Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

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CraigMitchell
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Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby CraigMitchell » April 30th, 2015, 4:18 pm

The success of Magic on Broadway is now ostensibly leading to magic on the West End ... as another multi-performer show titled "IMPOSSIBLE" takes to London

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/106 ... mmer-2015/

On a side note - Dynamo is performing in some truly MASSIVE venues for his UK tour later this year ( 4000+ seat arenas ... that's Copperfield-in-his-hey-day huge in scale ... going to be very interesting whether he can possibly fill such mammoth venues )


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0pjLkAToA8

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 30th, 2015, 5:45 pm

Interesting. Has Anthony ever directed a theatrical show before?
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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby Tom Moore » April 30th, 2015, 6:13 pm

I'm not sure how you've made the leap from the success of "the illusionists" to this show - illusionists has barely touched the uk (and made basically no measurable impact); the producers, investors and creative team behind this show have all had considerable experience in magic shows that predate this production and the format is significantly different to the USP of "The illusionists"

Richard - Anthony had a hand in various Derren performances, a few TV shows (that were filmed "as live" performance) more recently he directed the live performances of "help my supply teacher is magic" the theatre tour of a successful kids TV magic show of the same name. He's also directed several solo performer's shows - it's a step up from the scale his previous work but not a crazy one.
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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby Tim Ellis » May 1st, 2015, 2:44 am

Word is that this is a safe way to launch Katherine Mills into another area where Derren has had great success. Just not so sure she would sell tickets on her own as yet, thus the multi-magician format.

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby CraigMitchell » May 2nd, 2015, 3:16 pm

"I'm not sure how you've made the leap from the success of "the illusionists" to this show - illusionists has barely touched the uk (and made basically no measurable impact)"

Because any producer assembling an ensemble magic show currently in the West End has surely taken note of the success of the Illusionists on Broadway - and be buoyed by their good fortune ... if The Illusionists had tanked on Broadway - it is highly unlikely that anyone would be touching this project.

"the producers, investors and creative team behind this show have all had considerable experience in magic shows"

According to the press releases ( http://www.whatsonstage.com/west-end-th ... 37710.html ) the show is produced by Jamie Hendry ( 29 years old ) ... I can't find any mention of any prior magic productions. Thomas - do you have any details on his background with magic ? Obviously all the other role players have a long history in magic.

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby Tom Moore » May 2nd, 2015, 5:43 pm

Though JHP are the named producers but would better titled "promotors" - the show itself is essentially an Objective production (the producers of 90% of the TV magic in the uk) and closer in concept to existing live touring shows they have created than "The illusionists" utilizing all their usual team.

It's akin to attributing the 1980's rise and success of Copperfield in American to Paul Daniels success in the uk when in reality whilst one followed the other it was as a result of their own work rather than anyone specifically assuming that the success of one was a template for the other.

Believe me however successful TI is anywhere else in the world it's not a name that carries any real weight in the uk (their attempts at cracking the UK market were not successful, far from it sadly) so i seriously doubt that anyone on the production/promotion team got this show off the ground by mentioning that show, especially when there are much more successful and viable live magic show products in the UK that are directly connected to the team behind this show.

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out - the UK has Derren & Dynamo booking multi-thousand-seat theatre's for long runs at premium prices, then we have a thriving circuit of 2-3 performer magic/variety shows playing 500 seat theatre's all over the country at budget prices ($15-25 tickets) whilst London has quite a few "boutique" magic and variety show that sell a premium experience but to a tiny audience. The Noel Coward theatre is a 900 seat venue that is known for more premium legitimate theatrical shows ($75-200 tickets) so the real adventure here is not whether a magic variety show will work in the west end (plenty have) but rather whether it sits within the premium experience venue and price point.
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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby Brad Henderson » May 2nd, 2015, 6:37 pm

I always appreciate Tom's informed comments.

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby CraigMitchell » May 3rd, 2015, 3:56 am

Thanks for the background, Tom ... Do you think you will get to see the show ? If so, please do write your thoughts. Hopefully the run is successful for them! Some great visuals and graphic design thus far ...

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby Tom Moore » May 4th, 2015, 6:21 am

I have an invite though at the moment it clashes perfectly with the dates of the Edinburgh festival that I have 4 shows I have designed/consulted on running in so it'll be dependant on how easily (or not) they get through rehearsals as to whether I can make it down to London in time.

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby CraigMitchell » August 3rd, 2015, 4:43 am

The reviews are in.

Interestingly, Katherine Mills is no longer in the show due to “unforeseen personal circumstances”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/thea ... astic.html

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/j ... male-stars

One excerpt from the review which is so telling - and something I wish more performers ( particularly illusionists ) would take heed of:

"Jaw dropping as these displays are, they are seriously hampered by the seriousness with which the performers take themselves..."

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby CraigMitchell » August 18th, 2015, 2:57 pm

It seems The Illusionists don't have a non-compete clause ;-)

Aaron Crow is now appearing in "Impossible"

http://impossiblelive.com/latest-news/b ... final-week

and Impossible are currently casting for a 2016 World Tour ...

So - we'll shortly have 3 ensemble magic shows hitting the road soon:

- The Illusionists
- Impossible
- The Supernaturalists

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby Banachek » August 18th, 2015, 10:31 pm

In thoughts and friendship
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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby CraigMitchell » August 19th, 2015, 2:45 am

Best line from the review above:

"Audiences today don’t have patience and want everything instantly without magical waffle – sometimes with magic, that is just ... well, IMPOSSIBLE."

All this live performance is great for magic ... It will be interesting to see how the trend develops.

We definitely seem to be in somewhat of an upswing - multiple live stage shows - Broadway, West End, world tours, multiple TV specials, Got Talent show winners etc.

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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby Tom Moore » August 29th, 2015, 4:46 pm

It's an interesting show, overall i'd say it's the ying to "The illusionists" yang - everything one show does badly the other does very well & vis-versa. It has sufficient legs to be revived and toured (indeed it's all but confirmed that it will be back in the west end next year as well as international productions) and it sits quite happily in the pantheon of ensamble magic shows currently cropping up.

Strong points - the personalities. Chris Cox & Ben Hart come over VERY well in this, Luis is loved by the audience (though it's an oddly low-key performance for him) and the production qualities of the show are far in excess of those used in Illusionists. The entire stage is projection-mapped and props become projection screens when needed rather than the audience having to look off-stage at a screen for example.

WTF points - Clearly a lot of time and effort was put in to creating a narrative frame for the show (a boy discovers a magic book and a magic box, he peeps in to the magic box as a giant box on stage opens and all the tricks happen inside this box, across the show the boy gets more involved and at the end of the show he is the magician who performs the big trick) and it's not a bad idea; but you can clearly see the points in the show where they completely forgot about the story and for vast chunks of the show the boy is abandoned and the performers suddenly start playing to the audience and exist outside the world of the box.... then seconds later we're back in to the narrative conceit with no explanation as to why we broke the 4th wall. The stage crew were also oddly "unprofessionally professional" - someone would slouch on stage pushing a prop looking bored then suddenly pull a dynamic pose... then slouch a bit more as they'd clearly only been given that one single beat of choreography.

bad points - it's blatently clear no-one from the performers or production team actually watched the show from different parts of the auditorium. When i watched from the stalls the show was great, when i watched from the upper balcony (upper mezzanine where around 1/3 of the audience sit) i missed the action any time the performers went in to the audience and saw how just about every illusion was done because no-one had taken those viewing angles in to consideration. I saw open trapdoors, hiding assistants and all manner of stuff i definitely shouldn't have been able to see and which could have been hidden with minor reblocking and a proper understanding of how illusions should be used in a traditional theatre space. I'm not being over-critical, the audience around me was talking about these same things and pointing as secret curtains were opened and assistants could clearly be seen hiding.

The illusions were INCREDIBLY dated despite everyone presenting them as modern and exciting and amazing. Origami, Bow Staff, Sword Basket, Clearly Impossible, deKolta Chair, appearing helecopter, vanishing car, Asrah, million dollar mystery, water metamorphosis, bit-by-bit, Suspended animation. Aside from that last two ALL of these would have been in a show 30 years ago and it still wouldn't have been an especially modern or exciting show. As the public reviews have also noted the presentation style of the illusions was terribly dated - a lot of men a little too old and a little to flabby to be sex symbols (as the woman sat next to me described them) wearing lots of black, pulling poses whilst a procession of generic, nameless (literally) entirely interchangeable females were summoned, commanded, chopped up and restored.

Jon Goodwin (and later replaced by Aaron Crow) were odd choices, they were (literally as well as narratively) outsiders to the production. Both did their material as known but really didn't illicate the response from the audience (on the performances i saw) that their acts were clearly expecting nor seemed to fit within the ensamble feel of the cast.

I don't want it to seem like i hated the show as i didn't, it's a good show now and with some refinement it could be a great show, it's let down by some silly oversights and material choices which didn't match the production built around them. It's worth pointing out that a cut-n-restored rope routine got a bigger better more authentic audience response than an appearing helicopter that was the finale and it was far and away the performer's personalities that engaged audiences rather than the leather pants and pointing.

The show has done very well; it's been grossing around $400k per week in the West End (8 shows per week in an 800 seat theatre) which compares favourably to Penn & Teller's record breaking $1.3m per week on Broadway (8 shows per week in a 1600 seat theatre) so it has clearly found a market that wants to see properly produced live magic in a theatrical setting.

The newspaper / public reviews are in line with how i'd review the show - it's a solid 3 stars with some silly mistakes which if fixed would make a dramatic improvement.
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Re: Success of The Illusionists pays off ...

Postby CraigMitchell » September 2nd, 2015, 11:37 am

Thanks for the review, Tom !


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