Britmania

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Peej1212 said:
I wonder if some people think of the shows as a "Break"?
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Yes, without a doubt. Hot day, kids starting to melt down, adults starting to melt down, walking the terrain, still an hour or two from mealtime... family park, wide guest age range from infant to oldster... hey, let's just sit down and watch a show to reset ourselves.
 
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Has anybody heard anything new about Britmania lately? It's still showing up on the "shows" page of the Busch Gardens website but I've heard and seen absolutely no mention of it whatsoever from the park yet this season. I know there were rumors of it being out of the lineup this season so I was wondering if anyone had any further news.
 
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I would be so mad if this show ended so soon. It was one of the most solid shows BGW has had in a good long while.
 
Respectfully I disagree. First of all let me say I definitely understand how you can like it. I see it, I get it. But now having said that it was super camp which one would think would appeal to people however camp is not the same thing as cheesy/corny which this show is. To me, at least. This is entirely my own opinion. I think the performers work it out and are very talented but I think the show itself is just a parade of hot mess. It looks like someone had a few ideas but not enough and then someone else stepped in and over-edited those ideas until it was just absurdity. I couldn't stop laughing at it, literally, which is something I try extremely hard not to do because usually I'm the one in the audience *trying* to smile and applaud because I'm basically your grandmother who's just proud that you're on stage at all and I want to encourage you to pursue your dreams. But like, seriously, I was laughing at this and if it never comes back then all the better.

I legit don't understand why Busch doesn't source out talent from local community theater or something. If not Wmsbrg then to the general region maybe. There's so much talent out there, certainly someone's got a bright idea or two and could use a signal boost like BGW's Globe theater. Maybe Busch would do well to hold a small contest for at least an opportunity to have such talent showcase their production on their stage with their equipment for, like, one night or something. And if it does well then maybe contract the production for an extended play...
 
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Merboy nailed it. Britmania had all of the cheesiness of London Rocks without the creativity. Sure, LR was very trippy, but it was surprisingly creative. You at least have to give it that. Britmania looks like any Matt Davenport production at Hersheypark, Kings Dominion, or worse. The only difference is that it is thrown on a stage that has technology way out of its league.

MDP has used all of the tricks scene in the show elsewhere before, sometimes just with different props that serve the same purpose. Including Britmania, MDP has at least three shows that start out with people gathering around a jukebox or television set. The show is just entirely too formulated and I think Busch Gardens deserves more than that cookie cutter mess.

I have mentioned this before, but the only segment in Britmania that wows me is the drop curtain effect. Sadly, the drop curtain was actually planned for London Rocks, but it didn’t make the cut for some reason. This further shows that the creative team has no originality and that the best part of the show (in my opinion) can be attributed entirely to London Rocks.

Edit: That said, I prefer this show over nothing and will probably still watch it.
 
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CastleOSullivan said:
Edit: That said, I prefer this show over nothing and will probably still watch it.
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That's my main thing too. While I disagree in the sense that I thought it was significantly better than London Rocks and I definitely enjoyed it to some extent, I won't be heartbroken if it's gone. That being said, I'd be massively disappointed if nothing ends up in the Globe this season. The fact that I've heard essentially nothing about what'll be there this summer is concerning.
 
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Oh, I still think it's better than any season of London Rocks, but I do believe that LR was more exciting. I even think the LR music arrangements were more unique, but it was the lack of unification that killed it for me. It tried to be three shows at once and failed at being any of them. Britmania, on the other hand, may feel uninspired but at least it's a unified concept.

Still, after all the money spent since LR, the show is still not at the level that it should be (in quality and popularity), and BGW's numbers probably reflect that. Otherwise, they wouldn't be debating its return, and it would probably open earlier in the season like Celtic Fyre.

I can easily see this being another failure like All For One, unfortunately. At least they didn't invest as much in the second season of All For One as they did for second and third seasons of LR or Entwined. I think the park (or corporate) has lost faith in investing toward revamping flops. It's probably partly a good thing, but now we don't have AFO, and I can see the same thing happening to Britmania if they fail to fix it with the little money allotted. Notice that they have stopped recording new music in all revamps since 2015.

Meanwhile, OktoberZest seems to be more popular this year. Although it's comparable to the revamp of AFO, OZ doesn't cost nearly as much money, so expect it to be a hit. Time will tell if the park sees this year's OZ as a success. Britmania may still have hope, but it is on the more expensive side. It's just sad that BGW has had to rewrite every show now for years, with less money being given on the second chance.

It also seems that two years is the new cap on revitalizing a failed product. That's a pretty generous bit of leeway since not one show (excluding 2018) has proven successful after a rework since Gloria in 2011-12. Heads will start turning if this is another wasted expense. SeaWorld certainly has to cut back somewhere.
 
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Merboy said:
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I legit don't understand why Busch doesn't source out talent from local community theater or something. If not Wmsbrg then to the general region maybe. There's so much talent out there, certainly someone's got a bright idea or two and could use a signal boost like BGW's Globe theater. Maybe Busch would do well to hold a small contest for at least an opportunity to have such talent showcase their production on their stage with their equipment for, like, one night or something. And if it does well then maybe contract the production for an extended play...
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Stop me if you have heard me mention this before...

In the 90's at least they used to hold cattle calls every winter targeted at the VA college students. How do I know you ask? Well simple, I was attending Shenandoah University in the 90s and attended said cattle calls 3 times with several other of my theater and dance major friends. Not that anyone asked, but I was flat turned down after my first year, turned down my second year but also received a hand written note from the then head designer telling me that they really wanted me but did not have any open slots, and was asked to come my 3rd year. Being turned down turned out to be for the best as I joined Shenandoah Summer Music Theater where I was for 2 years. The 3 time I took a summer off, and worked as a finish carpenters apprentice. (very valuable experience)

Anyway, as I have mentioned before I think whenever they made the decision to stop working with the Commonwealth's array of Colleges and University's and stopped having the invite only auditions (like the ones I attended) they really cut off their noses. They lost the connections they had to the the theater community and the exceptionally limited pool of actually formally trained designers.
 
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Zimmy said:
Merboy said:
...
I legit don't understand why Busch doesn't source out talent from local community theater or something. If not Wmsbrg then to the general region maybe. There's so much talent out there, certainly someone's got a bright idea or two and could use a signal boost like BGW's Globe theater. Maybe Busch would do well to hold a small contest for at least an opportunity to have such talent showcase their production on their stage with their equipment for, like, one night or something. And if it does well then maybe contract the production for an extended play...
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Stop me if you have heard me mention this before...

In the 90's at least they used to hold cattle calls every winter targeted at the VA college students.  How do I know you ask?  Well simple, I was attending Shenandoah University in the 90s and attended said cattle calls 3 times with several other of my theater and dance major friends.  Not that anyone asked, but I was flat turned down after my first year, turned down my second year but also received a hand written note from the then head designer telling me that they really wanted me but did not have any open slots, and was asked to come my 3rd year.  Being turned down turned out to be for the best as I joined Shenandoah Summer Music Theater where I was for 2 years.  The 3 time I took a summer off, and worked as a finish carpenters apprentice.  (very valuable experience)

Anyway, as I have mentioned before I think whenever they made the decision to stop working with the Commonwealth's array of Colleges and University's and stopped having the invite only auditions (like the ones I attended) they really cut off their noses.  They lost the connections they had to the the theater community and the exceptionally limited pool of actually formally trained designers.
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Awww. Here is a retro-active hug: *bends time and space and hugs your former self*

Also, yes I wholeheartedly agree. I had no idea the park sourced the area and I'm so disappointed they stopped!
 
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Merboy said:
Awww. Here is a retro-active hug: *bends time and space and hugs your former self*

Also, yes I wholeheartedly agree. I had no idea the park sourced the area and I'm so disappointed they stopped!
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Awwah, thanks. But really it was for the best. The experience I got the largest Music Theater Summer Stock in VA was so far and above the basic show running I would have done at BG it is almost silly. Building, running, and switching, and in some cases running 4 full scale professional quality Musicals in a summer is a lot to do. As I was staff and not an intern, and my position was Sound Engineer, I got to play carpenter half the time, and play with electronics the other half. Oh and also act as the assistant Master Elec.

The work ethic I built those summers has served me well. It is also why I tell young theater kids to skip parks and work stock. If the stock is good enough you learn to work as if you are in NYC with the big boys. Rather than run the same show, over and over and over.
 
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