November 2009 Archives

With Christmas just round the corner, theatreland’s annual celebratory concert, Christmas in New York, descends upon the Prince of Wales Theatre on Sunday, December 6.

This year, the Notes from New York team behind the concerts have also released a CD featuring performances by Julie Atherton, Daniel Boys, Leanne Jones, Hannah Waddingham, Louise Dearman, Ashleigh Gray, Paul Spicer, Oliver Tompsett, Samuel Barnett and Anna-Jane Casey.

Scott Matthewman met performers Julie Atherton and Paul Spicer - who is also producer and creative director of Christmas in New York - to talk about the CD and concert, as well as some of the other issues facing West End performers today.

• Buy tickets for Christmas in New York from http://www.christmasinnewyork.co.uk

• The CD is available online from Amaaon.co.uk or from Dress Circle

To listen to the podcast:

The preferred way to listen to the podcast is through iTunes. If you subscribe to the podcast series in iTunes, then not only will you get this edition of the podcast, but you will automatically receive further editions, for free, as they are released. The iTunes edition of the podcast also has additional photography and chapter marks for easier navigation.

• Listen and subscribe now in iTunes (recommended)

A lower quality MP3 version can be played below:

While Doctor Who may currently be one of the BBC’s most popular dramas, that wasn’t always the case. In the mid to late 1980s it was always skirting with cancellation. When BBC1 controller Michael Grade needed to find the money in his drama budget to launch EastEnders, Doctor Who was one of the places where he made his cuts.

Though the series would return in 1986, the previous year’s season was cancelled, with several scripts either fully written or at the commissioning and/or planning stages.

Now, indie drama company Big Finish, which has been producing licensed Doctor Who audio dramas for over a decade, has adapted the episodes from the lost season into a series of audio dramas. The first, The NIghtmare Fair, is released later this month. Originally written by Graham Williams, it would have seen the Doctor (Colin Baker) and his companion Peri (Nicola Bryant) holidaying in Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Scott Matthewman visited the West London recording studios to talk to Baker, Bryant and director John Ainsworth, who also adapted Williams’s teleplay for audio.

• Doctor Who: The Lost Stories on bigfinish.com
• Buy The Nightmare Fair
• Pre-order Doctor Who: The Complete Specials Box Set, which includes last week’s episode The Waters of Mars, due for release in January 2010

To listen to the podcast:

The preferred way to listen to the podcast is through iTunes. If you subscribe to the podcast series in iTunes, then not only will you get this edition of the podcast, but you will automatically receive further editions, for free, as they are released. The iTunes edition of the podcast also has additional photography and chapter marks for easier navigation.

• Listen and subscribe now in iTunes (recommended)

A lower quality MP3 version can be played below:

From Just So to Honk! and the additional songs for the stage adaptation of Mary Poppins, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe have over the last 25 years established themselves at the forefront of new musical theatre writing.

Their recent version of Peter Pan the Musical, with book by the late Willis Hall, as produced by Birmingham Repertory Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse, has now been released on CD. They talk to Scott Matthewman about how the musical developed from its early days as a BBC radio concert, to the Royal Festival Hall and beyond.

Also under discussion come the recent changes made to the Broadway version of Mary Poppins (with the song Temper, Temper being replaced by Playing The Game), their new projects (adaptations of the movies A Private Function and Soapdish) and how events have overtaken the development of original musical Soho Cinders.

The podcast includes extracts from both the original cast recording of Peter Pan and the CD of 2008’s gala concert, A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe. Both are available to buy from Dress Circle using the links below:

• Buy Peter Pan for £14.99
• Buy A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe for £12.99

To listen to the podcast:

The preferred way to listen to the podcast is through iTunes. If you subscribe to the podcast series in iTunes, then not only will you get this edition of the podcast, but you will automatically receive further editions, for free, as they are released. The iTunes edition of the podcast also has additional photography and chapter marks for easier navigation.

• Listen and subscribe now in iTunes (recommended)

A lower quality MP3 version can be played below:

After a series of well-received roles in films including Shooting Dogs and Children of Men, actress Clare-Hope Ashitey is now making her stage debut in Bryony Lavery’s Origin of the Species at the Arcola, London, opposite Marjorie Yates.

She talks to Maria Hodson about the route she took to get to this point in her career, and the importance of theatre work for young actors.

• The Stage’s review: Origin of the Species

To listen to the podcast:

The preferred way to listen to the podcast is through iTunes. If you subscribe to the podcast series in iTunes, then not only will you get this edition of the podcast, but you will automatically receive further editions, for free, as they are released. The iTunes edition of the podcast also has additional photography and chapter marks for easier navigation.

• Listen and subscribe now in iTunes (recommended)

A lower quality MP3 version can be played below: