So after a recent book haul in London Mrs HT found me a novella by Tad Williams called 'Caliban's Hour.' This novella looks at what happened to Caliban post Tempest and in his early life. I was inspired to start adapting it into an audio performance and this resulting video is part one of the whole book eventually being recorded and posted. I would like to point out that I have no rights or claim to the copyrighted works of Tad Williams and have only done this out of enjoyment for his story and a desire to further explore the Caliban character.
I have just recently launched my new blog based on books known as headtheatre's book journal. My first post went up last week so please give it a view at the link here.
This is a new feature I wanted to add to the blog. Granted it should be from Saturday-Friday but I'm a bit late with this one. Let me know if you're planning to watch or listen to any of these and what you thought of them!
Monday 3rd September
Sky Arts 1 8.00p.m. In Confidence - Alan Acykbourn
Radio 4 2.15p.m. Afternoon Drama: Craven:Looking for Mr King Comtemporary murder mystery starring Maxine Peake
Tuesday 4th September
Sky Arts 1 8.00p.m. Voices of a Generation - Michael Gambon Profile and Interview
Radio 4 4.30 p.m. Great Lives: Stan Laurel Ken Dodd explores the life of the comic actor.
Wednesday 5th September
Radio 4 2.15p.m. Afternoon Drama: The Meaning of Love Romantic Comedy
Radio 4 Extra 3.00p.m. Death at the Desert Inn Comedy Murder Mystery featuring characters such as Judy Garland, a showgirl and Broadway Agent. Starring Malcolm Sinclair as Noel Coward.
Thursday 6th September
BBC 2 4.00 a.m. (Friday Morning) Shakespeare Unlocked: Julius Caesar Exploring key scenes from the play.
Radio 4 2.15p.m. Afternoon Drama: A9 By Helen Cooper. Complications arise when war hero Bernard's will is revealed.
Friday 7th September
Sky Arts 2 7.00p.m. Discovering Hamlet The challenges of staging Shakespeare's play.
Sky Arts 2 8.00p.m. Being Shakespeare Simon Callow in his West End performance as the Bard.
Radio 4 2.15p.m. Afternoon Drama: A Cold Supper Behind Harrods by David Morley 50 years after the end of WW2 three veterans meet to discuss the murder of a colleague by the Gestapo. What they discover has shocking results. Starring David Jason, Stephanie Cole and Anton Lesser.
Radio 4 9.00p.m. Friday Drama: An American Rose by Charlotte Jones. Tells the story of Rosemary Kennedy. Starring Fenella Woolgar.
On the 23rd of August 1897 the Grand Theatre Fulham opened just off Fulham high street with a performance of 'The Geisha' a musical written by Owen Hall with music and lyrics by Jones, Monckton and Greenbank. The theatre became a cinema known as the Shilling Theatre in 1912 but eventually started showing live performances again in 1937. The Theatre was demolished in 1960 and there are no signs of its existence on the spot where it once stood. To read more about this theatre please go to the theatre trust website here. Or to read a report from opening night and see some more pictures of the theatre and other Fulham venues please go to the arthurlloyd.co.uk website at the following link here. By all means read more of http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk as it is one of my favourite websites on the internet and is just a wonderful resource.
On the 22nd of August 1843 a new act of law was passed to eliminate the restrictions on regional theatre. Essentially it was designed to curb the powers of the Lord Chamberlain and to stop the patent theatres from continuing their monopoly of the industry. Prior to this act only the patent theatres were allowed to show spoken drama, although a minor adjustment to the previous act of 1788 allowed smaller theatres to produce spoken dramas with a magistrates license, which stopped many regional venues being able to flourish. When the act was passed it allowed local authorities to license theatres fully which led to the growth of musical hall, variety and the regional theatre scene. The other important change made by the law was the decision to stop the Lord Chamberlain from cherry picking which dramas could be shown, from 1843 onwards the Lord Chamberlain, George Sackville-West the 5th Earl De La Warr, would only be able to turn down a play if it:
'is fitting for the preservation of good manners, decorum or of the public peace to do so...'
Of course this would all change 124 years later with the 1968 Theatres Act.
Throughout my life I have been passionate about several things but I would say my two biggest are history and theatre. Growing up I was obsessed with WWII, not in a weird way, and watched hundreds of programmes about the evil that happened during that war and the people involved. It fascinated me and the main reason was because it throws up so many uncomfortable questions about the nature of humanity. Even today I cannot fathom what caused an entire section of Europe to ignore and dismiss the plight of certain sections of society or to justify them. I couldn't understand when younger the powerful weapon of fear and what it could do to nations and to the world. It is my lack of understanding and my desire to reconcile the facts with what I would do in that situation that dragged me back again and again to programmes about the Nazi's and the atrocities that were committed during those six years. When I reached University I was given the opportunity to play several characters in 'Fear and Misery of the Third Reich' a play by Bertolt Brecht which studies the culture of fear and the changing of the German society from within during the 1930s. It is a chilling play which I have never forgotten. I made it my mission to research as much as possible in the rehearsal period of the play, as an actor I make it my own personal quest to learn all I can regarding my character and setting, and part of what I wanted to look at was other plays/films about the Nazi regime and how they approached the stories. So I made a list including films such as 'Cabaret' and 'Bent', both of which I had previously seen and the latter being a play I never wish to witness again due to its content, then I looked into other pieces such as 'Hitler: Rise of Evil' before coming across Loring Mandel's wonderful work 'Conspiracy'.
'Conspiracy' is a dramatisation of the Wannsee Conference, the meeting of Nazi officials and beauracrats who put together the plan of how to exterminate the jews. It was written by Loring Mandel who took the minutes of the meeting, all of which were supposed to have been destroyed, and wove this script together. It is severely chilling and incredibly effective, if you have not seen it before please watch the following clip.
('Conspiracy' was written by Loring Mandel and produced by the BBC and HBO in 2001. It is distributed by HBO and its copyright belongs to those mentioned)
That is a real conversation that actually happened. The men on that day in that room applauded the idea of disposing of 60,000 people a day. It sickened me, not the fact that it happened as we know historically it did, the fact that these men sat around and allowed these horrific things to be said. The idea that fear drove them to such hatred, that the cost of a human life meant nothing to these people and it hit me in a way that I didn't expect. It made the whole situation seem more real and to hear this group of men discuss the way that their goverment would commit genocide and justify it was shocking.
After leaving University the film 'Conspiracy' stayed with me and I began to want to work towards a theatrical production of it. It struck me that it was a fantastic stage play, a sort of Nazi 12 angry men, and that it would be an excellent piece for students of WWII and the holocaust to see. In 2009 I tried finding out how to get hold of the script for the piece. I tried all the usual online film script websites and forums but found nothing. I then did a lot of research on the writer Loring Mandel and found out his agents information. I contacted his agent in LA several times and got no replies, I didn't really expect to as after all I was just some young actor from the UK wanting to put on a play. I didn't give up though, I kept researching Mandel and came across a contact which may or may not have been his family and I thought 'what the heck' so I emailed this contact and it was Mandel's family. They were incredibly nice and helpful and put me in touch with Loring. I got into contact with him and explained how much I loved his film and what I wanted to do with the play if it was available to be performed, rumours had been rife since 2001 that he was going to stage a production in NY, and that I would be using it as an educational tool. I didn't get anywhere with my enquiries but Loring Mandel and the rest of the Mandel family treated me so nicely I just notched it up as a failure that although disappointing was not a dead loss as I got to email someone I greatly admired. I would like to thank the Mandel family again for their help and politeness.
I hadn't given up on one day seeing 'Conspiracy' as a stage play as after all it was a popular film and on numerous occaisions Mandel himself said he wanted to do it. Well in 2010 a theatre company in Michigan managed to get the rights from Mandel to perform the play, the story about the process can be found at this link here, and in November 2011 it was performed for the very first time at the Riverwalk Theatre in Lansing Michigan. I am glad to hear it finally got performed and I hope the power of the piece came through. Sometimes its annoying when you know something would be a good play or production and for whatever reasons you do not get to accomplish what you want but knowing that it has now been performed and has been realised makes me happy. Plus who knows maybe one day the UK premiere of this wonderful play will be a FPTheatre Productions event directed by Christopher Squire... we can hope and plan... now where is that email address?
At the Haymarket Theatre London 207 years ago today, one of the most curious riots in theatrical annals occured. In
1767 Foote had produced a burlesque, the author of which has never been
discovered, called The Tailors: A Tragedy for Warm Weather. Dowton
announced the revival of the piece for his benefit. As the title implies, it was
a satire about Tailors, and when the posters were seen, a meeting was organised by the tailors of London, who vowed to
oppose the performance by any means neccesary. Menacing letters were sent to Dowton,
telling him that seventeen thousand tailors would attend to hiss and boo the piece, and
one who signed himself "DEATH" added that ten thousand more could be found if required. These threats were laughed at by the actors; but when night came, it
was discovered that the tailors were serious, and that, with few exceptions,
they had contrived to secure every seat in the theatre, while a mob outside tried to gain admittance. The moment Dowton appeared upon the stage, there was an uproar, and someone threw a pair of shears at him. Not a word would the
rioters listen to, nor would they accept any compromise in the way of changing
the piece. They howled and hissed without intermission, hundreds of exasperated
tailors; outside howled and bellowed thousands of tailers attempted to storm the house. So formidable did the riot become that a
magistrate had to be sent for and special constables called out; but these were
helpless against the overwhelming odds; eventually the guards were
summoned, who made sixteen arrests and ran off the rest.
Hello to all my readers out there! I just wanted to say that I am back from my hiatus. I know this blog has gone dark in the past for months on end but this past month and a half has just been a break for a couple of big life moments. LibraryGirl and I got married in the middle of July and just got back from honeymoon which has delayed any posting. So henceforth LibraryGirl will be referred to as MrsHeadTheatre or MrsHT. Apart from my happy nuptials in the past month I got to see 'Sweeney Todd' on the West End stage starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton it was...
'What happened then, well thats the play, And he wouldn't want us to give it away. Not Sweeney, Not Sweeney Todd. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!'
So expect a review to make its appearance on this blog very soon.
Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the past year would know that currently London is holding the Olympic Games. Sport is a different type of drama that is for certain but the theatricality of the United Kingdom shone through with the opening ceremony. There were many claims before the production even aired that it had no chance of matching China's efforts back in Beijing mainly based on the fact that most people hated the British involvement in the 2008 Olympics closing ceremony. The general consensus was that the bus which opened to reveal musicians and dancers... etc was eccentric and strange. Well last Friday night we showed that yes the UK is full of eccentric artists who can do wonders with choreography, music and lighting. Danny Boyle's production unfolded like a beautiful dream which all, in this writers opinion, revolved around the central theme of the Shakespearian qoute:
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again
Of course the fact that it involved Sir Branagh, a personal hero of mine, and contained some of my favourite music tracks kept me pleased. However Boyle showed himself to be a master of imagery when he seared into every viewers memories the sight of 5 interlinking Olympic rings hammered from hot steel. That and the sight of James Bond with HRH Queen Elizabeth the II are probably the two things people will remember from this games opening ceremony but I think a lot should be said for the NHS staff who danced so enthusiastically during their segment and who just gave their all... plus the drummers in the Industrial section who carried on drumming all night it seemed. The technicians on this show proved why the UK still produces the best musicals in the World and has the best film crews. All in all a wonderful production which I hope gets released on bluray so I can have a copy of it.
So I shall be back to provide a review for Sweeney Todd, I'm not sure if it will be a vlog or just a written blog but you can be sure to find it here along with all my theatrical musings in the coming weeks and months as I head for 10,000 page views.
If there is a film series that has been crying out for a musical adaptation it is the Bill & Ted movie franchise. I have loved the series since I was a child, and still think it is Keanu Reeves's finest hour, I love the music and the story is so much fun it could easily be brought to the stage in this era of mega musicals. Of course the problem with converting a film to the stage is getting the rights. This is where Dean Collinson comes into the story.
Dean Collinson is a performer who started his career in the early 1990s by founding a boyband named 'Blue', not to be confused with the late 90s band of the same name, in 1993 at the end of his bands fame the members wrote the song 'Better the Devil you Know' for the popstar Sonia's entry into the Eurovision song contest of that year, it went on to win her second place.
Collinson says in an interview with billandted.org that he was first approached about the musical by his producer who had been in contact with a London musical producer. The London musical producer claimed he had the rights to produce a musical based on the film and commisioned Collinson to write the music. It soon transpired that the rights had not been given and the writers had a musical that they could do nothing with. Collinson says that they decided to take it to the Edinburgh Festival where it played to packed houses every night. The show was also produced in 2000 at the Greenwich Theatre for the 'Musical Futures' scheme. After the success of the Edinburgh festival Collinson says he has had an offer of £4 million pounds of investment in a West End production of the show. This time they went to the original writers who felt that the music should reflect the heavy metal nature of the films, however as Collinson himself says Metal in a musical doesn't really sell. I know 'Rock of Ages' is popular but the majority of the songs in that show are pop rock and not really metal and the same goes for 'We Will Rock You' which really cherry picked Queen's more pop orientated songs.
So Collinson alongside his friend Glenn Carter, yes he of Jesus Christ Superstar and Jersey Boys fame, recorded the music for a soundtrack CD which you can download from the following link... here. I love this soundtrack, it is incredibly 80s which works incredibly well with the storyline and allows nostalgia into this most excellent production. Collinson admits freely that he ripped off different artists to produce sound-a-like songs to give a sense of time, the best one is the homage to Tears for Fears in the Sigmund Freud song 'Relax'. My favourite track is the History Report/Anthem 3 which is just a wonderful finale song before the encore. Its a wonderfully constructed album and one of my favourites to listen to on a rainy day.
Will we ever see it produced? Doubtful is my answer, with a third Bill and Ted film on the way it seems the series will get another shot in the arm leading to BluRay and 3D film releases but I expect the owners of the rights will not budge on the issues that have led this piece of work to be shelved. I tried contacting Dean Collinson to see if he could update any of the information from the billandted.org website but he did not answer me, I understand that he is probably very busy as he is a working actor as well as a composer and I hope that one day he gets his due the respect he deserves because a lot of his work is fantastic. I highly recommend his website and the free mp3s you can get from there of not only his musicals but his pop career, if you like a nice big slice of early 90s pop.
On the 12th of June 1906 Ellen Terry celebrated her 50th year on the British Stage with a 'Jubilee' matinee at Drury Lane, London. To celebrate the matinee contained amongst other things a song from the Great Caruso and selected scenes from 'Much Ado about Nothing' which starred Lillie Langtry, Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Ellen Terry herself as well as other famous names of the stage at the time. It raised £6000, today that would be over half a million pounds, for Terry. However the day was tinged with sadness, I qoute from Terry's autobiography 'The Story of My Life'.
'The recognition of my fifty years of stage life by the public and by my profession was quite unexpected. Henry Irving had said to me not long before his death in 1905 that he believed they (the theatrical profession) "intended to celebrate our jubilee". (If he had lived he would have completed his fifty years on the stage in the autumn of 1906.) ... After his death, I thought no more of the matter. Indeed I did not want to think about it, for any recognition of my jubilee which did not include his, seemed to me very unnecessary... I enjoyed all the celebrations... but all the time I knew perfectly well that the great show of honour and "friending" was not for me alone.'
Ellen Terry was an extraordinary woman and I know barely anything about her. I look forward to learning more about this woman and her work in the future. Terry finally retired in 1925 just one year shy of her 70th year on the stage. She passed in 1928 at her home in Smallhythe and is today remembered as the greatest female Victorian actor in the World.
Yes the Animal Farm musical that has been much mooted was just this past minute been announced by Elton John on the One Show as his next big project. Sir Elton John will be working with his co writer from Billy Elliott.
This weekend HRH Queen Elizabeth the II celebrates her 60th year on the throne. As an ardent Monarchist, in its constitutional monarchy form, I have been loving the celebrations and have been enjoying todays pageant. So in deference to Her Royal Highness I have compilated, from youtube (I do not own the copyright to any of these videos), a list of some of my favourite Royal Variety performances which Good Queen Liz herself attended.
First things first, who can deny a place to Sir Cliff Richard who is one of the Queen's favourite entertainers and still a popular icon of British Rock N Roll and Pop music. This is from the 1973 edition held at the London Palladium.
(Cliff Richard the Peter Pan of Pop and yes... a personal hero)
Next we have a super successful revival of a musical from 1979. Starring Yul Brynner in what became his career defining role it was of course 'The King and I'. This Royal Variety came from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
(Yul Brynner and Virginia McKenna)
Another pop star now, this time from 1981. Without a doubt Adam Ant is one of the most theatrical music acts of all time, his image and stage show is so dramatic that it almost beggars belief. Here he is in 1981 with his Ants performing 'Ant Music'.
Now for something completely different... from 1983 and the Royal Variety held at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane its the Alan Harding Dancers.
Moving into the 1990s we have Dame Vera Lynn, in 1990, celebrating the British Blitz Spirit singing her Wartime hits.
In 1993 The Bee Gees performed with their 60s hit Massachusetts
Matthew Bournes Swan Lake had performances shown in 1997 despite what youtube says
This infamous clip is just brilliant from 2001
Thoroughly Modern Millie from 2003's edition.
Shirley Bassey in 2005 showing why she is a Dame
And the last time HRH attended was in 2009 when Diversity showed the world how far British street jazz had come... so here is their fantastic performance once more
60 years had brought a lot of changes in the arts but Her Majesty has been a patron of them and continues to support theatre, dance and music today. Enjoy the Jubilee celebrations this weekend...
On the 31st of May 1897 Henry Irving made an appearance in the afternoon at Canterbury Cathedral to perform parts of 'Becket' by Lord Tennyson. Becket is a play about Thomas Becket a martyr who died in the middle ages for defying the then English King, the story has always fired up the imaginations of writers and historians but the play by Tennyson was not a huge success. In fact the plays that Tennyson wrote were generally received with little enthusiasm, of course the Becket story went on to become more famous when Anouilh wrote his version of the legend. I found a link to the theatrical production of Becket by Tennyson's souvenir programme which you can find... here.
In 1832 the great Tragedian Charles Mayne Young retired from the stage after playing Hamlet for the last time at Covent Garden. Young had begun his career in Liverpool before moving through the provinces and into the London theatre scene. He worked hard and found his talent started to become recognised as he played numerous parts at the Haymarket and understudied the great John Philip Kemble. People started to compare Young to Kemble and it became known that Young was a better actor than Kemble but Young never gained the same sort of star power. Young was a humble performer who understood that there was always performers looking to move up to his level and by the time he retired he knew his time was up on the stage. He had recognised that it was the time for actors like Edmond Kean to become the stars and he felt that at the age of 55 his strength was going and his talent was fading. Out of respect for him the great actors Charles Mathews and William Macready played Polonius and the Ghost in Young's final performance. Young lived for another 20 years and passed away in 1856 living his final years as a man of society in Brighton.
(The Tempest performed by University of Brighton BA (Hons) Students, June 2007)
Many long time readers of this blog will know that I studied at the University of Brighton and gained my BA in Theatre Arts, in fact that fellow in the green with the shaggy hair above is me, with the initial aim of becoming a professional actor. For a multitude of reasons I have not gone down the route of finding an agent and slogged away like so many young promising talents, many of them my friends, but I still hold in my heart a desire to perform and some of the goals I wished to fulfill as a performer. For many years in this country it has been many performers wish to perform at the RSC, for me this was the same. At the age of 18 all I wanted from my professional life was a walk on part at the RSC, whether it was at the Barbican or in Stratford-Upon-Avon I did not care, it was all I dreamed of and hoped for. I never wanted to be top of the bill or a feted Shakespearian actor, I just wanted to be an ensemble player. Since leaving University my tastes have changed with age, initially I wanted to walk the stage at the National Theatre but now my dreams are of the Globe theatre in London. To perform on the Elizabethan stage there just once would mean more to me than all the lead roles, all the lines, all the good reviews I have recieved during my performing life. So for me the Globe is my goal... but I have to ask which venue would you wish to perform at?
The Olympic Theatre played host to the premiere of a melodrama named 'Ticket of Leave Man' on the 26th of May 1863. The play was written by Tom Taylor and was based on the French play 'Le Retour de Melun' by Eduard-Louis-Alexandre Brisebarre. The plot follows a man trying to clear his name after he is accused of being a serial killer. Over the next four acts the drama builds and builds until it reaches a face off in a churchyard! It was a popular enough melodrama for it to tour nationally and then to eventually be reused as a source for an early British film starring Tod Slaughter. The works of Tod Slaughter as an actor have generally been ignored and forgotten, however a happy side effect of this is that his films have generally fallen out of copyright due to nobody renewing it and therefore these films are available in the public domain. So if you want to see the 1937 film production of this title, you can find it on www.archive.org by clicking on this link... here.
In 1836 a production of 'Ion' by the Greek writer Euripides, though probably in the form of the Robert Potter translation of 1781, was produced at the Covent Garden Theatre, London.
Ion is the tale of the man who would rise to the throne of Athens and create the Ionian race/tribe and like many heroes of Greek myth and legend is the son of a god. His father is Apollo who rapes a young mortal woman, named Creusa, who ends up giving birth to the aforementioned hero and because of the violent nature of his conception abandons him to the elements. Apollo asked his fellow god Hermes to save the infant Ion, who was then raised as an orphan at the Temple of Apollo. Fast forward about 15 years and Creusa comes back into Ion's life through her husband coming to Apollo to beg for a son. The story gets more complex and really I would recommend reading the synopsis at this link here.
On the 23rd of May 1883 the worlds first action film megastar was born, that man is of course Douglas Fairbanks Snr. Fairbanks Snr was born in Denver, Colorado USA and began performing at a young age. Douglas began in amateur theatre but soon moved onto doing summer stock at the Elitch Gardens Theatre in Denver, Colorado. The theatre was the first picturehouse in the western states of the USA, showing films from 1896 until its closing in 1991. Fairbanks bounced around various colleges and schools in his teenage years before finally moving to New York to make his Broadway debut in 1902. Over the next 13 years Fairbanks would make 18 appearances on the Broadway stage but in 1915 he moved his family to Hollywood to pursue a career in moving pictures. Signed to a contract with Triangle Pictures in 1915 and began working for the great DW Griffiths. Griffiths was not enthusiastic about Fairbanks so in 1916 he joined Paramount and began producing films that made him immensly popular, by 1918 he was the top box office draw in the cinemas. After World War 1 Fairbanks's career sky rocketed as he made swashbuckler after swashbuckler and carved himself out as a Hollywood legend with his energetic and expensive productions. Fairbanks had changed the pace of films and was the true innovator of action films and sequences. By the end of the 20s and the beginning of the sound era in cinema Fairbanks found his passion for film fading, he did however prove himself to be a very able 'Talkie' actor and made his final performance in the film 'The Private Life of Don Juan' in 1934. In 1939 Fairbanks passed away from a heart attack brought on by excessive exercise.
Ok so just finished watching Montenegro try and get into the Eurovision Finals, watch it on Saturday, and it just made me think about those well known musical theatre stars/legends who have tried to win the Eurovision song contest. The one that really sticks into my mind is Colm Wilkinson, Jean Valjean himself, who in 1978 represented Ireland and came 5th with his song 'Born to Sing'....
Barnum is a musical based on the life of the great American impresario and showman P.T Barnum. It debuted on the Broadway stage in 1980 and went on to be nominated for 10 Tony awards, it won 3. The show starred Jim Dale of 'Carry On' fame, if you are from the UK, or if you are from the USA you will know him for his huge work load on Broadway and of course for his audio recordings of the Harry Potter novels for which he has won two Grammy Awards. Playing the female lead was Glenn Close who is best known for winning three Tony awards and playing the intense bunny boiler in 'Fatal Attraction'. The show, on Broadway, mixed circus skills with traditional staples of musical theatre and Jim Dale apparently walked tightropes, rode unicycles, juggled and much much more during the first run. If an actor ever worked his socks off to win the Tony it is Jim Dale! Don't believe me? Look at his performance from the Tony awards, the second number in the video, no circus tricks but the energy he expends in this excellent song is infectious.
So it was a critical success... on Broadway. Following its run on the 'Great White Way' it went on tour and without the big spectacle that a Broadway production can afford it became obvious that the show was quite hollow.
I saw Barnum in the 1990s at the Pavillion Theatre, Worthing. I believe it was 1993 or it may have been 1994, I would have been 8 years old. I remembered it as soon as I heard the opening strains of the overture. The tour I saw starred Paul Nicholas as Barnum and he was electric in the role but the play was to me, as a child, rather dull.
Saying all that, listening to the soundtrack is wonderful. It is a slice of classic Broadway withbombastic music, colourful melodies and the best of good old fashioned American style musical theatre. Some of the tunes can seem dated but this is because it is a period piece and as such is pretty timeless which is something I cannot say for the majority of Lord Lloyd Webbers musicals. I highly recommend this soundtrack on the strength of Jim Dale's charismatic and enigmatic performance. Follow the Band is amazing as a bonus track and the whole album sounds perfect for something which is now 32 years old. I have not listened to the West End version of the play soundtrack, starring Michael Crawford, but will be reviewing it at a later date. That production, produced at the London Palladium, seems to be a carbon copy of the Broadway production barring the performers of the show.
So seek out this wonderful soundtrack... and in the meantime thanks to the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne why don't we all 'Come Follow The Band'...
On the 28th of May 1852 the Victorian and Edwardian era actor Lottie Venne was born. Miss Venne made her stage debut in 1867, at the age of 15, in a burlesque called 'A Dream in Venice' by T W Robertson at the Gallery of Illustration a semi professional theatre space. Venne would cut her teeth as a performer with two years of provincial touring before returning to the London stage in 1870. Lottie would go on to carry on her career in Victorian burlesques, essentially spoof performances of Operas and Ballets, working in the odd play at theatres such as The Alhambra, The Court, The Haymarket and in 1874 she joined the company at The Strand theatre. With the death of Victorian Burlesque in the 1880s Lottie, who had made her name in that genre, quickly bounced back by getting stuck into the emerging genre that would become known as Edwardian Musicals. The Edwardian Musical Comedy took ideas from the popular burlesques, the opera's of the Savoy, the catchy songs of Music Hall and the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan but presented them in a contemporary and family friendly way. The genre was hugely popular and spawned the most popular musical of the early 20th century with 'Chu Chin Chow' which opened in 1916 and ran for 5 years, it held onto its record for longest running show until 'Salad Days' opened in 1954. Without the genre it can be argued that the American musical would never have truly taken off as the Father of American Musicals, George M Cohan, took the ideas developed here and changed Broadway forever. However its time to get back to Lottie, she worked hard in the new genre and gained even more success. Her fame continued to grow and when she reached retirement age she still continued working just as hard but was so well respected that in 1925 a Jubilee super matinee was put on in honour of her career. Her last performance was in 1927 and she sadly passed away in 1928 aged 76, obviously unforgettable her obituaries referred to how well loved she was by the theatre audiences.
(HRH Queen Henrietta Maria Stuart 1609-1669, wife of King Charles I)
Those of you who read my blog entries on the history of Theatre will already know that I use a certain book as my source for the 'This day in Theatrical History' posts. That book is 'Who's Who in the Theatre' the 1947 edition, you may also remember me referring to how this means that sometimes its information for said day is incorrect or since its publishing new historical evidence has come to light. It seems that this has happened again as I started my research about the first Female Actor to grace a stage in England and found evidence that I was nearly 30 years off in my information! I should start with what the book claims.
The book claims that on the 21st of May 1656 a Mrs Coleman played a part in Davenants Opera 'Siege of Rhodes' in front of a paying audience at Rutland House. This was in the 1940s believed to be the first performance by a female actor but it is incorrect. Mrs Coleman was one of the first and was without doubt the first in a resurgence of women on the English stage but she was not the first recorded professional performer. Mrs Coleman incidentally did continue her performing career for a while longer in productions of 'Siege of Rhodes' but she was soon replaced by a contemporary named Mary Betterton who was considered much better than her predecessor because unlike Mrs Coleman she was not a 'poor actress'.
So now knowing that, we must ask ourselves, who were the first female performers on the stage? Now for that we have to thank HRH Queen Henrietta Maria of England, pictured above, who engaged a French company to perform in England in... 1629. Yes in 1629, less than 15 years after the death of Shakespeare, we have the first records of female actors. They were engaged by the Queen to perform at Blackfriars Playhouse and they caused a massive uproar and despite trying their luck at the Fortune Theatre and the Red Bull Theatre they were harried off the stage. At the time it was seen as unthinkable and scandalous to see a Woman on the stage, in a time of rising Puritanism it was in many ways a dangerous step. The Queen was already unpopular for being French and also a Catholic, a factor which helped the Puritans in their quest to execute her husband King Charles I, so her choice of entertainments probably suffered due to her lack of popularity and reputation.
We now know that it was a failure in 1629 but what changed in 25 years? Well people had seen the women at Blackfriars and whilst they had rallied against it before they knew it worked better than watching boys playing girls. By the time the 1650s came around the Puritans were ruling the UK but the backlash against the rules they imposed against entertainment, especially by those who had been part of the Royal Court before the Civil Wars, had begun. Within four years the Monarchy would be back on the throne and the private theatres would be closed as the public ones would soon be reopened. In fact in 1662 the 'Merry Monarch' Charles II would make a decree that all female parts in plays must be played by women. So finally women were allowed on the stage and they had a Royal endorsement. It wasn't over though for equal rights in the theatre as female actors would continue to fight for over 300 years to be treated as respectable members of society for choosing the stage as their trade... but thats a tale for another day.
This evening I watched a wonderful film starring the world's most famous actor, Shahrukh Khan, and found myself laughing, crying and dancing in my seat for nearly 3 hours straight. That film is 'Om Shanti Om' and it is the single most successful Hindi film to ever be released, it has grossed over $37.9 million worldwide since its release and has made millions more off of its dvd and television rights. It is a blockbuster film with a stellar cast and I would say it is probably the Hindi equivalent of a summer box office action movie except a thousand times more entertaining.
I should say right now that I know little about the Bollywood/Hindi film industry and have only watched a handful of the thousands upon thousands of films that have been made in India. However LibraryGirl is mad for them and introduced me to them through an epic called 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham' which also starred Sharukh Khan.
I really enjoyed this film from start to end which I found surprising as it was 2 hours and 40 minutes long. I have had trouble before watching films that long and keeping engaged but with 'Om Shanti Om' the story was so good my focus was only on the film. The performances in the film were excellent, Khan played the hero in the first half of the film with a comedic flair but his clownish behaviour didn't stand in the way of his powerful performance as the protagonist of the piece. The debuting Deepika Padukone was beautiful, sweet and in every way what you would expect of a heroine in a film. As the evil producer, Arjun Rampal was excellent with his mannerisms and delivery of lines appearing cold and sleazy. The supporting cast to these three were also phenomenal, like Hollywood, Bollywood tends to be star driven but the actual films seem more like ensemble pieces. There is no doubting that Khan was the main character because of his top billing but every other actor fills a spot in the film that is justified and is given the space and opportunity to make their role mean something. I should mention that there are over 30 cameos from the top stars of Bollywood in this movie due to it being a film set in the industry and I think my favourite cameo has to be Abhishek Bachchan in the Movie Awards Show scene, he plays it so beautifully and with such timing that even though he only gets a couple of minutes of screen time you really get to see how good an actor he is.
The films story is a fantastical adventure spanning 30 years and is in many ways a spoof of and homage to Bollywood of the past and the present but on a more global scale it spoofs film from all over the world. There are references to Citizen Kane and Khan reciting 'Gone with the Wind' and numerous other gems hidden away in this glorious film. I won't go into the plot as I think everyone should see this film and I run the risk of spoiling too much. It all looks wonderful and colourful, it is amazing how bright the colours are but they are never garish they always seem warm. My favourite thing about this film though has to be the musical numbers. Bollywood is known for its great musical sequences and this film has many amazing ones. Whilst the penultimate showdown is a song which is dramatic and wonderful in its composition and the song 'Dard-E-Disco' is funny in both lyrics and sequence. My favourite has to be the title song 'Om Shanti Om' in the post awards show party scene which has many Bollywood legends singing and dancing. It looks like a party and it feels like they all had great fun putting the scene together. You can check out that video below.
Overall I would give 'Om Shanti Om' a 4.5 out of 5. I rarely give reviews that high but this film deserved it. The story... thrilling! The acting... superb! The sets and costumes were phenomenal and the musical segments were fabulous. A real treat for the eyes and ears, I hope to pick this up on blu-ray in the not too distant future as we watched it on lovefilm and whilst it did stream well I have a feeling we did not get the best sound and picture experience... plus I really want to watch it again!
I am sorry to say that this weekend due to LibraryGirl and I going away there will be no updates... however please do look back on Monday when I will be posting the 21st of May in Theatrical History about Catherine Coleman.
So have a great weekend everybody and I will see you all again on Monday...
By the way has anyone seen Glee's version of 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light' it is horrific! Let me know what you think in the comment section below.
Veronique is an Operetta that premiered in December 1898 in Paris, France. Written by Andre Messager it would prove to be his most popular piece and toured throughout Europe in the late 1890s before it was brought, in its original French version, to the Notting Hill Gate Coronet by Lady Gladys de Grey in 1903. The following year a production was put together which included a translation of the libretto by Henry Atkins who was best known for his WWI song 'Private Tommy Atkins'. It opened at the Apollo Theatre, London on the 18th May 1904, it would run for 496 performances.
On the 17th of May 1853 the first matinee performance occured at Atsley's Ampitheatre in London. Astley's was situated on Westminster Bridge road and was the home of the Circus. It was a very popular venue putting on many spectacles featuring animals including one performance in 1871 which featured several hundred human performers alongside 52 Horses, 15 Elephants, 2 Lions, Kangaroos, Reindeer and many more. To read some more in depth information and see some wonderful picture of this venue please click here.
Matinees would not become a staple of the theatrical timetable until 1873 when it was established at the Haymarket Theatre, London.
