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New Musicals for Theatre Breaks

Since the start of tis year, 2011 there have been a handful of new musicals for theatre breaks opening in London. The Wizard of Oz began previews back in February with Danielle Hope starring as Dorothy, and has gone from strength to strength ever since. Expect high demand for theatre breaks and tickets around Christmas and early in the new year as families book themselves a winter treat. With somewhat less of a fanfare, the musical Betty Blue Eyes also opened in March for a limited run and is currently extended unti at least October 2011. Betty Blue Eyes is the story of a household surviving in post World War 2 Yorkshire by raising a pig to avoid the bacon rationing. Betty Blue Blues is in fact the name of the pig! Ghost The Musical is the big one, just opened in June in London after try out in Manchester and a showcase at West End Live 2011. The dazzling new musical GHOST, is based on the phenomenal Oscar winning Paramount Pictures film of the same name, and features great rock music by Eurythmics writer Dave Stewart with the help of Glenn Ballard. If you only see one new musical this year, go and see Ghost Lend Me A Tenor is an old fashioned Vaudeville style musical, which transferred from Plymouth and stars Matthew Kelly London Tube escalators are full of adverts for The Million Dollar Quartet, a story of fame, friendship, discovery, divided loyalties, professional jealousy and incredible music as four of the music industry’s most extraordinary talents, all in their creative prime, made music together for the first and only time in their careers. A true story of the electrifying night in 1956 when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis came together to make music and ended up making history. Rock of Ages doesn’t actually start until next month, August 2011, but we had a preview of the soft rock, 1980s style juke box musical at West End Live. And last but by no means least, we had the opening of Shrek The Musical with Amanda Holden, a major blockbuster of a film and musical which looks set to be a favourite family choice for theatre breaks in London for many years to come.

July 18 2011, 4:32am | Comments »

Shrek in London

Shrek is the first in a series of in-depth articles about new productions coming to the West End in 2011. Shrek started out as a Dreamworks film, of course. Sam Mendes was instrumental in helping to turn the first film into a musical. The transition from cartoon to the live stage has not always been easy and there have been problems along the way. The musical’s main claim to fame, until the recent problems with Spiderman, was that it was the most expensive Broadway show (the production cost 25 million dollars!) and it failed to make back its investment in a year. The show ran for 441 performances on Broadway until January this year and then went on a US tour. The new, revised and re-staged London version of Shrek-the-Musical® is starting previews at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on May 6, 2011, with an official opening night set for June 14 London Cast of Shrek-the-Musical® Confirmed cast members include:

Nigel Lindsay as Shrek, Amanda Holden as Princess Fiona, Nigel Harman as Lord Farquaad Richard Blackwood as Donkey. Liam Tamne as Pinocchio Nadine Higgin as the Dragon

The story of Shrek Shrek-the-Musical®, like all of the Shrek films, was inspired by a children’s picture book, Shrek! by William Steig. That original story is a picture book and is only 29 pages. It tells the tale of the green ogre, Shrek, as he searches for and eventually finds a ‘stunningly ugly’ princess. Although it became a much loved children’s book the bare story has none of the ‘smart’ humour we know from the films. The musical has re-worked the story again. Much of the humour and some of the jokes from the film are retained producing a musical that definitely isn’t just for the the kids. Like the original book and the films the musical subverts the sanitised word of children’s stories with references to farting, an ugly hero and a less than perfect princess. Video Extracts from Shrek

The Music Don’t expect to hear all the songs that the film used. This is not a jukebox musical. Apart from the finale of an ensemble version of I’m a Believer all the songs were written especially for the musical. Personally I’m not sure if this green ogre will be a hero or a giant green turkey. I saw the film too many times as a parent and working in school to ever want to re-visit it! I’m just not sure they are going to be able to make this work on the West End stage and I’m not sure that the West End needs another film based musical. Wouldn’t it be great to have a really original musical rather than,yet another, adaptation? What do you think? Do leave us a comment if you agree or if you think I’m just a grumpy old blogger!

November 6 2010, 8:47am | Comments »

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