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theatreguys.net presents:
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Fredo's Theatre Group
Welcome to our Theatre Group website - we hope you will find all the information you need. This is a not-for-profit UK theatre-going group for our friends and colleagues (see foot of page).
We do not sell tickets to the public.
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HOME PAGE MENU Website updated 15/10/18
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>Latest Offers: It's time to make a booking -
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Details of all Available Bookings are shown on the Current Bookings page -
click HERE or on the ads above.
Extra Discounts for our Donmar Friends
Previously advertised shows are now sold out
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IN THE INDIVIDUAL SHOW PANELS, CLICK ON THE UNDERLINED TITLE FOR A LINK TO A REVIEW
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Wednesday 17 October
at the
Menier Chocolate Factory
Hannah Chissick's persuasive, slow-burn production gradually draws you in to the emotional drama, bolstered by Paul Farnsworth's astonishingly detailed ground-floor set where domestic cosiness belies global conflict.
(londonist.com)
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Tuesday 23 October
at the
Wyndham's Theatre
Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins excel in Florian Zeller’s beautifully elusive play
(Guardian)
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>OnOurOwn:
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Updated 15/10/18 -
What we see without the Group: click HERE or on the ads below to see our comments.
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>News and Information: Please scroll down the page
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Addendum to Mike’s recent price watch:
We were recently at the Rose Theatre, Kingston.The Rose has an open space at the front of the stalls, where the audience can sit on cushions on the floor for a minimal admission fee. As Kingston is a university town, this is ideal for students or the unwaged. Yet every time I’ve been to the Rose, this space is occupied by fairly obviously comfortably-off people who think it’s wonderful to see a play for the lowest possible expenditure.
Well, it isn’t. It costs money to create art (as Hogarth demonstrates) and actors and technicians must be paid. And the Rose Theatre is constantly under threat of closure from the Conservative members of the council (which currently has a LibDem majority). It’s an enterprising theatre, and could be even more so, given the support it deserves from the community. Skimping on the admission price does not invest in the long-term interests of the theatre, and shows that sector of the audience to be self-absorbed and cheap. "What fun to pretend we're poor students again" I don't think.
Fredo 15/10/18
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THE HUMANS - The family that prays together...
Mike and I weren't able to join our group on the visit to Hampstead Theatre to see the award-winning play The Humans. However, several people wrote intriguing comments on our website, so we were glad that we'd booked the last 2 tickets (yes, really!) for the sold-out run of this import from Broadway.
And we were in luck: we didn't know until the performance ended that there was going to be a post-show Q&A with the hard-working cast. Unusually, a large proportion of the audience waited for this, suggesting a high level of identification with the situation and themes of the play.
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Although The Humans deals with a very specific family in a particular location - Chinatown, in New York, about 10 years after 9/11 - the exploration of a family clinging together and trying desperately to be happy and supportive to each other through seismic economic pressures on their lives at a time of national celebration (Thanksgiving) has touched a chord with audiences across the USA and now in London. How had writer Stephen Karam achieved this? Let's start with the set. Producer Greg Ripley-Duggan gave us a brief tour of the solidly-constructed two-storey set, which he pointed out contained no right-angles, and where the upper level didn't match the lower level.
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This was based on the writer's own apartment (before the success of the play!). Details such as the spreckling on the wall and the hoops for the curtains left by the previous owner, and the genuine American refrigerator (imported from the original production!), all added to the authentic feel of the play. It gave us the sense as an audience that we had dropped in on a real family.
When the cast joined us, they too gave the sense of being a real family. They were engaged to work on the play 3 years ago for a 3-month run at an Off-Broadway theatre. Following its success there, it transferred to the smallest Broadway theatre and from there to a larger theatre on the Great White Way. After a successful 18-month season, it then toured the United States, eventually playing a 2,000-seater in Los Angeles before arriving at Hampstead. How did they retain the essence of the drama through all those years and changes? Jayne Houdyshell (Deirdre) said that the director Joe Mantello was a genius at re-calibrating the performances to adjust to the space that they were playing, while Sarah Steele (Brigid) added that she was 27 when she started giving her performance, and with tree years' further experience believes her perception of her character has deepened because of her own life experience.
Greg commented that the cast now have the play in their DNA, and the dialogue sounds as though it was improvised. Do the cast make changes? This brought a resounding No! Jayne said that ...
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Theatre Ticket Price Watch 01/10/18 - It's All About Sonia (and Jamie and...)
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I like to keep an eye on the inexorable price rises in the West End. This week my eye has been caught by All About Eve and I wonder if I should change the title to All About Sonia. Sonia Friedman is one of the show's producers (along with Fox Stage Productions) and she was the first producer to introduce Premium seats to the West End. With Eve she has excelled herself again. The prices range from £25 to a Top Price of £70. Except it is not the top price - there are Premium Seats as well. All seats in front of row O in the Stalls are at the premium prices of £95 and £150. Read that again to make sure you have understood! Similar prices apply in the Royal Circle. At the time of writing there are no cheaper seats available further forward for booking even at £70 at the front of the Stalls.
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Group discounts are ONLY given on the £70 Top Price seats from row O and beyond.. We must be grateful to Sonia for permitting us to book her available £70 seats at all, at a very good group discount of only £45, but less grateful for only giving us two weeks to pay. At the same time I wonder what plans she has for those acres of seats which appear on the seating plans as unavailable. The majority of Premium seats are either sold or unavailable (greyed out on the seating plans). Will more seats be made available at whatever prices she chooses, maybe cheap day-seats in the front row and higher priced seats just behind? Of course this would mean that we (and other groups) would have already booked by the time 'better' seats are made available, too late for the discount, though I am assured seats further forward will never be discounted. Even without a discount, is Sonia waiting to calculate the highest price the demand will allow before putting the seats on sale? It must be remembered, I tell myself, that this is Show Business and Sonia sure knows how to run a business.
You may say, quite rightly, that the play has big name stars. They will attract the fans, sometimes those who seldom visit a theatre.../continued HERE
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IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE TO FIND THE CHEAPEST AGENCIES TO BOOK THEATRE TICKETS, CLICK HERE
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THEATRE NEWS HEADLINES
Theatre News Headlines are automatically updated throughout the day.
You will find articles, reviews, interviews - just click HERE to go to the WhatsOnStage.com website page, or click on the Headlines below for News from OfficialLondonTheatre.com
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SORRY ABOUT THE ADS WHICH OfficialLondonTheatre.com inflict on us
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OUR PREVIOUS NEWS ITEMS FROM THIS WEBSITE CAN BE SEEN HERE.
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This is a not-for-profit UK theatre-going group for our friends and colleagues and their own extended group of friends. It costs nothing to join us but must be by personal introduction from another member of the group. We provide tickets at group discounts for London theatres (and coach transport from Southend, if required).
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Bookings (Currently on offer)
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Venice Footnotes
+ photos
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Click on the ear (above) to read about
Hearing Devices
now available in many theatres. They may be of help to YOU.
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 theatreCat
Libby Purves
reviews
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Click on the Cat
to read Libby's reviews
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Ticket Price Watch:
For updates on higher prices and what the producers want you to pay. We also give you occasional news on any Discount offers -
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Updated 30/09/18
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Ask us about
Theatre Tokens:
They make ideal gifts for theatre-going friends. They are available in denominations of £20, £10 and £5 and can be used to buy theatre tickets at all West End theatres and the half-price tkts booth in Leicester Square. You can buy them from us and we accept them too.
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This website is now hosted by 1&1.co.uk
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