There are rumours going around that Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent and Adam Lambert from American Idol will be starring in the concept album of "Love Never Dies", the continuation of "The Phantom of the Opera". Susan is apparently meant to be playing The Fortune Teller and Adam plays Christine's son. Very interesting. Also, apparently they each get 2 of the best songs from the first act?
*Crosses fingers that the melody for "The heart is slow to learn" has made it into the score*
Ryan.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Evita Story Gets Lively After Death
By Chris Klimek
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, May 29, 2009
In the 1970s, Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a musical about the beloved Argentine icon Eva Peron, but his version might have been overly preoccupied with the relatively dull early part of her life -- you know, before she died.
Turns out that when Peron succumbed to cancer at the martyrdom-enabling age of 33, her role in steering her country's future was just beginning.
Her husband, Juan Peron, had her body mummified and planned to put it in an opulent mausoleum, one that remained incomplete when his government was overthrown in 1955. The architects of the coup feared that Evita's corpse might be trenchant enough a symbol to rally the people against them.
So they hid her. For years. Eventually, a colonel in the junta fell in love with Evita (her mummy, that is) and claimed she was carrying his child. Understandably, his bosses took the mummy back. More puzzling, they stashed it in a closet for a couple of years before getting the Vatican to help them smuggle the body to Italy.
At this point, the tale gets a little weird.
"It feels like a story Monty Python could have told," says Mariano Caligaris, director of a dark musical comedy recounting Evita's posthumous exploits that has its world premiere at GALA Hispanic Theatre next week.
"Mummy in the Closet: The Return of Eva Peron" attempts a tonal balancing act similar to that of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins." Like that tuneful profile of president-killers, "Mummy" aims to be a whimsical, if macabre, retelling of tragic events. There is even a zombie number.
The creators of "Mummy" insist that the show is still more historically accurate than Webber's, which, they note, never played Buenos Aires. "They'd burn the theater," says GALA artistic director Hugo Medrano.
GALA commissioned Venezuelan playwright Gustavo Ott and Argentine composer Mariano Vales to write the book and music, respectively. (They penned the lyrics together.) While Medrano acknowledges that the story comes from a "a very surreal time" in Latin American history, he says it resonates on a deeper level than it would were its humor mere Pythonesque silliness.
"It's an ideological play, without being political," he says. "It's about how this kind of perversity starts to develop immediately after the fall of Peron," eventually giving rise to the Dirty War of 1976-83, wherein at least 10,000 suspected opponents of the military regime were "disappeared": abducted, tortured and murdered.
"You could say that Evita's mummy is the first 'disappeared,' " Caligaris says.
The choice of a non-Argentine playwright was a deliberate one, Medrano says, to bring a measure of objectivity to the tale. Otherwise, the entire creative team -- including choreographer Carina Losano, who taught Madonna to tango for the movie "Evita," and four of the nine cast members -- hails from Argentina, where original musical productions are rare. The plan is to eventually bring the show to Buenos Aires, where several of its songs and scenes were presented as works-in-progress earlier this year.
But Ott and Caligaris maintain that the show isn't written for Argentines and that familiarity with Latin American history is not a prerequisite. "I don't want people to have to read a book to understand the play," Caligaris says.
Mummy in the Closet: The Return of Eva Peron GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. 800-494-8497. http://www.galatheatre.org. Thursday through June 28. $34-$38. In Spanish with English surtitles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052801099.html
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, May 29, 2009
In the 1970s, Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a musical about the beloved Argentine icon Eva Peron, but his version might have been overly preoccupied with the relatively dull early part of her life -- you know, before she died.
Turns out that when Peron succumbed to cancer at the martyrdom-enabling age of 33, her role in steering her country's future was just beginning.
Her husband, Juan Peron, had her body mummified and planned to put it in an opulent mausoleum, one that remained incomplete when his government was overthrown in 1955. The architects of the coup feared that Evita's corpse might be trenchant enough a symbol to rally the people against them.
So they hid her. For years. Eventually, a colonel in the junta fell in love with Evita (her mummy, that is) and claimed she was carrying his child. Understandably, his bosses took the mummy back. More puzzling, they stashed it in a closet for a couple of years before getting the Vatican to help them smuggle the body to Italy.
At this point, the tale gets a little weird.
"It feels like a story Monty Python could have told," says Mariano Caligaris, director of a dark musical comedy recounting Evita's posthumous exploits that has its world premiere at GALA Hispanic Theatre next week.
"Mummy in the Closet: The Return of Eva Peron" attempts a tonal balancing act similar to that of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins." Like that tuneful profile of president-killers, "Mummy" aims to be a whimsical, if macabre, retelling of tragic events. There is even a zombie number.
The creators of "Mummy" insist that the show is still more historically accurate than Webber's, which, they note, never played Buenos Aires. "They'd burn the theater," says GALA artistic director Hugo Medrano.
GALA commissioned Venezuelan playwright Gustavo Ott and Argentine composer Mariano Vales to write the book and music, respectively. (They penned the lyrics together.) While Medrano acknowledges that the story comes from a "a very surreal time" in Latin American history, he says it resonates on a deeper level than it would were its humor mere Pythonesque silliness.
"It's an ideological play, without being political," he says. "It's about how this kind of perversity starts to develop immediately after the fall of Peron," eventually giving rise to the Dirty War of 1976-83, wherein at least 10,000 suspected opponents of the military regime were "disappeared": abducted, tortured and murdered.
"You could say that Evita's mummy is the first 'disappeared,' " Caligaris says.
The choice of a non-Argentine playwright was a deliberate one, Medrano says, to bring a measure of objectivity to the tale. Otherwise, the entire creative team -- including choreographer Carina Losano, who taught Madonna to tango for the movie "Evita," and four of the nine cast members -- hails from Argentina, where original musical productions are rare. The plan is to eventually bring the show to Buenos Aires, where several of its songs and scenes were presented as works-in-progress earlier this year.
But Ott and Caligaris maintain that the show isn't written for Argentines and that familiarity with Latin American history is not a prerequisite. "I don't want people to have to read a book to understand the play," Caligaris says.
Mummy in the Closet: The Return of Eva Peron GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. 800-494-8497. http://www.galatheatre.org. Thursday through June 28. $34-$38. In Spanish with English surtitles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052801099.html
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Love Never Dies delayed
Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has been busy working on the album of Phantom sequel Love Never Dies.
The composer had his score re-orchestrated, which meant he had to re-record the album. Nonetheless, he's happy and enjoying himself.
All this has meant re-evaluating schedules for the physical stage show for the Adelphi in London and theatres in Toronto, New York and the Far East. From what I'm hearing, the show has been put back several months and the plan now is for it to open in the spring of next year, which means tickets won't go on sale for a while.
I'll let you know when I know.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1178476/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Gwyneth-Paltrow-return-West-End-Chekhov.html
The composer had his score re-orchestrated, which meant he had to re-record the album. Nonetheless, he's happy and enjoying himself.
All this has meant re-evaluating schedules for the physical stage show for the Adelphi in London and theatres in Toronto, New York and the Far East. From what I'm hearing, the show has been put back several months and the plan now is for it to open in the spring of next year, which means tickets won't go on sale for a while.
I'll let you know when I know.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1178476/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Gwyneth-Paltrow-return-West-End-Chekhov.html
Friday, May 8, 2009
DARK ENTWINED WITH DARKNESS (IS ALL I EVER SEE)
SCARAMOUCHE'S LATEST BATMAN TRIBUTE SONG "DARK ENTWINED WITH DARKNESS" IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD IN THE TRIBUTES SECTION OF "DARK KNIGHT OF THE SOUL," THE UNOFFICIAL MEMORIAL TO BATMAN: THE MUSICAL.
13MB download with full lyrics and scenic descriptions (and a surprise reference to a Jim Steinman classic at the end!)
Please, ALL FANS OF "BATMAN: THE MUSICAL" FEATURING MUSIC & LYRICS BY JIM STEINMAN, BOOK BY DAVID IVES, DO NOT HESITATE TO DOWNLOAD THIS INSPIRATIONAL RECORDING.
I am always blown away by Dave's efforts, ever since I first heard "More Nocturnal Pleasures" on the 2007 Jim Steinman fan tribute album (to which I also contributed versions of "Everything Is Permitted" and "Confession Of A Vampire".)
Then I heard "I'LL DECORATE THIS CITY, IN RIBBONS OF BLOOD" and I just HAD to include it on the website. I'm very grateful that Dave turned out to be more than happy with my decision and I continue to be honoured to share his music with everyone.
Even Steinman himself loves "RIBBONS" and I hope he finally completes his own version for "BAT OUT OF HELL, THE MUSICAL" next year.
NOW GO AND LISTEN!!!
Ryan.
13MB download with full lyrics and scenic descriptions (and a surprise reference to a Jim Steinman classic at the end!)
Please, ALL FANS OF "BATMAN: THE MUSICAL" FEATURING MUSIC & LYRICS BY JIM STEINMAN, BOOK BY DAVID IVES, DO NOT HESITATE TO DOWNLOAD THIS INSPIRATIONAL RECORDING.
I am always blown away by Dave's efforts, ever since I first heard "More Nocturnal Pleasures" on the 2007 Jim Steinman fan tribute album (to which I also contributed versions of "Everything Is Permitted" and "Confession Of A Vampire".)
Then I heard "I'LL DECORATE THIS CITY, IN RIBBONS OF BLOOD" and I just HAD to include it on the website. I'm very grateful that Dave turned out to be more than happy with my decision and I continue to be honoured to share his music with everyone.
Even Steinman himself loves "RIBBONS" and I hope he finally completes his own version for "BAT OUT OF HELL, THE MUSICAL" next year.
NOW GO AND LISTEN!!!
Ryan.
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