Posted June 27, 201312 yr West End's CABARET to Launch UK Tour; Will Young to Reprise Role as 'Emcee'! Read more about West End's CABARET to Launch UK Tour; Will Young to Reprise Role as 'Emcee'! by westend.broadwayworld.com Direct from his award nominated performance as Emcee, internationally celebrated singer/songwriter WILL YOUNG reprises his role in Rufus Norris' acclaimed production of CABARET. Following a successful West End run, the UK tour of CABARET will open at the NEW WIMBLEDON THEATRE on WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST. Ever since winning the inaugural series of Pop Idol in 2002, Will Young has been one of the UK's most popular and successful music artists and holds the record for the fastest selling debut single in British chart history. Will has also enjoyed a successful acting career which saw him appear alongside Dame Judi Dench in the filmMrs Henderson Presents, and it is the combination of these talents which has led him to star in Cabaret. Since its Broadway premiere in 1966 and the renowned movie version with Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, Cabaret has won a staggering number of stage and screen awards including 8 Oscars, 7 BAFTAs and 13 Tonys. Cabaret features show-stopping choreography, dazzling costumes and some of the most iconic songs in musical theatre including 'Money Makes the World Go Round', 'Two Ladies' 'Maybe This Time' and of course 'Cabaret'. The production turns Weimar Berlin of 1931 into a sassy, sizzling haven of decadence. And at its dark heart are the notorious Emcee and sassy Sally Bowles, who perform nightly at the infamous Kit Kat Klub. Rufus Norris is a multi-award winning theatre, opera and film director whose production of London Road at the National Theatre, where he is associate director, won the Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. Other theatre includes Vernon God Little (Young Vic), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Broadway), Festen (West End and Broadway) The Country Girl (Apollo) and Afore Night Came (Young Vic, Evening Standard Award). Featuring Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Rory Kinnear, and original music by Damon Albarn, his debut feature film Broken opened the prestigious Critics' Week at the Cannes film festival in 2012. It was produced by Cuba Pictures, BBC Films, Lypsync and Bill Kenwright. Choreography is by the Olivier award winning Javier De Frutos. In 1990, he formed The Javier De Frutos Dance Company. His work includes The Hypochondriac Bird and Affliction of Loneliness. Recently he joined forces with Sadler's Wells and The Pet Shop Boys to create a brand new dance work based on Hans Christian Andersen's story, The Most Incredible Thing. Photo Credit: Roy Tan Read more about West End's CABARET to Launch UK Tour; Will Young to Reprise Role as 'Emcee'! by westend.broadwayworld.com Thought I'd better post this. Can't say this news has me leaping for joy like the 'in the studio' tweet. I believe this has always been on the cards since the first run and why it has been so quiet on the music front. Also think that the meet up with Jim Eliot was only to discuss future plans and line up some writing sessions next year. Really hope I'm wrong but I think the earliest we can expect new music in next autumn. :( Having said that I'm sure I won't be able to resist one or two shows. Can't remember a year when Will has done nothing performance wise. In a lot of ways we are lucky to follow such a multi talented artist, though I'll be happier once the music becomes his main focus. Will has always steered his own path so we'll just have to trust his judgement. Still prefer him pursuing other projects than being a treadmill popstar. Full list of venues. Wednesday 28 – Saturday 31 August New Wimbledon Theatre, Wimbledon Monday 2 – Saturday 7 September Empire Theatre, Liverpool Monday 9 – Saturday 14 September Opera House, Manchester Tuesday 17 – Saturday 21 September Hippodrome Theatre, Bristol Monday 23 – Saturday 28 September Alhambra Theatre, Bradford Tuesday 1 – Saturday 5 October Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Tuesday 15 – Saturday 19 October Opera House, Blackpool Monday 21 – Saturday 26 October King’s Theatre, Edinburgh Tuesday 29 October – Saturday 2 November Gaiety Theatre, Dublin Tuesday 5 – Saturday 9 November New Theatre, Oxford Tuesday 12 – Saturday 16 November Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells Monday 18 – Saturday 23 November New Theatre, Hull Tuesday 26 – Saturday 30 November Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton Monday 2 - Saturday 7 Dec Peterborough Broadway Theatre Edited August 13, 201311 yr by truly talented
June 27, 201312 yr I'm not jumping up and down either TT. :nocheer: And Will appears even to have left Newcastle out. :( Just editing to say thanks TT for bringing the info over. Edited June 27, 201312 yr by chrysalis
June 29, 201312 yr As I thought, I'm warming to the idea now! :cheer: I was a bit lukewarm to hear it rumoured then confirmed I confess. But then any fan of his music is bound to think this is treading water I imagine, especially if like me they saw it a few times already last year. At least it gives more people across the country the chance to see his wonderful performance as the Emcee, and I am interested to see a new cast too with having seen Will's West End version a few times. Thank goodness it's a relatively short run, just over 13 weeks I reckon. I'm sure Will will want to get back into the studio after that which is much more up my street too. :P
July 27, 201311 yr Cast list so far: Will Young.......... Emcee Siobhan Dillon..... Sally Bowles Lyn Paul............. Fraulein Schneider Matt Rawle......... Cliff Valerie Cutko...... Fraulein Kost
August 5, 201311 yr Cast list so far: Will Young.......... Emcee Siobhan Dillon..... Sally Bowles Lyn Paul............. Fraulein Schneider Matt Rawle......... Cliff Valerie Cutko...... Fraulein Kost Wasn't Lyn Paul with the New Seekers?
August 5, 201311 yr I'm going to a Bristol show :D From what has been written about Will's performance I'm sure you'll enjoy the show. :dance:
August 5, 201311 yr Author I'm going to a Bristol show :D Enjoy Matt. :D Yes Lynn Paul was in the New Seekers chrysalis. She was also very well received as Mrs Johnson in Blood Brothers.
August 22, 201311 yr Author Thanks to Julie (will4me) http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb152/gillwill_photos/b84011b5-e954-4abb-88d6-56c2a5d38ac8.jpg http://instagram.com/p/dUXgNnhrdL/ Edited August 28, 201311 yr by truly talented
August 28, 201311 yr Author Thanks to Kathy and Carol. http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb152/gillwill_photos/photo.jpg Love the mention of new music next year. :dance:
August 29, 201311 yr Thanks TT. :D Just as long as he keeps to his promise of new music, and doesn't go off and do yet another play/musical, I'll be happy.
August 30, 201311 yr Press night tonight and once again Will is wowing the critics. :D Good innit. Many who missed it last time are happy it's returned. :dance: A painted doll-like Will Young is a revelation as the Emcee. The make-up was Will's idea - he knew exactly how he wanted to portray Emcee. :lol: Edited August 30, 201311 yr by munchkin
August 30, 201311 yr Author Good innit. Many who missed it last time are happy it's returned. :dance: The make-up was Will's idea - he knew exactly how he wanted to portray Emcee. :lol: He's so involved in everything he does, his make up in Cabaret, album artwork, lighting and set design on his tours. Such a talented, creative man. Edited August 30, 201311 yr by truly talented
August 30, 201311 yr I know there are some fans who aren't interested in this side of his career, but if it's what drives him and makes him content and happy then who are we to suggest he concentrates on his singing alone. He has always known exactly where he wants to be. As it says under my banner - "It's about other things that are challenging for me" :wub: Edited August 30, 201311 yr by munchkin
August 30, 201311 yr Thanks to soul sister on Baby Devoted for this interview in the Liverpool Echo. By Catherine Jones Comments Will Young: Basically I’m just showing off and I get paid to do it 30 Aug 2013 10:03 The former Pop Idol winner turned actor chats to Arts Editor Catherine Jones about his return to the stage as the Emcee in Cabaret Share on print Share on email Will Young stars as Emcee in Cabaret Will Young stars as Emcee in Cabaret To be honest,” confides Will Young, “the whole time I’m always thinking – gosh, how have I got away with this? Because basically I’m just showing off and I get paid to do it.” Nice work if you can get it. “It’s b****y brilliant!” he says, half-joking and half, one suspects, in earnest. And you can see how life isn’t bad for the 34-year-old singer, songwriter and actor. While other talent show winners’ stars rise and fade, a decade on from his Pop Idol success he’s a fully paid-up member of the British music scene – the result of both talent and a quiet, polite, but steely, determination. The public got an early peek at that when Will, politely of course, challenged Simon Cowell on live television over the music Svengali’s assessment of one of his performances as “distinctly average”. Since those Pop Idol days Will has carefully curated his own musical career – one which includes four number one singles, three number one albums and two BRIT awards. But it’s in his growing parallel career as an actor that he’s set to return to Liverpool next week, playing the Emcee in the acclaimed West End revival of Cabaret, this time on a UK tour. And it turns out Will is actually the driving force behind taking the show on the road. “We got nominated for three Oliviers; one for the show, one for me and one for Sian Phillips,” he explains. “So then most of us performed at the Oliviers, and I just thought, this is just so much fun - why would I not do it again? “I spoke to Bill Kenwright and Rufus (Norris) the director and just said, ‘let’s do it again’.” Surprisingly perhaps, for someone who was studying musical theatre (at Arts Educational School) when he found fame with Pop Idol, the singer has admitted previously that he’s never really liked musicals. “No, I don’t,” he confirms. “I don’t like bad musicals. Will Young stars as Emcee in Cabaret Will Young stars as Emcee in Cabaret “Well, there are certain....the reason I like Cabaret is because it’s got a brilliant story, it’s got brilliant music, and there’s a lot of layers. “That’s what I want from a show. I want to have to think, I want to have to listen to the words, follow the story, be interested in it, be thinking about it afterwards. “And that’s what Cabaret does, and that’s more to my taste. “So it’s unfair for me to say bad. It’s more my taste to have something that’s a bit more meaty.” The Kander and Ebb musical adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s tales about decadent early 1930s Berlin, and the looming shadow of Nazism is, he admits, “on the darker end of the spectrum, and I’ve always been drawn to that and have always been drawn to cabaret full stop.” He then goes on to offer an erudite synopsis of the history of cabaret, from its beginnings in 19th century France to its more recent application by people like Matt Lucas and David Walliams in Little Britain. While Cabaret itself centres around the character of Sally Bowles (here being reprised by Siobhan Dillon who appeared at the Floral Pavilion with Wayne Sleep four years ago), it’s really the Kit Kat Club compère the Emcee who embodies the art form. He’s a character who appears sinister but also somewhat forlorn. “He is, oh gosh, completely,” agrees Will. “I think he is forlorn. He’s someone that has become, on so many different levels....what was he escaping in the first place? Why did he want to go into cabaret? What is it that he’s trying to get out, what’s the message? Why does he feel the need to perform? Why does he need the adoration? “And also, he’s someone who really believes in the craft. He’s running the show, he would have got all those shows together, he’s the one making all the decisions within the club to do political songs. “He takes on the Nazis basically, the establishment. And he knows where it’s going I think and there’s a kind of tragedy to it. There’s such pathos to the whole piece. He’s lost.” Cabaret spends a week at the Liverpool Empire from Monday, a place Will knows well. “I’ve played in Liverpool so much, from the docks to the Empire to the arena,” he says. An early date was shortly after Pop Idol, appearing with Burt Bacharach in the Summer Pops big top. “He wrote a song for me,” adds Will. “Isn’t that bonkers?” To singing, songwriting and acting, Will can now also add producing to his CV, after investing money in Ralph Fiennes’ movie version of Coriolanus. He was keen, he explains, to invest in the British arts scene rather than “buy a new Ferrari”. “I’m being flippant,” he smiles. “I guess my point is not to put it into material things.” At one point, the actor/director and ‘dark lord’ could be found in Will’s iamspamamispamwhoamspam, spouting the Bard. That must have been a slightly surreal experience. “He’s an incredible man,” says Will, who admits he’d like to tackle some Shakespeare himself although only after doing “a lot of training”. “I made a documentary to go with the film, and he was so inspiring to talk to. In fact whenever I spoke to him he was inspiring, and it was a great film.” For the moment though, Will’s focus is firmly on the Emcee and Cabaret. While there’s never been any doubt in his own mind he was in the business for the long run, one suspects the Pop Idol contender of 2002 might not have imagined quite the trajectory his career has taken. “It’s amazing!” he says of the last 10 years. “The more I think about it the more fortunate I feel. It’s just like dreams come true you know?” Cabaret is at the Liverpool Empire from Monday to Saturday next week. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/th...showing-5817024
August 30, 201311 yr Author Thanks munchkin. Great interview. Although I love Will's own music best I agree he's far too talented in other fields just to stick to the music. He's more a pop artist in the vein of say James Morrison than Olly Murs so without the acting I doubt we'd get the music any quicker. Just longer breaks with nothing. I hope him diversifying in different areas ensures he has a lengthy career in the entertainment business, which seems to have always been Will's aim.
September 12, 201311 yr Well it has to be said, this tour is going brilliantly! :yahoo: :dance: :cheer: The reviews are fantastic, and it's great that so many more theatregoers are getting the chance to see this production on tour and loving it! :D
September 22, 201311 yr Author Thanks to Roma Just Me (@FunnyOldSock) 22/09/2013 01:05 The Big Interview: Will Young - Yorkshire Post bit.ly/19sGyO2 http://bit.ly/19sGyO2 The Big Interview: Will Young Will Young in Cabaret Published on the 22 September 2013 00:00 Print this His 15 minutes of fame should have been over years ago, but as Nick Ahad discovers, Will Young was always destined to be bigger than a TV talent show. Will Young is an unusual popstar. He’s a bit too intelligent for a start. Not that he sees it that way. “I think this notion of ‘puppeted pop acts’ is a little out of date,” says Young. “Pop stars are often a lot more intelligent than people give them credit for – the One Direction boys don’t seem stupid. They seem like very intelligent young boys to me and it also seems very apparent from how you see them conduct themselves that they are not the sort who are going to be pushed around or told what to do. A lot of people in pop know their own minds. I suppose there was a lot of processed pop in the 1990s, being made by quite vacuous people, but now? Someone like Lady Gaga seems very interesting and intelligent to me.” While it would be going a little too far to credit Young with being the singer who led the charge and put the intelligence back into pop, it is fair to say that he seriously bucked the trend. When he first came onto the scene, courtesy of reality show Pop Idol, there was a list of dos and don’ts for pop idols. They were not supposed to be politics graduates. They were not supposed to be upper-middle class (they’re still not – witness the opprobrium heaped upon Mumford and Sons for this heinous crime). They were not supposed to be unattainable – the “tweenagers” to whom acts like Will Young were supposed to appeal generally don’t like their popstars to be openly gay. A backstory of triumph over adversity was always a big help – being raised in a happy, healthy family who paid for Young to attend a good school and bought him a nice Golf to drive on his 17th birthday, did not fulfil this criteria. Young was all of the above and the greatest crime of all was that he refused to be apologetic for any of them. He appeared to know his own mind. For some, when it comes to music, popularity immediately makes you uncool. The very act of selling enough records to enter the singles chart is a marker that too many people enjoy your music for you to retain a certain status. Cool means being an outsider and it generally requires an ironic sneer. Young did not have that air. Even today, with his surprisingly soft voice and high pitched accent, he is enthusiastic and talks openly about the music world and the handful of artists like Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn who made pop music but managed to remain respectable and respected. Young is not Morrissey, but he has retained credibility while gaining success. What makes it all the more extraordinary that he was able to do despite his greatest crime – the method via which he entered the public arena. He arrived in the showbiz world through the door marked “reality television”. Nothing could have set him out on a path with less credibility. In 2002 he won the inaugural Pop Idol, the precursor to today’s glut of reality shows, beating Bradford’s Gareth Gates, who most expected to emerge triumphant. Some of Young’s early singles following his Pop Idol victory were like a slab of Wensleydale, but he went on to produce several albums that were both a popular and critical success. For the moment, the popstar is on a break from that world and is treading the boards in theatreland. When we talk, Young has just finished a matinee performance of Cabaret, in which he plays the demanding role of the Emcee in the UK tour, a role which won Alan Cummings a Tony Award when he played it on Broadway in the late 1990s. In between performances – he’s back on stage at the Manchester Opera House for an evening show shortly after we finish talking – he seems relaxed. “Once you’ve been doing the role for a while, you can really concentrate on just completely enjoying it. It’s good to have nerves, and it’s not like I’m completely nonchalant, but I do enjoy it now,” says Young. It’s odd to think of him suffering nerves at all really. His surprising longevity (Darius, anyone?) means we consider Young something of a seasoned performer. “Doing a lot of pop concerts really helped train me for doing theatre. It doesn’t feel unnatural at all to be on stage for me. I actually think pop is a really good breeding ground for acting, full stop. It really helped me when it came to going on stage as an actor. But at first there were definitely a lot of nerves – it’s very different to what I normally do.” It sounds very odd for Young to discuss his role in Cabaret, which has won him critical acclaim, as such a separate thing from his work as a singer, but they clearly occupy very different spheres in his mind. “The thing about doing Cabaret is that I love working in a group of people and I like not being the boss,” he says, then appears to immediately realise that might sound a slightly odd way to describe the job of being a popstar. When one thinks of “the boss” in the music world, a Cowell-esque Svengali might spring to mind – not the act out front in the lights. Yet it turns out that Will Young is the master of his own destiny. “I don’t have to worry if a light blows on stage, or if the curtain fails to go up – when I’m in Cabaret it’s not my job to worry about all that, with this I can just put all my energy into doing my part of the team work.” In his musical career, Young is very definitely the boss – another trait that appears to set him apart from what we might think happens to acts who achieve fame through reality TV shows. “I never felt manipulated, I always felt like I had a good deal of control. From the start I have been really happy with most of my output. Of course at the very start there were one or two songs that had to be rushed out, but apart from that I have been really happy with all the work I’ve done,” he says. “But from my second record I absolutely went in the direction that I wanted to go. I am involved in every stage from working with the director on the videos to choosing the photographers I want to work with.” Among journalists, Young has a bit of a reputation as someone who can be a little moody if you catch him at the wrong time. He is hoping to grab a bite to eat between the matinee and the evening performance and is interrupted while we are talking. But despite the demands on his time, he remains unfailingly polite and happy to chat about anything I ask. He also feels as though he has been somewhat misrepresented in the past. “Someone wrote an article that said I thought fame had wrecked my life. Fame has not wrecked my life and I can’t bear it when you hear people complaining about that. It’s lovely. I get free clothes, people are nice to me. Being famous is not the root of all happiness, but it’s not something that makes you miserable,” he says. One of the reasons Young is able to speak like this is because, and he is very candid about admitting it, he has spent some time in therapy. “As I get older it is about ever-increasing circles and I desire to learn about myself. It’s not easy and not everyone wants to face themselves, but I just want to keep getting happier and happier.” This honesty appears to have arrived with playing the role of the Emcee and taking a temporary break from being a solo artist. The pressure, it would seem, is off when he is not a sole performer. “With acting, as opposed to music, I don’t write it, produce it or market it. I just show and do what I do.” The chance to change down a gear is not, however, the sole reason Young is happy to be in one of the last century’s most successful musicals. Launched in 1966, within six years of its Broadway opening, the it had been turned into a film with Liza Minnelli immortalising the role of Sally Bowles. Set in and around a Berlin cabaret club, it tells the story of the rise of the Nazis in one of the most politically-charged musicals since Brecht and Weill combined for The Threepenny Opera. “I have always wanted to do the show, and I have always wanted to play this part,” says Young. “When I am watching a musical I don’t want any lulls, I want the story to keep moving and this definitely does that. It also has this growing, impending atmosphere that just builds and builds. You are aware that while these people are enjoying themselves, the Nazis are rising to power outside. “The universal nature of this play is amazing – it can talk to today about the situation in Syria, it talks about the widening gap between the rich and the poor. It reinforces that famous quote that what we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” Young then goes on to discuss Mein Kampf – Hitler’s deranged manifesto, the economic situation in post Second World War Germany, how Hitler was able to finance his rise to power and the global economic environment that allowed it all to happen. Way smarter than the average pop star. Cabaret, Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, Sept 23 to 28. 01274 432000, http://www.bradford-theatres.co.uk
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