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Post by crabtree on Aug 29, 2024 13:25:32 GMT
Three o'clock in the morning is when I usually am fretting about bizarre things, and this morning it was how many of Dickens's book have been musicalised - over to you. These are the ones I have seen but there may have been more. Any operas?
Oliver!
Smike ( from Nickelby)
Hard times
Great Expectations
Mystery of Edwin drood - love this so much.
Christmas Carol
Tale of Two cities - though I have no memory of this at all.
Pickwick
surely there's a Copperfield?
This was prompted by catching the film the other night. Oh my those monumental sets. Only just noticed the full scale barge sailing by at one point. And am intrigued how they turned the train round.
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Post by cavocado on Aug 29, 2024 13:29:52 GMT
Does London Tide count as a musical, or a play with some (rather dreary) songs?
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Post by Talisman on Aug 29, 2024 13:34:11 GMT
Woman in white has nod towards The Signalman. Feasible as Collins and Dickens were associates.
Yes,this is very tenuous!
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Post by Talisman on Aug 29, 2024 13:35:57 GMT
We could have Barnaby Rudge as English Miserables.
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Post by SilverFox on Aug 29, 2024 14:25:22 GMT
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (RSC at the Aldwych) had quite a lot of music written for it (by Stephen Oliver) with a cd of the music issued. Not quite a musical perhaps.
There was also London Tide this year based on Our Mutual Friend adapted by Ben Power with songs by PJ Harvey and Ben Power
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Post by crabtree on Aug 29, 2024 14:49:17 GMT
Interesting. I'd love to see a revival of Drood. Such a ravishing score and great fun for the cast and audience
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Post by thedrowsychaperone on Aug 29, 2024 15:06:19 GMT
I directed an amateur production of Drood straight out of lockdown and it was absolutely joyous! Amazed it's not done more often, especially as panto and music hall are second-nature to us!
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Post by marob on Aug 29, 2024 15:11:56 GMT
I’m pretty sure the first time I ever went to the theatre was a school trip to see the Great Expectations musical at Theatr Clwyd. I was in what’s now year 4, so must have been 8 or 9? I remember being freaked out by the fire, but I’m sure it was just flashing lights and a lot of theatrical smoke. Keep meaning to listen to the recording as 30-odd years later I’ve still got the “great expectations are mine” bit in my head.
Funny it appears to have starred Darren Day, as he’s someone I’m only really familiar with as a TV personality and later tabloid fodder.
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Post by Talisman on Aug 29, 2024 15:33:02 GMT
Interesting. I'd love to see a revival of Drood. Such a ravishing score and great fun for the cast and audience It has potential to be a fun show but the only production I have seen was a couple of years ago and was not well cast A professional revival seems unlikely but one can hope. |
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Post by alicechallice on Aug 29, 2024 15:52:24 GMT
I remember Two Cities in the 60s at the Palace Theatre starring Edward Woodward (who said his name sounds like a fart in the bath?) but didn't realise it was written by Jeff (War of the Worlds) Wayne. FYI It only ran a couple of months.The Palace had a terrible run of musicals in the 60s/70s. There was also an even newer musical of A Tale of Two Cities which played on Broadway in the late 00's - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities_(musical)Randomly, they came over to Theatre Royal Brighton to make a filmed version the year after. |
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Post by sf on Aug 29, 2024 16:16:03 GMT
I remember Two Cities in the 60s at the Palace Theatre starring Edward Woodward (who said his name sounds like a fart in the bath? was it Coward?) but didn't realise it was written by Jeff (War of the Worlds) Wayne. FYI It only ran a couple of months.The Palace had a terrible run of musicals in the 60s/70s. The cast recording is worth tracking down. Not everything in the score works, and there are a couple of real stinkers in there, but the best things in it are very, very good indeed. Woodward is a better-than-decent singer, and Kevin Colson and Elizabeth Power are both superb. |
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Post by crabtree on Aug 29, 2024 16:38:34 GMT
I'm trying to remember who did it, the night i saw Drood. A wonderful score.
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Post by carriesparkle on Aug 29, 2024 17:57:27 GMT
I remember Two Cities in the 60s at the Palace Theatre starring Edward Woodward (who said his name sounds like a fart in the bath?) but didn't realise it was written by Jeff (War of the Worlds) Wayne. FYI It only ran a couple of months.The Palace had a terrible run of musicals in the 60s/70s. There was also an even newer musical of A Tale of Two Cities which played on Broadway in the late 00's - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities_(musical)Randomly, they came over to Theatre Royal Brighton to make a filmed version the year after. I was about to mention this! I saw this show before I knew anything about James Barbour, who sang beautifully. |
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Post by adamkinsey on Aug 29, 2024 18:49:21 GMT
Bloody love The Mystery of Edwin Drood, such a fun show. Moonfall is one the best relatively unknown soprano songs in musical theatre.
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Post by max on Aug 29, 2024 19:42:40 GMT
HARD TIMES. In addition to the Christopher Tookey/Hugh Thomas version (West End 2000) with Roy Hudd, Brian Blessed & Susan Jane Tanner there was another more recent version. I saw it in a workshop production at the Royal Academy in 2021. Book by John Caird & Ranjit Bolt (Caird also directed the workshop), Lyrics by Ranjit Bolt, music by John Cameron - film/tv composer, arranger, and orchestra, most famous in theatre for the orchestration of Boublil/Schoenberg's 'Les Miserables'.
I didn't hear that it went anywhere after the workshop. I remember thinking it needed some stylistic organising principle to wrap around it, and only afterwards saw that's what the 2000 other version had done (with music hall elements) - perhaps that put them off going down the same route.
EDIT: I've just seen John Caird's website says: "This is a very fine musical theatre adaptation of Dickens’ novel Hard Times that has never been produced. It is crying out for some enterprising theatre Producer or Artistic Director to give it its world première performance".
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Post by theatrenerd on Aug 29, 2024 20:39:42 GMT
Of course A Christmas Carol could probably have it’s own thread with the number of musicals it has spawned, however the 3 original musicals (so not including the Old Vic and RSC as they primarily contain pre-existing carols) that come to mind are Leslie Bricusse’s version (Scrooge), Alan Menken’s and also it may be classed as a play with songs, but I often still find myself humming tunes from Bryony Lavery’s adaptation with songs by Jason Carr.
As I say, the list probably doesn’t end there though.
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Post by danb on Aug 29, 2024 21:46:44 GMT
Bloody love The Mystery of Edwin Drood, such a fun show. Moonfall is one the best relatively unknown soprano songs in musical theatre. Didn’t read this properly and thought someone was making a musical out of the execrable disaster flick ‘Moonfall’. |
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 29, 2024 22:35:59 GMT
I’m pretty sure the first time I ever went to the theatre was a school trip to see the Great Expectations musical at Theatr Clwyd. I was in what’s now year 4, so must have been 8 or 9? I remember being freaked out by the fire, but I’m sure it was just flashing lights and a lot of theatrical smoke. Keep meaning to listen to the recording as 30-odd years later I’ve still got the “great expectations are mine” bit in my head. Funny it appears to have starred Darren Day, as he’s someone I’m only really familiar with as a TV personality and later tabloid fodder. I saw Great Expectations The Musical in 2012 in Birmingham ("prior to the west end" according to the YouTube video). If I remember, it was dire, and I don't remember Darren Day. But I suspect that many of these books have had multiple versions of musicals written about them. They're popular and out of copyright. |
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Post by marob on Aug 29, 2024 22:49:12 GMT
I’m pretty sure the first time I ever went to the theatre was a school trip to see the Great Expectations musical at Theatr Clwyd. I was in what’s now year 4, so must have been 8 or 9? I remember being freaked out by the fire, but I’m sure it was just flashing lights and a lot of theatrical smoke. Keep meaning to listen to the recording as 30-odd years later I’ve still got the “great expectations are mine” bit in my head. Funny it appears to have starred Darren Day, as he’s someone I’m only really familiar with as a TV personality and later tabloid fodder. I saw Great Expectations The Musical in 2012 in Birmingham ("prior to the west end" according to the YouTube video). If I remember, it was dire, and I don't remember Darren Day. But I suspect that many of these books have had multiple versions of musicals written about them. They're popular and out of copyright. No, one I saw would have been in the early 90s. |
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Post by chadexx on Aug 30, 2024 5:25:00 GMT
Was there a version of A Christmas Carol which used well-known carols as the musical element. It had success at one of the London fringe tHeatres (The kings head?)
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Post by jasper on Aug 30, 2024 17:24:40 GMT
There was a musical of Nicholas Nickleby called Nickleby and Me by Ned Sherrin and Caryl Brahms. I saw it at Chichester one Christmas. Cannot remember the date, but I think it was in the 80s.
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