Sierra Boggess sang Love Never Dies for the massed musical theatre fans at West End Live last weekend, another wonderful performance by Sierra, and great publicity for the show. Here’s a crowd video of the song courtesy of theatre breaks youTube

After Sierra, Ramin and one of the Gustav’s came on and sang a duet but I’ll leave that for another post. Just look at the appreciative comments left about Sierra again:

rayna181

Beautiful. I swear i never get tired of? her gorgeous voice!!

ChristineMeram

i love this? song sooo much! breathtaking!

Masq92

cant wait till this comes? to new york

PrettyEowyn

Sierra dazzling, as ever. It is so sweet? and delicate! ^^

dookydocs

seen love never dies twice , Sierra got standing ovations on both? occasions. truly stunning

zacmari12

amazing! ?

theAmandaBean

She looks? and sounds like an angel!

Ozcellenc2

OH WOW!!!! She becomes better and better and better.?

Drew Barrymore is set to direct the film “Surrender Dorothy,” which will be a “loose sequel” to the classic 1939 movie musical “The Wizard of Oz”.

Drew Barrymore

Barrymore has been developing the project for years, and at one point appeared set to play Dorothy’s great-great-granddaughter, who learns to use the ruby slippers’ power when the Wicked Witch unexpectedly returns to take over Oz and the earth. It’s unclear if Barrymore will still take the role or just direct. Now “Surrender Dorothy” is just one out of five “Oz” films that have been reported as being in development recently, following the big box-office success of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Possible films include “Oz the Great and Powerful,” a Disney project that would show how the Wizard came to Oz. There may also be a film version of “Wicked”, the musical prequel to the story, which has been fabulously successful on Broadway and in the London West End.

Sierra Boggess From Love Never Dies spent some time with the Dorothys last week giving advice and answering questions, specifically related to maintaining the stamina needed to fulfil the requirements of performing up to 8 times a week on the West End stage in London. She explained that the winning Dorothy who gets to perform in The Wizard Of Oz can expect not just a wonderful job but also a complete lifestyle as a leading lady. Sierra was impressed that the amount of working being put in by all at the Dorothy house was already a good preparation for the real thing. On Sunday night’s Over The Rainbow, Sierra Boggess performed the title song from the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Love Never Dies

Sierra Boggess

Sierra Boggess sang Love Never Dies on BBC1’s Over the Rainbow show last night

The show is a casting competition for another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Wizard of Oz which opens in London in April 2011 with a Leading Lady – the part of Dorothy, chosen by the public. Sierra Boggess helped out with the final four contestants during the week giving them advice on singing, stamina, and the West End Leading Lady lifestyle which the lucky winner might expect.

Four Dorothy contenders remain for just a few hours more, and then they will be reduced to three. All four girls who remain in the competition have star quality in many ways, each different, but only three can go through to the Over The Rainbow final next week with a chance to star in The Wizard of Oz in London’s West End starting in April 2011. Danielle Hope Danielle’s Performance on Saturday

Steph Fearon Steph’s performance of Rule The World

Sophie Evans Sophie’s Performance of Reflection

Lauren Samuels Lauren’s performance of Heaven.

Dorothy Duets Ins the first duet duel of the night, Sophie and Steph sang I’m Gonna Was That Man Right Out of My Hair, and then Lauren and Danielle performed a duet version of Popular from the hit Oz musical, Wicked.

I thought it would be interesting to go back over something Andrew Lloyd Webber said about The Wizard of Oz and Over The Rainbow way back during one of the early audition sessions, in fact in Scotland. Andrew Lloyd Webber talked about Over The Rainbow and the Wizard Of Oz production as one of his most ambitious projects yet but said he wanted to steer clear of the classic 1939 movie. He said: This is the most difficult show I’ve had to cast. Joseph, Oliver and Maria all came from established theatre productions which are huge hits. The Wizard Of Oz has been done before, but it’s never worked properly because they’ve tried to recreate the movie too closely. I’m essentially writing a whole new musical with some of the greatest songs ever written and composing completely new music for it. There’s at least half a dozen new songs. So that’s a tantalising insight into what the forthcoming London production at The Palladium promisies. A new musical with half a dozen new songs, a fantastic Dorothy (no matter who wins) all based on but not recreating the original American story.

Oh noes! Not Jessica??! Jessica Robinson became the surprise second victim of the double knock out weekend yesterday on Over The Rainbow simply because the public voted her into the bottom two alongside of Danielle, who ought really to be the outright favourite to win. Given that dreadful choice, it was probably no choice at all that Danielle had to be saved but it still doesn’t seem right that Jessica should be out of the competition at this stage. When asked why she thought she had managed to avoid the bottom two so far, Jess put it down to her amazing fan base, but I’m afraid they let her down, just the once. Ah well, what else happened…? The mashup was a medley of songs, two from Fiddler on the roof and some pop songs.

Who catches your eye for most of the time when watching the group performances? If They Could See Me Now Tamsin Outhwaite returned to Over The Rainbow, this time to perform herself and show the girls exactly how it’s done.

Tamsin Outhwaite performs “If They Could See Me Now” from current West End smash hit musical Sweet Charity The Sing Off Danielle and Jessica were given an Andrew Lloyd Webber composition for the inevitable sing off, Take That Look Off Your Face from “Tell Me On A Sunday”

Goodbye Jessica Jessica seemed to be genuinely grateful for having the good fortune to last through the show as long as she had done, and I’m sure leaves us with the confidence that she has a bright career in musical theatre ahead of her,  (if not in Wizard Of Oz) as she sings Somewhere over The Rainbow and heads for flying moon.

Jenny Douglas Is Not Dorothy

Jenny Douglas from Scotland was the first casualty of the weekend’s double eviction special of Over The Rainbow. Jenny showed increased competence in her singing but failed the test of working with Toto the dog! Understandably perhaps, For Andrew Lloyd Webber, that was enough to rule out Jenny from being in The Wizard of OZ when it opens in London’s West End in March 2011. Over The Rainbow started this week with a group rendition of the powerful musical theatre song “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. Normally a big solo number, it was slightly odd to hear this a little under performed by the six Dorothys but then it hadn’t really been explained that this was Musical Theatre week. So firstly, Danielle sang “On My Own” from the musical, Les Miserables impeccably as always. Then it was the turn of Jenny with her version of Send In The Clowns from the musical, A Little Night Music. By the way, has anybody else noticed that the musical phrase for Send in The Clowns is just like Love Never Dies?  Jenny received a mixed response from the judges. Jessica this week took on the Mary Poppins classic, Supercalifragilistic or rather in full, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, as song which potentially leaves little for an individualist performer to build on but to my surprise, Jessica managed to to turn it into an entertaining music hall number. Who’d have thought it. Jessica deserves a place in the semi finals. Lauren performed Being Alive from the Sondheim musical, “Company” and once again I felt, justfied staying in the show right up to the line. Steph was given the well known song “Somewhere” from the musical West Side Story and rose to the occasion yet again by showing just how far she has improved in confidence with her new found variation in singing styles. Sophie has managed to evade the sing offs recently, and once again she avoided the bottom two with a splendidly up tempo version of “I Enjoy Being A Girl” from Flower Drum Song by Rodgers and Hammerstein, a less well known musical based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Chinese American author C. Y. Lee. In the end, Jenny found herself in the bottom two alongside Lauren Samuels. I don’t know what Lauren was doing there, but it’s a public vote so anything can happen. They had to sing a duet rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, a song which I have never cared for, but whichthey managed to turn almost into a musical theatre piece. Andrew Lloyd Webber then wasted no time in saving Lauren, citing Jenny’s failure to control Toto as the reason why she would have been too much of a risk on the Wizard Of Oz Stage. Five Remaining Dorothy Contenders So the five girls remaining are Lauren Samuels, Jessica Robinson, Danielle Hope, Sophie Evans and Steph Fearon, with one more due to be eliminated on Sunday’s show and then it’s semi-final next weekend. Saturday Night’s double eviction part one show ended with the five doing a Wizard Of Oz medley starting with Follow The Yellow Brick Road and including Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead, The Merry Old Land of Oz and If I Only Had A Brain.

The six remaining Dorothys attended the West End opening night of Sweet Charity at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Tamsin Outhwaite, the brilliant star of this fantastic musical was already know to the Dorothys having been an expert guest in one of the earlier episodes of Over The Rainbow. Andrew Lloyd Webber had made a point of celebrating Tamsin Outhwaite’s performance in Sweet Charity having seen it at The Menier Chocolate Factory, where this production originates and I must say, he is not wrong. This is a truly well put together show, with a big band, great atmosphere and clever choreography. Also present on the red carpet were Sheridan Smith from Legally Blonde, Joanna Page and also Heidi Range, Amy Nuttall, Amanda Lamb and Holly Willoughby. Sweet Charity director Matthew White gave the benefit of his advice and encouragement to Dorothys during the interval, so I don’t know if we will see some brief footage from this visit during the summary of the Dorothys’ week in this weekends Over The Rainbow.

Hair Theatre Breaks – time travel to a land that never was….. Hair is back in the West End and we can travel back in time for a theatre break to that heady, hairy place that was the Summer of Love. We’ve all heard the cliche that if you remember the 60s you weren’t there, well, the new production of the 60s hit musical Hair takes us back to one version of that time of flower power, beads and illicit substances. Hair theatre breaks Last Tuesday night we had the chance to see the lively new Broadway production of Hair. I was really looking forward to the show as it’s been on my wish list ever since I heard it was coming (More about  Hair). Of course, this cast of bright energetic young Americans weren’t even born when Hair arrived in London for the first time. (I worry that just possibly neither were some of their parents – moving swiftly on!) For them Hair is a period piece from a time as exotic and unfamiliar as the 1920s. I’m old enough to remember the 60s, or to be more precise, I was trying to re-create them for most of the early 70s. At first tiny details that weren’t ‘quite’ right jarred slightly. A few minutes in though I suddenly realised that being ‘right’ really didn’t matter. I was watching a wonderful, energetic interpretation of a kind of fairy tale. We weren’t in the 60s at all. We were in Neverland with a group of Lost Boys, Peter Pan (Burger) and the rest of the cast. So I stopped worrying about historical accuracy and relaxed into a most enjoyable evening of music, dance and humour.

The music of the show is wonderful, from the iconic start of The Age of Aquarius via Good Morning Starshine to the final auditorium wide singing of Let the Sun Shine in we are swept along by a succession of  huge hits and tiny masterpieces like Frank Mills. If you can’t get to London to see the show buy the album on Amazon – you won’t regret it!

Who Will Enjoy Hair? Looking round the audience, and we got a better look at them than you usually do as a huge number of people made it onstage for the final song, Hair seems to appeal to all ages. There were a few aging ex-hippies (you know who you are!) but just about every age from 14 or so up was represented. Hair does of course famously have full frontal (actually rather tasteful and touching) nudity, references to drug use and quite explicit (and not at all tasteful, but fun!) sexual references. You might think twice about taking your younger children or your aging aunt. On second thoughts aging aunts are an unpredictable bunch and can have quite interesting pasts! Hair theatre breaks Book Hair Theatre Breaks

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If They Could See Me Now - Charity (Tamzin Outhwaite) Sweet Charity will start previews at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket  on April 23rd after a sell out run at the Mernier Chocolate Factory. At the moment the show is booking through to January 2011. The show has been a big hit with audiences and critics alike. Tamzin Outhwaite’s outstanding performance in the title role has even been remarked on by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Sweet Charity will make a brilliant treat for theatre breaks fans. We follow Charity Hope Valentine as she travels a bumpy path in pursuit of love. Charity is a paradox, a scheming innocent, a dreamer who always gives her heart and her trust to the wrong man. She still travels hopefully and despite all her misadventures, or perhaps because of them, she still captures the audience’s heart along the way. Sweet Charity has some favourite show stopping musical numbers that you will know the words to including  If They Could See Me Now, (Hey) Big Spender! and The Rhythm of Life and some less familiar numbers that deserve to be better known. The jazz dance style of the show is classic Fosse with those now familiar elements of bowler hatted  dancers  with lots of shoulder rolls, knees, elbows, and wrists bent at unlikely angles. Expect syncopated rhythms, lots of toe tapping, finger clicking and pelvic thrusts. This is the original that shows like Chicago built their dance style on. And this production really does it justice! Click here to view the embedded video. History of the Show Sweet Charity is based on Federico Fellini’s screenplay for Nights of Cabiria. The show was choreographed and conceived by Bob Fosse, with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Neil Simon. The original production directed by Fosse opened on January 29, 1966 on Broadway at the Palace Theatre, and ran for 608 performances. Nominated for 12 Tony Awards the show only won  for Fosse’s choreography. The 1969 film version of Sweet Charity  (which I love!) was also directed and choreographed by Fosse. It starred Shirley MacLaine as Charity Hope Valentine and until recently I thought hers was the definitive Charity. Tamzin Outhwaite does a brilliant job of making the part and especially  If They Could See Me Now her own. Sweet Charity Theatre Breaks As yet (April 15th) Show and Stay do not seem to have theatre breaks to Sweet Charity available on the site. They do suggest that breaks will soon be available with prices starting from £113 per person. TheatreBreaks.com also have the show on their site but are not showing any performances as available Superbreaks does have availability and prices start from £109 per person. You could also try a build your own theatre break. UKTickets have tickets from £31 per person during previews rising to £42 in May.

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I have a feeling it’s going to fashionable to knock the new musical “Love Never Dies” from certain quarters. Paul in London made an audioboo from the Adelphi Theatre during the interval at Love Never Dies.

Technorati Tags: Adelphi Theatre, Love Never Dies, musical

Love Never Dies the new Phantom musical will open in London on Tuesday 9th March, just one week’s time. So what will the critics and press reviews make of it? Well in many ways, it doesn’t really matter because, having seen one of the early previews and loved it all, especially the score, I’m certain that the great British musical theatre going public is going to really enjoy this musical extravaganza. It’s a modern production that builds on the language of musicals and delights the eye and ear, while twisting the emotions appropriately as the plot unfolds. There were one or two effects that didn’t work quite as well as others, but from all accounts the show had already improved considerably on the first preview, and it’s now a case of tweaking a show that is ready for the world rather than implementing any big last minute redesigns. Maybe if you go and see Love Never Dies in three months time, for a summer theatre break, it will be a more mature production, perhaps with a new final ensemble or something to smooth over any slight disappointments, but the characters are set and most importantly, the music is a final piece that holds together very well. I’ll be throroughly recommending Love Never Dies as a new musical top choice choice for London theatre breaks.

Technorati Tags: extravaganza, london, london theatre, Love Never Dies, March, music, musical, musicals, phantom, score

Ramin Karimloo, star of The Phantom of the Opera and next year’s world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom sequel Love Never Dies, along with I’d Do Anything’s Sarah Lark, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?’s Abi Finley and other musical stars have recorded the September released concept album for BLUEBIRD, a passionate new musical set on the homefront during the Second World War. Normally priced £13.99, the 24-track CD, produced by Escape Records, comes with 12-page souvenir booklet.

Bluebird is a passionate new musical, set during World War Two and charts the story of ordinary people living in extraordinary times. It tells the heartbreaking story of Roberta Jones (Sarah Lark) as she comes to terms with her husband Pete (Stephen Weller) going off to war. Roberta, a nurse, soon meets the charismatic U.S. serviceman Ben (Ramin Karimloo) and a friendship grows, much to the disapproval of best friend, Jane (Abi Finely). Ramin Karimloo remarked: It was great to help out a new and up and coming British composer. (Gareth Peters) He has put his heart and soul into this project. I think he’s done a great job and was honored to be asked to take part in it and also have a song written for me. It was also a lot of fun to go back to singing with a rockier sound.

Technorati Tags: Andrew LLoyd Webber, bluebird, british composer, musical, musical stars, Ramin Karimloo, Roberta Jones, Sarah Lark, souvenir booklet, Stephen Weller

One show to see in 2010 is going to have to be Billy Elliot LondonI think it's going to be a year when some of these issues about individual aspiration, about community solidarity, the clash of loyalties between ideals and obligations, family and class, wil all be back on the agenda. Besides, Billy Elliot London is a great musical which has stood the test of time already, and even become a big hit over the Atlantic in New York of all places.

La Cage aux Folles, London La Cage aux Folles is not just another musical with drag queens it actually stated out as a play. Then it became a film and now a West End musical which starred Graham Norton. Now John Barrowman and Simon Burke lead the cast in a return of the surprise success story of the summer, and the show will go on after that from November 30th 2009 to January 2nd 2010. The story of Georges and Albin is both touching and ultimately uplifting. Albin the dazzling drag artiste is the star of the La Cage aux Folles club, but the night life is threatened when Georges’ son announces his engagement to the daughter of a right-wing politician, who wants to close it down. Drastic action needs to be taken! So it’s a feel good musical with a great story, and incredible dance performances from the whole cast. All in all La Cage Aux Folles could make an interesting complement to the larger scale show which is also getting a lot of attention this summer – Priscilla Queen of The Desert. Graham Norton ended his run in May but you can also book theatre breaks to see La Cage Aux Folles right up to New Year. with John Barrowman starring until November 28th. La Cage Aux Folles a

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Lion King Anniversary theatre breaks As you may well know by now, the Lion King musical is celebrating a tenth anniversary in London’s West End. It’s a great family show and we’d like to offer this special theatre break package from Superbreak of Lion King theatre tickets and a three star hotel for only £60 per person: The Lion King Celebrates its 10th Anniversary, ticket & 3*, £60.00pp Show Available until August 2010 The Lion King Theatre Breaks Disney’s marvellous musical about the young Prince Simba, his father King Musafa and evil Uncle Scar. An award-winning score with fantastic choreography continue to make The Lion King one of London’s favourite shows. Lion King London Video

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Lion King Disney’s THE LION KING has a 10th birthday party at London’s Lyceum Theatre on Sunday 18th October 2009. Over 250 cast members new and old will celebrate along with famous faces from the world of theatre, music, film and fashion. Since its opening in1999 THE LION KING has been seen by over 8 million people in London at over 4200 performances. This is an average attendance of 93%! The show ranks among the top ten longest-running shows in West End history and is still of the most sought-after tickets in the West End. Tickets are almost never reduced in price and it can be tricky to get weekend tickets, especially during the run up to Christmas. One of the best ways to get the dates you want for Lion King is to book a Lion King Theatre Break. THE LION KING – Times Evenings – Tuesday to Saturday 7.30pm Matinees – Wednesday and Saturday 2.00pm and Sunday at 3.00pm. THE LION KING and Children Did you know?

400,000 school children have seen the show as part of THE LION KING education programme Lion King has a great education website with free resources

64 children have played the roles of Young Simba and Young Nala and many of them have gone on to successful musical or theatrical careers

THE LION KING ‘Cub School’ was started this year (2009) to train young performers for the show. The first graduates from the programme joined the production in September 2009

Lion King Theatre Breaks with the Family All of this makes The Lion King an ideal choice for a family theatre break. Your children should be over 5 and need to be old enough to sit comfortably for the length of the show (running time is 2 hours 40 minutes with only a 15 minute interval) . Surprisingly this is often not a problem as the spectacular staging entrances children and pins them to their seats. London hotels are in the main very family friendly and some offer family rooms at quite reasonable prices. Try to choose a fairly central hotel and then it’s easy to do a bit of sightseeing during the day. Lots of attractions can be booked at the same time as your theatre break and usually with good discounts. It’s worth having a look at what’s on offer when you book.

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Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks October 8th was the press launch for Love Never Dies which meant that tickets were released to agencies and so now we can show you how to get top seats at the Adelphi Theatre for performances of the new musical from as early as February 2010. Theatre breaks to see Love Never Dies include top tickets for the date of your choice with a central London hotel for the same night. There’s a wide choice of hotels and you can add extra nights hotel stay at the time of booking, as well as taking advantage of optional discount rail travel. This always works out to be the best way to get good seats and be reassured that you’ll have a fantastic night out in London without having to worry about getting back after the show. ** Book Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks ** Love Never Dies is the first West End musical sequel, following characters from The Phantom of The Opea from Paris to New York. More details emerging from the build up to the opening of Love Never Dies in the West End are being covered on the Love Never Dies blog.

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Peter Townsend of The Who has written anther rock musical. This one isn’t about growing up but rather about growing old. The musical is called Floss and tells the story of an ageing pub rocker and relationship with his wife. Songs from the show will appear on the next Who album. Townsend is said to be in talks for a US opening in 2011. He says he wants to tackle the issues the Baby Boomers are facing as they realise they didn’t die before they got old. The music will reflect the anger and disillusionment of this newly retired generation. Meanwhile that other Townsend offering, Quadrophenia continues its UK tour.

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