One Blog More

Actor Alex Gaumond is currently wowing the Palace Theatre as Galileo in We Will Rock You, but it’s been revealed he’s heading for Harvard (kind of).
Alex has won the role of Emmet in the new West End version of the hit Broadway show Legally Blonde: The Musical.
It’s the stage version of the Reese Witherspoon ‘fish out of water’ rom com that sees spoilt sorority girl Elle Woods head to the Ivy League college to win back her man.
While there she befriends the kind, but slightly nerdy tutor Emmet (played by Luke Wilson in the movie).
I saw the show while in New York in August 2007, and can safely say it is brilliant. Very clever, wonderful original songs and very so funny.
I can’t wait to see the West End version, that stars Sheridan Smith as Elle and Duncan James as her ex Warner.
And I think Alex will be simply perfect as Emmet.
You can visit the show’s official website here

Go on…try and watch this video without crying. I dare ya
I can’t, it’s the combination of a really sad song from Les Mis and one of those great eccentrics that Britain loves to embrace.
I know it’s manipulative telly at its best, but I can’t help getting goosebumps.

Anthony Drewe with Mary Poppins star Lisa O’Hare
Thinking back to Mary Poppins’ recent three-month residency at the Palace Theatre, one of the most unexpected highlights was how much I loved the original songs written especially for the musical.
I knew I couldn’t wait to hear classic numbers from the Walt Disney movie, like A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercali and Feed the Birds, and I wasn’t disappointed with those.
But the first time I saw the show up in Edinburgh I came away humming Practically Perfect, and after the second viewing in Manchester, I left with the jaunty Anything Can Happen bouncing around my head for at least three days.

A new cd A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe, features highlights from last summer’s West End concert celebrating the duo who wrote the songs,
The concert, dedicated to George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, starred West End faves like Joanna Riding, James Gillan, Clive Rowe, Leanne Jones and Oliver Tompsett.
I loved Joanna Riding’s ode to fangirldom Carrying a Torch, a warm and witty number about being in love with a bit part actor as well as the songs from the pair’s forthcoming show Soho Cinders, like They Don’t Make Glass Slippers, performed by Gareth Gates.
The cd also has plenty of songs from the popular (and critically acclaimed) ugly duckling musical Honk!
Best of all is a simply brilliant version of Practically Perfect by three ‘Marys’ – Lisa O’Hare (who was ‘our’ Mary in Manchester), Scarlett Strallen (who has played the role in the West End and Broadway) and Caroline Sheen (who shared the role on tour with O’Hare).
“Who are you?” O’ Hare asks Strallen in her clipped Poppins’ tone. “Your predecessor” comes the equally precise reply.
It’s a lovely recording, which I’d highly recommend to musical theatre fans. I’m just sorry I wasn’t at the actual concert.
And all the profits from the cd goes to Mercury Musical Developments, a charity that aims to nuture new musical theatre writing.

Review
THE smash hit West End show We Will Rock You, sees an original story by Ben Elton (who also directs) woven around over 20 hits of Queen.
Set 300 years in the future the world – Planet Mall – is ruled in cyber-scary fashion by the Globalsoft corporation, head of which is the Killer Queen (X Factor star Brenda Edwards).
Uniformity reigns, with people ordered to look alike, sound alike and only listen to computer-generated music.
Musical instruments are banned, but legend tells of a ‘dreamer’ who will follow the star to the place of champions and wield a mighty axe to smash the regime.
t’s up to a bunch of rebels – the bohemians – to find said dreamer and save the world.
The futuristic sets worked very well – the use of video screens were particularly effective – and the costumes were great to look at.
I especially liked the Globalsoft executives’ pinstrip suits, which on closer inspection were lines of datacode.
Elton’s script is hit and miss – a sometimes uncomfortable mix of cringy gags and wickedly witty one-liners – but that shouldn’t put you off.
WWRY is all about the music and thankfully the show has perfomers able to pull off such classics as Another One Bites The Dust, One Vision, Don’t Stop Me Now and A Kind of Magic.
While supporting cast members Kevin Kennedy (who plays befuddled former librarian Pop) and Jonathan Wilkes (sinister secret police head Khashoggi) left me somewhat underwhelmed, Edwards impressed as Killer Queen, showing what a strong set of pipes she has – along with spot on comic timing.
But stealing the show were Alex Gaumond as hero Galileo and Sarah French-Ellis (who would make a great Elphaba from Wicked) as Scaramouche, and it’s worth the ticket price just to watch them in action.
I loved Gaumond’s tortured I Want to Break Free, and their duets of Under Pressure and Hammer to Fall (performed as a spiky lovers’ tiff) where nothing short of sensational.
And I defy anyone not get goosebumps during We Are The Champions.
We Will Rock You is at the Palace Theatre in Manchester until June 6.
Have you seen the show? Give your verdict below…

His soaring rendition of Walking in the Air has become a Christmas staple, and now singer and TV presenter Aled Jones is taking on a festive stage role.
It’s been announced that he has been cast in the stage version of White Christmas, that’s making its north west debut at the Lowry this festive season.
Based on the classic 1954 movie, Irving Berlin’s dazzling musical is full of tap dancing, laughter and some of the greatest songs ever written – a magical theatrical experience for the whole family.
It tells the story of two buddies putting on a show in a magical Vermont inn, and finding their perfect mates in the process.
Singer, actor and TV personality Aled Jones takes on the role of Bob Wallace.
Suzanne Shaw – former member of the pop group Hearsay, recent Roxie Hart in Chicago and winner of ITV’s Dancing on Ice 2008 – will join the line-up as Judy Haynes.
Also in the show is dance and musical theatre star Adam Cooper (who was in Manchester last year as baddie Ramon in Zorro the musical), Tony Award-winning actor Roy Dotrice and Louise Plowright, who is best known for playing the lead role of Donna in the West End hit Mamma Mia! for four years.
With an ensemble of over thirty and a dynamic 17 piece orchestra, this multi-million pound production is brimming with classic Irving Berlin hits like Blue Skies, How Deep is the Ocean, Happy Holiday, Sisters and of course the unforgettable title song White Christmas.
The show was first brought to the UK stage in 2006 by the producers of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, appearing at the Plymouth Theatre Royal and The Mayflower Theatre Southampton. In 2007 it broke box office records at the Edinburgh Playhouse and Wales Millennium Centre. It played to sold out houses at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway for the holiday season 2008/09.

I’m hoping to be in (bohemian) rhapsody tonight, when I watch We Will Rock You at the Palace.
The hit show sees an original storyline of taking on ‘the man’ (or, in this case, the Killer Queen) woven around the hits of Queen.
The musical, written by Ben Elton with music by Queen, stars Jonathan Wilkes, former Corrie star Kevin Kennedy, the X Factor’s Brenda Edwards, Britannia High’s Georgina Hagen and I’d Do Anything’s Ashley Russell.
Ben has fashioned a quick-witted futurist comedy around more than 24 of Queen’s biggest hit songs (like Radio Ga Ga and A Kind of Magic) delivered in a show that boasts the scale and spectacle that marked Queen’s live performances.
I interviewed Ben when he was in Manchester last month for the launch of the tour at the Hard Rock Cafe.
“This show is all about legend,” Ben told me. “Like King Arthur but instead of the sword you have the axe, a mighty guitar.
“We take the legend of Queen and create our own fantastical story of young kids battling the mighty corporations who want to suppress their individuality and their love of music.”
Ben said: “It’s a huge production. We’re proud of the fact that you see every penny of the ticket price up on stage. As Killer Queen would say, the show is dynamite with a laser beam.
“It’s a comedy satire with a bit of an edge.
“It’s set in a world where pop music is created by a big corporation on a cyclical basis. Musical instruments are banned and kids are expected to download the corporate, sanitised version of music.”
He went on: “Rocky pokes fun at ‘a preplanned culture’ so there is a little bit of a serious side about it.
“It offers something genuinely unique which appeals to a broad audience.”
Of the cast Ben said: “We have Brenda Edwards, one of the truly great voices from the X Factor, now very experienced in musical theatre.
“Myself, Roger and Brian do the casting personally for all of our shows. It’s an amazing cast – the best we could assemble.”
We Will Rock You runs at the Palace Theatre from Saturday, March 21 to Saturday, June 6. For tickets call 0844 847 2277 or visit www.manchesterpalace.org.uk .

Robbie Williams? Brian May and Roger Taylor performing live on stage?? Well it seems I missed quite an exciting press night for We Will Rock You! didn’t I? Typical.
Am just back from a week lazing around in the sun in Egypt, which is why I haven’t posted for a while.
The closest I came to musical theatre was the sounds of pipe music versions of numbers like Memory and Don’t Cry for Me Argentina as they floated through the air over my sunlounger from the pool bar’s cd player.

Check out this website for a wonderful archive of performances from musicals over the years.
It’s an amazing selection of clips from shows from the past eight decades. A big thanks to the poster on the Whats on Stage discussion boards, who posted the link. I can’t wait to sit down, turn up the voume and have a wallow.

Move over Kim and Chris, Eponine and Marius and Elphaba and Fieyro…there’s a couple of new uber-musical couples heading for the stage – Annie and Sam from Sleepless in Seattle and Molly and Sam from Ghost.
Musical adapatations of these classic chick flicks have been announced.
While I was never a big Ghost fan, I must admit I like the thought of a Sleepless musical. I can just see a Meg Ryan-alike belting out “All I Could Say Was Hello” while over on the other side of the stage our Sam wistfully sings “It was Like coming Home”.
It just about makes up for the fact that The Princess Bride musical never made it to the stage.
But what do you think? Are you fed up with new movie-to-musical adaptations? Just over the past 12months or so in Manchester we’ve had The Wedding Singer, Flashdance The Musical, Footloose, High School Msical and probably a few more I’ve forgotton. Meanwhile in the West End Dirty Dancing is doing big business and I (like totally) loved Legally Blonde the Musical I caught on Broadway 18months ago.
And why should a movie be seen as any different as a source material for a show than more traditional ones, whether a classic novel (Les Miserables, The Phantom or the opera) an opera (Miss Saigon) or a collection of poems (Cats).
I guess what is important is balance. While movie musical adaptations must have a place in our theatre scene, be it touring or in the West End, it’s important that there’s still opportunities out there for new writers and composers to get their work heard. Something which I expect is getting harder and harder in this economically-chalenged times.

If you need a pick me up from the dreary weather and all-pervading credit crunch gloom, then why not enjoy some old fashioned Hollywood-style song and dance fun.

Singin’ in the Rain is at the Palace Theatre this week, neatly filling the gap between Mary Poppins and We Will Rock You.
Starring Broadway and West End actor Tim Flavin (an Olivier Award winner no less) the show features all the classic songs from the classic 1952 Gene Kelly musical.
These include Make ‘Em Laugh, Good Morning and of course the famous title number.
It’s there until Saturday – I might try and catch it later in the week.