NT Live suggests there is a strong audience for good plays done well.
I agree with you about the title. It is virtually meaningless and therefore utterly forgettable.
I disagree with you about the performances and I speak as someone who saw Burton and Gielgud performances on stage and who also met them both offstage. Gatiss's performance is brilliant and an almost uncanny impersonation, so I take issue with you there. Playing real people many will remember is always a challenge. Michael Sheen rises to it brilliantly. It helps that he is a great actor and an uncanny mimic. There are however other ways of doing it and Johnny Flynn (who looks nothing like Burton) took that route. I thought his performance was brilliant. He got to the essence of the man. A complicated unhappy man who was the greatest actor of his generation and who largely abandoned the stage.
I was taken to see him in Henry V as a child. It was probably the best thing he ever did . It changed my life and made me decide to work in the theatre. Coincidently Simon Schama saw it too as a child and said it changed his life .
As for not believing the depiction of Burton and Taylor. Everything I've read about them points to them as being exactly as depicted.
Sam Mendes directed it beautifully. Thank God for NT live. Long may it continue.
I felt the exact opposite, in terms of Gatiss and Flynn. Gatiss got the essence, Flynn got the walk and the voice right. And Thorne certainly got Taylor and Burton right. I just felt the actors didn't bring any depth to that element of the script.