Musical - Return to the Forbidden Planet

Writing up to date as we went to see this last night, 3rd April 2015 (although now by the time I have finished and posting it's 26th April!)!  I had been to see it while I was at uni fairly on the spur of the moment when I was at home in the holidays in Malvern.  I didn't remember much about it, except that I loved it and wanted to go again the following night but didn't.  I remember loving the music (mainly rock 'n' roll hits) and being impressed with the performers who sang, acted and played loads of instruments on stage the whole time.  The only other things I remembered were that it was set in space and Brian May was recorded and appeared every so often on tv.

So there was quite a lot that was new to me last night.  I had had the dates in my phone for months for when it would be in Oxford and John generously bought us both tickets to go.  It turned out the story was based on the Tempest and that a lot of the dialogue was Shakespearean-esque, though I recognised a lot from Romeo and Juliet so I don't know where the rest was from.  When we entered the (less than half full) auditorium there were several cast as astronauts walking around the stage and they came down in to the audience. It started with the lights on with one of them giving funny safety announcements and then we had to practise 'reversing polarity'.  The words jogged something in my memory but I have no recollection of the whole audience doing actions.  And as seemingly everyone in the audience immediately did it, we felt that lots of people knew the show well.

It started really well with Wipeout.  The sound filled the theatre and they played really well and moved in time together cleverly.  Then it went in to a funny no gravity situation that was very effective.  Sadly those were the main highlights of the show.  I was equally impressed with the performers and loved spotting who was playing a new instrument - such variety: guitars, drums, keys, saxes, trombones, trumpets, various singers.  The story was definitely ridiculous.  I was excited for Great Balls of Fire, the only one I specifically remembered, but it didn't wow me as much as I hoped.   That is, until...

The encore...WOW!  It definitely made me want to start a post specifically about encores!  This would be right up there in the top 3.  This was when they really went for it and played music like crazy.  This is what must have made me think it was so good!  Most of the performers started to strip off part of the astronaut suits.  It was quite creepy to see the robot guy as only half a person!  And to me delight they redid Great Ball of Fire super duperly and I was able to do a standing ovation.  What a way to rock the end of the show!

Thank you John for taking me -  I won't make you go again!