Tammy Faye: A New Musical - Almeida

Now confirmed, 13 Oct-3 Dec
Starring Katie Brayben and Andrew Rannells.
Tix on sale 2 Sep Friends, 6 Sep public.

almeida.co.uk/whats-on/tammy-faye/11-oct-2022-3-dec-2022

The real Andrew Randalls?
Always wanted to see him. Has he done anything in UK before?

I hope Elton's music here is much better than what middling fare he cranked out for The Devil Wears Prada.

According to WhatsOnStage it's THE Andrew Rannells.

I'm in.

I don't really know too much about Tammy Fay, other she was the wife of an American Evangelist.

(Don't know why) but in my head, I'm hearing some country tunes?

The trouble with Elton's music is you need a damn good music supervisor to wrangle it into shape.

Very curious about this! There is next to nothing getting me excited in the West End, so I might give this a go!

Elton is very hit and miss as a musical theatre composer. For every Billy Elliot and The Lion King, you get a Lestat and The Devil Wears Prada.

I assume they're hoping for a further life after the Almeida run.

Jim Bakker, it's honestly solid casting, possibly even better than Andrew Garfield who was quite good in that role. 

I notice Amy Booth Steel is in it, I wonder if she might be playing Jessica Hahn?

A cast recording of Lestat was made, but has never been released. Some of it is on YT. The young girl has a great song, called 'i want more' or something similar and Carolee Carmello has a great number too. A lot of it is very dull.

It's hard to create a decent show when Elton just hands you some songs and says here's your musical, like he did with TDWP. He wasn't around for any of the rehearsal or preview period and so no changes could be made. How do you make TDWP and not give Miranda Priestly a decent number that stops the show?

I was sure I’d read something in the run-up to the premiere that stated songs *were* being changed at the last minute in rehearsal, but I can’t find it now so maybe I am misremembering.

But basically it is Shaina Taub in charge of what the songs are actually about, as the lyricist and the one working closely with the book writer. She has been taking clutches of lyrics into the studio for Elton to set to music after they she and the book writer worked out what the songs need to do dramatically.

Elton didn’t hand over a clutch of songs and say ‘here you go make a musical from this’. It’s been back and forth over the years.

The more I read from TDWP creatives the more I think the problem is the attempt to update it to present day. The magazine industry just isn’t what it was in the 90s, in terms of money and influence, and the fashion industry at least pays lip service to body positivity and diversity. If you’re writing based on the industry now and not the insanity of what it was like back then you’re just not going to get the bite of the original.

The book has been re-written since the songs were written and the songs have barely changed and no new ones have been put into the show. They might have changed some lyrics but it's still the the songs from the demo. A melody doesnt fit every situation.

After the reviews it received in the press and from comments from people on the production, the show isn't going anywhere near Broadway for a very long time.