So alle 20 Jahre produziert Cameron Mackintosh eine Sondheim-Revue. Und zwar immer mit Julia McKenzie, die deshalb  für diese letzte, besonders prächtige namens Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, die halt leider zur Gedenkveranstaltung wurde, nach 20 Jahren erstmals wieder auf einer Bühne steht (das heißt ihr Auftritt in The Philadelphia Story, wo wir sie gesehen haben war wahrscheinlich der letzte), sie wirkt aber recht munter. Einige von Sondheims Alten Freunden sind natürlich inzwischen tatsächlich sehr alt, besonders zu erwähnen ist die 89-jährige Petula Clark, die jetzt wirklich mal befugt ist, I’m Still Here zu singen (sie ist inzwischen 90, haben wir leider verpasst, wäre natürlich ein prima Vorwand gewesen, Finian’s Rainbow anzuschauen...), die unverzichtbare Bernadette und viele, viele Londoner Theaterlegenden, von denen wir einige auch schon auf der Bühne sehen durften (einige sogar in Sondheim-Shows). Es ist wunderbar.

Anything Goes (2021)

It's a pirate's life for Jennifer Saunders

Jennifer Saunders will play Captain Hook in the London Palladium’s panto this winter. Continue reading Untitled

View On WordPress

Re-review: Anything Goes 2022, Barbican

Re-review: Anything Goes 2022, Barbican

Less of a review and more of a list of things I loved about going back to see Anything Goes again at the Barbican “You really know how to fill a girdle” I didn’t need much prodding to go and see Anything Goes again, especially when second row tickets for £20 were in the offing but it was also great to see the show from a different angle. With a company and stage of this size, the expansiveness of…

View On WordPress

You're the best!! Would you be able to gift an audio with Lucie Jones as Elphaba?

Lucie Jones = Amazing

Lucie Jones (Elphaba), Helen Woolf (Glinda), Ryan Reid (Fiyero), Gary Wilmot (The Wizard), Sophie-Louise Dann (Madame Morrible), Laura Harrison (u/s Nessarose), Joe Thompson-Oubari (u/s Boq), Rhidian Marc (u/s Doctor Dillamond), Lewis Newton (Chistery), Natalie Spriggs (Midwife), Lucie Horsfall (Witch's Mother), Harry Mills (s/w Witch's Father / Ozian Official) April 9, 2022; London Matinée || Notes: Laura's Nessa debut, includes cast board.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-BJ0bYskAeycy7pYcY4gehFSeIzyekka

Yes! We need to hear what the Valjeans my fair lady uk tour cast would have looked like!

i am more than happy to oblige.

(obviously this is a dream situation where it doesn't matter that quite a few of these people are contracted for other shows right now)

henry higgins - starting VERY on brand and saying earl carpenter. nobody can tell me that he wouldn't absolutely NAIL this part. also imagine having a higgins that can actually properly sing! his 'i've grown accustomed to her face' would be heartbreaking.

eliza doolittle - lucy st louis. a somewhat controversial opinion of mine is that i actually preferred the bway version of casting slightly older actresses as eliza (im not saying lucy is old, just that she's older than 25 year old amara). like if you're going to go for that dynamic with higgins it just works better. also lucy is a queen and i'd just love to see what she'd bring to the role.

alfred doolittle - ok i get it, they need some more recognisable faces. clive rowe is a pretty well known face to the british public AND has a proper musical theatre career behind him. he also has the ability to move in time to music which would be a big improvement.

freddy eynsford-hill - alastair so. he was cover raoul in the west end just before the shut down and he was incredible. he's got the perfect freddy look and the perfect classic musical theatre voice for it too.

colonel pickering - gary wilmot. another big name but with an insanely long list of theatre credits. if you saw him as elisha whitney in anything goes at the barbican then im sure you'll agree he'd be perfect for this!

Friends of Sondheim Concert (2022)

Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, the event aimed to not only remember Sondheim’s legacy but also raise money for the recently formed Stephen Sondheim Foundation which supports new writers.

On the cast were Michael Ball, Helena Bonham Carter, Rob Brydon, Petula Clark, Anna-Jane Casey, Rosalie Craig, Janie Dee, Judi Dench, Daniel Evans, Maria Friedman, Haydn Gwynne, Bonnie Langford, Damian Lewis, Julia Mckenzie, Julian Ovenden, Bernadette Peters, Sian Phillips, Jon Robyns, Clive Rowe, Jenna Russell, Imelda Staunton, Charlie Stemp, Gary Wilmot and Michael D. Xavier.

I got ticket's to go see WICKED!!!!!

I'm going in Febuary for my birthday with my mum!!!

I'm very exited. I saw it last year when Gary Wilmot was the Wizard in the west end now I'm seeing it on tour. Funny thing is that it's the Elphaba my mum saw when she went to the west end in 2020.

Gary Wilmot at Olivier Awards, London, Arrivals.mp4 from Red Carpet TV on Vimeo.

Vergnügten uns dann mit Sutton Foster und ihrem Anything Goes -Prinzip, das wurde netterweise aufgezeichnet (jetzt warten wir nur noch auf diese Follies....). Es ist eigentlich auch ziemlich unmoralisch, dafür wieviele vorgebliche Moralprediger darin vorkommen, aber dabei wenigsten so albern, daß es nicht weiter auffällt.

𝗔 𝗪𝗘𝗜𝗥𝗗𝗣𝗨𝗡𝗞 𝗗𝗢𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘! So... 31 Days of Godless is over. SO WHAT! Sam Richard and Weirdpunk bring us two outstanding books to kick off a November of the strangest books by Godless favorites, interesting emerging talent, and the weirdest of the weird. We start things off with Grief Ritual by Sam Richard and Stories of the Eye, which is a Weirdpunk Anthology, jam-packed with weirdos! If you haven't read any Weirdpunk books, you're missing out on the most subversively horrific and poetically bizarre titles on this planet... and probably any other. 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗘𝗜𝗥𝗗𝗣𝗨𝗡𝗞 𝗗𝗢𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗪! https://godless.com/collections/weirdpunk-double-feature ________________ Grief Rituals by Sam Richard A young widow joins a spousal loss support group with bizarre methods of healing. An aging punk is stalked by something ancient and familiar in the labyrinthian halls of an art complex. A couple renting out a small movie theater are interrupted by a corrosive force of nature. Through these stories of weird horror and visceral sorrow, Richard shows us ways grief can be transcendent—but only if we know which rituals to practice. Stories of the Eye: A Weirdpunk Anthology Beauty is a knife. Between the desire to create and the thing created, the model is a key, a stepping stone, a participant othered through the process of creation. These thirteen visions of modern horror dissect the relationship between artist and model, exposing the spaces the eye is tricked into missing where we witness the beautiful and monstrous intricacies of making and being made. Featuring stories by Andrew Wilmot, M. Lopes da Silva, Gwendolyn Kiste, Hailey Piper, Roland Blackburn, Ira Rat, Donyae Coles, Matt Neil Hill, Brendan Vidito, LC von Hessen, Gary J. Shipley, and editors Joe Koch and Sam Richard. 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗘𝗜𝗥𝗗𝗣𝗨𝗡𝗞 𝗗𝗢𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗪! https://godless.com/collections/weirdpunk-double-feature _________________ #godless #godlessap #godlesshorror #godlesshorrrors #horror #horrorbooks #horrorbookstagram #indiehorror #indiebooks #indiebookstagram #supportindie (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkbBYI5L76-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Why I'm not heading to MusicalCon

This year is seeing the launch of something theatre fans have been crying out for... MusicalCon. It promises a weekend-long celebration of all things musical where you can meet the stars, learn from the pros and celebrate the shows.

Sounds a stagey dream, right?

I personally decided to not go this year.

The current experiences that have been detailed, which require payment on top of the entrance fee, seem to include taking part in dance workshops. From what I've seen on socials, there seems to be a mixed bag of people who are going to better their dancing skills, and those who feel like they need to take part in *something* to justify the ticket.

As someone with limited dancing talent, I don't overly fancy paying to make a fool of myself in front of West End stars... but props to those who are keen! These days, I'm more of an appreciater than a do-er.

This is particularly exacerbated by the fact it seems super geared towards the under 20 musical fan market.

Don't get me wrong, I'd have bought the first tickets to a convention if there was a wider spread of talent like Aaron Tveit, Julie Andrews (imagine), Gary Wilmot, Scarlet Strallen, Joshua Henry and Ramin Karimloo would be there... or even modern composer legends like Alan Menken, Stiles & Drewe, and Jason Robert Brown. But I did have a feeling it'd be focused on the Heathers crowd - which is great news for them!

There's also been a bit of noise on socials about paying to meet the stars. This isn't unusual for fan conventions - Wales Comic Con boasted £80 on top of entry to meet and take a photo with David Tennant. But for musical theatre fans, meeting your idols is generally significantly 'easier' than film and tv; this is something I believe has caused a little friction between ticket holders and the organisers.

I personally wouldn't spend £30 on top of entry to meet someone who I could meet at stage door, or even bump into at a central London Tesco Express. I'd rather spend that £30 on a ticket to a show, and if I take a liking to one of the actors, I'd swing by stage door and snag an autograph if I'm lucky.

What particularly interests me about MusicalCon is the £195 Weekend VIP Pass. Some folks on Facebook have said they "naively assumed the VIP extra ticket price meant that stuff would be included" and I think that's completely fair.

Upon launch of these passes, they included: VIP main stage viewing area, VIP access to book autographs, photo opportunities and workshops, VIP lanyard & goody bag, and a (limited availability of) MusicalCon t shirt.

It's that 'VIP access to' that I think has slightly led some customers astray.

The price point below the £195 Weekend VIP Pass was the Weekend Priority Pass, costing £89. This simply included priority access to book autographs, photo opportunities and workshops. The £195 VIP Pass should be including one hell of a goody bag to justify the extra £100 between that and the Priority Pass!

Some folks are even passing up their opportunity to book workshops early due to the fact a limited amount of scheduling has been announced and they don't want to miss out on something better coming along. Perhaps something on the Main Stage, like the unannounced panels, Q&As and interviews - this is definitely something I'd be more likely to enjoy.

But for me, the biggest anti-selling point, was how this may go some way towards inadvertently increase theatre ticket prices.

If I were a big theatre producer, I'd be keeping tabs on which meet & greets sold out. Because if folks are willing to spend £30 on spending a few minutes with their favourite star, they'd probably be happy paying £5 more per ticket for two and a half hours' worth of time in the same room as them, right? It feels like it makes musicals even more commercialised than they currently are.

When it comes down to it, though, it'll be a great way to meet likeminded musicals fans in one room together. Our collective passion for the form is truly unmatched and will, I'm sure, be worth the entry fee.

One reason I wish I did have a ticket to MusicalCon for me is the marketplace exhibitors. It is SO rare to find decent musical theatre merch, particularly if your favourite shows aren't currently being staged.

It'll be featuring some excellent stagey small businesses including AmeliaStitches for all your embroidery needs, TheatreAndThreads to jazz up your jackets, LettersToJuly to decorate your scrapbooks, Scrunchies4Theatre to accessorise your hair, ThePlayhouseArthouse to swankify your walls and MusicalTheatrePins for your collector's items.

If you're a ticket holder, make sure you get yourself down to visit these stalls!

I hope everyone who bought a ticket to MusicalCon has the most divine time and gets exactly what they want from it. Curating a new event from scratch is a pretty impossible task, so to open to a sell out audience is phenomenal.

Let me know what you think - did you buy a ticket to MusicalCon? Do you wish you had?

Review: Anything Goes 2022, Barbican

Review: @AnythingGUK @BarbicanCentre Not enough @bonnie_langford (when is there ever...?) but a hugely enjoyable bit of much needed escapist entertainment with a superlative Kerry Ellis

My favourite show of 2021 returns with added Bonnie Langford! And an excellent Kerry Ellis now at the helm of Anything Goes at the Barbican “Times have changed And we’ve often rewound the clock” There’s little surprise really that several venues turned to classic musical theatre last year as a respite from the time that had gone before. But saying you’ll put on a crowdpleaser and actually putting…

View On WordPress

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels @ New Victoria Theatre Woking 2015 (#42)

Title: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Venue: New Victoria Theatre Woking

Year: 2015

Condition: Wear to edges and cover

Author: Book by Jeffrey Lane. Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek

Director: Jerry Mitchell

Choreographer: Jerry Mitchell

Cast: Michael Praed, Noel Sullivan, Carley Stenson, Gary Wilmot, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Phoebe Coupe, Emma Caffrey, Andy Conaghan, Soophia Foroughi, Jonny Godbold, Orla Gormley, Patrick Harper, Jordan Livesey, Kevin Stephen-Jones, Regan Shepherd, Katie Warsop, Jenny Wickham, Justin Lee-Jones, Lisa Mathieson, Andy Rees, Freya Rowley

FIND ON EBAY HERE