Post 1 & 2

4/02/09

The reviews for Spring Awakening are out!

The Independent and Whatsonstage.com have both given the show glowing reviews! Indeed they’ve both given this production 5 stars! The Independent says “that this is the best American protest rock-musical” since either Hair or Rent, while Whatsonstage.com says that “the show’s an absolute must-see and by far the best new musical in London for ages.” Nicholas de Jonge of The Evening Standard however wasn’t so kind with its 2 stars saying that he was “let down and left there by this multi-award winning Broadway show”

Spring Awakening is a new musical based on a play of the same name by a German man named Frank Wedekind. It was originally banned in Germany for its portrayal of rape, masturbation, abortion and suicide. It has also been banned several times throughout this century all around the world - most notibally in the National Theatre in 1964. The board of directors banned it because they believed they couldn't use public funds to stage such a radical show which would, in all likelyhood receive lots of complaints. Eventually, it was made into a musical off-Broadway where it garnered alot of support and acclaim before transferring to Broadway. It won 8 Tony Awards - which is generally unheard of these days and closed at the beginning of this year after playing 888 performances - or just over 2 years. It has just opened in London in the Lyric Hammersmith theatre, and rumour has it that it will transfer to the West End within a few months.

Having seen the musical myself last week on a trip to London with my friends I believe that the show very much deserves its impending West End Transfer. For a show that was only in its first week of previews, I thought that it was slick and well put together. The cast looked like seasoned pro’s and it was hard to imagine that for a lot of them this was their first “big gig”. The lighting in particular was just incredible – varying from hundreds of blue lowered lightbulbs during “The Mirror-Blue Night” to underground punk electro Germany complete with its neon shelf lights during “Don’t do Sadness/Blue Wind”

The choreography of the show was very good! It was intricate and complex, whilst not looking like a big west end production number. The band, as well as the cast should also be highly applauded. Lucy Barker as Ilse has a crystal clear harrowing voice that made the hairs on the back of my next stand as she shone through “Blue Wind.” Charlotte Wakefield as Wendla is a star in the making. Her emotions added depth to the character which may not have been brought out had a lesser performer been cast. Iwan Rheon may not have a great voice, but his Moritz was played with compassion and tenderness which meant that the characters fall into depression was very much believable. There wasn’t a member of the cast who didn’t do more that what the roles required.

The only problem with the production was that this show attracts a certain type of audience which I’m not particularly fond of, which is silly on my part because it is the demographic of audience which the show is aimed at! During the performance I attended there was a large school/college group who were sat behind us who annoyed me to no end! They laughed and talked through the most inappropriate moments, for example there is a scene where Moritz’s father slaps him hard across the face because he has failed an exam. I genuinely felt part of the action and my heart was in my mouth... until the group behind me started laughing and I was removed from my trance like state. Other moments where they annoyed me included the sex scene before the end of the first act and during the final scene.

Brilliant – a show for angst ridden teenagers everywhere!



My trip to London also included a tour of the National Theatre! It was so interesting to go inside the auditoriums and to learn about the different stages and storage space. My favourite part I must confess was going out onto the Lyttleton stage and looking out to all of them empty seats! It must be so wonderful performing to an audience of that size every night – it looked so intimate! The props room was also a highlight! I got to have a little play with one of the horses which was used in War Horse – the sell out show which is transferring to the West End in March.


We also went Ice Skating which I really enjoyed! Now this has nothing to do with the theatre, music or film, but I wanted to mention it because I learned how to skate backwards which was amazing! I’m thinking that I should go more often, get famous and then do the next series of Dancing on Ice!!!!!


16/01/09

It’s only two weeks away now until we make the journey to the Big Smoke to watch the Broadway Smash Hit musical Spring Awakening! I’ve heard amazing things about this show from across the pond! I’ve watched the trailer many, many times and youtubed the videos more times than I care to admit and now its nearly here! Can’t wait! Don’t think the others are feeling as excited about it though! But neymind! I hope this does quite well in the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre! If it does then it will more than likely move to the West End later this year! I have a feeling that this is a little ploy by the producers to test the waters and build up a fan base before they can open in a bigger theatre. Have just noticed that the reviews for Oliver! are up as well and they seem pretty good! Michael Billington has given the piece 3 stars, and other reviews vary from 3-4 stars – and they’ve generally praised Miss. Prengers performance which is nice! I do like Jodie – even if she is a fame hungry diva! Looking forward to travelling down to London (yet again!) to see this in the future!



Who’d have thought it eh?! Kate Winslet winning two Golden Globes in the same year! Hopefully the Oscars will be kind to her because they’ve had a history of snubbing her! 5 Nominations she has had so far and yet she’s won nothing! Hopefully this will be her year! I have a feeling it will be a Martin Scorsese all over again – took him a while to win a statue didn’t it! She def deserves is as well! It’s been announced this week also that she has 2 BAFTA nominations for Best Actress! I’m slightly confuzzled now though because for the Golden Globes she was nominated in two different categories! For the same two films! The criteria for awarding the nominations must be totally different! Anyway, I predict that she will win an Oscar for her role in the Reader, but am unsure about whether she will even get a nomination for the Sam Mendez directed “Revolutionary Road”.


Hello, and welcome to my brand spanking new Art’s blog! This is where I will be putting down my thoughts and ideas about anything theatre/music/film related. I have an interest bordering on obsession with theatre – particularly musicals and so I thought that it would be an idea to put down my thoughts about any news that may pop up regarding theatre. I also love watching films – I’m always at the cinema, and this is a great time in the year for films because we are currently in the awards season! So what better time to start my blogging! I will also sporadically mention anything that interests me about music – from reviews of albums that I may buy – to any news on a popstars drugged up ways! (That’s the Perez in me coming out!) The top and bottom about this blog is that there is nowhere online that I have seen which gives the information that I love together on one website! I’m always flicking between various sites – from news sites to then trying to go to forums to find out what people think and then back to sites which have the official facts and figures! I thought it would hopefully save a lot of time if a lot of this information is located on one site – so here you have it!!! The “DAVID’S ARTS BLOG” ßInsert better name if you can think of one – im poo at thinking up names! HAHA