Posts with the label tim firth
Showing posts with label tim firth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tim firth. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 October 2019
Calendar Girls the Musical (UK Tour), New Wimbledon Theatre | Review
New Wimbledon Theatre
Reviewed on Tuesday 1st October 2019 by Olivia Mitchell
★★★★
In 1998, a group of ladies in Yorkshire rallied together to help one of their members when her beloved husband died. They decided to raise money in his memory for the Lukaemia Research fund, by posing naked for a calendar and selling copies. Calendar Girls tells their story of unity as it exudes warmth and joy.
Tim Firth and Gary Barlow spent five years collaborating to create this musical and it has been seen across the UK in a variety of forms. Thanks to their brilliantly witty and heartfelt lyrics and music, the show retains it's heart wherever it goes and will surely continues to bring a smile to faces around the world. What's wonderful about this musical is how it focusses on a number of human emotions and relationships and does so with sensitivity, pathos and simplicity. We are really forced to think about what it means to pushed outside our comfort zones and it's marvellous to see a group of older women completely letting go and having the best time on stage. I can only hope to be as confident as these ladies when I grow up!
In terms of both acting and singing, it took a little while for the performances to really bloom (excuse the pun) as they seemed somewhat reserved and quiet in the opening number. However, once they got into the swing of things, the whole cast gave brilliantly strong, well-rounded and clever performances.
Sarah Jane Buckley brings the silent struggle of grief to light with immense sensitivity and provides some vocal stand out moments, especially during act two. Rebecca Storm as Chris is the embodiment of fizz as she floats around the stage with an energy which can't help but lift spirits. All the ladies of the cast have a fantastic chemistry but these two in particular really do seem as though they've grown up together and seen the highs and lows of life. Judy Holt is great as the traditional leader of the WI, Marie; Julia Hills is hilarious as the tragically overly helpful Ruth; whilst, Sue Devaney delivers some hilarious one liners and vocal gems as Cora. Ruth Madoc really embodies the role of an ex-teacher as she gets the other girls in line with her stern Welsh remarks and Lisa Maxwell is excellent as the brash ex-air hostess trying to fit in with her new found community.
The set design by Robert Jones is basic but completely works for the production. Minimal scene changes are kept entertaining through small tweaks including a sunset in the background and a seasonally decorated piano. The audience are really transported to the Yorkshire dales, village green, hospital and hall and feel as though we've stepped from London to the countryside.
This is a totally British feel-good show which warms the heart, uplifts and entertains. Calendar Girls has something for everyone and is a beautiful portrayal of women supporting women.
Calendar Girls runs at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 5th October before continuing it's tour
photo credit:
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Calendar Girls (UK Tour), New Victoria Theatre | Review
Calendar Girls (UK Tour)
New Victoria Theatre
Reviewed on Tuesday 26th March 2019 by Melanie Mitchell
★★★★★
Calendar Girls the Musical is based on the true story of a close-knit Yorkshire village. In 1998, Ladies of the local Women's Institute, rally to help one of their members when her beloved husband suddenly dies. They decide to raise money in his memory for the Leukaemia Research Fund by posing naked in a Pirelli style calendar and selling copies.
The story was subsequently made into a film in 2003 and then a stage play in 2008, both written by Tim Firth. Tim spent 5 years in collaboration with Gary Barlow to produce this brilliant musical. The story has been changed quite a lot from the original, but the basic premise remains the same. The musical looks at the whole gamut of human relationships and emotions with fantastic humour, pathos and poignancy, accompanied by an excellent musical score.
The characters are perfectly cast with amazingly strong performances by all. Anna-Jane Casey who plays Annie and Rebecca Storm as Chris are outstanding, both having superb voices. Fern Britten is fabulous as Marie the leader of the WI, desperate to stick to the old traditional values whilst being a terrible snob and social climber. Denise Welch is perfect as Celia, the brash, brassy and blousy ex air hostess trying to button up to fit in with the community. The show contains some of the funniest laugh out loud one liners I have ever heard, many delivered with perfect comedic timing by Karen Dunbar as Cora. Sara Crowe is hilarious as the ever helpful, slightly tragic Ruth. The younger actors, Isabel Caswell, Tyler Dobbs and Danny Howker add another dimension, which brings freshness and fun to the production.
Robert Jones' set and costume design are both fairly simple but completely in keeping with the themes and characters. In the first scene you are totally transported to the Yorkshire dales and subsequently to the village hall and green.
This is a heart-warming, totally British feel-good show, uplifting (in more ways than one), and something that almost everybody can relate to in some way or another.
For a really positive feel good evening at the theatre, suitable for all ages, I urge everyone to go and see this wonderful production.
Calendar Girls runs at the New Victoria Theatre until 29th march 2019
Friday, 16 November 2018
The Band (UK Tour), Grand Opera House, Belfast | Review
The Band (UK Tour)
Grand Opera House, Belfast
Reviewed on Tuesday 13th November 2018 by Damien Murray
★★★★
Take the story of 5 teenage boyband fans from 1993
Take the women they turn out to be some 25 years later
Take the boyband they adore
… oh, and Take That – or at least a selection of their greatest hits – and you are getting close to some of the magical ingredients of this most enjoyable evening of musical theatre.
Superbly directed by Kim Gavin and Jack Ryder, aided by a strong team of equally imaginative creatives (particularly Jon Bausor’s Design and Patrick Woodroffe’s Lighting Design), there is so much more to the success of this intriguing musical than one would imagine.
Of course, it is not the first time that the music of one of the world’s most popular boybands has been brought to the theatrical stage, but this production demonstrates how it should be done.
Cleverly written by Our House writer, Tim Firth, who again captures the mood and nuances of a particular community (this time, working class Northerners) in the same way that the great Willy Russell highlighted the highs and lows of a Liverpool family as they grew up in the classic musical, Blood Brothers, this show also uses comedy and tragedy to bring life’s dark and shade to us in an evening of emotional ups and downs.
Rather than opting for the easier and more commonly used concert-format to give a platform for the popular music, this production is unique in that it is not a traditional jukebox musical, nor is it a tribute act to Take That, but rather an engaging and believable story-based show with many surprises about a group of female fans who grow older and grow apart, before reuniting, like their beloved boyband, many years later.
Apart from some impressive production numbers of the type Take That are famous for and the perfect vocals and harmonies of ‘The Band’ themselves –AJ Bentley, Nick Carsberg, Curtis T Jones, Yazdan Qafouri and Sario Solomon– in re-workings of the well-loved hits, the key to the success here lies in the fact that the songs are all so cleverly integrated within the story without sounding overtly contrived.
Musical director, John Donovan, and his, mostly hidden, on-stage 5-piece band of musicians is always sympathetic to the story, while providing solid support to the spot-on vocals of The Band and to its enthusiastic dancing as Kim Gavin’s energetic take on Take That’s choreography is brought to life, complete with iconic positioning and poses.
As if the boys in The Band don’t work hard enough performing all 18 songs and their associated dance moves, they also have to deal with numerous quick changes and the playing of many extras throughout.
Having always been known for respecting their fans, it is not surprising that this show is not about Take That (they are not even mentioned in the show), but – like a present to their loyal fans – they opted to make the show about a group of fans and the fun and friendship that ensued through the shared experience of fandom.
We follow them from their hormone-filled teenage years (when they are played by Faye Christall, Katy Clayton, Rachelle Diedericks, Sarah Kate Howarth and Lauren Jacobs) to an unexpected reunion when they are all forty-something (and played by Rachel Lumberg, Alison Fitzjohn, Emily Joyce and Jayne McKenna).
Providing universally great performances throughout, the members of this precious sisterhood reveal many stories, secrets and surprises … not least the fact that life did not turn out as expected for any of them.
This is a clever plot as many Take That fans in the audience can readily identify with some of the circumstances, characters, problems and stories being portrayed on stage.
In contrast to the complicated lives of the ladies, Martin Miller gives a nice understated performance of the simple life led by Jeff, while Andy Williams is outstanding in a series of comic cameos.
While musical highlights include the moving rendition of A Million Love Songs, the production number, Greatest Day, and the poignant Back For Good, other songs like Could It Be Magic, Patience, Relight My Fire and Rule The World all stand out.
This fast-paced production also provides some memorable moments like the Roman Chariot scene, the breakable statues in Prague, the aeroplane that becomes a giant glitter ball, the use of a large time-related teletext projection at the start, which progressed to a large digital billboard for the start of Act 2, and the Act 1 finale scene when the aeroplane takes-off over the audience with believable noise and wind effects for those in the front stalls.
Overall, it is easy to see why this is such a great girlie night out for fans of Take That, but it is so much more for, even if you are neither female nor a fan, you will still enjoy this as it is essentially a great night out for anyone.
This engaging, endearing and entertaining production may provide a night of harmonies, hormones and hilarity… but, more than anything, it has heart!
The Band runs at the Grand Opera House until Sat 24 Nov, 2018
Photo credit: Matt Crockett
Thursday, 12 April 2018
In Conversation With... Rachel Lumberg | The Band | Interview
Rachel Lumberg is an award winning actress who has been in a whole host of shows from The Full Monty to Romeo and Juliet. She's currently starring as Rachel in the UK tour of The Band. She sat down with me to discuss everything about the show! It's a fairly long but super interesting interview so grab a cuppa and settle down...
Have you always wanted to be a performer? Did you have any random childhood ambitions?
I did have random dreams- I wanted to be a nurse! You know so many of us had those dress up nurses outfits when we were little.
I also went into fashion at school when we took our options but it just didn't appeal to me. I'd always loved drama but didn't really know what area to be involved in. So I started the fashion course and it wasn't really working for me so I went to our head of year and said I'd like to do drama, and she let me change. So ever since then ( I would've been 14) I've been doing this.
It was actually the film-maker, John Hughes -who made the likes of Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club- who I was a huge fan of growing up- who got me very interested in film. Then when I changed to the drama option at school and we started going to the theatre a lot I discovered that this is my love.
Could you explain a little about The Band and how your character Rachel fits into it?
Rachel is the driving force in bringing the girls back together again. She is the protagonist of the story really. She opens the show with a memory.. She begins by telling the audience how she grew up with a boy band and then ‘Boom’ we’re immediately transported back to my bedroom, my younger self (played utterly superbly by Faye Christall) and the incredible tunes of a certain boy band of 1993. It’s a double denim feast for your eyes!!
You then meet all of Rachel’s friends. Each as loyal to each other and to the band as the next one.. They get to see the boys ‘live in concert’ and then on the way home from the gig, tradgedy strikes which changes the girls’ lives dramatically.
Fast forward 25yrs and here we see Rachel again pretty much living the life she dreamt off... or is she? She hasn’t seen her school friends for over 25yrs.. yet she enters and wins a competition to go and see the boys live again on their reunion tour.. is this the time to maybe have a reunion of her own?? Well-you’ll have to come and see the show to find that out..
Tim Firth has written a beautiful story of friendship and the love and influences that come with that..add to that the stunning music of Take That and how could you not want to come and see it?
What attracted you to show? Other than your name, are you and Rachel alike in any way?
I've known Tim [Firth] for a very long time, almost 10 years, as well as David [Pugh] and Dafydd [Rogers], this is my second show with all of them and they're absolutely wonderful.
Rachel and I are alike. Our producers David and Dafydd always said that she's called Rachel for a reason which is incredibly flattering. Rachel has comedy and is very caring and fiercely loyal. Simple things, the love of her family and friends and their happiness are of utmost importance to her.. so there are definitely similarities between her and myself.
More so I think with lovely Faye [Christall] who plays 16 year old me; it's weird seeing someone play you! We spent a lot of time together watching each other and watching out for the little habits we all have to make sure it seems truthful that we're the same person.
My mum came to see the show on press night and she said "that is her, that's Rachel at that age"... It's quite frightening! So I think both Faye and I are quite similar to each other and to Rachel.
The show focusses on how music influences our lives. Which musicians have inspired you?
I'm a bit of an all-rounder really. I'm one of those people that if I like a song, I like it! I was a fan of Take That, I wasn't necessarily hardened but I was a fan of them. I'm a big fan of Duran Duran, and Spandau Ballet- they were more my era 'cause I'm a little bit older than Rachel.
My huge influence growing up was more 60s because of my mum and dad. It was the likes of Gerry and the Pacemakers, Fats Domino all of that kind of music that my parents had on in the background.
On my wall were actors mainly, not musicians. There was James Dean, of course; it was mainly theatre and film actors that influenced my teenage years. Then when I got older, and absolutely when Take That reformed, I really, really enjoyed their music and I went to see them before I was ever involved in this!
Besides yourself, which actor in the production is going to blow people away?
You know I think most people that come, leave thinking "I was not expecting that" so it's the show that blows people away. A lot of people of course, are expecting the story of Take That but it isn't that, and that is absolutely not what they wanted. This show is a thank you to their fans for 25 years of loyalty. They were trying to find a way to do that, they always wanted Tim [Firth] to do it and they managed to.
The boys are phenomenal. There's always been the "oh they got them off a telly show", but they absolutely blow you away. The young girls are phenomenal, the older women, you know, everybody stands out in this.
What have people been saying as they leave the theatre?
What we've found is: "wow","wasn't expecting that", "you've relived my youth for me", "I've laughed, I've cried, I've danced, I've clapped", "I want to see it again". I've never really been in a show where we've had people see it more than once. We've got people on their 14th and 15th time, it's incredible how they come back.
As an actor you play to your crowd but it's also important that the audience listen and I've found that they really listen with this show. You can absolutely hear the listening. Some theatres are a little bit rowdier than others, especially on a Friday and Saturday but it's one of those shows that people are coming out of and booking more tickets straight away. So that's a huge compliment to us.
Also, the majority of the audience are in their forties because they grew up with Take That but they're bringing their children and their partners and their mums and dads so it's lovely. The other day there was a lady in the grand circle in her seventies who came out of her seat and she had her arms in the air like everybody else and that's exactly what it's about! Older women have also contacted us to say that we're telling their story, we didn't expect that and the contact we've had from them has been incredible and very heartwarming.
I would love to watch our show (with me in) to see and realise truly the effect it has.
If you had a magic wand, which show would you do next?
It would be one that I've already done and left actually, one of Tim's other shows and hopefully timing will let me do it again and that's This Is My Family. I do still have many roles i’d love to play that remain un-ticked on my bucket list. Some I am now too old to play and therefore will have to remain on the list, and some I’m (surprisingly) still too young to play.. so I live in hope!!
My casting bracket and skill set allows for character roles and I adore these. Complex characters that come with comedy and pathos that an audience member can relate wholeheartedly to... more characters similar to Rachel in The Band, I suppose. But above all, I just want to continue to work at the what I simply adore doing, and that is being out there, on stage, for you guys, 8 shows a week, for as long as I can and as long as audiences want to see me... I truly love my job!
If you could travel back to any era, when would you go to and why?
ohhhhh interesting! I would go back... to the 40s and 50s. Mainly for the beautiful costumes! And the incredible music! There's a tv series called A Place to Call Home that's set in the 50s, it's so beautifully designed and the costumes and cars are so fabulous. I'm just like "yes please, I would like that!"
Finally, what’s your best piece of advice for aspiring performers?
Always put money away for tax! Always take a percentage of your salary each week and put it into an account you can't touch and then you won't be hit with anything you're not prepared for!
I wholly believe that if your heart says you want to do it then do it. It's not an easy career, I mean, for me to be in this envious position of having a role written with me in mind to play it, has taken 28 years, so I can only say to anyone: stick at it and always follow your dreams. If you don’t follow them, someone else will!!
Keep at it, you'll get there; there might be different routes you have to take but don't ever take it personally. When you get a no, just move on, it's rarely personal. It's very rarely to do with your own skill and talent, it's just that you're not right.
But if you have a dream, follow it, do your best and put money aside for tax!
A massive thank you to Rachel for taking the time to do this interview. The Band is country touring round the country, tour dates and ticket information can be found here.
Interview by Editor, Olivia Mitchell
photo credit: Matt Crockett
Friday, 24 February 2017
The Girls, Phoenix Theatre | Review
The Girls
Phoenix Theatre
Reviewed on Wednesday 22nd February 2017 by Olivia Mitchell★★★★
I'm going to start off by saying that this musical has flaws but they can be easily overlooked to enjoy this beautifully sweet and touching musical.
The story of The Girls was previously on the West End as a play but this new revival with music by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, has brought new life to it and really given it star treatment. The score is sweet and full of storytelling, although some parts are a little over the top and very "la la la, I'm going to sing a very literal song about my life now" they all work together to produce a lovely piece of theatre. You are sure to leave feeling inspired, joyous and full of laughter.
This show sums up Britishness. There are fetes, tea drinking, fish and chips and of course the typified version of green Yorkshire. The set is cleverly designed by Robert Jones with a mountain of kitchen cupboards creating the vast hills of England's countryside.
Personally I found the first half of the show dragged just a little as I was waiting for the calendar plan to appear which doesn't in fact happen until act two but the initial setting up of the storyline and many relationships is gracefully and tastefully done. Act two is full of laughs and moves at a much quicker pace with us finally seeing the iconic calendar shoot which is done hilariously!
This story is friendship is truly beautiful and is something that is universally relatable. The cast are all equally talented and their performances are refreshing and genuine throughout. The relationship between Annie (Joanna Riding) and Chris (Claire Moore) is especially touching and makes you value and appreciate your friends even more. The whole cast have wonderful chemistry with one another and really seem to enjoy their time performing.
The whole production is filled with light and positivity as well as showing the trials and hardships of life. In a time when it can often seem like women are always bringing each other down, it's lovely to see a show which restores your faith in friendship and sees such a strong group of women holding each other up and working together to create something beautiful. This is a lovely, reflective, heart-warming production which reminds us that there's always light even when we feel as though we're surrounded by darkness.
The Girls is currently playing at the Phoenix Theatre until July 15th 2017
Photo credit: Matt Crockett
The Girls is currently playing at the Phoenix Theatre until July 15th 2017
Photo credit: Matt Crockett
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