No West End...

[Tina.K.]

Meat wrote this on facebook a few hours ago.

" Found out you can not do the the WEST END , unless you do 8 shows a week !! I can't do that !! If it was a play or one song in a Musical , yes but doing the show we are doing now would be impossible at 66 years old . So the West end is Out , we are searching to see if there are other Venues in London that would work . M"

Hopefully he will find another venue. Maybe someone has suggestions?

[LucyK!]

8 shows a week is insanity, fingers crossed for another venue!

[tonyloaf]

Hammersmith Apollo ?

[Sebastian.]

Lowry Salford Quays up t'north?

[Evil One]

My back garden?

[Sebastian.]

My back garden?

Suppose if it is November of next year we could have a bonfire as well?

[Evil One]

Well Meat did once threaten to paint my house, so he could kill two birds with one stone. :lol:

[CarylB]

I feared this might be the case .. However, given so many productions are struggling to fill seats these days I cannot see why more do not pursue the concept of theatre sharing .. two productions which between them fill the venue 7 days a week. Shouldn't be beyond the wit of an industry that's supposed to be founded on creativity.

[LucyK!]

Agreed Caryl :up:

This is where someone I know starts campaigning for Harrogate theatre who would gladly do three nights a week..!

[lorenzoduke]

Lowry Salford Quays up t'north?


Such a beautiful venue - and Manchester has always loved Meat. I'd be there in a heartbeat.

Agreed Caryl :up:

This is where someone I know starts campaigning for Harrogate theatre who would gladly do three nights a week..!

I just saw Stewart Lee at the Harrogate Royal Theatre last week. Nice place. :)

[CarylB]

Agreed Caryl :up:

This is where someone I know starts campaigning for Harrogate theatre who would gladly do three nights a week..!

Works for me :D

[Wario]

that wouldnt work. The sets would have to be daily reconstructed

[AndyK]

Harrogate Theatre would be a great venue! :))

As for the sets being deconstructed. It works in Vegas for Meat and the Abba show on alternate nights, and it works when they're on the road paying different cities night after night. Shouldn't be too tricky logistically, especially if the staging is kept reasonably simple as it was in Vegas.

[chairboys]

Suppose if it is November of next year we could have a bonfire as well?

yes, a spectacular backdrop for "frying pan"
and we could wave some pretty sparklers.

[CarylB]

that wouldnt work. The sets would have to be daily reconstructed

Works with two different shows on the same night at Vegas, let alone on different days. Theatres need to think outside the box, rather than immediately react with that kind of "Difficult .. so we can't/won't do it". It's one way they can survive .. look for shows that CAN be set up and taken down fast, find ways TO change sets overnight .. just needs some creative thinking. Meat's managed it .. he has some impressive staging, but another show can follow him in less than 20 minutes after he finishes.

[PanicLord]

ROYAL ALBERT HALL!!!!

[CarylB]

ROYAL ALBERT HALL!!!!

Great for a concert .. not so much for this show imo

[Cherry.Loaf]

I can recommend you a Beautiful country Hotel on the 29th of November? ;)

[hairyone]

Somewhere like the Leicester Square Theatre would probably be ideal in the sense that it is a fairly intimate venue, and certainly can cope with lots of different shows on at the same time.

[Evil One]

I still say Meat would be better going for a bigger venue and doing a string of giant-sized, intimate shows. Somewhere central like the MEN would do. :twisted:

[JennaG]

I still say Meat would be better going for a bigger venue and doing a string of giant-sized, intimate shows. Somewhere central like the MEN would do. :twisted:

If I'd bought tickets to a show that was designed to be an intimate and personal show, the last place I'd want to go was a massive structure like the MEN or the LG Arena that have all the intimacy and provide as personal a feeling as you'd get in an aircraft hangar.

[LucyK!]

A show at MEN or LG couldn't possibly be promoted as 'intimate'.

When we did the last night of Last At Bat I couldn't imagine that that would be the last time I'd see Bat played to an arena crowd and I was sure it wouldn't work to any other crowd. Having seen the Vegas show I'm backing theatres all the way!

Bat to a smaller crowd was amazing, very intense, smaller venue the better

[Evil One]

If I'd bought tickets to a show that was designed to be an intimate and personal show, the last place I'd want to go was a massive structure.But you'd know where you're going when you buy the tickets.

Many reports I've seen from the Las Vegas shows indicate that the audience struggled with the question concept, so why not miss that out? Still have all the talk and videos and whatever between songs, just work it into the show instead of relying on the audience to ask specific questions.

A show at MEN or LG couldn't possibly be promoted as 'intimate'.
I'm sure it's possible. Not necessarily totally truthful, but possible. :lol:

Bat to a smaller crowd was amazing, very intense, smaller venue the better
But the larger the venue, the greater the number of people that can see it and (in theory) the cheaper the price of tickets.

[Sebastian.]

Good to see people are still calling it the MEN and not the god awful Phones4U arena.

[Dave]

Let me throw this wedge into the cog of reasoning...

How do the labor unions work in the UK? It is not simply a matter of theaters thinking outside the box. There is much more involved from the inside - that the theater patron never sees. For instance, this Halloween we did a double feature of Night of the Living Dead and The Rocky Horror Picture Show - both movies fully shadow cast performed. Due to labor restrictions and guidelines, I had to tight squeeze both movies, preshow activities for both movies, audience load in/load out, and intermission within a given timeframe.

Simply saying "Meat did it in Vegas" does not mean a lot. Meat Loaf's show was much shorter in Vegas than his traditional concert. Further, shows in Vegas are much shorter than their Broadway/West End counterparts. Just because another show went on 20 minutes after Meat Loaf exited the stage a few nights a week in Vegas ... this needs to be taken into context.

For Example...


Phantom of the Opera in NYC has a running time of 2 hours 30 minutes with one 15 minute intermission.
Phantom of the Opera in Vegas had a running time of only 95 minutes.


I hardly see any show running successfully in an abridged format on either the West End or Broadway in order to allow time for an abbreviated rock show to play just prior.

[Evil One]

I hardly see any show running successfully in an abridged format on either the West End or Broadway
Neither do I. The show would have to be at least 2 hours or I suspect there would be complaints.

[CarylB]

When we did the last night of Last At Bat I couldn't imagine that that would be the last time I'd see Bat played to an arena crowd and I was sure it wouldn't work to any other crowd. Having seen the Vegas show I'm backing theatres all the way!

I agree. The show is not designed for an arena .. it's designed for a residency in a smaller theatre and imo would raise expectations of a rock concert that would not be met. An arena is simply not the place for a residency anyway imo.

In answer to Evil's point about the Q&A, Meat got it to work after a couple of shows.

In answer to Dave's post, the point is that West End theatres are geared for one show playing 8 times a week. There are plenty of theatres outside the West End, just as there are in other cities, which cater to touring artists .. singers, comedians, magicians, orchestras etc. The kind of theatre Meat played when he was starting out and before his popularity was such that he could fill the 10-20K arenas. There would be no restrictions, union or otherwise in these, because they are used to a show coming in for one night and moving on. I don't think they'd be anything but happy to have 3 booked shows a week for 4-6 weeks, around which they'd slot other touring artists who play one or two shows and move on to the next city.

I agree that in such theatres the show would probably have to be extended, (not to avoid complaints .. you know the length when you book .. but to attract sales and fill the seats) though I don't see that as a major issue. Meat had to work to keep the show in the time permitted, and over-ran the night there was no show panting at his heels. More interaction Q&A, and two or three more songs would easily do it .. and he already has far more video footage than he can show in the shorter time frame at Vegas.

[JennaG]

But you'd know where you're going when you buy the tickets.

Which is why I wouldn't be believing a word of it if they were promoting it as some kind of 'intimate' show. ;)

But the larger the venue, the greater the number of people that can see it and (in theory) the cheaper the price of tickets.

In theory that should be the case but we know it isn't.

The face value of the standard tickets for Last At Bat was about £58 which is the equivalent of about $93 USD. The cheapest tickets for Las Vegas, which was a much smaller venue than our awful arenas was only $69 USD which is about £42.

:(

[tonyloaf]

the magic of Meat Loaf show build up