Is there no end to U2 frontman's talents!
By ANTOINETTE KELLY, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 10:01 AM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 6:12 PM
U2 Bono and The Edge are two men of many talents!
The Irish rock stars - currently clawing their way round the world with the 360 Tour - are the brains behind the new Spider-Man musical set to light up Broadway next year.
Bono and the Edge penned the music and lyrics for the musical, which will star Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane Watson and Alan Cumming as the Green Goblin.
And not only did the boys get the words and music together, but Bono also came up with the title "Turn off the Dark."
The title was inspired by a story Bono heard of a child who would ask his father to "Turn off the dark," instead of "Turn on the light."
The Edge says he was drawn to the material because super heroes and rock stars come from the same place.
"Every rock & roll star probably started out as the geek who got bullied on in school, and eventually their form of revenge was to write songs or learn to play guitar,” he says.
"In many ways the audience for a rock and roll band, and the audience for comic books are the same," says the Edge. "It's kids, like ourselves, 15 or 16, like ourselves, out in the suburbs, in our case Dublin city, but it could be any city in America or in Europe.
"It seems, at that moment in your life, that there is this world out there that you can't get access to and the only way you can connect to that is though music or comic books or movies."
Roll on the previews in February 2010!!
http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/Touching-story-inspires-Bono-to-name-Spider-Man-musical.html
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Phantom 2 will be fantastic promises Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber has confirmed that soprano Sierra Boggess and baritone Ramin Karimloo will star in the world premiere in London of his Phantom Of The Opera sequel, Love Never Dies.
He told me that the £10million (probably more) show will open at the Adelphi Theatre 'early next year', adding that 'if it's any later, I'll go crazy!'
The show's award-winning designer, Bob Crowley, will test 'magic' scenes involving a life-sized automaton version of Christine Daae, the Phantom's beautiful protegee, at the Adelphi in September or October.
'I don't want to wait till next year and find that we're held up by some illusion,' the composer said. 'We'll set it up and fix any problems in the autumn.'
Creating the automaton, and ensuring that it works, has been one of the problems that caused Love Never Dies to delay from an initial, hoped-for opening this year.
Another factor was finding enough sets of performers to play the two main leads on three continents simultaneously. One idea had been for Love Never Dies to open in London, New York and Shangai at the same time. Lloyd Webber conceded that it's unlikely that will now happen.
'Where will we find three voices like that?' Lloyd Webber wondered aloud, as we listened to Ms Boggess's soaring soprano voice during a playback session at a recording studio in Battersea, South London.
Lord Lloyd-Webber and his long-time collaborator, music producer Nigel Wright, were playing me excerpts from the Love Never Dies concept album. 'She's pretty wonderful,' he added. And she is.
'It's the first time that the leads on an album of mine have gone on to open in the actual stage show. When Sierra and Ramin open in London, Broadway will want to see the original stars, so you can't say to London: "OK, listen to them for two weeks and then New York gets them."
'I personally feel that what will now happen is that Sierra and Ramin will open in London early next year and then go to New York in the autumn of 2010. I think once the album comes out, hopefully before Christmas, a lot of singers will come out of the woodwork and we'll find new Christines and Phantoms for the other productions,' he explained.
My sense of Love Never Dies is that it's the best score Lloyd Webber has produced, and that once he hands it over to director Jack O'Brien it can be moulded into the best musical London has seen in years.
However, Lloyd Webber, looking wistful as we listened to his powerful melodies, wondered whether there would be an audience for Love Never Dies.
To be sure, nothing's a dead certainty in this business, but I will be mightily surprised if Love Never Dies doesn't excel, both artistically and commercially.
'I'm just going to hand it over to Jack in January and start rehearsals,' Lloyd Webber said.
I laughed and surmised that he wouldn't be able to 'just hand it over'. But that's why O'Brien's a good choice. He's tough.
The show is set on Coney Island, New York, around 1907 - ten years on from the final actions in Phantom Of The Opera. A mysterious figure, Mr Y, has established a freak show attraction called Phantasma.
He works with former Paris Opera ballet mistress Madame Giry (sung on the album by Sally Dexter) and her daughter Meg (now famous as bathing beauty the Ooh La La girl), sung by Summer Strallen.
Christine, an opera star, is married to Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny (John Barrowman on the record), and the mother of a ten-year-old son, Gustave. She is invited to perform at the Phantasma amusement resort.
Lloyd Webber explained that in those days, showmen always liked to present 'opera totty of the day, like Katherine Jenkins now'.
I won't give any more away, except to say that by the show's dramatically heartbreaking end, there won't be a dry eye in the house.
By the way, I asked why Ms Jenkins couldn't take over from Ms Boggess in London and he explained that Boggess's range was soprano, and that she can go right up the scale: 'Her B-flat is sensational!'
Jenkins is a mezzo soprano and her voice wouldn't suit his score.
Essentially, it's a musical about obsession, love and a composer's life work. It may also, I suspect, be the final original masterpiece of Lloyd Webber's career.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1197158/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Beyonce-wants-soul-sister.html
He told me that the £10million (probably more) show will open at the Adelphi Theatre 'early next year', adding that 'if it's any later, I'll go crazy!'
The show's award-winning designer, Bob Crowley, will test 'magic' scenes involving a life-sized automaton version of Christine Daae, the Phantom's beautiful protegee, at the Adelphi in September or October.
'I don't want to wait till next year and find that we're held up by some illusion,' the composer said. 'We'll set it up and fix any problems in the autumn.'
Creating the automaton, and ensuring that it works, has been one of the problems that caused Love Never Dies to delay from an initial, hoped-for opening this year.
Another factor was finding enough sets of performers to play the two main leads on three continents simultaneously. One idea had been for Love Never Dies to open in London, New York and Shangai at the same time. Lloyd Webber conceded that it's unlikely that will now happen.
'Where will we find three voices like that?' Lloyd Webber wondered aloud, as we listened to Ms Boggess's soaring soprano voice during a playback session at a recording studio in Battersea, South London.
Lord Lloyd-Webber and his long-time collaborator, music producer Nigel Wright, were playing me excerpts from the Love Never Dies concept album. 'She's pretty wonderful,' he added. And she is.
'It's the first time that the leads on an album of mine have gone on to open in the actual stage show. When Sierra and Ramin open in London, Broadway will want to see the original stars, so you can't say to London: "OK, listen to them for two weeks and then New York gets them."
'I personally feel that what will now happen is that Sierra and Ramin will open in London early next year and then go to New York in the autumn of 2010. I think once the album comes out, hopefully before Christmas, a lot of singers will come out of the woodwork and we'll find new Christines and Phantoms for the other productions,' he explained.
My sense of Love Never Dies is that it's the best score Lloyd Webber has produced, and that once he hands it over to director Jack O'Brien it can be moulded into the best musical London has seen in years.
However, Lloyd Webber, looking wistful as we listened to his powerful melodies, wondered whether there would be an audience for Love Never Dies.
To be sure, nothing's a dead certainty in this business, but I will be mightily surprised if Love Never Dies doesn't excel, both artistically and commercially.
'I'm just going to hand it over to Jack in January and start rehearsals,' Lloyd Webber said.
I laughed and surmised that he wouldn't be able to 'just hand it over'. But that's why O'Brien's a good choice. He's tough.
The show is set on Coney Island, New York, around 1907 - ten years on from the final actions in Phantom Of The Opera. A mysterious figure, Mr Y, has established a freak show attraction called Phantasma.
He works with former Paris Opera ballet mistress Madame Giry (sung on the album by Sally Dexter) and her daughter Meg (now famous as bathing beauty the Ooh La La girl), sung by Summer Strallen.
Christine, an opera star, is married to Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny (John Barrowman on the record), and the mother of a ten-year-old son, Gustave. She is invited to perform at the Phantasma amusement resort.
Lloyd Webber explained that in those days, showmen always liked to present 'opera totty of the day, like Katherine Jenkins now'.
I won't give any more away, except to say that by the show's dramatically heartbreaking end, there won't be a dry eye in the house.
By the way, I asked why Ms Jenkins couldn't take over from Ms Boggess in London and he explained that Boggess's range was soprano, and that she can go right up the scale: 'Her B-flat is sensational!'
Jenkins is a mezzo soprano and her voice wouldn't suit his score.
Essentially, it's a musical about obsession, love and a composer's life work. It may also, I suspect, be the final original masterpiece of Lloyd Webber's career.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1197158/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Beyonce-wants-soul-sister.html
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
First look: What a weird 'Wonderland' Burton's made
By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY
You might have gone down the rabbit hole before. But never with a guide quite as attuned to the fantastic as Tim Burton.
PANORAMIC PICS: See more exclusive art from 'Alice in Wonderland'
Those who have grown curiouser and curiouser about what the offbeat reinventor of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory might conjure up in his version of Alice in Wonderland can feast their eyes on this array of concept art and publicity images, due to hang in movie theaters this week to promote the March 5, 2010, release.
"It has been Burton-ized" is how producer Richard Zanuck describes the director's vision of the Lewis Carroll classic. Many elements are familiar, from the enigmatic Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) to the fierce Jabberwock (Christopher Lee). But none has been presented in this sort of visually surreal fashion.
"We finished shooting in December after only 40 days," Zanuck says. Now the live action is being merged with CG animation and motion-capture creatures, and then transferred into 3-D.
The traditional tale has been freshened with a blast of girl power, courtesy of writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast). Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn't remember.
Among those who welcome her back is the Mad Hatter, a part tailor-made for Johnny Depp as he collaborates with Burton for the seventh time. "This character is off his rocker," Zanuck says.
Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska, 19, best known for HBO's In Treatment, has the coveted title role. "There is something real, honest and sincere about her," Zanuck says. "She's not a typical Hollywood starlet."
There is the usual Burton-esque ghoulishness (Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen, whose favorite retort is "Off with their heads," has a moat filled with bobbing noggins), but Zanuck assures most kids can handle it. "The book itself is pretty dark," he notes. "This is for little people and people who read it when they were little 50 years ago."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-06-21-alice-in-wonderland_N.htm
Stripped of all dignity
For a man so obsessed about his body, there was nothing more humiliating for Michael Jackson than when police strip-searched him while investigating the allegations that he had molested 13-year-old Jordie Chandler.
The boy had given a detailed description of the star's body and the detectives needed to check if it was true. Jackson was warned that if he refused to cooperate, he'd be arrested and taken away in handcuffs.
After the police arrived at Neverland, it took lawyers an hour to persuade him to leave his bedroom. Finally, he came into the living room clearly agitated, wearing a brown dressing gown. He blocked his face with his hands, as if thwarting the paparazzi.
He was told to stand on a platform in the middle of the room. 'Please don't make me do this,' he pleaded. 'Sir, we have no choice,' said one of the detectives.
Staring at a picture of Elizabeth Taylor on the wall, Jackson removed the dressing gown, to reveal a bathing suit. 'You'll have to take that off, too, sir,' said the detective. Michael slipped off the bathing suit . . . under which he was wearing boxers. 'Sir, please,' the detective said.
Crying softly, Michael took off the boxers and stood, stripped not only of his clothes, but of all his dignity. All eyes peered at him to see if he was circumcised, as Jordie had claimed (he wasn't). 'Oh my God,' Michael whimpered. He looked as if he was about to faint.
The police circled him slowly, making notes about his body, the colour of his buttocks and private parts. A photographer took pictures before Jackson jumped off the platform. 'That's enough,' he said, before fleeing the room.
He was persuaded to return by his lawyers after 15 minutes of cries, shrieks and pleas. A plaintive wail resonated through the house. Michael Jackson had been broken. He pounded his feet against the floor.
Again, he stood naked. More pictures. Then videotape. 'Please, can we stop now?' Michael pleaded.
One of the doctors produced a ruler, at which point Jackson's doctor intervened. 'That's it,' he said firmly. 'Mike, get dressed.' Jackson ran from the room, shaking and screaming: 'How could this happen to me?'
Extracted from Michael Jackson: The Magic And The Madness by J. Randy Taraborrelli (Pan, £8.99). Randy Taraborrelli. To order a copy, tel: 0845 155 0720
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196633/How-Jacksons-surgery-desperate-bid-look-like-father-hated.html
The boy had given a detailed description of the star's body and the detectives needed to check if it was true. Jackson was warned that if he refused to cooperate, he'd be arrested and taken away in handcuffs.
After the police arrived at Neverland, it took lawyers an hour to persuade him to leave his bedroom. Finally, he came into the living room clearly agitated, wearing a brown dressing gown. He blocked his face with his hands, as if thwarting the paparazzi.
He was told to stand on a platform in the middle of the room. 'Please don't make me do this,' he pleaded. 'Sir, we have no choice,' said one of the detectives.
Staring at a picture of Elizabeth Taylor on the wall, Jackson removed the dressing gown, to reveal a bathing suit. 'You'll have to take that off, too, sir,' said the detective. Michael slipped off the bathing suit . . . under which he was wearing boxers. 'Sir, please,' the detective said.
Crying softly, Michael took off the boxers and stood, stripped not only of his clothes, but of all his dignity. All eyes peered at him to see if he was circumcised, as Jordie had claimed (he wasn't). 'Oh my God,' Michael whimpered. He looked as if he was about to faint.
The police circled him slowly, making notes about his body, the colour of his buttocks and private parts. A photographer took pictures before Jackson jumped off the platform. 'That's enough,' he said, before fleeing the room.
He was persuaded to return by his lawyers after 15 minutes of cries, shrieks and pleas. A plaintive wail resonated through the house. Michael Jackson had been broken. He pounded his feet against the floor.
Again, he stood naked. More pictures. Then videotape. 'Please, can we stop now?' Michael pleaded.
One of the doctors produced a ruler, at which point Jackson's doctor intervened. 'That's it,' he said firmly. 'Mike, get dressed.' Jackson ran from the room, shaking and screaming: 'How could this happen to me?'
Extracted from Michael Jackson: The Magic And The Madness by J. Randy Taraborrelli (Pan, £8.99). Randy Taraborrelli. To order a copy, tel: 0845 155 0720
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196633/How-Jacksons-surgery-desperate-bid-look-like-father-hated.html
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