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GWTW

Baytree
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I really would be amazed if he did. He couldn't even talk during 'Chicago' but timed the medication to get him through each show.
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Natasha has many first nights and red carpet events. Darius will go to one of her other ones with her. He's committed to GWTW and not just because he signed a contract.

Have we had this one?

Darius seems to have been appreciated by most people regardless of what they felt about the show.

 

 

 

 

Critics agree Gone With The Wind blows

(Donald Cooper)

Darius Danesh recieved praise for his turn as Rhett Butler but Jill Paice was not as lucky.

 

Veronica Schmidt

It is difficult to imagine a more ambitious stage project than turning the epic novel Gone With The Wind into a musical. Today, after the show’s West End premiere, director Sir Trevor Nunn and Margaret Martin, who wrote the book, music and lyrics for the production, may be wondering if the idea was too ambitious.

 

Critics have given the musical, starring former Pop Idol contestant Darius Danesh and Broadway actress Jill Paice, a collective thumbs down.

 

Awarding the 190-minute show two stars, The Times critic Benedict Nightingale declared it “too faithful to Margaret Mitchell’s novel” and “too long”.

 

Under the merciless heading ‘Gone With the Wind just blows’, Reuters reviewer Ray Bennett said Nunn had delivered “a long-winded show with rushed scenes, dull music and lyrics so banal that Rhett Butler is unlikely to be the only one who doesn't give a dam.”

 

Related Links

Gone with the Wind

Does Trevor Nunn give a damn?

The Guardian critic Michael Billington wrote that the musical felt like “a hectic, strip-cartoon account of a dated pop classic.”

 

The Telegraph’s Charles Spencer was even less impressed. Explaining he often felt like screaming during the performance, Spencer wrote: “When I emerged from the theatre after three hours and 40 minutes, it felt as if I had spent several years watching Gone with the Wind and that I had probably missed not just the Beijing Olympics but the London games planned for 2012 as well.”

 

The Independent reviewer Paul Taylor was more forgiving. Awarding the musical three stars, he wrote: “The show is neither as bad as one feared nor as good as one has a right to expect.”

 

He went onto call the score “forgettable” but “well sung”.

 

But the news wasn’t all bad. While Paice received mixed reviews, Danesh enjoyed wide-spread praise for his turn as Rhett Butler, being described variously as “diabolically dashing” and “a fine singer”.

 

The audience was appreciative too, giving the 27-year-old a standing ovation.

 

 

 

 

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Is it too much to hope that after these reviews, the naysayers will at least give others a chance before setting out to sabotage them on theatre sites as they did quite disgracefully to Darius from the moment his casting was announced.

 

 

I doubt the naysayer even read the reviews to notice how daiurs comes out fo them.

have copied a few more into the reviews thread, found the Daily Express and Day and Night ones, and a bloomsberg one - have to say Darius is coming out really well

It always felt that the critics would be critical. They seemed to take exception to the fact that Margaret wasn't from within the music business. I feel the reviews were always going to be this way. I'm hoping that word of mouth is enough to get it through this first difficult patch.
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The videos aren't playing properly for me. just where Natasha is shown You can't hear what she says at first. It's like when a mobile phone signal isn't strong enough and the sound breaks up.
They're Ok for me - apart from 30 secs frolm the end of the 6mins, it paused for a little while.
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I think I should have posted the metro review bit (thanks to Beaudarius on .net) her

 

Metro review this morning

'Against the odds, the true star of the show is Darius Danesh, who banishes all memories of his ludicrous Pop Idol buffoonery with a performance of subtlety and roguish charm as Rhett Butler. His deep, velvety voice is ideally suited to Nobody Knows You, one of the rare moments when Gone With The Wind transcends musical cliche'.

 

Does anyone here have the full review?

Edited by Baytree

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I could kick myself for not watching Newsnight Review last night.

 

My sister had told me there'd been a mention of GWTW last week so I thought they'd "done" it. It must just have been the equivalent of a trailer then.

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Offhand

 

 

The Friday Night Project - he'd be great on that.

 

Jonathon Ross

 

Lorraine Kelly

 

The One Show

 

Radio 4

 

Classic FM

 

Radio 2

 

Is Songs Of Praise/ Heaven On Earth still running or something similar? Ray Shell, Natasha Yvette Williams etc could sing On The Wings Of A Dove.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Persian Mirror

 

 

 

American Pop Star admiration for Darius Danesh

Sat, Apr 26, 2008

News (Europe)

 

Currently playing the lead role of Rhett Butler in Trevor Dunn’s musical adaptation of Gone with the Wind on the London Stage, Darius Danesh is getting lots of coverage as the new Heartthrob in Great Britain. Happily and faithfully living with the stunningly beautiful Canadian actress Natasha Henstridge he is nevertheless being noticed for his onstage charisma, good looks and tremendous voice which has seduced British audiences since Darius was first noticed in the British Pop Ideal Contest. Scottish by his mother and Iranian by his father, Danesh is quite comfortable and proud of both his roots and is certainly emblematic of the rising generation of Cosmopolitan Diaspora Artists. His latest Fan is no other than the single US Pop Star Mariah Carey who admired his performance on the London Stage.

 

The 38-year-old singer also said she was impressed with former ‘Pop Idol’ star Darius Danesh’s role as Rhett Butler in new London musical ‘Gone With The Wind’.

 

She said: ‘Darius is a great-looking guy. I liked him a lot.’

 

Mariah has been romantically linked to Latino singer Luis Miguel and baseball player Derek Jeter, while Darius is engaged to US actress Natasha Henstridge.

 

Mariah recently revealed she finds it hard to trust men, because she doesn’t know who is genuine and who just wants to be part of the Mariah circus.

 

She said: ‘You don’t know who is here for the glamour, for the gossip factor. You really just want to know that somebody loves you for you. Sometimes you feel like an ATM machine with a wig on it.’

 

Darius Danesh only took the role of Rhett Butler in ‘Gone With The Wind’ after receiving a ‘moving, touching’ letter from producer Trevor Nunn.

 

The singer - who shot to fame when he starred on ‘Pop Idol’ in 2001 - will play the role made famous by Clark Gable in the 1939 film in the new musical production from April 22, but had to be persuaded to take on the challenge.

 

Darius said: ‘I thought they would get a big name to open the show, someone like Ewan McGregor in ‘Guys and Dolls’. So I was taken aback when I got the call. Trevor wrote me this beautiful letter asking me to be Rhett. It was the most moving, articulate, touching letter that I have ever received. He blew me away.’

 

Darius also said despite living in Los Angeles for the past few years, he has not adopted any of their habits, and still thinks of himself as a true Scotsman.

 

He added: ‘I’m Scottish through and through. It comes from my mother.’

 

Source: The Persian Mirror

 

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