It's Show Week! Jesus is in the building!

Hello theatre luvvies.

OMG how did that happen - its show week!  We are now at Wednesday having done two successful nights already.  And the great news is that for the rest of the week we are SOLD OUT!

So far the highlights for me have been:

1. Setting up Camp Urinal as the ladies are in the men's dressing room this year and we're at the Urinal end.  Camp Urinal is a special place where tea is served in the interval - and its very magic tea. It makes you sing better and gives you a warm glow.

Not everyone gets into Camp Urinal though - if you want to come join the fun you have to bring biscuits and we don't allow men either!!  By the way I am not really smoking...I had to put that in for beloved daughter's sake.

2. Smoking the wrong end of my cigarette last night in first scene until Tom told me...wondered why there was no smoke coming out....thanks Tom.

3.  Dressing up as a Soul girl every night - oh the joy of the spanx pants and the diva glitter - I love it!

4. Getting ready in the dressing room every night with the girls and feeling the adrenaline every night as I hear the opening bars of the overture.

5. My costume is sooooo comfortable this year - I can wear jeans and converse!!  And be a hippy every night!

6. The battle of the dressing room selfies...bring it on boys...!!!  We're going to beat you for LIKES for sure..

7. Wearing THIS every night...

8.General mucking about...

9. The fun in the bar afterwards with my theatre family....

10. Wearing massive fake eyelashes!!!

More blogs to come this week I hope - my family and friends are in tonight for first time so no pressure there then..no-one tomorrow and work on Friday with the rest of my family on Saturday night.  I think Sunday is going to be a massive come down but I am living and LOVING every minute at the moment.  This is why I do it!

BSMTC Jesus Christ Superstar 2014 Trailer

This, people, is our fabulous trailer for our show Jesus Christ Superstar 10th - 16th November - get your tickets here
www.rhodesbishopsstortford.org.uk or call 01279 651746 for the Box Office

Oh the irony...

Hello theatre luvvies,
Isn't it just too ironic that I have been too busy at rehearsals to blog about going to rehearsals... ?

Anyway its been a while since I've written but I said to myself if I don't keep this up it's going to just wither away and die..and that would be sad.  We are now about 3 and a bit weeks away from our first night of JCS and the show is coming together now.  I am always amazed at how it really does start to gel in the last few weeks - we are now sharpening up our dance steps and lyrics and I feel a lot more confident.

Costume is pretty sorted - 60s hippy is not too difficult to do.  However, I thought I would share with you my lovely fabric painted jeans - which I decorated myself!  I bought a cheap pair of jeans and some fabric paints from Hobbycraft, enlisted the help of darling artistic daughter and voila!  What do you think?

I am really impressed by the performances from our leads - one thing you have to give with this show is a lot of emotion, night after night.  Judging from the performances I've seen in rehearsals the audience are in for a treat - and will probably feel a bit wrung out by the end.

A little clue for those of you who don't know the show - it doesn't have a happy ending. Just saying.

One of my favourite parts at the moment is when Pilate (played by Gareth Cheeseman) gets into kicking Jesus around and the mob are yelling crucify him - it really gives me goosebumps everytime - especially when poor Jesus (Richard Foster) is whipped 39 times.

Here is Richard giving his all as Jesus in Gethsemane...

And here are some of our lovely cast waiting patiently for their entrance - ha ha

I also really love the Superstar number - I think when we have a live band with us, this is going to be awesome.  There will be so much going on, on the stage, that I think it will be quite spectacular. I cannot wait until we have a proper rock guitar in there...

As a soul girl in this number ( I got promoted!) I am wearing a spangly tight dress and a blonde beehive wig - here is Wardrobe Manager Charlie Tarran modelling the wig ...I last saw this look on my mum who also had a similar hairstyle in the 60s - I know she reads this blog so she won't mind me saying!

I also want to leave you with this dilemma - whose side are you on - Team Jesus or Team Judas! I know who got my vote!

You can cast your vote on our Twitter page https://twitter.com/BSMTC and also check out our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BSMTCpage
for more news about our show and to book tickets visit  http://www.rhodesbishopsstortford.org.uk/events/jesus-christ-superstar/  where you can see our amazing show trailer!

West Side Story - a little plug for some of my mates

Hello theatre luvvies,
So sorry its been so long - did you miss me?  I'm afraid life got the better of me for a while but I am now back!  I had a holiday, was ill, got very busy at work, started working on a new musical theatre project (more of that later!! It's a secret!))  and of course looking after family etc.....

Anyway I wanted to let you know about a great new production that's coming to Bishop's Stortford soon and as it has a few of my mates in it, its worth a humungous plug on the blog! West Side Story runs at the Rhodes in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire from19th - 28th September
Buy West Side Story tickets here

There are a few members of BSMTC in this show - Sam Jackson, Tom Dickerson and Jay Brown - Sam is playing Bernardo, Tom is playing Tony for half the run and A-rab for the other half, and Jay is playing Detective Schrank.

I absolutely love this show, especially the music and I've seen the film so many times.  It is one of my favourites of all time so I am really looking forward to seeing it on stage soon. I don't think BSTMC can ever do it really as we don't have enough dancers, and we don't have enough younger members!  If I were ever to get the chance I would love to be Anita, but yup, probably too old now!  (Dream on!) I fancy the idea of playing a fiery latino!

Here are a few of my favourite bits from the film:

Did you know West Side Story was originally called East Side Story?  The plot originally focused on the conflict between an Irish Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the Easter Passover season. The girl has survived the Holocaust and emigrated from Israel; the conflict was to be centered around anti semitism of the Catholic "Jets" towards the Jewish "Emeralds".  So how did it become a musical with such a latin flavour? Well basically, to cut a long story short - it came about because of a conversation in a hotel one day.  Bernstein and Laurents met up to discuss the progress of the show and their talk turned to juvenile delinquent gangs  - a conversation initiated by a story on the front page of the newspaper about a Chicano turf war. They decided to reset the musical in Los Angeles and Laurents felt he was familiar with Puerto Ricans and Harlem, so decided to change the Jewish Maria to a Puerto Rican.  Anton 'Tony' became a young man of Polish/Irish descent.

They had a lot of trouble bringing it to the stage too, as Bernstein said,

"Everyone told us that [West Side Story] was an impossible project ... And we were told no one was going to be able to sing augmented fourths as with "Ma-ri-a" ... Also, they said the score was too rangy for pop music ... Besides, who wanted to see a show in which the first-act curtain comes down on two dead bodies lying on the stage?... And then we had the really tough problem of casting it, because the characters had to be able not only to sing but dance and act and be taken for teenagers. Ultimately, some of the cast were teenagers, some were 21, some were 30 but looked 16. Some were wonderful singers but couldn't dance very well, or vice versa ... and if they could do both, they couldn't act."

So there you go, they had trouble casting it too - you do need some really strong dancers who look young and can also act their socks off!  What I also find really interesting is in the very first Broadway production they kept the cast 'Jets' and 'Sharks' apart so they could not socialise together in order to create more realism.

I also like the fact that Bernsetin said that the show could not "depend upon stars, being about kids"- and they basically cast a bunch of young hopefuls who were not well known - I bet that kept it really true to how they envisaged it from the start.  The show certainly launched the career of Stephen Sondheim into the stratosphere - and he became one of the greatest composers and lyricists ever known.

I think a lot of people know Natalie Wood's singing voice was dubbed in the film - something she was really annoyed about apparantly, but did you know her speaking voice is also dubbed on her last line too " "Don’t you touch him!" Te adoro, Anton."??

My absolute favourite number is "America" - what is yours?  I am keen to see what they do with it on the fairly small stage at Rhodes - and how they manage the dance routines.  I do know that Amber Thomason, playing Anita, (the daughter of a friend of mine) is a fantastic dancer , so I am looking forward to her portrayal of Anita.

So what are you waiting for, get your tickets now - see link above!!

Yup we're going to be 60s hippies...man

Hi theatre luvvies...

I'm not going to be writing any new posts over the next two weeks as I am going on holiday...a bit of R and R is needed as I have been working hard since January without a real break at all.

Our rehearsals for Jesus Christ Superstar are in full swing now and we have started the choreography.  Last night was a particularly sweaty evening in the school hall, and I had to come home and have a shower afterwards.  It was like a full Zumba workout!

Here are my highlights so far:

• Trying to learn the choreography for the Superstar number with Bob and Margaret - each of us saying 'I'll follow you' last night - not sure who followed who in the end??
• Learning a few aqua aerobics moves for What's the Buzz...
• Our Director's innuendos especially directed towards the younger male members of the cast...its the 'colgate' smiles that do it for him I think
• Judas nattily attired in a waistcoat that he last wore when he was 17 and it still fits him
• Stage speaking ie silently having conversations about absolutely nothing whilst Judas and Jesus square up to each other front of 'stage'

We learned that we are to be dressed late sixties - i.e quite hippy in attire so I am wondering what look we will go for...

I am hoping we can look something like this!  ie hippy but cool...

Or this would be acceptable

I found this which is a real 60's photo of demonstrators but could be straight out of JCS don't you think?

Here we all are just chillin' man and listening to Jesus...

 

Please please nothing like this....

Speak to you all again when I get back from my holibobs....! Bye bye from the soon to be suntanned Diva....

Biblical, hippy or modern - the thorny issue of costumes

Hello fellow theatre luvvies,
I was thinking what to write the blog on this week - we are now into our rehearsal schedule but as we have only been doing music so far, we have yet to find out what vision our director has in store for us, including the issue of what we are going to wear and what look the show is going to have.

So this made me start thinking about costume.  We are all aware of the time Jesus Christ Superstar is set (33AD I think?), and some companies choose to stage it in biblical dress.  I have seen an amateur production of this where this was done, and it did not do it for me.  Maybe because I feel that this limits you to a sea of sandals and beige stripes with the odd palm leaf being waved around.We have agreed our production will be in modern dress - but what does this mean?  We have all been very influenced I think by the recent arena tour, where the cast wore modern dress - the look was of protestors and was heavily influenced I think by the riots in London a few years ago, and the protestors around St Paul's Cathedral.  Doing some internet research I came across all sorts of references so thought I would share them with you.

Firstly I found this brilliant bit of video from the costumer designer for JCS on Broadway in 2012 - I really like what he did as he has merged traditional dress with but there are touches of modern fashion - so it still looks funky and cool...

Paul Tazewell: Costume Designer For Jesus Christ Superstar Broadway 2012

What do you think?  I particularly like how he dressed Herod and Mary Magdalene - Mary really stands out in that yellow dress.

Love the suit Pilate is wearing too

This last picture shows Herod's song - love the use of the white piano but also how the girls and boys are dressed - sort of camp Roman??? Bit like 'A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum? '  Look at  that guy in the red tunic!!


Here is another take on costume from another society - the Hippy look...this is another way of doing it, referencing the time it was written and first put on stage - i.e. 1970s...Not too sure about this - could be in danger of looking a bit too much of its time?

 

Touch me, touch me Jesus!

I'm sure I've seen these guys in the British legion playing ukeleles on a Wednesday night

Now in this next picture, I am not sure what the hell is going on - back to the 80's anyone?  Pink DMs - a bit Bananarama? Although I am quite liking the Angels and the white vests with diamante crosses. But what is with those grey dresses the souls sisters are wearing?  Tell me, does this float your boat?

Do you really want to hurt me?

This was the only pic I could find of traditional Biblical dress and I must say I do like the Roman uniforms, but then I have always been a uniforms girl...but no, glad we are not doing it like this.

Doesn't Jesus look sweet though?

It thought this worked well, sort of - mix of old and new?  And that corset I bought could come in handy again...I am getting my money's worth out of that. I like Judas in black and Jesus in white.  Not sure about the guys in hats though, are they meant to be the priests or gangsters?

This is from the arena tour - hard not to copy it isn't it, as it is so good! - love the banners, love the modern look.  It would be really easy for us to do as we probably have the clothes at home - but what does our director have in mind?  I am sure he won't want to just copy it.

 

 

Gotta get my hoody out

Lastly thought I would leave you with this image of the priests - wouldn't this be great????Like something out of Star Wars???  Leather tea cosies for hats?

Got rehearsal tonight and wondering - will I ever get the notes right? The altos have got some real buggers to sing this year.

As promised in my last blog here is alto corner for JCS 2014!!  There are some more ladies but they are either on holiday or in the toilet....

The view from the Alto corner

So we are now into rehearsals for JCS - I am going to refer to it as JCS from now on so I don't have to keep typing it.  If you are wondering how the auditions went I'll tell you - true to my word I screwed it up as usual but managed to get my head back together and won the part of the Maid.  I googled this part but not a lot came up - she is referred to as Maid by the Fire - and that is about it!  Anyway, I get my 15 seconds of fame so I am happy...and hopefully I can pick up a few more lines here and there.  I am just glad to be in it and having fun again!

We had our first music rehearsal on Monday and it was great to be back with the gang again - I am an alto and we tend to be fewer in number than sopranos so we have to belt it out a bit  to be heard and stick together.  I find as an alto that we often get quite tricky parts to sing and every year we have the usual problem - can we hit the right first note?  Because if we get put off by sopranos we are stuffed and then we all just look desperately at each other and try to listen in to whoever may remotely be near the note....sometimes I just die laughing as some of the alto girls make me giggle so much - especially my theatre gal mates Cat, Carrie and Jo.

Altos often get called upon to add a bit of a boost to some of the male numbers in a show - this was the case in Fiddler on the Roof when we were on stage as 'knitting women' during the big Lachaim number.  I used to love doing this part of the show, as it was such a laugh.  There was one moment particularly in this number when we had to 'freeze' and I usually caught the eye of Jo - who always makes me laugh - so I had to look over her head every night. I didn't learn to knit but I sewed a sock to death the week of the show.

I personally love the sound of an alto voice - as I think the sound comes from deeper down - i.e. not so much your head voice...I may be wrong on that one not being a music professional! Feel free to correct me!

I researched on the internet about altos - and thought I would share with you some famous alto singers....

Judy Garland

Wow what a voice - like velvet - she had a range of two octaves.  
Although known for her emotive singing, her technique was brilliant.

Adele

Adele has brilliant control over the dynamics of her voice, being able to sing soft and airy when it suits the delivery, but switching back to a fuller tone with speed and aplomb. I like the emotion she puts into her singing.

 

 Cher

She sure can belt them out - and in true alto style she likes a crazy wig.  Apparantly in the 60s her secretary had to write to reassure fans she wasn't a man.

 Karen Carpenter

Is she your guilty pleasure?  Yes probably a little naff to admit you like The Carpenters these days, but you've got to admit she had one hell of a voice - often described as like chocolate and cream.

Kelly Clarkson

Very strong in the mid range and a true belter but she can also do a great head voice and falsetto!

I'll try and get a picture of some of us alto girls at rehearsal tonight -and maybe the Maid will get to sign her line tonight as well - you never know....

What about you? What alto signers do you like?

What's the Buzz? Tell Me What's Happenin'

BSMTC are bringing Jesus Christ Superstar to the Bishop’s Stortford stage!  

Well the ‘buzz’ was audible on Wednesday night and it was all definitely ‘happening’…we had our first show talk for our NEW production Jesus Christ Superstar which will be at Rhodes, Bishop’s Stortford 10^th -17^th November.

The first get together of the year when we discuss our big production is always fun – you get to see old friends who you have not seen for a few months and there is the excitement of new beginnings.  I always get a little thrill when I hear the music for the first time and hold the Lib in my hot sweaty hands!

Jesus Christ Superstar is a bit of a departure for our company in some ways.  We have a great reputation and can certainly do Rogers and Hammerstein justice – i.e. we’re very good at the more ‘traditional’ musicals ( hence the win for Carousel!).  In my second year with the company we put on the less traditional show Little Shop of Horrors which definitely did not sell as well as the previous year – it was up against my Fair Lady which sold out.  Bit of a hard act to follow! Little Shop is an amazing show and great fun to do, but was maybe not to the taste of some of our more established audience. However, I am a firm believer that although it is a priority to get bums on seats you still need to try new things – for the benefit of the members who are as keen as mustard to learn and want to experience the excitement of everything musical theatre can throw at them!  I have just finished my two years as a committee member and have learnt a huge amount in that time about what it costs to put on a show, and how to balance members interests against  commercial interests.  Without ticket sales you don’t have a show or a company basically – but you do need your members to be enthusiastic about what they are doing. 

The choice of show is a real ‘hot potato’ for the committee who have to make the decision every year.  Jesus Christ Superstar was chosen as the show for 2014 way back in 2012 and we did a great deal of research into it. One of the factors that influenced us was the fact that it has been recently resurrected as a Arena tour starring Tim Minchin, Mel C, Chris Moyles and of course Ben Forster who played Jesus and was chosen for the part via an ITV reality show.  This gave the show a huge amount of publicity and people know quite a bit about it.  So that helps a lot! 

I am probably going to be blogging a lot about this show as there is quite a lot to say and we don’t put it on until November so I thought I would kick things off with a few facts you may not know about Jesus Christ Superstar…

Did you know?

•  It was originally produced as an album before it ever became a show.  It only became a stage show when the album sold phenomenally well in America
• On the original album Ian Gillan who was the lead singer of Deep Purple played Jesus – hence the authentic ‘rock’ feel.
• Murray Head had a pretty unsuccessful career until Andrew Lloyd Webber asked him to play Judas on the original album – did you know his younger brother is Anthony Head of Buffy the Vampire fame?
• Agnetha from Abba played Mary Magdalene in the Swedish stage show – right before they won the Eurovision song contest! 

Agnetha in plaits - a fetching look in her pre ABBA days

Agnetha obviously went for beardy Jesus look alikes which is probably why she ended up with Bjorn

• "King Herod's Song" is actually a number from "King Richard", a failed Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Tim Rice had to write new lyrics for this number so that it could be added to "Jesus Christ Superstar"; originally, the number was called "Those Saladin Days".  They wrote it in 20 minutes!
•  For the 1973 film three actors were considered for Jesus – Mickey Dolenz, David Cassidy and a 17 year old John Travolta (who then went on to be cast in Saturday Night Fever and Grease!)

I could have been Jesus

I could have been Jesus too - I had the hair

I also could have been Jesus - but at least I got Danny in Grease

I'm Ian Gillan and I WAS JESUS!!! I had the hair, the voice and the loincloth!

• Andrew Lloyd Webber hated the first stage show of JCS on Broadway – calling it a ‘travesty’.  He also hated the 1973 film.
• Johnny Rotten is currently playing Herod in the North American Tour- altogether now " I am an antichrist!"

Scary..just scary.....

A little thought to leave you all with – here’s a quote from Aussie Stage News who reviewed the recent Australian Arena Tour…

” It takes just the slightest misstep to get this famous, much seen and much recorded rock opera wrong. And Superstar is not a show that calls for slight steps. It needs boldness and creative daring.”

Mentioning no names but I've seen an amateur production which did get it soooo wrong....We have to nail this BSMTC peeps – so no pressure there guys!!

So to calm your minds, here is a lovely picture of Tim Minchin as Judas in the recent Arena tour  - just because...

Tim contemplates whether he should have had that dodgy kebab last night