One press call at the beginning of rehearsals, a trickle of bits from the TCM documentaries on the website, a documentary shown on TCM, some paper interviews with Jill and Darius, GMTV, Paul O'Grady and just before it opened posters and bus adverts - have I missed anything?

 

Then a deluge of negative stuff from the critics, picked up given a spin and put out next day in news sections and commented on again in the Sundays which also carried their own reviews - which led to the silly scenario with Darius being slagged off as flopping because the journalist had evidently only read the excerpts, not the parts relating to Darius, while in the arts section of the very same Sunday paper, there was a glowing review for Darius.

The Write Stuff, This Morning and radio ads and articles in newspapers - most of them having a dig (just for a change)

Radio ads we heard once despite poor Dave being on listening duty?

 

The Wright Stuff and This Morning were afteropening night. Darius's task was show damage and limitation.

 

They just needed to runa huge ad everywhere 'Gone With The Wind' 2hrs 45 of romance and disaster in this new musical. Or something like that. I'm still getting messages and emails saying that if they'd only cut it down from 4hrs, they'd have come.

that seemed to be part of the problem, even on the bbc when the critic was reading the papers, about the closure, he was asked if he had seen the show himself, and he laughed and said at 4 hours with two intervals - it was far too long.

as for advertising, it didnt get half as much as a lot of th eshows in the WE.

I can see why some complain about ALW blanket coverage with his tv programs, his shows are everywhere, on TV, News, the programs themselves and all over the press

Edited June 3, 200817 yr by prettyinpink

I am jealous of the attention his are getting. I probably wouldn't be if it was GWTW getting the attention.

To be fair, ALW's ( & Tim Rice's) musicals have always garnered a lot of attention and quite rightly so. They brought mass audiences back into the West End.

 

However he hadn't hit pay dirt for some time with a brand new musical so he had the brilliant idea of using reality TV.

 

Perhaps being in the limelight himself and seeing the profits roll in while his protege(e)s become West End stars is enough for him now and gives him as much satisfaction as creating musicals did before.

Maybe he likes to be seen - and taking part in the competition makes him into a real person for many.

Apparently he made some very strange decisions about who to save on IDA.

 

Still he certainly spotted Darius's MT talent very early.

To me it seems that Darius does his appearances re PR on tv etc right but the pr team in most of his output dont i.e the wrong video snippet of GWTW (too operatic looking) documentary good but not a channel a lot of people see, but the lateness of the finish obviously took its toll but whose fault was that. It should have been right for press night. Would it have done better on broadway first? where it is probably better known but D would not play the role, it would be someone known there and then if succesful come here but there would always be the problem there of clark gable and vivien leigh in peoples minds.

It was great on press night. Don't let a hand full of critics alter your perception. The cast feel it's the media out to get trevor who are at fault. I can't apologise for a show I feel to be the best I've seen in ages.

I do love the show and yes it is better than the other dross I have seen recently, however I wish it had been made clear in the press reports since the closing that trevor nunn had a lot to do with it and not giving Darius flack now when he was so good.

That is the most galling thing. Darius has been one of the show's strongest performers from the first preview onwards and yet he's the one who's being labelled a flop and no spokesperson from GWTW or his management has tried to counteract that impression. It's like they're thinking "Hey, it's Darius...............he's teflon coated. We don't need to say anything."

 

How much more punishment do they expect him to absorb?

:cry:

 

I know, thats what I cannot bear - it is really so unjust,

Without Darius's stunning press night performance (and also at the Monday preview since the bulk of the daily critics apparently went in a night early according to the Stage's critic), the show would have had the disgrace of getting not just one but 2 or 3 "one star" reviews and that is only from critics who stated in their notices that Darius was the only reason they upped their rate.

 

A lot of heads have ducked below the parapet and Darius has been hung out to dry.

 

I thought theatre people with such reputations might have subscribed to the idea of collective responsibility.

 

Darius said in the documentary, " Whatever happens, we're all in this together." I think he must now realise they weren't!

 

That realisation must be a body blow. Darius always puts so much personal faith in people.

Edited June 5, 200817 yr by Baytree

He did in trevor nunn and was so excited by the thought of working with him.!!!

They are still all in it together. Again, don't let things alter your perception without actually seeing or hearing yourself.

So who's standing up for Darius while the press scream flop! flop! flop! and the sheep think it refers to Darius personally?

 

Who's going to lift the phone to invite Darius to castings, now they've seen how the press react when he gets a part and every time something goes wrong?

Thats just what I have been thinking. No-one has spoken up.

When I spoke to some of the cast, they were all really surprised. None of them bothered reading the rubbish being written now. All agreed that Darius is fantastic as Rhett. They genuinly like him , they didn't know how it was going in the press but can do as little about it as we can.