19,670 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 1, 2020 19:13:34 GMT
Sound quality is a bit rubbish isn’t it?
I liked Antonio Banderas as Phantom, did he ever play it on stage? And who was that singing Jesus?
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Post by jaqs on May 1, 2020 19:19:36 GMT
RAH is always a bit ropey for sound.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2020 19:26:58 GMT
Sound quality is a bit rubbish isn’t it? I liked Antonio Banderas as Phantom, did he ever play it on stage? And who was that singing Jesus? Jesus was Michael Ball. Do you mean Judas? Marcus Lovett who was about to be The Man in the original Whistle. |
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2020 19:28:59 GMT
All rather enjoyable so far; must be years since I've seen this.
Particularly enjoyed Bonnie Tyler's seminal version of Tyre Tracks and Broken Hearts.
Fully choreographed full on camp soft rock fabulousness - what's not to love?!
She should have sung it at Eurovision....
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2020 19:31:11 GMT
Lottie Mayor sings the title song from Whistle Down The Wind. She sings it beautifully. It a shame she didnt have a bigger career.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2020 19:34:00 GMT
We are long overdue a quality West End revival of Whistle Down The Wind really. Some fantastic melodies.
The original version was fabulous. The Kenwright version, less so....
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8,103 posts
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Post by alece10 on May 1, 2020 19:46:51 GMT
Really enjoying this even with toothache.
Glen Close is the star so far.
I remember seeing it years ago. Recordings have improved so much more recently with HD.
Is it just me or does Sarah Brightman have bad diction when she sings?
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19,670 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 1, 2020 19:46:52 GMT
Glenn though... 😍
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2020 20:06:21 GMT
Lottie Mayor sings the title song from Whistle Down The Wind. She sings it beautifully. It a shame she didnt have a bigger career. She does have a gorgeous clean voice. What happened to her after Whistle? I never heard of her again.... |
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Post by longinthetooth on May 1, 2020 21:06:50 GMT
Watching this, and hearing those glorious melodies, has reminded me just how much I am missing my shows. One day .....
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Post by londonmzfitz on May 1, 2020 21:32:52 GMT
Love me a bit of Donny Osmond. Glenn Close - how thrilling! So glad I saw her a couple of years ago at The Colosseum. Antonio Banderas phwoor (is phwoor allowed or am I very un-pc). Enjoyed so much of that tonight.
Keep thinking how the argument for funding the Arts, music and drama in schools, has been proven by this lockdown, it's music and theatre people are turning to.
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Post by johartuk on May 1, 2020 23:18:59 GMT
I enjoyed that. Some top notch performers (loved Antonio Banderas and Glenn Close in particular) and some great music!
I couldn't get over how young Michael Ball looked, and ALW!
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609 posts
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Post by chernjam on May 2, 2020 4:08:25 GMT
Lots of memories here... This came out in summer 1998, early days of internet purchasing - I think I had to pay for it as an import and have it transferred to make it compatible for U.S. VHS tape. It was shipped to my graduate school apartment. I had just gotten diagnosed with the chicken pox (about 24 hours before I was going to be completely miserable) so I raced to get this from my apartment and went back to my parents home to convalesce.
That concert certainly made being stuck sick at home much more bearable. I must've rewatched it a dozen times. Particularly since we finally were getting to hear any of the new music from Whistle Down the Wind which had shuttered in Washington DC before it was supposed to have come up to NY.
I was blown away by the music from Whistle and thought the American story and a very unique and beautiful twist on a redemption themed story was perfectly suited for us. I remember reading that ALW regretted not sticking with the Hal Prince version and taking it to NY (but that was when RUG was imploding with Sunset closing everywhere pretty much at the same time) anyway - sorry. I have A.D.D. so it's easy for me to go all over the place.
But Whistle - I mean the "cover" album which had a host of notable names singing at least a dozen songs from Whistle Down the Wind was a favorite of mine for a long time (got to go dig that out tomorrow). And yes Dom - you're spot on, Bonnie Tyler was phenomenal in Tire Tracks and Broken hearts. Boyzone sadly was pretty unknown here in the states so "No Matter What" never got air play here. Had it been Backstreet Boys or NSync it would've easily topped here as well.
How or why they weren't able to translate that score to stage more effectively is a mystery.
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Post by chernjam on May 2, 2020 4:20:52 GMT
btw - didn't this air in the UK the night before Whistle's box office opened or something? I remember thinking this was the greatest commercial for a show about to open... Between Tina Arena opening it with her amazing version of the title song to Lottie Mayor closing it with that - doubt many people were able to get it out of their heads that night
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2020 16:15:56 GMT
I liked Antonio Banderas as Phantom, did he ever play it on stage? No, but at the time he was rumoured to be the favourite for the film version of Phantom.
He staged an excellent Spanish-language production of A Chorus Line in his new theatre in Malaga at the end of last year, where he played Zach. He was in talks to take the production to The Public Theatre in New York after it's Spanish run, but I suppose that's on hold for the time being.
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Post by 141920grm on May 3, 2020 12:15:27 GMT
How many pro-shots left do ALW & co have up their sleeve, before they have no choice but to trot out something that hasn't already been commercially released before? Obviously I'm hoping for some non-25th anniversary, proper stage Phantom, but literally anything else would be unexpected and nice.
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3,427 posts
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Post by ceebee on May 3, 2020 13:04:39 GMT
Love me a bit of Donny Osmond. Glenn Close - how thrilling! So glad I saw her a couple of years ago at The Colosseum. Antonio Banderas phwoor (is phwoor allowed or am I very un-pc). Enjoyed so much of that tonight. Keep thinking how the argument for funding the Arts, music and drama in schools, has been proven by this lockdown, it's music and theatre people are turning to. Glenn Close blew my mind at the ENO for Sunset Boulevard. So lovely to see her again. As for Antonio Banderas, given that my two daughters went very quiet I'd say they concur with your un-pc phwoaring. That said, speaking as a straight guy, I totally understand the allure of him for others (male or female). I just wish people would stop confusing me with him in the street. :-) |
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Post by steve10086 on May 3, 2020 14:32:13 GMT
Absolutely loved watching this concert again today. Still the best musical theatre concert I’ve ever been to.
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Post by theatremadness on May 3, 2020 16:54:24 GMT
Yeah absolutely loved watching this concert, never seen it in full before! What a brilliant event and some fantastic names. Glenn Close was the absolute stand-out for me. I wondered why they didn't get any Phantom involved, not even to sing the title track or Music of the Night. But not that important. Fascinating to see Dame Kiri sing what would become Love Never Dies. I always thought it was written for The Beautiful Game as Our Kind of Love then recycled for LND, but after some research I discovered that it was originally written in the 90's as The Heart is Slow to Learn, intended for a sequel to Phantom. Then it got used for Beautiful Game before finally ending up as LND, being used as was originally intended. What a strange life that song has had!
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Post by chernjam on May 4, 2020 4:31:40 GMT
Yeah absolutely loved watching this concert, never seen it in full before! What a brilliant event and some fantastic names. Glenn Close was the absolute stand-out for me. I wondered why they didn't get any Phantom involved, not even to sing the title track or Music of the Night. But not that important. Fascinating to see Dame Kiri sing what would become Love Never Dies. I always thought it was written for The Beautiful Game as Our Kind of Love then recycled for LND, but after some research I discovered that it was originally written in the 90's as The Heart is Slow to Learn, intended for a sequel to Phantom. Then it got used for Beautiful Game before finally ending up as LND, being used as was originally intended. What a strange life that song has had! Yeah it was interesting at the time when the song was premiered for a possible sequel to Phantom. When "The Beautiful Game" came out and it had made it into that, it seemed that the sequel was indeed dead. But as Steve10086 can tell you, not only does Love never die, but ALW's recycling of his own music doesn't either. I remember getting the album for LND not realizing that he had indeed excised it from The Beautiful Game (or is it still called "the boys in the photograph"? ) and put it back in... ALW get's a bum rap for these sorts of things - but at this point, who cares. He really has nothing left to prove. And I just love seeing his casual, fun side with all his online videos during all this. It's been a great follow up after seeing "Unmasked" a few months ago. Who knew that would be the last live theatre I'd be seeing for some time. Oh (sorry full A.D.D. mode here) while we're talking about it, could there have been worse lyrics then "The heart is slow to learn"? It's like Don Black really didn't give a crap "but then as I have said, the heart, is slow to learn..." Yikes |
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Post by longinthetooth on May 4, 2020 13:24:49 GMT
'By Jeeves' this week, apparently.
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Post by johartuk on May 4, 2020 14:56:40 GMT
'By Jeeves' this week, apparently. Interesting. I look forward to seeing that, being 'new' to it. |
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2020 15:32:48 GMT
By Jeeves by no means a bad piece, but something of a hard sell to the masses after such a solid gold crowd pleaser last week I'd say.
It has very long spoken sections and is basically a rather quaint small play with the occasional song.
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Post by westlondon on May 4, 2020 16:00:21 GMT
By Jeeves by no means a bad piece, but something of a hard sell to the masses after such a solid gold crowd pleaser last week I'd say. It has very long spoken sections and is basically a rather quaint small play with the occasional song. As you say, I’m sure it won’t be as popular with the masses but I do think it’s a lovely show with some really fun songs. That Was Nearly Us, Travel Hopefully and Half A Moment are all lovely. The book is still a bit all over the place but If you can deal with the fact it’s not one of the big epic ALW shows you’ll probably enjoy it. |
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2020 16:03:10 GMT
By Jeeves by no means a bad piece, but something of a hard sell to the masses after such a solid gold crowd pleaser last week I'd say. It has very long spoken sections and is basically a rather quaint small play with the occasional song. As you say, I’m sure it won’t be as popular with the masses but I do think it’s a lovely show with some really fun songs. That Was Nearly Us, Travel Hopefully and Half A Moment are all lovely. The book is still a bit all over the place but If you can deal with the fact it’s not one of the big epic ALW shows you’ll probably enjoy it. Oh I really agree - when the CD came out in the 90s I literally wore it out. Some really lovely melodies in it. But yes the book is a bit bonkers. What I also like about it is it shows that ALW can write really simple but lovely stand alone songs - in that era we were more used to him weaving melodies in and out to make complete 'acts.' Which of course I loved, but nice to see versatility! |
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