Coated

Nah, if you're planning something like that, bribe a cleaner to polish the floors with a special ingredient *taps nose*

Well, that cuts down on the booking a bit.

I liked the fish people. Please bear in mind that my current TV diet consists of RuPaul's Drag Races. That said, I neither hated nor loved the Tempest. As it is now, I probably wouldn't clamour to see it again. I spent the first viewing enjoying the dancing, the second ruminating on why I don't get emotionally involved and skipped the third one to avoid getting too persnickety about elements of the staging. There was enough there to make me think that the Tempest can be done as a ballet, but not enough to make me care about the characters. My lay person's recipe for a new, improved Tempest consist of A) Rethink the set. There is no sense of location. What is a clever ship for the first 10-15 minutes becomes a hindrance for the rest of the performance. Overhearing a discussion in the intermission amongst a group of people who weren't familiar with the play seemed to confirm my opinion. Their assumption was that it all takes place underwater on a sunken ship. B ) Pick a Tempest. Is it about the betrayal, revenge and eventual forgiveness from Prospero? Or a magic romp? About power struggles and (non)human relationships? Once you've picked your Tempest, defining the characters accordingly and making them interact might work better. The only characters that seemed to come truly alive were Stephano and Trinculo as light comic relief. C) Set the scene. Steal from Wheeldon if necessary - not the Garland dance though, or the second act of Winters Tale, just the clever backstory provision and scene setting at the beginning of his Winter's Tale (adapt for Tempest). Skip the merry sailor's jig on a sinking ship and replace it with the passengers interacting before the storm, a meal, a stroll on deck, anything that identifies them as a King, his son, 2 nobles and 2 servants. Done. Do the same for the island inhabitants, a simple scene with all 4 of them interacting, Prospero making Ariel perform some simple magic, Ariel tormenting Caliban for a bit of fun, Caliban ogling Miranda furtively, Miranda getting Caliban to peel the potatoes... And if you're already stealing, nick some of Rupert Goold's ideas from his RSC Tempest - like impressive but simple storm scenes without strobe lighting on steroids. When using magic, spend a couple of minutes on unleashing the magic - this is not the time to be subtle unless you want an audience to think that the underwater shipwreck has been invaded by random merry farmers. D) Remember that Ariel is not Tinkerbell, regardless of the chosen Tempest interpretation.

Oh goodie, there's nothing as awesome as grafting current affairs or political statements onto old stories. [\ungrind teeth]

The queue was by the temporary box office during the Bolshoi season

Hope that's a temporary break, I value her reviews.

It ends at 10:50, and you probably get more than you money's worth. I'm a bit exhausted just from watching it and need to hop to bed asap, I have no idea how the cast gets through the whole performance without needing a nap inbetween. Tonight's cast had Tikhomirova as Gulnare, and I'm even more smitten with her dancing and stage persona than I was before. She was full of zest tonight, sunny, funny, coquettish and danced deliciously. Lantratov felt a bit boyish as Conrad, but with a little re-adjustment of my expectations that worked quite nicely with Alexandrova's warm and languid Medora. Alexandrova's little dance with a knife and pistol is my idea of ballet nirvana - there is something wonderfully contradictory about a ballerina armed to the teeth and she really got into the spirit of it. Le Jardin Anime was as spectacular as I hoped for, the sheer number or gorgeously clad dancers was a feast for the eyes and I'd happily watch it over and over again. Overall the performance seemed a bit messy at times, perhaps there wasn't all that much time to rehearse everyone with all those Swan Lakes. My non-ballet friend commented that there seemed to be quite a few missed step, and he only gets dragged to ballet once every couple of years and isn't particularly critical. ETA: agree with Barton that there wasn't enough space to fit all dancers on stage at times - though my preferred remedy would be a bigger stage for the ROH....

This is War. I'm done playing nice. There were 3 empty seats in SC row A, so a swarm of chancers appeared in SC after the intermission, sniffing for seats. Either the ticket holders had arrived, or other chancers had already laid claim to the seats, so the remaining chancers eyed up what they regarded as empty enough looking space in the standing section. I was somewhat surprised when I all of a sudden had two people standing behind me, with the third getting ready to wedge herself between the two places separated by the 'empty' pillar space. I asked her where her seat is and told her that the space she was trying to stand it is not a standing place. She gave me a sickly smile and thanked me for trying to be helpful. Grah! I snapped at her that I'm not being helpful and that it's bloody annoying to have people just showing up. Lights were just going down at that point, she makes a snap decision and rushes off to an empty seat mid-row, the other two inch away and delight other standees with their presence. I guess that was a bit of an result, but I'm not sure that other standees shared that impression. On the other hand no one ever seems to say anything, so perhaps they love having someone stand behind them. At this point I was so riled that the family with preteens that had talked (not whispered, oh no, not them) all through the first half received an almighty shush when they piped up again. I don't normally shush children, even if they are really pushing it, but those really were a bit special with the whole family nattering away. Surprisingly they discovered all of a sudden that they can whisper. I told FOH about the sneaky sneaks after the performance and mentioned that it would be lovely if ushers could check just how many people are squishing themselves into bits of row D 90 seconds before curtains... Either way, from now on I will tell sneaky chancers that if someone sold them an imaginary ticket for D36.5 or D38b, they'd been cheated by touts and need to sort it out with a nice usher....or I'll lose me temper and you might hear someone yelling USHER in utter exasperation 30 seconds before lights go down. Oh, look, I'm done ranting now. I suspect this is the revenge for having had good audience behaviour for the first 2 weeks...

Sorry, forgot to add who it was - she's a musical actress. I don't actually know anything about her, but that video came up a few times in discussions about stage dooring and fandom and the Theatreboard forum

I think it's useful to remember that meeting a performer at the stage door is not something that is included in the price of your ticket. Whilst many performers will be happy or even keen to do it, it's not something that fans are entitled to and sometimes people just want to go straight home after work. Ballet fandom is probably less out there than some actor / musical fandoms though - there have been a few examples of fans getting irate with actors on twitter after the actor posted that they won't be at the stage door after performance. A slightly different perspective on stage dooring from a musical actress (Carry Hope Fletcher)

How about we use a random thread for ideas or non-performance related questions triggered by seeing a performance, reading a discussion in a performance related thread or a review from the links section? Yes, this a blatant attempt to get 'Performances seen' threads to focus on the actual performances seen Here's my starter for 10: I don't think that the impressions and opinions posted by forum members are reviews of performances, and neither do they need to be. There are occasional exceptions when posters analyze a specific performance in depth but the majority of posts in 'performances seen' threads are expressing a posters opinion and impressions. As with many other things in life, there isn't one answer of 'what exactly constitutes a valid review'. I would expect to see some analysis of the performance, a clear statement of personal preferences instead of a simple declaration along the lines of 'this is the best/worst' or 'so and so did it better in 1805' without stating why the reviewer thinks so. But most importantly for me: a reviewer needs to be able to write in a way that I find engaging - a dry treatise is unlikely to appeal, and long descriptive passages describing plot in detail should be avoided at all cost.

Seat snatcher lady was at it again tonight. The next time she adds her unticketed rump to the standing spaces and pretends to not understand when you ask her to go to wherever she booked a ticket for, I will get an usher to remove her. It was amusing seeing her trying her luck in the orchestra stalls after the intermission, just to get booted out by the seat owner last minute. Realising that she'd now be attempting to head back to delight standees with her unrequested company, I did go to the usher to ask whether they could check if there if there are surplus standees before the doors close. Seat Snatcher Lady was just about to come back in when she sees me talking to the usher, does a quick double take and then legs it up the next flight of stairs. Pft. Wonder whether she snuck into the balcony or chanced the Grand Tier. Turns out that 3 of the ticketed standees didn't return after the intermission and the ushers probably thought I'm bonkers moaning about overcrowding. I did wonder whether the leavers thought it was too crammed and ran for the hills, or did they really hate the Smirnova/Chudin SL? And seeing that the last time I've encountered SSL was at an RB show, this one can't be accredited to Bolshoi audience....

For reasons unbeknown to me, I bought a lot of Swan Lakes this time round, and I'm coming to appreciate it more on repeat viewings. I actually pay attention during the brides/folk dances, which are scenes where my mind often drifts in other versions. I like the idea of the evil genius as a sort of string-pulling alter ego. I don't think I'll get as far as liking the ending, but I think it could be an interesting alternative if it had a more developed narrative / choreography. Tonight's performance belonged to Zakharova, with a decent showing from Rodkin (I don't get much emotion off him, but his movement can be utterly beautiful), Lopatin showing off beautifully as an amusing Jester with awe inspiring spins, and a fab Spanish princess by Tihkomirova. And perhaps I'm a little harsh on the 3 swans, but this was the first performance I've seen where they seemed reasonably attuned to each other instead of having arms going any which way at times. (Maybe there was a Swan Bootcamp since the first lot of SLs...)

I was going to post about my impression of Flames, but that moment passed after reading through this thread.

Maybe I was exceedingly lucky throughout the Bolshoi season so far, but with the exception of a weird guy jiggling his keys/coins in his trouser pockets, the audience has been pretty good so far wherever I was standing. A few attempted phone uses, quelled quickly by other audience members or ushers, that was about it.

Very satisfying performance tonight, the lovely chemistry between Smirnova and Lantratov brought the story to life and I actually cared about the main characters (an alternative explanation could be Stockholm Syndrom after 6 Bolshoi performances in a row, but I don't think that's the case). Smirnova's Odette felt warmer and less remote, with lingering glances at her lovelorn swain who appeared to worship the ground she walked on. Odile was feisty, even veering towards sultry at times which is not something I expected to be part of Smirnova's arsenal. Lantratov nearly managed to make the ending work as well, channelling a boatload of anguish and confusion at Odiles 'death'/'disappearance'/'or was it all a dream'. If I were the Bolshoi, I'd pair those two up a lot. It also seemed that a Sunday off worked wonders for general perkiness - either I was paying more attention tonight and noticed small touches and smiling faces, or the company was a bit chirpier overall. Today's favourite bride was Spanish, danced vivaciously by Daria Bochkova.

The Don Q run reminded me that I'm just not a particular fan of the ballet itself unless it's amazingly cast all the way through. I missed the Alexandrova due to work (boo) but saw the other 3 performances. Smirnova is not a Kitri, but I won't hold it against her since I adored her casual tambourine shaking during the one handed lift and there was much to enjoy in the last two acts. Krysanova and Chudin could perhaps have done with a little more onstage chemistry, but my o my, the dancing...the fouettes...the sheer loveliness of their movement. I can see the potential of Shrainer. She has gumption and quite some ballon, but she isn't refined enough yet to be thrown to the wolves. Personally, I'd be very put out with the RB if they did something like this to any of their promising new dancers - debuts are for the home crowd who will appreciate seeing a company member getting a chance, overlook a few missteps based on knowing the dancers, and will (hopefully) provide a warm and supportive atmosphere for a debutant. If the Bolshoi wants to debut their dancers away from home, they need to put on half price matinees whilst on tour to make sure they don't create a hostile audience who resents not 'getting what they paid for'. And I strongly agree with posters who have already mentioned Daria Khokhlova's lovely Cupid and Anna Tikhomirova's Streetdancer/Grand Pas - they brought real panache to their parts and I hope they'll pop up all over the place for the rest of the tour.

I'll never forget the utterly flummoxed expression on a guy's face in a quite zone on a train when I insisted that he takes his phone call outside or hangs up....he ended the call and then informed me that no one else had ever said anything to him. Glad I was able to fix that for him. It's worth a try in the theatre though. I nominate Stalls Circle, upper slips and Front Amphi as "utterly quiet zones for fully dressed and washed people" at the ROH. *dreams on* Talking about upper slips: I'm still not quite over the horrid woman in the second row recently, who not only took her shoes off to display her verruca riddled feet, but then decided to stretch out her legs and wiggle them about 2 inches away from my face. I nearly retched, my friend glared at her so hard that verruca woman sputtered 'what am I doing wrong now?'. I wish they would board up the the space in front of the second row, I'm not that fond of being kicked in the head by people wearing shoes either...

Ankle slapper? Seriously? Is that used more often than the Macarena is played by sober vicars?

Great news for all the promotees, somewhat heartbroken that one of my favourite ENB dancers is leaving these shores but it sounds like a good opportunity for her. Lucky Berlin.

Not sure whether it's bad behaviour, but it certainly falls into the category of entitled. Anyone who has ever booked the second row of the upper slips will find a little note on their ticket about other patrons blocking the view, after having been given copious warnings when booking. We often go for the front row of upper slips for opera and take reasonable care to block as little stage view for the 'hearing seats' as possible, but not to the exclusion of seeing only 5% of the stage ourselves. The not leaning at all rule doesn't apply in the slips in the usual fashion due to extreme restrictions otherwise. A rather entitled patron asked my friend to sit back during the performance to not interfere with her view. This was a few minutes before the performance had even started. Anyway, she was informed that that is a bit of an unreasonable request and we left it at that, but that type of entitlement does spoil things a little, particularly when one normally leaves those seats with backache in the attempt to block as little viewing space as possible.

I second Janet's biased opions as a differently biased bystander.

Prior Disclosure: I love Arthur Pita's dance theatre pieces and expect them to be more theatrical than dance oriented Overall, I probably had a much better experience with the Osipova programme than other posters and I left with a big smile on my face. The first piece didn't do a lot for me. I'm probably not a fan of Cherkaoui's and for me Qutb fell into what I categorise as 'Meditative Gymnastics'. My interest perked up in Maliphant's Silent Echo. In terms of choreography, it wasn't the most exciting Maliphant with the exception of Polunin's Solo which felt like a calling card for classical Polunin. The piece didn't feel polished yet, but there was a raw energy underlying the performance that edged it into a exciting piece to watch. It really helped that the great lightening design really seemed to fit the dancing, enhancing movements rather than trying to steal the show. Pita seems to have become Osipova's slightly macabre unofficial biographer. I assume that the demise of the male in both Run Mary Run and Facada are Pita's addition to Osipova's story seeing that both Vassiliev and Polunin appear to be alive and well. To me, RMR was an artistically brave and ultimately successful performance piece, sharing (ok, at times oversharing) intense personal emotions, contextualising recent history and criticisms, and a very public declaration of love - russian style, slightly mad and beautiful, melodramatic, deeply felt and emotionally honest. I loved the opening sequence of two hands performing their own ballet, reaching up through the soil. Whether there was a particular value to playing the story backwards I don't know, but it was well done and dramaturgically very clear. The story on stage was about the attraction of being a bad boy, and being with a bad boy, the realisation of going to far and the declaration of undying love irregardless. The untold story seemed to say they have found a centre with each other that allowed Osipova to loosen up and Polunin to grow up (strictly my interpretation). It probably helped that I have no problems with funky beehives and 60's clothing, or Polunin smouldering so hard in a James Dean outfit that there must be some scorchmarks on the stage. The stage truly loves that boy, every move seems interesting, every look or half smile is somehow magnified. So yes, perhaps RMR is light on actual dancing, but it is a great piece of theatre for people who like that sort of thing.

At 32 he could occupy that slot for a decade without straining the bounds of credulity, so O'Hare would need quite a reliable crystal ball to figure out how anyone develops over the next 10 years or so. Though generally having principals that are not all of a similar age isn't a bad idea for a company. I haven't seen Hirano in too many larger roles, but I thought his Espada when he wasn't affected by recent injuries was Oh-la-la and he was exceedingly creepy and sad as Witch in Hansel and Gretel.

I would have gone back had I'd been free tonight and I overheard a couple of people last night planning to get more tickets ASAP, so your hunch seems spot on to me.