Liza Minnelli: The Non-Stopping Show-Stopper

Liza MinelliShowbiz legend Liza Minnelli, famous not only for her singing starlet mother Judy Garland but also in her own right, proved that she is still a show-stopping success at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank earlier this year. At 66 years old, Minnelli shows no sign of stopping either, continuing to wow her audiences and exude the presence of the ultimate star of the golden age of showbiz. Minnelli is a multi-award winning artist, singer, actress and fabulous dancer, who has proven herself as a starlet who knows her ‘razzle-dazzles’ from her ‘stepping outs’.

Her one off date performance at the Royal Festival Hall earlier in 2013 marked her first performance at the concert venue since 1973. However, in recent years she has graced other iconic London venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and the Coliseum as the headline act. Minnelli’s performance at Festival Hall forms part of the Southbank Centre’s ongoing season The Rest Is Noise – inspired by Alex Ross’s acclaimed musicology book – with the focus for Minnelli’s visit being Berlin In The ’20s & ’30s. As a result, Minnelli’s sparkling set exuded her fantastic talent in its fullest form, including hits from the divine decadence of Weimar-era nightlife such as Maybe This Time and Mein Herr, in addition to her performance of some of the late Bob Fosse’s choreography from her smash hit film production Cabaret.

Forming the full programme, legendary numbers such as Cabaret, But The World Goes ‘Round and New York, New York were originally written for her and included for Minnelli’s privileged audience, with other jazz and Broadway classics added to the mix and producing a show-stopping evening of immeasurable talent and star quality.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

An intimate evening: Ruthie Henshall and Kerry Ellis

Ruthie Henshall

Musical theatre legend Ruthie Henshall, best known for her starring roles in productions such as Chicago and Les Miserables, is performing as part of the From West End to Broadway programme at Cadogan Hall in an intimate performance in August. In addition to an audience with Ruthie, the star will also be performing alongside her special guest, musical theatre icon and Broadway star Kerry Ellis. Originally training at Laine Theatre Arts, which also presented Ruthie to the musical theatre world, Kerry Ellis then went on to carve herself out a commendable career behind the microphone, particularly as green witch Elphaba in the London cast of Wicked, which she joined in 2006.

At Cadogan Hall however, Ruthie and her band will take the audience on a musical journey through her extraordinary career, from working with Lionel Bart, playing in Chicago on Broadway and starring in many other musical theatre productions, to receiving her Olivier Award. The evening will draw from a broad range of genres, from the Great American Songbook to contemporary scores which are significant to Ruthie now: Don’t Rain On My Parade, I Dreamed A Dream, All That Jazz, Electricity, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Adelaide’s Lament, I’ve Loved These Days, Vincent (Starry Starry Night) and many more of her favourites from iconic stage productions.

This particular show for Ruthie is both new and personal, and her chance to tell her story in her own words as well as performing some of the defining songs of her life, which she has performed onstage and experienced off stage. The evening will be accompanied by Ruthie’s own musicians: Paul Schofield (piano/Music Director), Lewis Andrews (bass/guitar) and Steve Maclachlan (drums). Ruthie’s career has been both extensive and extremely impressive, so this intimate evening is a rare glimpse into the star’s glittering career and personal highlights.

The BBC Performing Arts Fund

BBC Performaing Arts Fund

The BBC Performing Arts Fund has recently awarded £450,000 in grants to the theatrical sector for 2013. The first venture in this direction took place on Friday 7 June, which was the first live show of The Voice UK. This BBC One programme raises income for the BBC Performing Arts Fund through phone votes (a minimum of 10p per call), and whilst the genuine talent of the programme which graces the nation’s television screens could be questioned, it is clear that the contributions of funds from programmes of this type are extremely beneficial for the performing arts.

Since 2003, the revenue generated through phone voting programmes has resulted in over £4million of grants being awarded to emerging individuals and community groups working and performing in areas across the dance, music and theatre sectors. The commercial side of the venture considerably raises the profile of the sometimes understated performing arts sector, giving a larger voice to the belters of the industry, singing them loud and proud.

As a result of this, 2013 has seen the funding spotlight placed solidly on theatre. A total of £450,000 in grants is currently available for use in performing arts in each niche that will further invest in creative talent across the UK, from community centres, to after school clubs, to dance and drama schools, to the West End stage. Both of the Fund’s schemes are now currently open for applications, namely the Theatre Fellowship and Community Theatre.

Theatre Fellowships aims to support individuals through the early stages of their theatre careers, helping them to establish themselves in the professional world through bespoke placements within existing theatre organisations. The Community Theatre scheme aims to support the development of not for profit community theatre groups, allowing them to carry out training, attract new audiences, encourage new members and raise their profile in their communities.

Step LIVE! 2013

Step Into Dance 2013Step into Dance, a partnership between the Jack Petchey Foundation and the Royal Academy of Dance, will be hosting Step LIVE! 2013 on Sunday 14 July, marking the return of the unmissable annual flagship event of Step’s school community dance programme.

Step LIVE! 2013 will transform the foyer of Sadler’s Wells into a hive of activity from 4.30pm, with free events with something for everybody to enjoy including dance battles, pop up dances, videos and films. Whether you are a budding breaker or a popping pro, the afternoon looks set to be bursting with energy and phenomenal dancing. The show on the main stage will follow at 6.30pm, with over 400 talented young dancers from schools in 32 London Boroughs and Essex coming together to celebrate their love of dance in this diverse and inclusive evening.

Step into Dance is the biggest ongoing inclusive dance initiative in London and Essex, with 200 participating State Secondary Schools. With Step LIVE! as Step’s annual flagship celebration of youth dance just one of the many events and workshops Step initiates, it is a celebration of all the Step into Dance team do for young dancers across the capital,

Tickets: £8 (some with restricted view) £10, or £15 with 20% discount for groups (8 or more) in the stalls, making the event perfect for schools who are interested in taking part in the Step into Dance scheme.

School groups of 5+ can book tickets in the second circle for £8 per person. For this offer, please book over the phone or in person (not online). For school groups of over 10 students you will receive one free ticket for the accompanying staff member.

English National Ballet’s 2014 season

ENB Logo

English National Ballet’s Artistic Director Tamara Rojo has announced the company’s 2014 season, which is set to include performances at the Barbican, which is new territory for the company. Previously solely classical, the company under Rojo’s instruction has begun to embrace more new works and modernised thinking in terms of opening ballet up to wider audiences. The Barbican will also fit with the company’s intrinsic tradition of touring and presenting ballet to new and existing audiences too.

This change in tact from the young Director is the force behind her first new commissions for the company, working with award winning British choreographers Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Liam Scarlett in order to create new works for ENB as part of a programme of dance inspired by the centenary of WWI. This programme will be performed at the Barbican alongside a reworking of Associate Artist George Williamson’s Firebird.

Exciting news for ballet fans also came in the form of the announcement that Rojo will be performing alongside ballet legend Carlos Acosta in Romeo and Juliet. This will reunite the iconic stars in the classic romantic production that was created for Rojo earlier in her career by choreographer Derek Deane when she first danced with ENB in 1997. Rojo went on to dance the role of Juliet with Scottish Ballet, and last danced Juliet opposite Acosta’s Romeo in 2011 with The Royal Ballet, which included the choreography of the late Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

ENB’s Romeo and Juliet will be performed by a company of 120 dancers and actors at the Royal Albert Hall in June 2014, so it is certain that the upcoming season looks sure to both delight audiences with older works, in particular this epic staging of the classic work by Shakespeare, and sparkle with new commissions.

Rambert’s 87th Birthday

Rambert Dance Company Logo

Rambert Dance Company turned 87 years old on 15 June 2013 as Britain’s oldest dance company. There has been much discussion amongst balletomanes recently about the ethnicity of dancers in British ballet and dance companies and the lack of British dancers, so it is ironic that Rambert’s founder, Marie Rambert, was Polish and originally studied Eurythmics under Emile Jacques-Dalcroze.

Established in 1926, Rambert – as it is now to be known following recent rebranding of the Richard Alston named Rambert Dance Company – is the flagship modern dance company of Britain, employing more dancers and artists than any other dance company in the UK. Rambert appeals widely to audiences all over the world, often dancing the works of iconic choreographers both past and present, such as Wayne McGregor, Siobhan Davies and American modern dance pioneer Merce Cunningham. This gives a certain stature to Rambert’s work as it continues to provide a vast repertoire of works around the world.

Rambert’s first choreographic work in 1926 is said to mark the birth of British ballet under the title A Tragedy of Fashion by Frederick Ashton, who was then one of Rambert’s students. In 1935 Rambert was renamed Ballet Rambert (from the Ballet Club as it was originally known), and this name remained until 1987. Rambert became a touring ballet company for up to 35 weeks a year during the Second World War and frequently performed at Sadler’s Wells. Ballet Rambert then went on to perform several classic including Giselle, Coppelia and the first major British productions of La Sylphide and Don Quixote, rather than creating new works.

In 1952 Rambert travelled to America to see the new developments in dance and study with some of the major choreographers of the time, such as Martha Graham. Following this the company returned to its original ethos and transformed from a medium-scale classical touring company, to smaller ensemble, to contemporary dance company in later years.

Worldwide Wicked

Willemijn VerkaikThe 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 MusicalThe 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.

Akram Khan Company To Hit Australia!

Akram Khan

This summer will see a continuation of celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the notorious The Rite of Spring by the Akram Khan Dance Company taking Khan’s iTMOi (in the mind of Igor [Stravinksy, the composer]) to Australia and presenting it at the Sydney Opera House in August and September 2013. This production will visit the city direct form its world premiere at the Maison de la Culture in Grenoble and a season at Sadlers Wells, London. This is incredibly exciting news for contemporary dance fans in the southern hemisphere!

iTMOi was choreographed by Khan to mark the 100th year since the provocative premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in Paris, in which it evoked rioting and disorder. As a result, iTMOi aims to capture the chaotic energy of the original work, taking its vibrant spirit as the starting point for the new work and creating something organic.

Khan is renowned for his artistic collaborations and for this production he has worked with composers Nitin Sawhney, Ben Frost and Jocelyn Pook to develop a brand new score, inspired by Stravinsky’s work. Khan stated that he was ultimately interested in the dynamics of how Stravinsky transformed the classical world of music by evoking emotions through patterns, rather than through musical expression, which audiences could argue is none existent in the groundbreaking work. The patterns of the music are rooted in the concept of a woman, the ‘chosen one’ dancing herself to death as sacrifice, which forms the main part of Khan’s inspiration in reinvestigating the work. Khan also aimed to explore the human condition, not just the patterns, to remind audiences of the essences of the mind and imagination, which are wild and self-generating.

Images courtesy of Andy Miah at Flickr.

A George Gershwin tribute

George GershwinSome of today’s most renowned musical theatre artists will be paying tribute to the music of George Gershwin by performing at a concert in September. Michael Ball, Kerry Ellis and Gina Beck, amongst many others, are set to celebrate his music through Summertime – An Evening of Gershwin which will be part of the Live by the Lake season at Kenwood House, north London, later in the year.

The event, hosted by Ball, will also feature David Shannon, whose credits include performing in hit musicals The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon, both of which have been tremendous successes in their own rights. In terms of Gershwin, born in September 1898, the American composer was renowned for his partnership with his brother Ira, who provided the lyrics for George’s compositions.

Some of the Gershwin brothers’ greatest musical numbers include Rhapsody in Blue, Someone to Watch over Me and Porgy and Bess. The compositions spanned both popular and classical genres of music, and today the melodies are widely known. English National Ballet even produced a fully-fledged work named Strictly Gershwin in celebration of the brothers’ music, providing audiences with a completely different but wholly enjoyable show. George’s 23 year career saw the pair even work for Hollywood with George composing the music for Shall We Dance, the musical film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

In addition to Summertime – An Evening of Gershwin, other shows which will feature as part of the Live by the Lake series include a screening of Singin’ in the Rain, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra playing the film’s score live, taking place on 30 August. The screening will follow the departure of the West End musical for its consequent UK tour.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.