Carpenters played at West End Theatre show!!!

[LondonRobert]

Hi Everyone,
I went to see a performance of Shakespeare's ' A Midsummer Nights dream' last night at the Noel Coward theatre in London's West end. It is part of the Michael Grandage series of 5 plays he has put on ;
http://www.michaelgrandagecompany.com/whats-on/
This is the fourth play and is on until 16th November. It stars Sheridan Smith and David Walliams - prob best known from Little Britain.......
Anyway, I wasn't particularly enjoying it, as Shakespeare isn't really my thing ( my partner used to work for RSC so I was going to keep him company really ). After the interval I wasn't that keen to sit through more of it, however, at one point the Nymphs were about to have a dance and lo and behold, the beginning of ' TOUCH ME WHEN WE'RE DANCING ' started up and we heard the first verse and first chorus while they danced on stage!! I couldn't believe it, to hear Karen's voice throughout the theatre was such a treat!! I was SO GLAD i bothered to stay for the second half!!!
I felt like i wanted to hold a placard up and give details of the song and what album it was from etc!!
I wonder if the Carpenters music has ever been used before in theatre shows?? Richard seems to be pretty careful about allowing it to be used.......

You can still catch the play if you are coming to London, it's a good production and they have modernised it, but of course make sure you like Shakespeare!! Or you can just go for the second half and hear the song being played!! hehe

Bob

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

' TOUCH ME WHEN WE'RE DANCING ' started up and we heard the first verse and first chorus while they danced on stage!! I couldn't believe it, to hear Karen's voice throughout the theatre was such a treat!! I was SO GLAD i bothered to stay for the second half!!!
I felt like i wanted to hold a placard up and give details of the song and what album it was from etc!!
Bob

You made me laugh Robert...I was picturing you slouching in your seat and then the Carpenters come on and you were like all awake. lol Yes...if only you knew what was coming you could have prepared with a poster.."contact me after the show for more details on Carpenters!!" resident expert in house!!

I love it!!!

I can only imagine what that must have sounded like...that is one of my biggest wishes to have actually heard Karen's voice live (or even a recording at this point) in a concert/theatre setting.

 

[LondonRobert]

Chris, you are exactly right in what you say!!

We had cheapo seats on the side by the boxes on the grand circle, so you had to lean forward to see anyway, so I was just leaning back with my eyes closed, thinking about what to cook for dinner tomorrow etc etc...... Then all of a sudden the intro to touch me comes on, my partner Tony said i jumped forward and was WIDE awake!! I know i was thinking ' are they going to play the vocals, or is it going to be instrumental ?' THEN....... Karen's voice filled the theatre, nice and loud and as i said, we had the first verse and chorus, then it seemed to repeat the instrumental between the chorus and second verse a couple of times, while the actors then had some dialogue and it faded out. It was SO entirely unexpected! There had been a couple of other snippets of other songs, but who's have thought it would firstly be Carpenters and secondly, a lesser known ( to non fans maybe ) track of theirs!!!!!
I have an inckling that Sheridan Smith has said she is an admirer of Carpenters, so perhaps she 'suggested' that track for that moment on the play??
This link mentions the song amongst the review;
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...ith-excels-as-potsmoking-titania-8822491.html
Yes, i did feel like shouting out - IN CASE ANYONE ISN'T AWARE THAT SONG WAS FROM THE CARPENTERS!!!!! etc etc. I thought, well everyone will know who it is, but then again anyone under 30 weren't even born when Karen died, which makes me feel very old!
Bob