Best Of British Musicals Showcase

17/09/14

Today we learnt two songs from Jesus Christ Superstar that will be performed in the JCS section of our Spring Showcase "British Musicals".
JCS is based on the life of Jesus, the music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the book/lyrics by Tim Rice. It first came out as an album in 1970 and was brought on the Broadway stage in 1971 and opened in Sydney, Paris and London the following year.
We learnt an extract from "The Last Supper" and "Hosanna". I am singing with the altos for both songs.

23/09/14

Today we kept on practicing the songs from JCS, we now know "The Last Supper" "Hosanna" & "Simon Zealotes" in which we started to add moves.
We also learnt "The Lambeth Walk" from "Me And My Girl".
"Me And My Girl" is a musical composed by Noel Gay, and the lyrics & book are by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose. The musical opened in 1937 in the west end and is aswell sets in that time. It tells the story of a cockney man who finds out he is the heir to the Earl of Hareford, and therefore finds himself in a whole new world.
M&MG didn't have much success till the show was broadcast live on BBC, two years after its opening, in 1939; it ran for 1,646 performances. The show had two west end revivals (1952,1985), a transfer to Broadway in 1986 and more recently a UK Tour in 2006.

24/09/14

Today we kept on practicing the songs from JCS and started staging Hosanna. We also started learning "What's The Buzz".

29/09/14

Today we spent most of the singing time learning "the temple" which will feature in the JCS section. We also sang Simon Zealotes. During the dance time we kept on practicing the choreography of Simon Zealotes and learnt a bit more of it.

13/09/14

Today we learnt a new song "Radio Ga Ga" from We Will Rock You, that we will perform in the showcase and went through Hosanna & The Lambeth Walk. We also started staging the Lambeth walk. The second years are the cockneys & first years the posh people.
We Will Rock You is a musical based on the band "Queen" 's songs. The lyrics are by Queen and Ben Elton, and book by Ben Elton. The musical opened in 2002 and had a huge success right away. Productions opened all over the world in the following year. The musical is set in a future where everyone thinks & does the same, where humans seems gone & all that seems left are robots and a group of bohemians do whatever they can to bring the world back to life through music. WWRY received many awards, such as a Laurence Olivier award for "most popular show" and whatsonstage.com awards including "best new musical" ; "best actor in a musical" (Tony Vincent as Galileo); "best actress in a musical" (Hannah Jane Fox as Scaramouche) "best supporting actress in a musical" (Sharon D.Clarke as Killer Queen) and "best director" (Christopher Renshaw).

22/10/14

Today we learnt Masquerade from Phantom.
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber which was first performed in 1986. It's based on the french novel "Le fantome de l'Opera" by Gaston Leroux. It opened at Her Majesty's theatre in London and has been running since then.
The story is about a young singer, Christine, falling in love with two men: Raoul, a rich young man who used to be her best friend and call her "Little Lotte"; and the phantom, a disfigured and cruel man who yet seems to become a gent around Christine.
In 2009 "Love Never Dies" opened in London, it tells the end of the story of Christine, Raoul, The phantom and Christine's son: Gustave.

10/11/14

Today we learnt "Revolting children" from Matilda which we will perform at the showcase without the second years. I absolutely love the song, it's fun to sing and it could look really really great if we put some work into it.
We kept on practicing "Masquerade" which is a torture to my voice... Enough said!
During the dance session, the group practiced "Radio Gaga" but I didn't as I won't be dancing for a month. Ugh :-(

Matilda is about a very smart young little girl who goes in an atrocious school, she meets there a teacher she especially likes, Miss Honey, and also a nightmare: Miss Trunchbull.
Matilda is based on the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. The music & lyrics are written by Tim Minchin, the book is by Dennis Kelly. The first production opened in Stratford Upon Avon in 2010, following an opening in the West End the next year, Broadway in 2013 and a coming production in Australia (2015).

Matilda has had a huge success when it opened and keeps filling the theatres of Broadway & the West End. The musical was nominated and won a lot of awards such as Best Musical, Best
performance for Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull (Theatre Awards UK), Best Musical, Best West End Musical (whatsonstage.com Awards), 7 Olivier Awards including Best New Musical, Best Actor (Bertie Carvel), Best Actress (Matildas), Best Director and 5 Tony Awards including Tony Award for excellence in theatre.

04/12/14

Rehearsals for the best of british musical showcase are going well. Today o class leant a new opening number from "me an my girl", we started the dance choreography which I remember well so far. I'm looking forward to dancing properly again so I can make better moves and actually look like something.

08/12/14

Today we started to learn the choreography of We Will Rock You and revised Radio Gaga. I'm re-starting to dance without the arms moves.

12/01/15

The rehearsals are going well, we have almost finished every number. We have a few numbers such as me and my girl and the rum tum tugger from Cats.
I feel confident on the singing but I need to improve the dance, especially Radio Gaga.