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.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Watch out for...
Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo, who are pretty much set now to open as the leads in Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom Of The Opera. Andrew Lloyd Webber's wide-ranging score has a mix of soaring romantic songs, vaudeville and old-time Americanstyle show songs. Love Never Dies will open at the Adelphi Theatre in London's Strand with an official first night on October 26 (no word yet on when previews will begin), and will have its marketing launch in the middle of June, with tickets going on sale at that time. After the London launch, the show will open in Toronto in early November and Shanghai in February 2010. That Far Eastern production will later find its way to Melbourne, Australia. Director Jack O'Brien will rehearse three companies at once, taking over several floors of rehearsal space at a facility in South-East London.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1166879/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Wizard-Of-Oz-set-massive-musical-makeover.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1166879/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Wizard-Of-Oz-set-massive-musical-makeover.html
BAZ BAMIGBOYE on how the Wizard Of Oz is set for a massive musical makeover
By Baz Bamigboye
Last updated at 11:29 AM on 03rd April 2009
The Wizard Of Oz, one of the most famous movies in the history of cinema, is getting a top-to-bottom overhaul, including new songs and score, for a stage production that will hit London late next year.
Andrew Lloyd Webber and his associates have spent months seeking permission from those who control the rights to the film and to L. Frank Baum's original story to be allowed to add five or six new songs.
These will be added to the classic E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen numbers that include Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Follow The Yellow Brick Road and If I Only Had A Brain.
Lloyd Webber explained that when The Wizard Of Oz has been done on stage in the past 'they attempt to do it exactly the same as the movie. That's completely wrong! You've got to think of it as a theatre piece, which just happens to have three or four of the greatest songs of all time.'
The composer has enjoined New Yorker Glenn Slater (with whom he is also working on Love Never Dies, see above left) to write the lyrics for the new numbers. Slater pointed out that there are many 'obvious' slots in the Wizard Of Oz where new songs could fit.
'It doesn't have an opening number; it doesn't have a song for the witch,' the lyricist told me, adding that even the poor old wizard doesn't have a number of his own. 'It's missing what it needs to become an actual theatrical piece.'
Jeremy Sams has been asked to direct the new Wizard. But what about venues? There had been rumours about the Palladium.
When I pointed out to Andrew that Sister Act is due to open there soon, he responded: 'Well, it's not going there now. There are other theatres.' Then he laughed, adding: 'We haven't written anything yet!'
There's some talk about Dorothy being chosen through a TV casting show (although I hope that's not the case), and that Liza Minnelli was going to be wooed to be on the judging panel.
Maybe I'll move to Kansas if they start casting on the box...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1166879/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Wizard-Of-Oz-set-massive-musical-makeover.html
Last updated at 11:29 AM on 03rd April 2009
The Wizard Of Oz, one of the most famous movies in the history of cinema, is getting a top-to-bottom overhaul, including new songs and score, for a stage production that will hit London late next year.
Andrew Lloyd Webber and his associates have spent months seeking permission from those who control the rights to the film and to L. Frank Baum's original story to be allowed to add five or six new songs.
These will be added to the classic E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen numbers that include Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Follow The Yellow Brick Road and If I Only Had A Brain.
Lloyd Webber explained that when The Wizard Of Oz has been done on stage in the past 'they attempt to do it exactly the same as the movie. That's completely wrong! You've got to think of it as a theatre piece, which just happens to have three or four of the greatest songs of all time.'
The composer has enjoined New Yorker Glenn Slater (with whom he is also working on Love Never Dies, see above left) to write the lyrics for the new numbers. Slater pointed out that there are many 'obvious' slots in the Wizard Of Oz where new songs could fit.
'It doesn't have an opening number; it doesn't have a song for the witch,' the lyricist told me, adding that even the poor old wizard doesn't have a number of his own. 'It's missing what it needs to become an actual theatrical piece.'
Jeremy Sams has been asked to direct the new Wizard. But what about venues? There had been rumours about the Palladium.
When I pointed out to Andrew that Sister Act is due to open there soon, he responded: 'Well, it's not going there now. There are other theatres.' Then he laughed, adding: 'We haven't written anything yet!'
There's some talk about Dorothy being chosen through a TV casting show (although I hope that's not the case), and that Liza Minnelli was going to be wooed to be on the judging panel.
Maybe I'll move to Kansas if they start casting on the box...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1166879/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Wizard-Of-Oz-set-massive-musical-makeover.html
Saturday, March 28, 2009
'SPIDEY' SENSES TINGLING SNEAK PEEK AT B'WAY COMIC THRILLER
MICHAEL RIEDEL EXCLUSIVE
Last updated: 2:46 am
March 27, 2009
Posted: 2:40 am
March 27, 2009
WHAT do you call a $40 million theatrical extravaganza that features gigantic, perspective-skewing sets, 3-D projections, more aerial acrobatics than Cirque du Soleil, a cast of heroes and villains from Marvel comic books and a rock score by Bono and The Edge?
The phrase "Broadway musical" doesn't seem grand enough to convey the size and scope of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," which is due to open in New York at the Hilton Theater in January 2010.
And, in fact, its director, Julie Taymor, who staged "The Lion King," recently warned a group of theater insiders to steer clear of the word "musical."
Spider-Man, she added, "is not going to sing and dance in tights."
A better description of her show, she suggested, is a "circus rock-'n'-roll drama."
Taymor, Bono and The Edge lifted the curtain a bit on "Spider-Man" this week for an audience of ticket brokers and group-sales agents. The event was closed to the press, but like any good reporter from The Daily Bugle, I managed to finagle a ticket.
The stage version of "Spider-Man" will be nothing like the movie franchise, Taymor said, adding that she drew on the old Marvel comics for the story and production design.
"Our show is going to have a comic-book, pop-up sensibility," she said.
The sets, drawings of which were on display, are brightly colored and enormous. The Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and The Daily Bugle Building all figure prominently, their perspective skewed to match Spider-Man's shifting viewpoint as he soars through the city.
Peter Parker is at the center of the story, surrounded by a bunch of nerdy friends, a sort of "geek chorus," said bookwriter Glen Berger.
As Spider-Man, Peter clashes with a parade of Marvel villains -- Green Goblin, Carnage, Electro, Rhino, Swarm and Lizard.
Berger and Taymor have invented a new baddie for the show -- Swiss Miss, whose costume, designed by Oscar winner Eiko Ishioka ("Bram Stoker's Dracula"), consists of rotating knives and swirling corkscrews.
Five young singers performed six songs from the show, including the haunting "Rise Above," which is as good as any rock ballad in "Rent."
The kid who sang that song, Reeve Carney, fluttered the hearts of all ladies in the auditorium. He seemed to have impressed Bono as well, and is said to be the leading contender to play Peter Parker.
Bono said he decided to write for the stage after attending a dinner honoring Andrew Lloyd Webber.
"I'd like to thank so many people," Bono quoted Lloyd Webber as saying. "But in particular, I'd like to thank rock musicians for leaving me alone for 25 years. I've had the theater all to myself."
Bono added, "We've decided to give Andrew a little competition."
michael.riedel@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03272009/news/columnists/spidey_senses_tingling_161570.htm
Last updated: 2:46 am
March 27, 2009
Posted: 2:40 am
March 27, 2009
WHAT do you call a $40 million theatrical extravaganza that features gigantic, perspective-skewing sets, 3-D projections, more aerial acrobatics than Cirque du Soleil, a cast of heroes and villains from Marvel comic books and a rock score by Bono and The Edge?
The phrase "Broadway musical" doesn't seem grand enough to convey the size and scope of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," which is due to open in New York at the Hilton Theater in January 2010.
And, in fact, its director, Julie Taymor, who staged "The Lion King," recently warned a group of theater insiders to steer clear of the word "musical."
Spider-Man, she added, "is not going to sing and dance in tights."
A better description of her show, she suggested, is a "circus rock-'n'-roll drama."
Taymor, Bono and The Edge lifted the curtain a bit on "Spider-Man" this week for an audience of ticket brokers and group-sales agents. The event was closed to the press, but like any good reporter from The Daily Bugle, I managed to finagle a ticket.
The stage version of "Spider-Man" will be nothing like the movie franchise, Taymor said, adding that she drew on the old Marvel comics for the story and production design.
"Our show is going to have a comic-book, pop-up sensibility," she said.
The sets, drawings of which were on display, are brightly colored and enormous. The Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and The Daily Bugle Building all figure prominently, their perspective skewed to match Spider-Man's shifting viewpoint as he soars through the city.
Peter Parker is at the center of the story, surrounded by a bunch of nerdy friends, a sort of "geek chorus," said bookwriter Glen Berger.
As Spider-Man, Peter clashes with a parade of Marvel villains -- Green Goblin, Carnage, Electro, Rhino, Swarm and Lizard.
Berger and Taymor have invented a new baddie for the show -- Swiss Miss, whose costume, designed by Oscar winner Eiko Ishioka ("Bram Stoker's Dracula"), consists of rotating knives and swirling corkscrews.
Five young singers performed six songs from the show, including the haunting "Rise Above," which is as good as any rock ballad in "Rent."
The kid who sang that song, Reeve Carney, fluttered the hearts of all ladies in the auditorium. He seemed to have impressed Bono as well, and is said to be the leading contender to play Peter Parker.
Bono said he decided to write for the stage after attending a dinner honoring Andrew Lloyd Webber.
"I'd like to thank so many people," Bono quoted Lloyd Webber as saying. "But in particular, I'd like to thank rock musicians for leaving me alone for 25 years. I've had the theater all to myself."
Bono added, "We've decided to give Andrew a little competition."
michael.riedel@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03272009/news/columnists/spidey_senses_tingling_161570.htm
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