they dont get long do they, although perhaps they have been doing bits of the musical during auditions..

:???: who don't.

 

 

 

love your 'gone with the wind' picture :D

Jill took part in the workshops and I'm sure that after the first couple of times Darius was seen, he must have been doing scenes from the show. It would be almost impossible to compare otherwise.

 

Watching with hindsight and with Leigh and Gable seared into the brain, it's fascinating to watch the snippets of all the different actresses trying out for the original Scarlett - Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Katherine Hepburn the list goes on and they're so good. Paulette Goddard's approach was quite like Vivien Leigh's, I think.

 

They never really seriously considered anyone other than Gable for Rhett but some of the Ashleys, you just think no,no .....that's all wrong, but then I've never read the book.

 

 

 

yes, I meant the actors, they must be familiar with some of the scenes..it just never ceases to amaze me how short rehearsal times seem to be for such big productions, I suppose the preview performances hone their performances too.

For a brand new musical where hiccups behind the scenes have to be dealt with as well, it's scarily short. but they've also got two weeks of previews.

 

D had 15 days for Billy and about 3 weeks for Sky.

 

He won't have to spend much time on choreography for this one.

I was hoping for dancing.

 

I like the previews because everyone I've been to, something has gone wrong. It's great to see it fixed and see the later, early stages.

It would be strange if there wasn't a good amount of dancing in a musical but it's hard to think where it would fit in.

 

I don't know how big an ensemble there will be.

 

I think about 20 names have come up including Rhett and Scarlet, Melanie and Ashley, Mammy and Prissy,.but I think those might be the other named acting parts like Doctor and Mrs Meade, Belle, Scarlett's 2 sisters, Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedyand so on.

There isn't in 'Les Mis' and that's one of Trevor's

What we know is that rather than a 3rd person narrative, this GWTW is going to be told from the perspective of the slaves.

 

That will mean that Mammy and Prissy and perhaps one of the male slaves will act as narrators too. I don't know whether that will be sung, like in Joseph, or narrated.

 

We also know that Rhett's character is said to be dark and complicated in this version, so Darius is going to have to do far more than Gable's charming and confident alpha male wheeler dealer with a way with women.

 

They might keep in the Charity Ball for the masters and maybe some movement rather than dance to some of the slaves music. That's the only way I could imagine dancing being part of the show.

 

The last time GWTW was brough to a London stage Bonnie Langford played Bonnie and there was a real pony on stage every night.

 

Now I'm shallowly thinking about Darius replicating the two scenes in the film with Rhett on horseback.

 

 

 

 

You know, every time I come on I still can't quite take in the enormity of the title of this thread!

It just seems so right to me that I don't even notice. He has the part that he should have - now roll on the show. The next thread on this will probably be just 'Gone With The Wind'

or "Gone With The Wind pre-show publicity"

It is so wonderful, I am still reeling - whatever happens -

 

Darius on horseback..now the stage would have to be huge..

I am almost tempted to get hold of the film, and watch it squinting as to see darius in place of Gable..

but I know that may well ruin the musical for me, I dont recall Gable on horseback..I just have the dimmest recollections of probably trailers or clips more than the film actually thinking about it.

 

 

 

Rhett's on horseback taking Bonnie on her pony over a little jump and there's another scene where he has Bonnie in front of him on the saddle and he's just stopped off, seemingly by accident but in fact deliberately to seek advice from one of the matriarchs of Atalanta society about Bonnie. He's really trying to use his charm to ensure Bonnie is fully accepted in society later. he drives a carriage in a few other scenes.

 

I don't think we'll see Darius do either. The stage is more limiting than a film.

Yes, next thread GWTW publicity..

 

then GWTW reports..

 

 

 

I am dying to see the first photoshoots of him in character...

Edited February 9, 200817 yr by prettyinpink

 

 

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Wet Wet Wet Set For First Top 10 Single In 10 Years

Feb 9 2008 Exclusive by John Dingwall

 

WET Wet Wet are set for their first Top 10 single in more than a decade despite being written off by major record labels.

 

The Clydebank group were dubbed has-beens when they tried to get their current album Timeless released.

 

But Marti Pellow, Graeme Clarke, Tommy Cunningham and Neil Mitchell refused to give up and are now reaping the rewards thanks to new technology.

 

They released the Weightless single themselves by allowing fans to download live versions of the song from each of the venues on their recent UK tour.

 

And the band, currently at No.4 in the midweek charts and competing with Rihanna and Adele, are now celebrating the news of their biggest hit since 1997.

 

Drummer Tommy Cunningham said: "We'd been written off. Because it is our own label, the usual promotional routes were closed to us. We didn't have the kind of exposure an X-Factor finalist gets.

 

"We had to learn other ways to get our music across, including texts and viral marketing.

 

"These days there is no safety net with amajor record label which is why you see people like Annie Lennox being dropped. Labels no longer stand by their artists.

 

"We paid for our album Timeless and offered it to our label Mercury Records who told us there wasn't a single there. Now even if the biggest record company in the world came knocking at our doors and asked if they could have our record, we'd say no."

 

Marti Pellow added: "It's great for us to get in the Top 10 because Weightless is a great pop song. I was worried it would be too sophisticated for radio but we have had a lot of support from Radio 2 and the likes of Radio Clyde. I am so happy that there is still support for Wet Wet Wet. Record companies are a business and the industry is getting smaller and not as brave as it used to be.

 

"Everyone has their opinion but we believed in our music enough to do it ourselves. We made our own record. This is a Scottish company done good.

 

"People have been downloading the song through their mobile phones.

 

"It is the way people are accessing music these days. You go into a record store these days and it is hard to find the records. They are at the back. You have more chance of buying a DVD, something for my phone or a trip to America. This is the way forward for music.

 

"I'm excited to see what the next chapter is for Wet Wet Wet in terms of our songwriting. To see this song in the charts is brilliant. Because the Top 10 is all the major labels and our Dry Records. This proves you can have success without it being run out of London."

 

The band now plan to return to the studio to record a follow-up album but will have to wait until after Marti's lead role in Cameron Mackintosh's The Witches Of Eastwick as the devilish Daryl Van Horne.

 

He is also planning a solo tour and album.

 

Tommy said: "Marti's The Witches Of Eastwick commitments will be a challenge for us in finding time with him.

 

"It's just amazing to think someone I went to school with in Clydebank is moving in those circles."

 

Marti, who previously starred in Chicago, said: "I start rehearsals for The Witches Of Eastwick in July and will do that for a few months. I was doing Chicago in the West End when Ian McShane was doing the original Cameron Mackintosh production.

 

"Cameron has reworked it with new songs and I am very excited about it. None of the ladies have been cast yet.

 

"Cameron Mackintosh has wanted to work with me for many years but the projects he brought weren't for me."

 

Marti follows in the footsteps of Hollywood star Jack Nicholson who immortalised the role in the original 1987 Oscar-nominated movie.

 

In the film, Jack plotted with a trio of witches played by Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon. The team behind Marti's new show have been holding secret casting sessions to find three shapely female co-stars for the show which will play in Southampton, Manchester and Glasgow later this year.

 

And Marti believes Darius Danesh has made a smart move by giving up his pop music career for a career on the stage, beginning with his debut role as Rhett Butler in the West End adaptation of the classic American Civil War tale Gone With The Wind.

 

Marti said: "I was doing GMTV on Monday and saw him being interviewed live from New York. I'm made up for the guy. Trevor Nunn is very well respected and it is a good move for Darius to be moving in those circles.

 

"I have kept myself in the realms of musical theatre. I waited the best part of five years before I went for another project because when you do eight shows a week you have to have a passion.

 

"You also have to feel you can grow in the role. There's a confidence I'll have playing the devil, whereas the Gone With The Wind project will be great for Darius to do. It is exciting.

 

"I presume it isn't a musical version of Gone With The Wind and I can't speak for Darius but I think it is great to have that diversity."

 

Tommy said: "It's great to see someone like Darius changing his career. He had a pop career that lasted all of two singles spread across a year and a half and he was wise to change direction.

 

"His theatre role in Gone With The Wind is good for him. It's immense."

 

Meanwhile, Marti has some words of advice for X-Factor singers Leon Jackson and Leona Lewis - learn to sing like experienced professionals.

 

Marti said: "Good luck to Leon. He carries a tune but he is so young. I am lucky to have decades of experience. But the most important thing for a singer is his imagination and to be able to inhabit the lyric. He should be fearless and have the confidence to know where he will take the song and to own the song.

 

"Too many people don't own the song or command a strength about them when they sing.

 

"I heard Leona's song and it is nice pop music. She is a nice singer. I hope we can hear these singers 10 years down the line when they start developing their own identities and deciding the songs they want to do.

 

"Perhaps in time, they'll develop a style - good, bad or indifferent - like Will Young. It's not enough to carry a tune. We can all do that."

 

Tommy added: "The fact that we are still here proves we are in it for the long haul. The success of people like X-Factor is instant and it feels like they haven't earned it.

 

"Leon hasn't had the knocks yet. By the time his third single comes around he'll know all about the music industry when backs are turned on him."

 

 

I got this from google elerts - I'll go and look at my paper now.

 

Marti obviously doesn't like Darius very much. He's got his pop carreer wrong. Although he thinks it was a great thing for him to do 'Chicago', he didn't even mention that Darius has had a few runs at it. 'Guys and Dolls' doesn't seem to have been noted either. And Darius isn't giving up his singing career, just fiting it in to the other things he does, including the MUSICAL of 'Gone With the Wind'.

 

I don't think I've read such grudging praise many times before. One with a slant to insult.

mm, probably competitiveness, he says he waited five years..mm, or he hasnt managed to get anything for five years..

and as for cameron macintosh wanting to work with HIM, well if darius has said something like that it would have been picked up on instantly as arrogant.

 

missing out mentioning Darius' previous roles - I bet was intensional memory loss..who's to say marti didnt audition for Sky or other roles ..and not land them? he must surely have known what roles Darsiu was doing if he stayed in musical theatre realms..LOL

 

i do applaud them going for the own label approach, I think more should do this - not heard the record though, I found wet, wet, wet went very dreary after the first couple of singles back in the day.

I don't get that impression. I think it's just what has filtered through to them about D arius, an incomplete picture. D's debut in Chicago was well publicised so it will have sunk in, whereas G &D hasn't. Remember too,there was a long gap between Dive In and Live Twice and the singles from it tend to have been overlooked a bit, because Darius hasn't performed them much here because he was living in the US concentrating on writing new songs.

 

There's been an even bigger gap to this 3rd Album so to the outside obsever Darius does seem to have given up his music for MT.

 

Shame Marti wasn't in the 10th anniversary show then we could have seen how Darius's billy stood up in comparison to his Broadway Billy.

Edited February 9, 200817 yr by Baytree

thats true, I suppose.

 

have to admit I have no idea what others are doing, if I hadnt had internet I wouldnt have known what Darius was doing, and I never know anything about that singles have been released,

Edited February 9, 200817 yr by prettyinpink

I see there's a thread for this article. I'll copy over my post.

ok

I read somewhere that the American producer said that some of the surviving cast members of the film may be coming across for the premiere.

 

How fantastic would that be?