What are peoples opinions on ametuer groups doing Return to the Forbidden Planet?

I'm a huge fan of the show and it's come up in our suggestions many a time, but i've alsways been worried that it wouldn't work. What do you do with a big chorus for starters? Also how do you do the monster and what's the best plan for the band?

I'd love to have my opinion swayed and be convinced it would be a good show for us to do. We've done a fair few Rock and Roll Shakespeare Shows so that would fit the bill perfectly for us.

Please convince me!

I saw it done by Dave B of this board. No doubt he will post a more in depth reply. However I cant see why a group cant do the show as long as they are fairly young. In theory the band plays live , but this can be mimed. As to the special effects that is down to imagination and use of technology!

i have done it 3 times now, always with a small company, and always with the cast playing the instruments.
I love the show, i think its fantastic, but I dont think it works with a big chorus, i've seen it a couple of times with, and it always seems . . . . wrong.

for the production I did with Pain and Panic, (photos here)

Cast wise, we had

Captain Tempest (didnt play)

bosun Arras: (bass, guitar and keys)

Science Officer (played bass, trumpet and trombone)

Navigation Officer (played keys, bass and guitar)

Narrator (was on prerecorded video)

Cookie: (played guitar and drums)

Prospero: (played keys)

Ariel: (didnt play)

Miranda: (played sax)

Lt Hugo S'Thair: (played drums and cornet)

Cast of 8 not including the prerecorded video. Worked really well, was very tight harmony and music wise, and lots of swapping going on, but worth it. Tentacles were 25ft long fabric filled with balloons and thrown on from the wings. Very very cheesey but worked perfectly.

if your cast arent playing then I wouldnt bother miming- the instruments aren't scripted, so there no need.

If you want anymore info let me know

xx

We did planet at school with a full chorus. When we saw it in the West End, I wasn;t absiolutely sure that the cast playing worked - it restricted their movements and made it difficult to act sometimes. I wouldn;t mime either for the same reason. We used the chorus in smaller groups to sing and dance in numbers like shake, rattle and roll, but I can't say they added much to the plot (which I confess I'm still not sure I understand, haveing watched it n times) We still have our giant tentacles. I swore at them only last week when trying to tidy up, and my robot costume with front repair flap is still hanging on our rail. We also designated a reverse polarity crew in matching uniforms who scanned the audience with all manner of domestic paraphenalia. We used taped film footage for Prospero in the lab, live video screen for the newsreader and some cartooon graphics for the monster that were a hoot. Our director is quite keen to do it again.

I honestly never felt the chorus had enough useful stuff to do, but they enjoyed it because it was all so silly and the music was fun. We had one of our band members leap on stage to do the guitar duel with cookie. That was fun

Not sure if we still have our monster footage, but we may have. Again, if you want anything else, shout! Pictures are on my msn webMy Webpage It's a few albums down

Excellent, fantastic show! I agree, though, big chorus would get in the way. Ive seen and done it without cast playing instruments, but never seen it with cast playing instruments. It definitely works without (I'll leave it to others to say how much better it is with). Also agree- don't mime (except possibly Cookie's max guitar-hero moment during "She's not there").

I think we had a cast of 12, with a few stage crew coming on in addition during fight scenes with monster. In red jerseys of course, as they were going to die (as any fule no).

Our monster was a person in costume, but I don't think it worked as well as the more usual giant tentacles emerging from hatch door. (we felt obliged to do it this way, as our choreographer, who is incredibly talented, only ever asks one thing- that she get to dress up in some kind of hideous costume. It's becoming a tradition. Last time she was the gorilla in Cabaret!)

Very highly recommended- it's also a great bums-on-seats show.

Trouble is we're an all singing all dancing cast of around 40 so not sure if it's going to be a good one for us. Shame, I love it!

Hi
We have recently done this show and I was the poor person who got the job of directing it, especially as we used a 9 piece band on stage (upper deck of set) + all prinicpals (none who played instruments) + chorus of 10 who were used as general crew memberswith the usual horrendous made up character names + 10 dancers who were dressed as in flight stewardesses. All in all I think 37 were on stage for virtually the whole performance. Chorus were used as backing singers and to highlight the more comic elements of the show, Orchestra were dressed in boiler suits as though flight engineers, dancers were used in many numbers to add flavour and the principals were doing what they normally do! (I will leave the answers to that to your own imaginations). All in all, I think it worked as audiences in our home town did know nothing about the show and therefore had no pre-conceptions before they came in. I would be more worried if more people had seen the original but they got a good night out for their money!
It is a great show and don't be put off because you are a big cast, I have seen it done by amateurs twice with big cast and only once with musician/actors and it works both ways!
Live Long and Prospero!
Next stop Saucy Jack & the Space Vixens!!!!
SCOOPTAG

And by the way we hired the robots costume from a company who took RTTFP on tour a couple of years ago, ?75 for the week and all the flashing lights worked!
We couldn't use tentacles or have anything like that so we just used graphics on the video screen! Well not really a true monster but a monster of the mind...we ended up using the Crazy Frog!! (perfectly legit as we got permission, honest guv!)
SCOOPTAG

It's a fab show. Just started rehearsals two weeks ago. My cast are all 10 - 18... I've done it when I was at school and seen it amateur and pro... the chorus thing can work - it did at my school - but we had them in the aisles, not on stage. For this production I'm not using chorus as in our small venue it wouldn't look right. Our band will be in a pit. I agree that actors playing can sometimes restrict movement but also feel that if you aim to have a separate band you can have more people involved.

I would say go for it. I think it's an awesome show. And the new script is an improvement - despite the typos! (Not sure about the Yeh Yeh number! - anyone use this?)

Sean
AD

Stage Door Theatre Group, Downe

stagedoorinfo@yahoo.co.uk



And by the way we hired the robots costume from a company who took RTTFP on tour a couple of years ago, ?75 for the week and all the flashing lights worked!


Hey Scooptag!

What company was this? I'm having trouble with my Ariel!!

Thanks

Sean

I've directed this twice - both times with a large cast - and it works very well. It depends on how inventive you are. I started my cast (last November) off out in the foyer chatting to people and showing them to their seats. They all had names and jobs that they'd picked at the first rehearsal, and they had to stay in their own character throughout.

Most of them were on stage for masses of the show, and it worked really well. We would just light the areas that needed lighting for each scene, so they could be getting on with their acting in the semi-darkness, which was fun. For instance, the "Ship's Outfitter" was called 'Dana Sok' and she carried a half-knitted sock with her at all times and would seat herself in a corner and do a row from time to time. We also had Doctors (E. Coaleye) and Nurses (Penny Scillen)...etc, etc, etc. The 4 strongest voices were picked to be 'Harmony Singers' and wore air hostess costumes - they sang a lot of backing vocals. We also had a key dance team for the front row of the livelier numbers!

My cast were mixed age - teenagers to past retirement age - but it did work well. I would highly recommend doing the show this way. It doesn't mean it's better than the original, but it doesn't mean it's not as good by a long shot!

A favourite bit was added just before the first night, when Tempest was singing his last song. We decided he'd rip open his costume to reveal a Bee Gees style medallion. Then we had the girls all rush to the front of the audience offstage and throw knickers to him. It worked a treat!

I can guarantee that every cast member keeps calling me to say "when can we do that show again", and we got 2,000 audience through the door so it's definitely a 'bums on seats' show.

Oh, we had a cast of 40.


Anne-Marie

A-M

I did not realise you were doing the show again! When is it on?

How did I miss this? Chat about my favourite show.

First off, let's declare an interest. I worked on the West End version for three months and know it reasonably well. I have a few gripes with the way it is often done:

1) it needs to flow really well in order to keep up the momentum. The story is a bit weak in places, but it is told quite well be the songs. This means that the flow from dialogue to song and back again has to be really good.

2) it should be a small to medium cast. I think this is because it has to look reallistic. There wouldn't be dozens of crew on this sort of flight; it is "a routine mission"

3) the jokes get missed or stamped on. There are so many jokes and misquotes in the show you need to go through and highlight them first

4) Some of the effects are meant to look "Blue Peter" or Panto, this doesn't mean sloppy.

Having said that I love the show and lit it a couple of years ago. I had to keep reminding myself not to sing down the cans. From the technical point of view there are a few key effects:

Klysrton. needs to be big effect

Robot. Skates

Take Off. Try to get some exterior in it that drops away as you lift off

Shuttlecraft. If done well this shouls get a round of applause every night

Great Balls of fire. Possibility for some pyro

Crash Landing. more pyro?

Monster. I have used VL5s for the monster eyes. there are a few options on tentacles

X-factor. This was done with dry ice in the West End, but there are other ways

General set - needs loads of detail to make it look busy

One of the biggest headaches is that it is written for the instruments to be played by the cast. This is usually impossible to do and you get left with the options of a traditional band in the pit, which breaks the continuity of the ship or have them back stage, which adds all sort of issues.

The final thought is that your Ariel, Cookie and Miranda need to be reasonably fit, as there is quite a bit of singing while dancing that goes on.

Given all that, I would agree with most of what has been said - Give it a go and you'll love it. (And if you want it lit, let me know!)

Dave

There's a story? I watched it every night we did it and still failed to follow the plot. The best bits are the Shakespeare misquotes and the contrived leads into the songs. Great fun!

Of course the best reason to do RTTFP is that your techies will love you for the chance to play with all of the toys that they have been reading about for ages. The show screams out for detail. A button on the set labelled "inebriation inducer" is good for a giggle and lots of "Top of the Pops" effects, smoke, haze and dry ice/low smoke are standard, slow rotating gobos for "Go now" and then going wild for Cookie's solo in "She's not there"

Dave