Musicals – Page 4 – Dance Direct Blog. News, Reviews & Advice About Dance

Andrew Lloyd Webber: 40 Years

ITV are set to celebrate Andrew Lloyd Webber’s impressive and vast 40-year career with a 90-minute television special to mark his musical achievements. Stars such as Samantha Barks, Kimberley Walsh, Tim Minchin and Nicole Scherzinger are among the performers who will take part in the show which aims to celebrate the on-stage work of Lloyd Webber, rather than be a tribute to said work, which is sure to continue far into the future.

Aptly named ‘Andrew Lloyd Webber: 40 Years’, the 90-minute programme will be hosted by musical theatre icon Michael Ball, donning his top hat and tails to make sure the show goes down a storm for viewers. The show will include performances of songs from the Lloyd Webber’s shows, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats and Evita. Both Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats have seen recent revivals for the stage, giving younger audiences the chance to see musicals that they may have been unable to see in the shows’ heyday. However, these examples alone demonstrate the power of Lloyd Webber’s music to communicate with audiences and continue to attract them to fantastic shows up and down the country, and even all over the world.

The evening will also feature the first performance of a song from Lloyd Webber’s forthcoming show, Stephen Ward, and will include Lloyd Webber sharing anecdotes and discussing his musical influences in creating for a blockbuster show. Contributions from those people within the performing arts industry who have worked with him will not be thin on the ground, with the programme detailing Lloyd Webber’s unrivalled contribution to theatre.

Lloyd Webber will be using the ITV programme to celebrate his four decades in the West End with an evening that promises some spectacular performances and a deeper insight into the man himself.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

West Side Story Returns!

West Side Story

Regarded as perhaps one of the world’s favourite musicals, West Side Story is set to hit our stages again in a big way, after many years of film versions and amateur productions never quite capturing the magic that seems to surround the original version.

Originally directed and choreographed by the iconic Jerome Robbins, this particular staging of West Side Story for 2013 has been produced by BB Promotion in collaboration with Sundance Productions Inc., NY and Howard Panter for the Ambassador Theatre Group. West Side Story was last seen in the UK in 2008/09: 2013 will see the hit musical will begin its tour at the Liverpool Empire on September 24, before moving to venues including the Sunderland Empire, the New Wimbledon Theatre and the Milton Keynes Theatre. West Side Story is currently set to tour until June 2014, giving many audiences the chance to experience the fantastic musical, a modern day Romeo and Juliet. The show, directed and choreographed by Joey McKneely, will tour following its run at Sadler’s Wells, where it plays from August 7 until September 22.

Including songs such as Tonight, I Feel Pretty and I Like to be in America, West Side Story is thought to become as big a success as it always was, full of Spanish charm, American cool, and lots of character shoes and big dresses in between. Leonard Bernstein wrote the music for the show, which is accompanied by lyrics written by the legendary Stephen Sondheim. With a book by Arthur Laurents, West Side Story is sure to wow audiences time and time again through its tragic tale, beginning at Sadler’s Wells as the largest dance house in the UK, renowned for being dedicated to international dance and presenting a hugely varied programme to its audiences.

Hairspray the Musical on Tour!

Hairspray the Musica

Hairspray the musical, full of big hair and big laughs will be going on tour again in 2013, and the 60s dresses, the cans of hairspray and the loud-and-proud, rather catchy soundtrack, will all be going too.

Mark Benton will be playing the cross-dressing role of Edna Turnblad, with other casting to date including Lucy Benjamin (Lisa Fowler from EastEnders) playing Velma Von Tussle and Freya Sutton (who has recently graduated from Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts) playing Tracy Turnblad. The cast will be joined by X Factor finalist Marcus Collins as Seaweed Stubbs, Gemma Sutton as Amber Von Tussle, Lauren Hood as Penny Pingleton, Sandra Marvin as Motormouth Maybelle, Josh Piterman as Corny Collins and Paul Rider as Wilbur Turnblad. Link Larkin, Tracy’s squeeze, is yet to be cast but already the show looks like not one to be missed!

Hairspray is based on the 1988 film comedy starring Ricki Lake as Tracy. The musical takes place in 1962 with Baltimore’s Tracy Turnblad as a large girl with big hair and an even bigger heart who desperately wants to dance on The Corny Collins Show, sponsored by Ultra Clutch Hairspray. She wins a spot on the show which is a local television programme, and becomes a teenage celebrity overnight. This glory is faced with the indignation of the programme’s reigning princess Amber Von Tussle, complete with matching dress, shoes and handbag, whose overbearing mother Velma produces the show. The girl on the show who gets the highest popularity rating will be crowned Miss Teenage Hairspray – and Amber wants the crown that Tracy seems destined to win.

Hairspray will be touring to Salford, Sunderland, Bradford, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham, Belfast, Cardiff, Nottingham, Dublin, Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Norwich from 11 February to 29 September 2013.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Tour of Wicked the Musical

Wicked the musical, complete with its witchy dresses and green body paint, is set to tour the UK and Ireland from 12 September 2013 for the first time, beginning at Manchester’s Palace Theatre with further dates and locations yet to be announced. Fans all over the country and beyond will be able to engage further with the spell-binding, all-singing, all-dancing show which has taken the world of musicals by storm. Manchester has a prestigious history of hosting the regional premieres of so many world class musicals, full of tap shoes, coloured costumes and ballet tights.

The London show, which premiered in 2006, will be continuing at the Apollo Victoria Theatre where tickets are on sale until 2 November 2013. There will also be six other productions of Wicked simultaneously playing around the world including those in Broadway, Japan and Holland plus two North American and one South East Asia tour.

Wicked’s music and lyrics were written by Grammy award-winner Stephen Schwartz, with a book written by Winnie Holzman and directed by Tony award-winner Joe Mantello. As the story of what happened before Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Wicked is based on the best-selling novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire.

The show is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures Stage Productions, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone, with its UK executive producer Michael McCabe. With so many members of the team involved in the production of Wicked it is easy to comprehend how the show has become so popular and successful.

Dance arrangements are covered by James Lynn Abbott, orchestration is by William David Brohn, musical supervision by Stephen Oremus and musical staging by Wayne Cilento.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Making a Song and Dance about Celebrity Casting

Photo: ExCharmCityCub on Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/excharmcitycub/155326032/

Many may argue that Theatreland is the ultimate place for suspending belief amongst other audience members also preferring the stage to reality. Over the years, stages have been inundated with reality TV stars and celebrities eager to step into the dancing shoes of their predecessors, potentially forcing out home-grown talent whose skill would cause their success rather than vice versa.

Many stars have graced the stages of London’s West End and Broadway. Audiences have seen Whoopi Goldberg’s divine descent, jazz shoes and all, into the comedy musical Sister Act as Mother Superior, which she helped produce. With Sister Act already a blockbusting hit, it is easy to see how the legendary Goldberg aided the production rather than carried it.

Others who have wowed audiences are Sheridan Smith in Legally Blonde, and Tamzin Outhwaite and her feisty fishnet tights in Sweet Charity. In particular, Chicago has seen many celebrities take on the character shoes of lead roles, such as Ashlee Simpson, Jennifer Ellison, along with David Hasselhoff and John Barrowman.

Audiences are almost guaranteed when Hollywood actors are billed, with a huge hype being produced – but can these invasions continue to sweep audiences along?

It is commonplace for audiences to book tickets as a result of the cast, to then be disappointed when certain members are absent. Even if the magic atmosphere of theatre is still created, they may never return.

The same could be said for some of the stars of reality TV and where are they now – it is an automatic presumption that this is because they are simply the favourites of the home viewers, rather than the casting director. It is therefore difficult to comprehend the slog that has gone into an actor’s early life before they are finally pipped to the post by a celebrity or TV show shortcut winner, worthy or otherwise.

The Children of Theatre

Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre

Photo: ell brown, Flickr

One of the most notorious unwritten rules of theatre is never to work with children or animals. Difficult divas at the best of times, the combination of the two would arguably be a theatrical nightmare for both the director and the chaperones. Despite this, children, and young children specifically, can often become the selling point of the production, be it a West End musical, touring production or a large-scale ballet, simply due to their irresistible appeal.

Specifically referring to London’s West End theatre scene, musicals such as Mary Poppins, Matilda and Billy Elliot have all focused directly on telling the stories of children. The ballet shoe donning Billy has had a worldwide appeal for its audiences; the story of the aspiring male ballet prodigy warming the hearts and legwarmers of many. The magical world of Matilda has additionally entranced audiences from its inception, with a similar enchantment of Mary Poppins felt for the London and UK stint of the production.

The combination of dance and the charisma of youth is a pure winner. The interweaving of leotard-based animals and little lion cubs of The Lion King has proved a hit, with an extensive run in London and elsewhere in the UK such as Bristol and Manchester. Similarly, the touring and London-based Nutcrackers‘ children are palmed between the twinkling tutus of the Snowflakes and the feisty tights of the Rat King, charming both the children and the adults of the audience alike.

Naturally, the employment of children in theatre does raise many questions, but undoubtedly the largest is… how well can the show sell? The talent of the performers and illusion of the theatre is a main influence in selling tickets, yet the inclusion of children is undoubtedly a sure-fire way to make audiences skip all the way to their seats.

The Future Turnout for British Musicals

The Victoria Palace Theatre, London — The Victoria Palace Theatre has a statue of Anna Pavlova on top

London’s West End is currently in a state of flux. Musical productions continue to close, making way for others to take their place, for sometimes only weeks at a time. At first this seems localised; however, it may be that these occurrences spread outside of London, nationally and even internationally.

From the blue spangled leotards and tap shoes of Crazy For You, to Betty Blue Eyes the singing pig, it is hoped that this does not mark the end of the British musical. Successes such as Billy Elliot – the aspiring young dancer who steps boldly into professional ballet shoes – hold hope that West End musicals contain the magic ingredient that will spell a lengthy run.

However, it is inevitable that there are musical productions waiting left, right and centre ready to fill previous shows’ homes, and fill again those tired tights which once ruled the stage. The level of competition to rule the West End stage is seen to have increased dramatically.

The correlation between a show’s origin and success rate appears irrational. Whether a show’s life is home-grown from “baby ballets” to pointes, its content relating to that of its surroundings, or a production of far-off wonder, it bears no relation on how long it will stay running, which is additionally independent of how much an audience appears to love it. Despite this, even the most least likely musicals such as Thriller have been received spectacularly – if the jazz shoe fits, wear it!

Arguably a certain amount of performance relies on popularity in order to be a triumph, yet another key element of the mix is of course originality, to maintain freshness within the industry. This only further emphasises how unpredictable a show’s success can be and how we cannot predict the future of the British musical industry.

Photo: AndyRobertsPhotos