Theatre – Page 10 – Dance Direct Blog. News, Reviews & Advice About Dance

Theatre Traditions

The Journal Tyne Theatre The theatre is a world of mystique, intrigue and illusion, serving to delight and entertain its audience with spectacle, no matter how otherworldly. This tradition of theatre is still upheld in many venues and arts spaces across the country and even across the world, but equally much of the previous spectacle has developed to accommodate the twenty first century. Productions have alternative intents, aiming to shock and provoke audiences rather than provide a successful model of theatre which has been proven to work.

Despite many changes, developments and modernisations of the theatre, many of the time-old traditions remain stuck to the people, productions and venues. Superstition and performance ritual is just a small part of theatrical tradition, yet play a meaningful role in much of what is said and occurs without a second thought. Ever wondered why Shakespeare’s Macbeth is referred to as The Scottish Play, and not by its real name in the theatre? Why the Green Room is called just that? Why many dancers are wished good luck through “break a leg”, despite this being the worst thing that could happen to them?

A theatre or performance space is never without a Green Room, a place for the performers to rest, a limbo or sort of purgatory between the dressing rooms and the stage, somewhere to eat or sleep. There are many interpretations as to why this space – which may not even be green – is named as such, with one being that travelling actors would traditionally perform on the village or town green, and stay in the adjoining public house, usually called The Green Rooms.

Another name which has stuck is that of the theatre’s crew, responsible for set changes, scenery construction and other technical tasks which lift the production out of the rehearsal room. It is said that they are so called because traditionally they would be sailors, a ship’s crew, who would work in the theatre in between sea voyages. Despite many changes taking place to theatre over many years, these are just two features which have stuck.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Spotlight On: Coppélia

ENB's 2008 Production of Coppelia As a choreographic work which does not end in death for the main protagonists, Coppélia is a light-hearted comedic ballet, with a narrative which delights audience with its humour, magic and a happy ending.

Our heroine Swanilda is a feisty villager who isn’t very happy when she spots her beau, Franz, making eyes at a mysterious female figure high in a window of Dr Coppelius’ workshop.

The reserved beauty later is discovered to be the mechanical doll Coppélia by Swanilda and her girlfriends, when they find themselves inside the workshop. Having found the answers to their questions, they amuse themselves at Franz’s expense, delighted that he should be declaring his love for a mere doll.

Meanwhile, Franz has also found his way into Dr Coppelius’ abode, searching for Coppélia. The intruding girls are discovered by Dr Coppelius and flee, bar Swanilda who quickly hides. Dr Coppelius, after a short outburst at discovering Franz too, rethinks his strategy and invites Franz to drink [poison] with him, tipping his away and allowing Franz to submit to unconsciousness. Dr Coppelius is seemingly alone to care for his prized doll Coppélia, who we discover is Swanilda, taking on her role in the doll’s clothes.

Chaos ensues, with Dr Coppelius believing he has brought his beloved creation to life. Following two engaging solos from Swanilda/Coppélia, Franz is finally woken, and the lovers escape. Depending on the interpretation of the production by different ballet companies, the extent of remorse felt for Dr Coppelius varies! Act 3 sees a town celebration take place, with solos by Dawn, Prayer, Morning Hours, Working Hours and the introduction of the new bell, a cause for a party. In some versions of the ballet, Dr Coppelius is reunited with the town who have rejected his odd and introverted ways; a happy ending for all.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Wind In The Willows In The West End

The Wind In The Willows

Beginning its journey at the Royal Opera House, Will Tuckett’s adaptation of The Wind in the Willows is set to transfer to the West End for Christmas 2013.

Kenneth Grahame’s story of Toad of Toad Hall is the ROH’s first transfer, heading for the Duchess Theatre in December. It is the first time that a ROH production has transferred commercially to London’s West End, and may be the instigator of many more! With so many shows coming and going from the heart of the capital’s Theatreland, it is great news that the piece based on the movement vocabulary of ballet is destined for other stages.

Running for eight weeks, the classic story sees the outrageous and sometimes criminal adventures of the reckless Toad and his friends Ratty, Mole and Badger, told through dance, song, music and puppetry, set to delight audiences young and old. Transforming the much-loved story into an exciting production is a great development, with the piece originally just a small-scale Christmas production, the first to be created for the then newly opened Linbury Studio Theatre a decade ago. Through its popularity the piece has been brought back into the repertory in Covent Garden three times since as a fantastic theatrical show for the whole family.

The West End transfer will open up the production to even more audiences, and will be directed too by the choreographic brains behind the vision, Tuckett. The piece was inspired by the music of George Butterworth with a score created by the talented Martin Ward, with Willows having already played more than 100 performances since it was commissioned. The Wind in the Willows will follow the West End transfer of The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui starring Olivier Award winner Henry Goodman, following a run at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2012.

Worldwide Wicked

The beautiful Willemijn Verkaik is set to will join the cast of Wicked the musical in London this year, bringing her esteemed performance as Elphaba to West End audiences following more than 1,000 appearances as the witch in productions all over the world. The Dutch musical theatre star has played the role in productions of the hit show in Holland, Germany and on Broadway, making her the only actress to have ever performed the role in more than one language. Wicked, and musical theatre in general, looks set to take over the world!

Wicked, which opened in London in 2006 and on Broadway in 2002, has been seen by more than five million people. The production tells the story of the Witches of Oz, and how two young magic students became Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West before Dorothy flew in. London audiences will now get the opportunity to experience and acknowledge Willemijn’s performance as Elphaba, who will join the cast at the Apollo Victoria theatre six years after she made her Wicked debut abroad.

Verkaik is by no means a one trick pony: she has also appeared in We Will Rock You and Elton John’s Aida, and has made numerous concert appearances across Europe. In 2012, Verkaik made her Broadway debut in Wicked earning her a Broadway.com Audience Award nomination for Best Takeover. Considering Broadway and the West End alone, this transfer greatly widens the audiences of Verkaik’s talent, and ultimately acknowledging her ability to perform the role in three languages opens up a whole new meaning of the word ‘accessible’.

Louise Dearman, who is currently playing the role of Elphaba on the West End stage is the first person to ever play both leading roles, having first played Glinda in 2010, and will play her final performance in the musical in November.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Newsies – A New Musical For The West End

Newsies - The Musical The Broadway musical Newsies is said to be hitting the capital’s West End with leaps, kicks and turns in the spring of 2014. As a result of this exciting transfer, the hit show, by Harvey Fierstein, will be scouting for UK dance talent to fill the dancing shoes of the production’s esteemed Broadway dancers.

The producers will be holding open auditions in order to find their cast for the show, which is based on the 1992 Disney film starring Christian Bale, reminding many theatre-lovers of the ‘cattle market’ style auditions conducted for A Chorus Line in which hundreds of enthusiastic performers queued for many hours. Newsies requires just two male dancers, insinuating that these auditions will find them in possibly worse conditions than those for A Chorus Line.

Newsies is currently running at the 1,200 seat Nederlander Theatre on Broadway, and tells the story of the real-life newsboy strike of 1899 as the boys’ leader fights against big-time publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. The show – it has been reported in the arts press – is aiming to open at either the Piccadilly or the Savoy Theatre next year, following two open auditions on 17 June 2013 at Pineapple Dance Studios in the heart of the West End. The auditions are hoped to produce two trained dancers with excellent ballet technique and dance talent, capable of playing ages between 16 and 22 years old.

The production, also containing acrobatics, tap dancing and a huge amount of energy, won two Tony Awards in 2012, one of which was for Christopher Gattelli’s choreography and the other for Alan Menken and Jack Fieldman’s score. The show was originally intended as a regional production and had a trial run in New Jersey in 2011 which was followed by its transfer to Broadway in 2012 and the nominations for five other Tony Awards.

Images courtesy of Wikipedia.

Anything Goes… Again!

Anything Goes - Sondheim Theatre 2011 The classic production Anything Goes is back on the musical theatre scene and is currently on tour across North America, visiting St. Louis, Washington, Schenectady, Toronto, Costa Mesa, Portland, Spokane and Seattle. This splendid new production produced by the Roundhouse Theatre Company will feature all the iconic tracks such as ‘I get a Kick out of You’, ‘It’s De-Lovely’ and ‘Anything Goes’, with the legendary Cole Porter the genius behind the music and lyrics of this sassy Broadway musical.

Anything Goes is based on the original book collaboration by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, and tells the story behind the S.S. American heading out to sea to London from New York, with two unlikely pairs setting off on the course to true love with mad antics along the way. Destiny then receives a little help in delivering the love from a crew of singing sailors, an exotic disguise, and of course some blackmail! The protagonists’ bumpy ride is levelled out by Kathleen Marshall’s fantastic work as Tony Award winner choreographer, providing audiences with an all-round entertaining trip out. Marshall has also worked on musical productions such as The Pajama Game and Grease.

Anything Goes is the winner of three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, having been revived several times in the United States and Great Britain. The musical has also been filmed twice and is an extremely popular choice for school and community productions since its performance debut in 1934 at the Alvin (now Neil Simon) Theatre on Broadway. Charles B. Cochran, a British theatrical manager, bought the London performance rights and brought the show to the West End’s Palace Theatre opening in 1935 and running for 261 performances. The National Theatre then revived the music and opened it at the Olivier Theatre in 2002, with the production then transferring to the West End’s Theatre Royal from 2003 for a year.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Do You Have To Shock To Survive?

The Book Of Mormon

With the incredible success The Book of Mormon has celebrated since it opened in March of this year, it begs the question as to whether productions of this kind, and dance too, must continually push accepted boundaries in order to draw in audiences, or similarly keep them interested.

The Book of Mormon is incredibly unsubtle but nonetheless extremely entertaining in its shallow depiction of two missionaries journeying to Uganda, frequenting the use of expletives and being entirely ruthless in their approach. Whilst this is a musical theatre production, light-hearted and energetic, it suggests that even the broad commerciality of musical theatre may be veering towards the shock factor and the innovatively new in order to draw in younger (and different) audiences who may then also catch the bug of showbiz.

This is mirrored, directly or indirectly, in the postmodern era of contemporary dance for example, instigated by the Judson Church Group in 1960s USA. The group worked to push the boundaries of contemporary and modern dance to break free from the ‘constraints’ of the American modern dance pioneers, namely Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Merce Cunningham, and so on, whose techniques shaped perceptions of dance. This resulted in the likes of Trisha Brown with her site-specific installations, Yvonne Rainer and Paul Taylor, who went from the ‘naughty boy’ of the Martha Graham Dance Company to a post-modern choreographer in his own right, rebelling against the technique and expression of previous years. However, even those such as Graham, Humphrey and Isadora Duncan, as the primary protagonist, were rebelling in one sense or another, with Duncan being the most apparent of the three by dancing barefoot and without the restricting corsets of the era in which she resided.

It is interesting therefore to note that today’s dance and musical theatre scene may not be a rebellion of the previous, but more an evolution of the current, with choreographers and performers attempting new things in order to drive the industry and keep the art-form alive.

Dirty Dancing Set To Return!

Dirty Dancing - Aldwych Theatre The hit West End musical that went on to tour the UK, Dirty Dancing, is set to replace Viva Forever! at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End, depicting a story of talent shows and friendships set to the music of the iconic Spice Girls. Despite this pull, the new musical is set to close its doors later this summer and welcome Dirty Dancing, which previously played in London at the Aldwych Theatre from 2006 until 2011 and has since been touring the UK. The much-loved musical will finish touring in June at the Manchester Opera House before returning to London and opening at the Piccadilly Theatre from July.

Beginning as a hit film in 1987, the American romance hooked the world with its lead protagonists Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey who played Johnny Castle and Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman respectively. Dirty Dancing then became the longest running show in the history of the Aldwych Theatre, having sold out for the first six months of its run before it opened! The classic story on stage went on to break records in Germany and the UK for having the highest advance ticket sales in history.

Dirty Dancing on tour was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, Australia in November 2004. Following this, the production went on a national tour of Australia and New Zealand, visiting Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland and the show had a sell-out season of 18 months throughout Australia and New Zealand. The show has gone on to perform across the world in Toronto, Canada; Utrecht, Holland; a North American Tour including Chicago, Boston and LA and the production continues to play to sold-out houses and recently sold its one millionth ticket. Following the reinstatement of the iconic Dirty Dancing to London’s theatreland, a new UK tour of the musical will be launched in March next year.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Dawn Williams – Life On Tour In Cats!

Cats

As the Cats tour grips the country in a wealth of feline frolics and incredible talent, Dance Direct caught up with Dawn Williams, who is fresh out of musical theatre college and is playing kitten Jemima.

Dawn, have you always wanted to be on stage?

I have wanted to be on stage, for as long as I can remember, and have been dancing, singing and acting from such a young age. Performing was the only thing that I knew I wanted to do as a career.

Dawn Williams Where did you go to train and what was it like there?

I went to Harlequin Stage School in Worcesterhire, as well as WODYS amateur dramatics and Emma Winscom Young Singers. For the last 3 years, I have trained at Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom, Surrey, where I graduated in Professional Musical Theatre and Dance. It was three years that I wouldn’t change for the world and I feel that it was the right school for me as it fulfilled all my needs and concentrated on aspects which I needed to improve and learn more about. Of course, it had highs and lows, and it was never easy, but the hard work was definitely worth it and I graduated ready for the industry. Well, as ready as I could have been! I think you are always going to be learning ‘on-the-job’ and from other people throughout your career.

Did you audition a lot before Cats?

I started auditioning in my final term at Laine, through the college agency. I auditioned for cruises, West End shows and tours, even flew to Germany for an audition. I did okay in these auditions, and wasn’t too disappointed as I was still at college. I then got a QDOS pantomime playing Wendy in Peter Pan. I was over the moon, as I felt that this was a good place to start my career. From graduating from Laine I then got a new agent. I got signed by Gina Rowland from Bronia Buchannan and was fortunate to obtain fringe work at the Union theatre in a production of Call Me Madam directed by Michael Strassen. It was then that I started to audition for Cats and was successful. I was very lucky as I then went from job to job.

What was the Cats audition like?

The Cats audition process started with a dance round first, where we were taught a section of the Jellicle Ball. Then there was a cut which kept back a handful from a room full of girls. We then had to sing our own material and I got called back several times after this and was asked to learn material from Cats. We worked on the dance choreography each time we had a call-back: after a 3 week process I got a phone call from my agent to say that I have been offered the role of Jemima and first cover Rumpleteazer. As expected I screamed! And ran round my house!

Were the rehearsals hard?

The rehearsal process was hard as for the majority of the time I was still getting my head around the fact that I was there and was going to be a part of such a great show! We only had one month, which (we were warned) had never been done before for Cats. Learning the choreography was amazing as it was the original as choreographed by Gillian Lynne, and learning all the music was amazing as I had never been in an environment where 26 people were all singing great music in harmony. I had to make sure that I went home and went over everything I my head, so I was singing and doing the dance moves in my sleep. Along with learning the solid material, becoming a cat was so interesting as well as difficult. We had to attend a cat workshop in order to focus on all aspects of becoming a convincing cat. We were taught to be aware of what was around us, our senses, our feelings and everything in our bodies and how that all made us feel or react. I would say that all of this work was harder than setting and learning the show!

What is understudying like?

I’ve really enjoyed understudying. At first I found it hard as I was learning my own track so in rehearsals I took note of where my cover was positioned, then when I was confident with the part of Jemima I learnt the choreography for Rumpleteaser.

Have you played the part yet?

Recently I have been on as Rumpleteaser, since the end of Manchester until first week in Bradford, where I did the first rehearsal and press night which was exciting but nerve wracking, just because Rumple is an older character and I had to think about the different counts and traffic, and also working in as a duet. But, I had a great time and it was good to do a run of shows rather than just a one-off performance.

What is it like being on tour?. Is it what you expected, or different?

I didn’t know what to expect really being on tour but I am really enjoying it, as it is my first big job and it keeps me fresh being at different venues, as the sound, stage, theatres are all so different. Some venues work better than others and some venues are nicer places to visit, but overall I am really enjoying it!

What is a day in the life of Dawn, and does this change from place to place on tour?

My normal day would be to get up at around 10am, have breakfast, and then go out to see the place in which I am staying and then meet some of the cast for lunch. I tend to eat larger lunch then I am used to, as I get to the theatre for 5pm, so I need something to fill me up until 10.30pm, but I eat about 3pm so that I don’t feel full by the time the show starts. When I get to the theatre it then takes me 45 minutes to do my makeup. Although I have got a lot faster, I don’t like to rush it and some of it I still find really tricky, like the eyes and muscle, so I like to take my time. I then have to warm up at 6pm, physical and vocal until the half hour call, then it’s wig and costume time. The show comes down at 10.15pm roughly, when I change and maybe have one drink after the show but most of the time I go back home and relax before bed.

Do you enjoy it?

I really am enjoying it but it is still overwhelming at times. Working with a great cast and team makes it even more enjoyable. The show is so energetic, as soon as you get into the zone to start the show Act 1 is done, it goes so fast and Act 2 soon follows. I love being Jemima too, as I am a kitten so I can have lots of fun, be playful, curious about different things and I have a great dance track, but then I get to perform the lovely spiritual moments singing at the beginning of Act 2 and later on in the show the famous Memory with Grizabella. With this show no performance is the same as we are always experimenting with different ways of being feline, the way we walk, the way we crawl, the way we get up and down, the positions on set and our relationships with the other cats.

Do you have any pre show rituals?

The cast of Cats always gets together at the beginners’ call and we all hold hands as we are about to become a tribe as this helps us all to get focused and it brings us all together before the show! I always have to have the same leg warmers on too, so the black one always goes on the left leg and the black and white one on the right!

What is your advice to aspiring performers?

Find the right training for you. Believe in yourself. Never give up. Work hard. Dreams really can come true!

Find out where the Cats tour is heading next: http://www.catsthemusical.com/tickets/2013-ukeurope-tour/

Ticket Mania

Theatre tickets are, quite simply, difficult to come by. Gone are the days when a member of the audience went to the box office in person and bought a ticket, used a ticket agency or even called the theatre to make a reservation, then sent a cheque or postal order by mail.

Today, online booking has become a fast and effective means of buying tickets for productions all over the world, but even this method of securing tickets to a show is not guaranteed, with tickets reaching extortionate prices, or being snapped up by those with theatre memberships before the tickets have chance to reach the general public.

Even ticket touts and supposed half-price ticket booths which flood the West End Theatreland of London often have little to no availability of tickets for big hits and equally popular shows, with many selling out weeks in advance. Book of Mormon, for example, is already booking until January 2014 and must be booked months before the date the audience wishes to see the show.

It has also become evident that unofficial ticket vendors have been able to offer tickets for many times their original cost, such as like offering a pair of tickets outside the Gielgud, where Helen Mirren is starring in The Audience, for £500 a pair. However, it may be that the demand outweighs the ethics, with only those able to afford the tickets able to see the shows too. Many audience members are unable to afford tickets of prices such as these, and therefore will be unable to see the production.

However supply is limited to the number of seats a theatre has to sell and for hot new shows, more tickets cannot be printed, just released for sale further ahead. Ticket buying has become complex, full of choices and requires skill in navigating around the many apparent discounts, booking fees and obstacles even before the journey to the theatre, with many desperate audience members prepared to pay almost any price.