Musicals, Musicals, Musicals!

A nice little selection of show-dedicated pages I've made, all about some of my favourite shows and Musicals! I'm a huge fan of many, but especially the ones below. So, grab a coffee and please enjoy this selection of some of my favourite fan pages :)

Parade the MusicalSEE FULL PAGE

Hairspray (Musical)SEE FULL PAGE

Equus (Dan Radcliffe)SEE FULL PAGE

The Lion KingSEE FULL PAGE

RENT by Jonathan LarsonSEE FULL PAGE

Rent Remixed (London)SEE FULL PAGE

The Edinburgh Festival 2012SEE FULL PAGE

Theatre Bingeing...

This month, I've seen quite a lot of stuff at the theatre. I saw Viva Forever, A Chorus Line, Merrily We Roll Along, The Cripple of Inishmaan and Much Ado About Nothing...the latter was actually at the cinema...but it's Shakespeare, so still counts, right?

The reason I saw Viva Forever was out of curiosity, more than anything - I got a great ticket for £20 - fab! I was OK, but the lack of story made it pretty boring, if you want to hear about its misgivings, I wrote a mini review about it here. At the other end of the spectrum that day, was A Chorus Line, which quite frankly, made Viva look like a school play. But the saddest part is, shortly after, ACL announced it's closing! So sad.

Merrily was without a doubt the highlight of the month. It was glorious. The acting was so good. I was really taken with Josephina Gabrielle's portrayal of Gussie, the way she seemed to get more innocent and quieter throughout the show really was awesome to see...well crafted character acting. If you don't know what it's about, you'll see why that's so fascinating to watch.

Inishmaan was very good. Everyone has gone nuts over Daniel Radcliffe, but to be honest, I just didn't get him. His irish accent wobbled on a few occasions, and there was something weirdly introvert about the way he took the scene in his hotel room, where he kept coughing. It was like he forgot he was in a theatre. I don't know. Don't get me wrong though, he was good, I just don't get what all the fuss is about.

Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing was fantastic though. An understated movie. Filmed over 12 days at Whedon's house and featuring familiar faces, for all Angel fans. The black and white tone gave this film a simple and classy edge. I really enjoyed it, and can't wait to get it on DVD.

LOVE NEVER DIES - More Musical Movies - Broadway Theatre on DVD...to avoid!!

Ok...I have another bummer of a show that was filmed on DVD. If you love Andrew Lloyd Webber, you'd love this...if you don't...then burn it...

Broadway Theatre on DVD: LOVE NEVER DIES





In short, Andrew Lloyd Webber shouldn't have made this show. As a stand alone show on it's own, I guess it's not too bad, but the problem is, it's a sequel! Yes, a sequel! To the classica musical, Phantom.

The thing is, when you watch it, you get caught up in the story telling being so different to the previous incarnation. We all knew Ben Elton shouldn't be let near a musical since he vomitted on the stage, added a guitar, and called it "We Will Rock You".

You know, just to put it in a nutshell for you..it sucks!

Gimme a break...

Please excuse this somewhat erratic post that I'm about to bestow onto you. My mind is running 20 to the dozen and thought it was high time I posted something, suffice to say I've been slack of late, is quite the understatement!

...As far as Art goes, I don't have too much report on my behalf, but I did visit my friend Jackie's excellent exhibition recently. We share a common interest of painting without a brush (woop woop), but she uses oils...I'm an acrylic boy, myself. Check out her stuff, it's great.

...As far as Theatre goes, I've been pretty busy. When I'm not seeing it (recent outings include: Jonathan Larson's 'Tick Tick Boom' (bravo, Leon) and a surprisingly good Gareth Gates in 'Joseph'), or being concerned about shows closing (poor 'Spring Awakening'), or distracting myself with intriguing announcements (Julie Taymor and U2 bringing us 'Spiderman the Musical' on Broadway(!!??) or the sublime Sheridan Smith opening in 'Legally Blonde - the Musical' in London), I've been hatching some directorial plans (possibly including a large cast, possibly not...cards-firmly-close-to-chest) and umming and ahhing about returning to the stage (y'aaargh, it's been at least 5 years and promised it was all behind me) in a potential Theatre Company 10 year anniversary reunion show...all in the light of 'Billy Elliott - the Musical' sweeping the board at the Tonys this week - winning 10 awards...!

My new website is very nearly ready to go live...as soon as it is, I'll post the link :)

Until such a time...

An Inspiring Theatre Company...

I've just come back to Columbus, Ohio...and within days end up at the theatre watching something rather stunning. It was a production by the Available Light Theatre Company called 'Dirty Math'. If you can get down to the Riffe Centre, downtown Columbus, I totally recommend that you do.

The play deals with the absurdity of the economy and the crisis we are all in. The amount of research and development that must have gone into this show is bloody amazing. Giving light and shade, this theatre company is a force to be reckoned with. Witty, satirical, informative and sobering - more people should see this show...click below to find out more:

All Good Things...

...Must come to an End. If you didn't know already, my exhibition: "Love. A Condition of Absolute Value" (hence the picture I've added to this post) ends tomorrow, so if you haven't seen it, you have less than 24 hours to get down to ModMod on High Street, Columbus. It's been a long and at times, hard process, and I've learnt so much from the whole thing. For my first show, I must say, I'm very pleased. I can't wait to get my "Comments book" back and post some of them on here, there are some absolute classic...and of course, Jenny's epic comment, bless her. I'm off to WashingtonDC this weekend, so when I get back I'll enlighten you all.

In theatre news, this week I've heard that AvenueQ is to close in the next few weeks, sad news. I don't know what's up with the West End this year, but everything seems to be closing, or reducing it's runs. It looks like Hairspray is still going strong though, but who knows if the 'economic crisis' will take it as it's next victim. A strange rumour I heard this week also, is that Zac Efron is to take over from Daniel Radcliffe in Equus on Broadway...not sure I can see Disney letting THAT happen!

Feeling Inspired...

This week I got free tickets to see Broadway production of "Frost/Nixon" (that started at the Donmar, in London), very good it was too, it felt very appropriate too as election fever is sweeping America right now. It was also the finale of Project Runway last night.

These two things have got my creative juices flowing again and I'm feeling ready for another exhibition. If you haven't had chance to check out my work in Columbus yet, there's not long left until the show ends, so go go go! I still have lots more travelling in store before I go back to the UK...tomorrow I'm off to Mickey and friends at DisneyWorld...I've never been to a Disney Park, so I'm very excited. We're spending all day Saturday in Animal Kingdom, so we may even bump into the Lion King, who knows.

I'm currently in the process of setting up an online store, where you can buy prints of my art and other lovely fangdangled things...but I'll post links on here as soon as I'm done :)

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY WEBSITE

Rent Remixed: A year ago today...

Wow - a year ago today, we had our first preview for the hotly anticipated 'Rent Remixed', directed by the wonderful William Baker. It feels like so long ago now. I'm in Ohio right now, and the weather has suddenly dropped, so I needed my jacket to go out...I reached into the pocket and what do I find...Mimi's handkerchief (that was never actually used in the show, in the end), very strange, as I wonder what it's doing there, I realise...we opened to the public a year ago today...weird huh?

For those that didn't know, I worked behind the scenes. In rehearsals, I was a production assistant. I also interviewed the cast and made videos for myspace and facebook etc. Then in the run, I operated and programmed a dot matrix system (never thought I would be doing that!). To be honest, the only thing that kept me in the job was the fact that the whole team and cast were bloody lovely people, especially the creatives and the DSM extraordinaire, Jakki. Did I like the show? Yes...Do I miss the show? Not so much...Do I miss the people? Hell yeah!

For more information on the show, go here: Rent Remixed