2,761 posts
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Post by n1david on Sept 3, 2017 12:41:05 GMT
Spotted on my listings site:
ARTS: Imagine...
On: BBC 1 HD
Date: Monday 11th September 2017 (starting in 8 days)
Time: 22:45 to 00:15 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)
Cameron Mackintosh: The Musical Man.
Sir Cameron Mackintosh was once a theatre stagehand on Drury Lane and is now a musical theatre impresario, with a career spanning 50 years and a catalogue of musical theatre hits to his name - including Cats, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon, and he is now about to launch the US hit musical Hamilton in London. Alan Yentob meets Cameron Mackintosh to discover how a timber merchant's son with a passion for song and dance, an abundance of ambition and a keen eye for detail became the most successful man in the musical theatre business and in the process changed the face and sound of musical theatre across the globe.
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Post by SamB (was badoerfan) on Sept 3, 2017 14:31:13 GMT
Thanks for this! TiVo set.
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1,119 posts
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Post by martin1965 on Sept 3, 2017 15:58:13 GMT
Thanx,makes a change for Yentob to do a programme about someone youve actually heard of😊
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Post by danb on Sept 4, 2017 14:38:51 GMT
That explains a few casting choices over the years... Saucer of milk to the simian! 😂 |
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8,155 posts
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Post by alece10 on Sept 11, 2017 18:31:25 GMT
Just had a feature on the programme on The One Show and a mention that Hamilton opening is delayed.
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4,211 posts
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Post by anthony40 on Sept 11, 2017 18:39:28 GMT
Just had a feature on the programme on The One Show and a mention that Hamilton opening is delayed. Yeah, just saw that. Will have to watch this on catch up. |
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Post by firefingers on Sept 11, 2017 23:29:49 GMT
Well put together doc, glad it shows what a rude control freak he often is. Don't know why anyone would direct for him, he clearly wants that job for himself.
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7,183 posts
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Post by Jon on Sept 12, 2017 0:13:10 GMT
Well put together doc, glad it shows what a rude control freak he often is. Don't know why anyone would direct for him, he clearly wants that job for himself. I remember seeing a documentary about the making of Barnum at Chichester which showed him at loggerheads with Timothy Sheader. I'm assuming people like Laurence Connor are cheaper and easier to boss around hence why they are firm favourites with him, |
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Post by anthony40 on Sept 12, 2017 5:26:46 GMT
I saw that documentary
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Post by hulmeman on Sept 12, 2017 6:23:33 GMT
I watched Imagine last night, and I'm sure it was an old programme "topped and tailed" by Images of "Half a sixpence". I've certainly seen most of it before.
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617 posts
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Post by loureviews on Sept 12, 2017 6:36:08 GMT
I felt the same. Seemed recycled. A Cam Mack anecdote. Years ago when Les Mis and Phantom had long residences at the Palace Manchester my mum phoned up to book tix - pre-internet! - and chatted to a nice man there. He was so helpful she asked his name and he introduced himself as 'Mr Mackintosh' with a giggle, admitting that yes, it was he. So funny and she's never forgotten it. My husband and I also saw him at the RAH after the Chess concert, although it was spoiled a bit by the OH saying just that bit too loud, 'Isn't that Christopher Biggins?'  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2017 12:58:12 GMT
I watched Imagine last night, and I'm sure it was an old programme "topped and tailed" by Images of "Half a sixpence". I've certainly seen most of it before. does occasionally refresh some of its old editions in that "top and tail" way but I've looked back through the list of their shows over the last ten years and I think that last night's was a new one. But of course we'd seen a lot of the archive material previously and the narrative heavily overlapped the recent BBC4 Story of the Musicals. Personally, I was disappointed that the programme concentrated on the glory years, up to Miss Saigon, without any radical reassessment. So it shed no new light and covered no new ground. The Half a Sixpence coda just seemed to serve as an extra illustration. It didn't herald any development in Cameron Mackintosh's career. The overall impressions left by the programme were that Cameron Mackintosh is a shrewd and efficient machine and that his output is of minimal artistic worth. I suppose this came across because there was no real focus on the music, book or lyrics or choreography or design of the shows, but only on their business success in the career of a successful producer. It was a shame that imagine chose not to make a programme about the artistic quality of musical theatre... |
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Post by TallPaul on Sept 12, 2017 13:08:11 GMT
Well put together doc, glad it shows what a rude control freak he often is. Don't know why anyone would direct for him, he clearly wants that job for himself. I remember seeing a documentary about the making of Barnum at Chichester which showed him at loggerheads with Timothy Sheader. I'm assuming people like Laurence Connor are cheaper and easier to boss around hence why they are firm favourites with him, I've racked my brains (okay, I searched on the interweb) and it was a Channel 4 series called The Sound of Musicals, broadcast at the end of 2013. Not to be confused with the BBC 4 series with a similar name. It also had CRH workshopping Happy Days. |
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Post by Kim_Bahorel on Sept 12, 2017 13:33:02 GMT
Well put together doc, glad it shows what a rude control freak he often is. Don't know why anyone would direct for him, he clearly wants that job for himself. I didn't watch the show not even for curiousity sake. But I was told CamMac is very 'hands on' with productions and 'particular' about I guess everything in shows he produces. To be honest it sounds more like he is directing the things or has no trust in directors or actors to convey the piece. I was asked several times in a conversation with an actor which CM had just been to the production the night before. I told them I loved the performance esp one character they did it was funny it was great. They asked me twice in the course of this conversation if I like their performance and thought it was okay. There was very strong emphasis on them saying 'but YOU like it thought?' I was like okay!! |
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Post by wickedgrin on Sept 12, 2017 13:50:57 GMT
I suppose it is a case of "he who pays the piper calls the tune". This certainly happened with Miss Saigon on Broadway originally where he proposed cancelling the show if American Equity did not take Jonathan Price. So ultimately what he says goes - it is HIS production and part of the global success of his shows are them being re-created EXACTLY so audiences see the same show, to the same standard, anywhere in the world. No tatty provincial tours for him!
However, this does stifle creativity, of course, beyond the original production. So a "director" of say "Les Mis" in Korea has to follow the notations of the original creatives EXACTLY. Cameron, after all, will know every lighting cue!
This explains when the last time I saw Les Mis at the Queens Theatre - it was very slick and professional and ran like the machine that it is but the performances reminded me of animatronics!
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Post by abitoftap on Sept 12, 2017 13:52:25 GMT
It does make you wonder whether any major director would want to work with him anymore. Has he got more involved/worse (your choice) over the last few years? I can't imagine Cheek by Jowl/Nicholas Hytner/Trevor Nunn etc allowing him such an input. I wonder if he's still involved with Chichester and how Daniel Evans would cope with him.
Overall I thought the doc was OK. Nothing really new. Didn't really address his more recent stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2017 14:30:26 GMT
It was mainly cobbled together from other sources like the sound of musicals series and les mis, stage by stage video and the heat is on, the making of Miss Saigin.
The only really new parts were the very beginning and the inclusion of his partner, Michael Le Poer Trench, who used to take all the production photos of his shows.
I couldnt decide if the story about Cameron waiting at the airport for him was sweet, or just down right stalker-ish! Still, hes laughing all the way to the bank!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2017 14:39:01 GMT
I couldnt decide if the story about Cameron waiting at the airport for him was sweet, or just down right stalker-ish! I think the latter - The only reason for its inclusion in an arts documentary could be to illustrate the determined way in which the subject operates. The only really new parts were the very beginning and the inclusion of his partner Presumably, the head-to-head conversation with Alan Yentob, presenter-producer, was new? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2017 15:13:34 GMT
Yes the chats with Yentob were new. But even they didnt really reveal anything we hadn't heard before.
Cameron's aged very well, but i bet hes a nightmare to live with!!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Sept 12, 2017 15:27:41 GMT
Every shot of Alan Yentob showed him looking like a silent, surprised dummy. Very odd.
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Post by Jon on Sept 12, 2017 15:35:12 GMT
I suppose it is a case of "he who pays the piper calls the tune". This certainly happened with Miss Saigon on Broadway originally where he proposed cancelling the show if American Equity did not take Jonathan Price. So ultimately what he says goes - it is HIS production and part of the global success of his shows are them being re-created EXACTLY so audiences see the same show, to the same standard, anywhere in the world. No tatty provincial tours for him! However, this does stifle creativity, of course, beyond the original production. So a "director" of say "Les Mis" in Korea has to follow the notations of the original creatives EXACTLY. Cameron, after all, will know every lighting cue! This explains when the last time I saw Les Mis at the Queens Theatre - it was very slick and professional and ran like the machine that it is but the performances reminded me of animatronics! But then you don't run a tight ship, you can end up with a shoddy show and there's nothing worse IMO than a show that looks and feels tired especially if you're paying full whack. There's no denying Cameron can be a bit of a tyrant but I imagine if you're the producer, you have to be when it's investors money and people's jobs on the line if the show is a disaster. |
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Post by Phantom of London on Sept 12, 2017 15:41:30 GMT
It does make you wonder whether any major director would want to work with him anymore. Has he got more involved/worse (your choice) over the last few years? I can't imagine Cheek by Jowl/Nicholas Hytner/Trevor Nunn etc allowing him such an input. I wonder if he's still involved with Chichester and how Daniel Evans would cope with him. Overall I thought the doc was OK. Nothing really new. Didn't really address his more recent stuff. Oh he's has made several directors very rich indeed. |
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Post by Sotongal on Sept 12, 2017 16:23:03 GMT
Every shot of Alan Yentob showed him looking like a silent, surprised dummy. Very odd. Sat behind Yentob in the cinema once, some time ago, at a special screening of the film 'Interstellar' and the woman he was with seemed to be explaining the plot to him all the way through the film. |
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Post by alece10 on Sept 12, 2017 17:54:47 GMT
I enjoyed this and there was certainly some archive footage I had not seen before. Enjoyed the Half a Sixpence bit and seeing Charlie Stemp.
I know Cam was referbishing the Victoria Palace but didn't realise that he was completely ripping the innards out and just leaving 4 walls. Just hope that footage of him in the hard hat was many months ago otherwise we won't be seeing Hamilton for a good few months.
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Post by Jon on Sept 12, 2017 17:59:01 GMT
I enjoyed this and there was certainly some archive footage I had not seen before. Enjoyed the Half a Sixpence bit and seeing Charlie Stemp. I know Cam was referbishing the Victoria Palace but didn't realise that he was completely ripping the innards out and just leaving 4 walls. Just hope that footage of him in the hard hat was many months ago otherwise we won't be seeing Hamilton for a good few months. It's being rebuilt from the ground up apart from the exterior. I imagine a lot of the listed interiors have been stored and will be put back when the theatre is nearly done |
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