HERE WE ARE

[scenicdesign71]

...and, following up:

The Exterminating Angel
A guide to the film that inspired Act II of Sondheim's Here We Are

[scenicdesign71]

Here We Are has begun previews at the Lyttelton (after cancelling the first two for reasons unknown).

The NT website features rehearsal photos and video.

[Leighton]

Looking forward to May 28!

[scenicdesign71]

WestEndTheatre.com has new production photos and and a review roundup:

PHOTOS

REVIEWS

Nothing in the photos jumps out at me as being radically different from New York — though none of them is wide enough to get a full sense of how the set fits into the Lyttelton, and there are no pics of the second-act Room (there weren't really any in NYC either, as I recall, but a couple of nice bits of it are pictured in the CD booklet).  I'm not seeing my beloved fields-of-grain dioramas at the sides, but I'm hoping they're just out-of-shot or too dark to see in the two shots (Café À La Mode and Osteria Zeno) that are wide enough to potentially show them.  The costumes look pretty faithfully recreated, with a number of what appear to be the same pieces from NY — though I kinda miss Claudia's ultramarine stiletto-heel Fendis (I guess by now they'd be too last-year for an agent at a "major entertainment entity").

The reviews are a similar mix to those in New York, with even the warmest "yea"s awkwardly admitting that Here We Are isn't the career-topping valedictory mic-drop of most audiences' dreams, and even the chilliest "nay"s begrudgingly allowing that there are pleasures to be had (the performances, the set).  I can't shake the feeling that both are missing some crucial point by a fairly wide margin, and that nobody's initial yea/nay reaction to new Sondheim is ever really to be trusted — even less so under the unique circumstances of its being His last; not to mention the Sondheimania, more widespread than usual if perhaps correspondingly shallower, that has produced its own kind of distortion field since his passing.

The show runs through 28 June, and I'm still hoping for an NTLive/At Home broadcast eventually.

[scenicdesign71]

The NT has now updated the gallery on the show's webpage, including a very nice dramatic shot of the Room (or a good representative portion thereof) with everyone looking suitably harrowed.  Appearing out of nowhere at the top of the second act, and remaining until the show's final few minutes, this set's Addams-y darkness and clutter make a beautifully unexpected contrast with the gleaming white-box minimalism of Act 1.