Wouldnt it be good if D could do this - from WOS

 

New York New Voices Launches UK Concert Series

Date: 15 July 2008

 

The New Voices Collective - the New York-based group which, since 2001, has provided a showcase for musical composers, including Jason Robert Brown and Andrew Lippa - will launch in the UK this autumn with a star-studded concert at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 12 October 2008.

 

Nigel Planer will host the evening, which will include performances by West End stars including Lara Pulver, Damian Humbley, Eliza Lumley, Claire Moore, Dianne Pilkington, Oliver Tompsett and Matthew White. Pulver and Humbley co-starred in the UK premiere of Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2006 (pictured), while Pulver was Olivier and Whatsonstage.com Award-nominated for her turn last year in the UK premiere of another Brown musical, Parade, at the Donmar Warehouse.

 

A spokesperson told Whatsonstage.com that this would be the first in a series of New Voices concerts in London, with 2009 dates due to be announced shortly.

 

Initially founded to showcase up-and-coming composers, the New Voices Collective soon invited more established songwriters to join in by working with new collaborators and exploring different styles. What happens when several composers try their hand at the same song? Or when a theatre composer teams up with a poet? Or when a pop musicmaker pens something for a string quartet?

 

The answer to these questions have led to the premiere of over 200 new songs over the past seven years. In addition to Jason Robert Brown and Andrew Lippa, these have included works by Stephen Schwartz, John Kander, Michael John LaChiusa, Georgia Stitt, Tom Kitt, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Jenny Giering, Steve Marzullo, Paul Loesel, Mary Heisler and Zina Goldrich.

 

The first New Voices concert clashes with the already sold-out, fifth anniversary event for Notes from New York, the UK-founded concert series which also promotes the work of contemporary musical theatre composers, many of them American. As previously announced (See News, 28 May 2008), it’s celebrating with a gala staging of Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years at the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket, with series regulars Julie Atherton and Paul Spicer performing the two-hander for one-night only at the same time, 7.30pm, on 12 October.

 

- by Terri Paddock

 

 

 

 

Not sure that D would relish working in harness with someone outside his own perimeters. But anything to bring his

composing and singing to the UK would be welcome.

I think he would. He does like to try the different at times.

Suggested working pairs

Louis Satchmo Armstrong .........Ivor Novello

Duke Ellington (big band)...........FunTwo (Jerry C's Canon Rock).....or Mattrach (Canon Rock 3 )

Simon & Garfunkel.....................Amy Winehouse

Elton John.................................Bing Crosby

Elvis Presley..............................Frank Sinatra

 

Yes I know some of these are dead ,but they would have made an interesting combination.

Edited July 16, 200817 yr by Bramley

Oklahoma is being produced by UK Productions to tour early next year.

It always seems to be the same shows repeated. Not that I would object to a repeat of GWTW.

They are grumbling on theatre sites about re-run of old musicals yet when they get a new one unless their favourite is in it they run it down or rip it to pieces. Zorro is now previewing in the westend and they are praising it but then they have an established theatre star in the main role.

I went to a show last night that rivalled GWTW for me. My 13 yr old first non-school, non ballet performance. I loved every minute. She got two solos, one lead with two girls backing her and 2 ensemble peices.

 

Isn't it funny with kids, at the start of the year she looked like a little girl - but she doesn't now. What a difference 6mnths makes at this age.

Lee Meade is leaving 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' on January 10th.

No replacement has been cast yet.

And West Side Story is being cast for Broadway next year (last time there 1980).

Lee Meade is leaving 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' on January 10th.

No replacement has been cast yet.

 

One for Darius to avoid - no part in that would come close to fulfilling his creativity now, although Joseph or the Pharoah might have been a suitable first toe in the MT water for him after PI if he'd gone with ALW.

 

Good luck to Lee. I hope he isn't held back by the reality tag.

 

Connie seems to be OK. She's done something for TV and is about to do a new show in the West End.

I can't say I enjoyed 'Joseph' I love it as a school production though - it just feels stretched in the West End.

I enjoyed it for what it was, a familiar story from my childhood with singalong music and simple humour, no-brainer harmless fun but that was many years ago. I wouldn't go and see it now, even locally.

I have a soft spot for Joseph as it was the first show I took my grandaughter to...... she was so excited, told all her teachers and friends she was going to a 'grown-up' show. She was barely five years old, and she loved it so much that she got me to buy some flashy material and make up a 'Joseph' coat for her.

Wonderful, Bramley!

 

Even at my most jaded I get a lift from seeing things through a child's eyes. The enthusiasm and magic always seem to rub off on me.

It's a shame when the child becomes an adult in a way. Not that I'd want them to stay a child but the magic of first experience is lost.

I particularly used to love the infant schools' Xmas performances........the trusting belief of the little ones.

That age is lovely. The wonder of showing them things is an incredible experience.

My little grandaughter is four nearly five and she has been doing ballet for two years and loves it. Yet to take her to a grown up show but will work on it. Her little brother is two nearly three and walks on his toes only when he is in the house. I keep kidding his parents hes going to be a ballet dancer. My other two are boys aged 8 and 4 and into sports, swimming and football.

Little ones who do ballet seem to like The Nutcracker. The Russian companies tend to do it more traditionally. I don't think a very young child would like the Matthew Bourne production. I wasn't that enamoured with it myself, if I'm honest.

Mine loved 'Cats'. Still do come to that.