Upcoming Stuff

First off, I'm on Goodreads, here. I really like it, even if I am a little OCD about having the right editions for all the books I'm reading/have read. I'm also not sure about how the community side of things works, but its fun to be on there.

Secondly, I'm going to see Armstrong & Miller later this month, then Chris Addison in November and also, finally, Chess.

Armstrong & Miller is the live touring version of a television programme of the same name created by Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, and contains skits such as an unsympathetic father, dinner parties, an ongoing really obvious affair that the husband does not get, and the wonderful Battle of Britain pilots sketch-which are two posh pilots, speaking in teenage slang.

Chris Addison is a comedian who I follow on Twitter (@mrchrisaddison) and he's a regular on TV shows like Mock the Week, has a guest-starring role as the headteacher in Skins and is generally awesome.

And then if you have no idea what I mean when I speak about Chess may I direct you here. It's a musical I adore, and the tour opened a couple of weeks ago, and you can view pictures and things here, but it's coming to Nottingham in November, and me and my friend are popping up to see it (YAY).

Also, way in advance, I'm going to see the amazing Arcade Fire in December in Birmingham.

There are also a couple of CD's I'm excited about:

• Anthems by Kerry Ellis. I love Kerry Ellis. I'm not crazily obsessed, I haven't seen her in Wicked 50 times or anything, but I'll definitly be buying her solo album because her voice is amazing
• Illuminations by Josh Groban. This has been a longgg time coming, and is apparently going to be a little different to his last stuff. He's kind of an operatic-pop-musical-cross-over guy, and his voice is to die for. Not many people here know who he is, and so he's best-known for his appearances in Glee, but, yeah, his voice is amazing
• Les Miserables Live-This is the international 25th anniversary touring cast CD featuring John Owen-Jones, Earl Carpenter and, er, Gareth Gates. I'm intrigued as to how the new orchestrations come off, because apparently the songs have been made more poppy in places and things. This is in anticipation of whatever DVD/CD that'll be released for the 02 concert starring Alfie Boe, Norm Lewis and Nick Jonas among many others

I thought I'd pop this post in here in between my scheduled reviews of my holiday reads, and a couple of other things because I think once school starts I won't have *that* much time to write lots. I'm really, kind of, contemplating the whole vlogging thing after watching Rosianna's videos , but a) I don't know how long my camera lasts and b) I ramble. A lot.

More on the Proms

My favourite moment from the proms has been uploaded onto YouTube. It's wonderful, even if you don't like musicals, the word-play and performance of this song should raise a smile :)

BBC Proms-Sondheim's 80th Birthday

I was hugely excited about this prom. The BBC Proms run every year in the Royal Albert Hall, and tend to be concerts of classical music and opera. There is occasionally a touch of musical theatre, but it would seem that that the Proms only feature a certain type of music.

Yet this year, David Charles Abell (who is the Musical Director of Love Never Dies, and apparently also conducted the tenth anniversary concert of Les Miserables) joined forces with the BBC and Stephen Sondheim (who claims to have little involvement in the concert) to celebrate Sondheim's 80th birthday.

Like the The Night of 1000 Voices, the programme featured segments for Sondheim's best-known works, including the best opening number ever-'Instruction & Inovcation to the Audience' from his 1974 work The Frogs. Performed with good humour by Simon Russell Beale and Daniel Evans .

Follies was the first musical represented. It is the story of a group of old people having a reunion, which brings back memories of their younger years. I don't really enjoy it on record (*hides from Sondheim obsessives*). That being said 'Too Many Mornings' performed by Julian Ovenden (*swoons*) and Maria Friedman was beautiful, even if the age gap between the two was a little jarring. Caroline O'Connor (who featured in Moulin Rouge!) belted out 'Broadway Baby' in one of the most Kander & Ebb-esque/Fosse-esque performances of a Sondheim song, which is not surpising considering she has spent the past few years playing Velma Kelly in Chicago.

We were then transported to the 2005 revival of Sunday in the Park with George, with Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell reprising their roles as Georges/George and Dot/Marie, performing the title song and 'Move On', which is a beautiful song. Russell (who will be playing The Baker's Wife in the revival of Into the Woods this summer) was perfectly in character.

Ovenden and Evans then performed 'Agony' from Into the Woods, in the show this is sung by Cinderella's Prince and Rapunzel's Prince as they discuss how hard it is to get hold of their respective princesses. Personally, my favourite version is the Reprise from Act 2, which ends with the line 'Oh well, back to my wife'. Friedman than sang a revised version of 'Children Will Listen', a far more out-of-show lyric. It was a moving performance, and it really suprises me that Friedman (who has performed in several Sondheim shows) has not yet played The Witch in Into the Woods.

It was then on to the most talked about section of the evening, the A Little Night Music part. Which featured Dame Judi Dench singing 'Send in the Clowns'. Dench played Desiree Armfeldt, who sings the song in the show, at the National in the 1990s. Whilst I love Catherine Zeta-Jones' performance on the most-recent Broadway cast album, this song is especially poignant when performed by a woman of Dench's age. She made me well-up from the very beginning-whilst she doesn't have a flawless voice, her acting carried the song perfectly. Yet, I particuarly enjoyed the soloist performance of 'A Weekend in the Country', featuring O'Connor as Petra, Russell as Anne Egerman (who manages to make her voice sound really young), Russell Beale as Fredrik Egerman, Maria Friedman as Countess Charlotte, Julian Ovenden as Carl-Magnus (again playing opposite Friedman) and Daniel Evans as Henrik Egerman. I adored it-it was a brilliant closer on Act One.

Act Two opens with a Sweeney Todd segment, featuring opera singer Bryn Terfel. Who was terrifying in 'Soliloquy'. Maria Friedman joined him as Mrs Lovett for 'A Little Priest' which was hilarious, and showed off Sondheim's clever humour.

Ovenden then knocked the ball out of the park with 'Being Alive' from Company. Although I still believe that Raul Esparza owns this song, Ovenden's much more operatic version was powerful, and carried wonderfully over the full BBC Orchestra.

Then came my favourite moment of the concert 'Everybody Ought to have a Maid', performed by Russell Beale, Evans, Ovenden and Terfel. The song is already amusing through its word play, but with these four men (one being a classical actor, and another being an opera singer) singing it, complete with dance moves, it was a highlight of the evening.

The show came to a close with 'Our Time', which is one of my favourite songs from Merrily We Roll Along, performed by students from the Children in Need Performing Arts Fund. It wasn't the *best* performance, but then, if I wear in my early twenties and performing at the Albert Hall in front of Stephen Sondheim, I'd be scared stiff.

Finally, came a choral 'Sunday' from Sunday in the Park... and finally a roof-raising rendition of 'Side by Side' from Company.

There will be numbers of people complaining that certain songs were left out (such as 'I'm Losing My Mind from Follies) yet I believe it was a wonderful tribute to Sondheim, for whom this was his first ever time at the Albert Hall. He is a true musical theatre legend and deserved this wonderful tribute.

Children Will Listen

I'm getting very excited about seeing the Stephen Sondheim celebration on television on Saturday evening.



Into the Woods is one of my favourite Sondheim muscials, as well as one of my favourites musicals in general. Bernadette Peters has created parts in Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods, well as playing Mama Rose in 2003 in Gypsy and she is currently playing Desiree in the Broadway production of A Little Night Music.

Hollywood & The Tonys

The 64th Tony Awards were presented last Sunday. Winners included Red, Memphis, Fences, La Cage aux Folles, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Douglas Hodge, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Eddie Redmayne, Scarlett Johansson, Levi Kries and Katie Finneran. The post-Tony dissection seems to be less about the winners, the Broadway season was a little lackluster this year with the most critically-acclaimed revival (Finian's Rainbow) shuttering in the autumn due to lack of commerical sales, but more about where the winners were from. By this, I mean what background the winners have, and by that I mean, are they established Broadway 'names', television stalwarts or Hollywood stars. Denzel Washington (Best Actor in a Play), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Best Actress in a Musical) and Scarlett Johansson (Best Supporting Actress in a Play) are all more known for their work on film and television than they are for their work on Broadway. Washington has appeared in numerous blockbusters and is an Academy Award winner for Training Day, Zeta-Jones is also an Academy Award winner for Chicago, and Johansson has been working in film since a young age in The Horse Whisperer.

Other non-Broadway types present included producers of the musical Fela Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Beyonce & Jay-Z, award presenters including Daniel Radcliffe, Katie Holmes and a sports guy Mark Sanchez, performances from Glee stars Lea Michele & Matthew Morrison and also from Green Day, whose music forms the new musical American Idiot.

Looking at that information, it would seem that the famous and talented Hollywood & smallscreen people are looking at Broadway and are taking an interest in performing in plays, producing shows and even writing musicals. What on earth is wrong with that, I hear you ask. And that is a question which I find myself being an increasingly lone voice is saying (well apart from on this thread on Broadway World). Within the theatre community, a new level of vitriol has been unleashed against the famous who 'dare' to perform on stage well and gain critical recognition for it. Numerous 'fans' and even theatre professionals have attacked Zeta-Jones' win, seemingly based solely on her not so great performance on the Tonys (which I think is due to the fact that Radio City is a HUGE space for her to perform a number from an intimate production of A Little Night Music). Others have dug into Washington, for forgetting the American Theatre Wing's proper title (maybe because he was suprised at having won?). More have suggested it is all Johansson's fault that the A View from the Bridge revival didn't extend as she had films to promote and so had divided loyalties-or something. Others have declared Green Day's performance to be overlong and out-of-place, whilst some have criticised this poor Mark Sanchez guy as having 'nothing to do with Broadway'.

All this has been spured on by Hunter Foster beginning a Facebook group named 'GIVE THE TONYS BACK TO BROADWAY!!!' this group is apparently about giving the Tony ceremony a facelift and an overhaul, making it more theatre-centric; yet the response from theatre-lovers, and theatre professionals-including Foster himself, suggests that it is mostly about shunning anyone whose main profession is within film, television or popular music-or in some people's comments if people are British. As I have said on the group, show business is a BUSINESS. It is about making money and turning a profit, which today is harder and harder (unless you're Les Mis, POTO or Wicked) and the Tony Awards are an event which can attempt to gain interest in the new openings each season. In order to draw in viewers, people like Green Day, Will Smith, Beyonce, Lea Michele etc are touted so that their fans can be shown another art form, and the developments within it. This happens in the hope that said fans will buy tickets to see Fela! or American Idiot and will then explore other theatre productions, should they like what they see.

American theatre is lucky in that their networks give them the chance to have a primetime awards show-which isn't something us in the UK are privy to. It is rare that new musicals or plays get much coverage on television-unless the play features someone like David Tennant or the musical is family-friendly like Hairspray or to some extent Legally Blonde.

Theatre is viewed by many people as a exclusivist art-form, full of middle-aged and older men bemoaning the fact that 'so-and-so' wasn't anywhere near as good in 'Role X' as 'older actor/ress'. This belief, that theatre is hostile to new blood in any way, will not go away as long as people continue to feed the fire, and is less likely that the likes of Johansson and Washington (who was snubbed in Julius Casear a while back) will return if they are aware of the prejudice against them from both theatregoers and theatre professionals.

All highly ironic after Johansson said in her ('overlong') acceptance speech that she is thrilled to have been so welcomed by the Broadway community.

(My favourite moment of the Tonys? Can't tell you. Kind of liked Eddie Redmayne's acceptance speech though)

Dear Music God

I can have Kerry Ellis' voice please? Just for a bit?

Thank you
xx

Till I Hear You Sing-Love Never Dies

So, I've been playing the Love Never Dies album on pretty much a loop for the past few days. And I'm falling more and more in love, and haven't actually watched the Making Of DVD. Andrew Lloyd Webber's music is gorgeous, cancelling out the occasionally god-awful Glenn Slater lyrics (who contributed to The Little Mermaid on Broadway, and apparently will help Lloyd Webber aid new songs to The Wizard of Oz [I know...])



But, the performers are wonderful...particularly this guy:

Mmmm...

And as well as looking lovely, Ramin Karimloo (who gets kudos for living with that name) has one helll of a voice, enjoy it here with Till I Hear You Sing (with cameos from Sierra Boggess)

Forgive Me Blogosphere...

I have been a Bad Blogger (note the capitals) of late. Indeed, I haven't posted since I was 16! (though, that was only a couple of weeks ago).

So what on earth have I been up to?:

Good Things That Have Happened:

• I turned 17! Recieved lots and lots of lovely things. And a giant balloon, which is still floating around my room
• I saw Alice in Wonderland and it was wonderful (: Stephen Fry is brilliant just voicing the Cheshire Cat, and Helena Bonham-Carter & Johnny Depp do their thing as The Red Queen and The Mad Hatter respectably. The only mild disappointment was Mia Wasikowsa as Alice, but that may generally be down to the fact that I grew up with the Disney version, so am used to a little girl Alice
• I got my paws on the Love Never Dies original cast recording, and I like it (: Plus, it has taken me back to my First Ever musical soundtrack The Phantom of the Opera
• I didn't at all fail General Studies AS-Level. In fact, I got 100% on one of the papers!
• I didn't totally fail French mock (: I'm sitting on 91/110 so far, but awaiting Speaking mark (which will probably bring it downn-due to my lack of revision of Why I Would Not Want to be on Reality TV)
• Finished Hamlet in English Literature (: just got the final bit of Duchess of Malfi to go...and then two volumes of Pride & Prejudice to go with my other (far less brilliant) teacher
• CHESS IS COMING TO NOTTINGHAM IN NOVEMBER. And me and my friend are definitly going (: yayy.

Not-So-Good Things That Have Happened:

• Lots of people didn't do so well in their AS-Level modules, which made me feel sorta bad about my good mood that day
• Lots&Lots&Lots&Lots of evill deadlines are creeping up, most notably my Extended Project, which I need to have done this weekend *sobs*
• Also, quite a few hours at work...think money...but think also lack of time and also wondering around town for hours on Wednesday after my French mock-having a coffee alone....*sniffs*

Things Coming Up:

• London School of Economics Open Day-24th March
• French Conference, also in London-25th March
• Last Day of Term (:-1st April
• Holidayyyyy-3rd April-10th April
• Night of 1000 Voices & General London Fun-2nd May-3rd May
• Warwick University Open Day-8th May

Theatre News

London seems to be getting some pretty awesome productions coming up:

Paradise Found (Menier Chocolate Factory: 19th May-26th June)
Directed by Harold Prince (She Loves Me, Cabaret, Company, Follies, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera etcetcetec) and Susan Stroman (The Music Man, The Producers, Young Frankenstein) Paradise Found is a new musical, featuring music by Johann Strauss II (who granted, has been dead quite a while), lyrics Ellen Fitzhugh (who wrote something called Grind which starred Ben Vereen but flopped) and a book by Richard Nelson (Broadway version of Chess)
It's the cast for this that is getting me so excited though:
Kate Baldwin, whose voice is just a.m.a.z.i.n.g on the 2009 Finian's Rainbow recording
John Cullum, who has a GAZILLION Broadway credits (check the link) but has most recently seen as the missing patriach in August:Osage County
Shuler Hensley, who scared the HELL out of me when I went through my addicted to the National Theatre's Oklahoma film phase in which he played Jud Fry and recently been performing as the Monster in Young Frankenstein
Judy Kaye, who was the original Carlotta in Broadway's The Phantom of the Opera
Mandy Patinkin, who was the original Che in Broadway's Evita, and the original Archie Craven in The Secret Garden & is in the awesome The Princess Bride-currently appearing in Compulsion at Yale Rep-read about that here

The dates are a little scary (I'd been done with all my AS-Levels) but I woud lovelovelovelove to see this. SO MUCH [even if the plot sounds a bit like Kismet]. *Crosses fingers*

La Bete (Comedy Theatre: 7 th July-28th August)
La Bete is having a season in London before it transfers to Broadway with an amazing cast. Now, I'm not much of a play person myself but the combination of Mark Rylance (Jerusalem, Boeing-Boeing and apparently the man of the moment), David Hyde Pierce (Fraiser, Curtains) and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous) is pretty damn cool!!

Aspects of Love (Menier Chocolate Factory: 3rd July-11th September)
Okay...so...I'm not a BIG fan of Aspects of Love. I've never seen it live, but I do have the really long cast album and it's the only Andrew Lloyd Webber album, aside from The Beautiful Game (now known as The Boys in the Photograph or something I think) that I just CANNOT sit and listen to. The story is also pretty disturbing-the Forbbiden Broadway parady 'I, I sleep with everyone' is pretty correct.
But hey, casting could be WONDERFUL, you never know. The Menier tends to seem to get that right.

In other Andrew Lloyd Webber news, the world has been ROCKED by the fact that the first preview of his new musical, Phantom sequel Love Never Dies has been cancelled. I don't get the SHOCK HORROR about it all....I mean, MANY MANY MANY productions cancel previews. Previews are not to be confused with performances. If the first performance was cancelled, sure, I get the anger. But a preview is really just a very polished rehearsal with an audience in front of it. Surely its better to have the show and all the sets and stuff run smoothly and safely for the actors than to open and risk an accident.

Anyway, Love Never Dies is hugely intriguing to me. POTO was the first musical I really fell for, followed by Les Miserables, and I am yet to see it on stage. However, I've seen the film and listened to the soundtrack a billion times and have seen enough photos/videos of it to feel like I have seen it. I'm hoping to get the schedule for LSE's open day within a few days so I can try and grab tickets for a LND performance. I'm am just PRAYING that it isn't a wish fulfillment, with Christine ending up ditching Raoul (who apparently now has a drink problem & is played by the rather handsome Joseph Millson) to marry the Phantom with whom she actually has a son (cause call me crazy, but unless the Phantom did something horrible between 'Music of the Night' and 'I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It' that is pretty much impossible.

Then, this is ALW. Anything is possible ;)

The Story of Chess

This news has made me a very happy person indeed.

Chess has got to be one of my favourite musicals, although I only discovered it last year, it's wonderful score (courtesy of Abba frontmen) and lyrics (courtesy of Tim Rice) pulling you through a romantic and political tale, set during the Cold War.

Through all it's incarnations (more on that below) the basic plot summary is roughly as follows: Florence Vassy is the chess second of the American player Frederick Trumper. She was born in Hungary but fled in 1956, during the Budapest uprising which is believed to have left both her parents dead. Trumper's match is surrounded in politics as his opponent is the Russian player Anaotly Sergievsky, who is seconded by the KGB agent Alexander Molokov. Florence and Anatoly soon fall in love, with Anatoly defecting in order to be with her-despite the fact that he is married (in some versions he also has children). What then follows is the Russians desperate attempt to get him to return, using his wife (Svetlana), Florence and sometimes Freddie as tools to win him back.

Chess has also got one of the most fascinating behind-the-scenes story of a recent musical. It opened in the West End in 1986, and originally was due to be directed by Michael Bennett (of A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls fame) however, he passed away due to AIDS before he could finish the job and so Trevor Nunn (who would soon direct Les Miserables) was called in to finish the job. It starred Elaine Paige, Tommy Korberg and Murray Head, and ran for three years.

Upon its move to Broadway in 1988, Trevor Nunn and the rest of the team decided that Chess needed a complete re-imagining, and Richard Nelson (a playwright) was bought in to create a 'book musical'. Elaine Paige was also ruled out of the transfer, by Nelson writing Florence Vassy as an American-Hungarian as opposed to an English-Hungarian, she was replaced by Judy Kuhn, who came straight from performing in the original Broadway cast of Les Mis as Cosette. This production also starred David Carroll and Philip Casnoff. On Broadway, the show folded after only 68 performances, with Carroll being the driving force between it receiving a cast recording.

In 1990, the musical was changed again when it began its US tour. Nelson's book was revised by Robert Coe. It substantially altered the plots of both the previous versions; Florence seems more ridden with guilt than usual when Freddie catches her with Anatoly, Anatoly seems to defect to stop Florence leaving after she breaks up with Freddie, Svetlana and Anatoly's relationship seems more solid than in previous versions and the motivation of Anatoly losing/winning the final chess match in order to enable Florence to be reunited with her 'father' is totally cut out. It toured for five months, starring Carolee Carmello, John Herrera and Stephen Bogardus.

The same year, a Broadway-based version opened in Chicago directed by David H Bell, the production remained true to the basic Broadway plot, but made the songs fit more snuggly, had the scenes between the Americans and Russians move easily and, in reflection of the now defunct USSR, ends with Florence truely being reunited with her father, having lost Anatoly. It played for nearly five months, and starred Susie McMongal, David Studwell and Kim Strauss-who would reprise his role in other Bell-directed productions, including one opposite Jodi Benson-the voice of The Little Mermaid-as Florence.

In 1991, Tim Rice handed his version of a 'book musical' Chess to director Jim Sherman in Australia. This production had Florence's orphan-hood date from 1968 in Czechslovakia, as the cast were generally younger. It took place in one tournament in Bangkok (Most versions flick between either Merano/Bangkok or Bangkok/Budapest). Svetlana is featured throughout, as opposed to only appearing in Act Two as with prior versions. Again, her realtionship with Anatoly seems stronger than the weakened marriage you would expect having looked at other versions. It ran for 5 months and starred Jodie Gillies, Robbie Krupski and David McLeod.

In 2002, Bjorn and Benny revisited Chess, in a Swedish language version of Chess. Chess pa Svenska starred Helen Sjoholm, Tommy Korberg (reprising his role almost 20 years on) and Anders Ekborg. It featured new numbers, and was set wholly in Merano.

However, the 'definitive' version, which I guess is what the new tour will be based on was performed in 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall. Starring Idina Menzel, Josh Groban and Adam Pascal, the synopsis followed the London one for the most part, with some additional lyrics from the Broadway incarnation.
And I am jumping up and down with excitment, the idea of actor-musicians makes me dubious-with the characters essentially being 'played' by others within the musical it would be strange seeing them actually playing an instrument-perhaps the ensemble could perform? Whatever happens, I'll be jumping on tickets if it comes near here.

(Many thanks to Square One, the info booklet that came with the Chess in Concert DVD by Tim Rice and all the wonderful casts that have made their way onto recordings)