Items tagged with musical-theatre

Over the Rainbow – the judges

The search for Dorothy Over the Rainbow continues Andrew Lloyd Webber’s search for Dorothy this Easter weekend. By Sunday night we will know which girl will go home and definitely not be Dorothy. While we wait for that result I thought I’d take a look at the panel of judges, tell you a bit more about each of them and explain why they are uniquely qualified to help choose Dorothy. Charlotte Church I suppose most of us know who Charlotte Church is, or at least think we do. After all some of us remember her first TV appearance with Richard and Judy. On that occasion she was a child with an amazing voice who sang Pie Jesu down a phone line because her aunt had rung in to Good Morning. Charlotte Church We watched her grow up and for a while turn into a bit of a wild child. Well, she’s moved on somewhat since that. Although she doesn’t have any musical theatre experience there is a lot she could teach the Dorothies. She’s a very good technical singer with a deep understanding of how voices work. She also seems to be quite good at explaining to the girls which aspects of their singing they need to work on. John Partridge John Partridge We all know John Partridge best these days from his soap career as a member of the EastEnders cast but he has a long history in musical theatre. John was a member of the touring cast of Cats in 1988 at the tender age of 17 so he understands some of what the younger Dorothies are going to face. Then much later he starred in the West End production of Cats first as Rum Tum Tugger and later as Mukustrap. He also played Rum Tum Tugger in the film. John has also played lead roles in Starlight Express, Miss Saigon and Rent. He’s bringing this depth of musical theatre experience to the panel and giving the girls quite detailed feedback on their performances. Sheila Hancock Sheila Hancock What to say about a trouper like Sheila Hanock? She’s a gifted and intelligent actress who also sings. She has an impressive depth of knowledge and experience in the theatre. Her list of theatrical credits would take up the whole page! An alumnus of Joan Littlewood’s famous Theatre Workshop, Sheila has been treading the West End stage since 1958. She’s currently appearing in Sister Act as the Mother Superior and still enthralling audiences. The best thing about her in this context though is that she can and does clearly and precisely tell the girls how to improve their performances. Dorothies or Dorothys? I’m torn. Should it be ‘Dorothies‘ or ‘Dorothys’. I’ve checked and that august organ the BBC uses Dorothys. I was always taught that proper nouns (names etc.) that ended in ‘y’ took ’s’ for their plural form. but my co-writer here, and editor, Andy prefers Dorothies. Which of us is correct? Do you know? a

April 4 2010, 5:45am | Comments »

Andrew Lloyd-Webber attacks the Internet

Musical theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd-Webber has railed against the internet broadband suppliers in the House of Lords for profiting from customers who share digital music - so called internet piracy, and urged the government to clamp down hard. What I Think I don’t mind a bit of eccentricity but LLoyd Webber is braying like a dinosaur at the small and furry ones. He’s desperate to preserve something called “The music Industry” at a time when the number of people who have access to the means to create music and reach new audiences has massively multiplied. But these are not the kind of ‘creatives’ he’s interested in, only the industrial megastars with their sanitised overproduced market segment targeted version of music. His argument that without the contrived scarcity of monopolistic media industry giants generating profits for shareholders and large numbers of managers and marketers, then creative people would simply stop creating is clearly nonsense.
Lloyd-Webber said investment in higher speed broadband networks should be delayed until “there is a sustainable commercial arrangement for those creative works on which these new networks depend”, suggesting unregulated higher bandwidth would mean the film industry would suffer the same fate as the record business. He wants to maintain a system which means that a very small number of manufactured “Stars” generate the lion’s share of the income so that the old fashioned media industries and all their hangers-on can continue to enjoy their lifestyles off the back of a restricted set of safe and successful artists. He’s using his position in the unelected House of Lords to urge The government to put try to put the internet genie back into a bottle, to stop a whole generation of people who have grown up with technology, from applying their own innovations and using the social media freely as a they have become accustomed to do so.
He might as well have been speaking at the annual dinner of the flat earth society. The record industry has contracted largely due to its own inability to adapt to the changes in business model which the new media enables. Trying to slap government restrictions onto the digital peer to peer channels is like trying to prop up the hot metal print industry long after digital desktop publishing has been invented. Did the art of creative writing die and all the writers stop writing when the old system was replaced? No, they adapted and prospered and so will the songwriters, musicians and creative entertainers find new and different ways to earn a living in the digital age, it’s just that the shape of the pyramid structure that grew around the old system might have to change somewhat.

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April 3 2009, 1:03pm | Comments »

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Over the Rainbow – the judges

Andrew Lloyd-Webber attacks the Internet

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