Practically perfect

I was so happy that Madam Acarti and I managed to get tickets for the last of the series of These are a Few of My Favourite Songs interviews at the Jermyn Street Theatre last night! The evening with Craig Revel Horwood was fab, and last night it was the turn of musical theatre wunderkinds Stiles and Drewe (whose wonderful show Betty Blue Eyes we went to see in March).

The boys, introduced by critic and host Mark Shenton, explained that theirs was to be a musical evening with a difference, for - as possibly one of the unluckiest musical writing duos in the biz - they have written a lot of shows and tunes that the majority of West End theatre-goers may never have seen or heard, and that was what they wanted to showcase.

Unlucky, I say? The duo behind the mega-successful Mary Poppins revival and the darlings of Cameron Mackintosh, unlucky? surely not... However, as they explained the machinations of dealing with capricious theatre impresarios and Hollywood executives, it became clear that it is indeed a rocky road to the top. Their musical adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Just So stories being a prime example.



Just So is a show that the boys wrote way back in the 1980s when they first met at Exeter College (they have apparently been together for 26 years - awww), and despite support from Mr Mackintosh (and at one stage even an animated movie planned by Stephen Spielberg), there has never been a major theatrical production outside repertory venues such as Newbury's Watermill Theatre in the UK and various small theatres in the US). The cartoon never got made either.

They also (unsuccessfully) submitted songs for several Disney movies, and recently wrote some for the West End production of Ghost - but in a twist of the proverbial knife lost to the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart when the producers told him to go away and re-write his original score "in the style of Stiles and Drewe". Shocking.



Thankfully they have contributed (as individuals as well as a duo) to some far more successful productions, including their classic Honk! (based on the ugly duckling story, it has actually entered the curriculum in several educational establishments for its anti-discrimination message!), Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure, and their work with Dame Edna Everage.

It is of course the aforementioned re-write of Mary Poppins for the musical stage that brought them their biggest accolades so far, and together with singer Caroline Sheen they performed Practically Perfect (the boys played the children's roles):

Practically Perfect

In their long musical career, George and Anthony have not just produced music for other people. They have also turned their estimable talents to cabaret (rather in the style of Flanders and Swann, about whom Anthony hinted they may be writing a new show). They performed this delightful number for us:

Stiles and Drew at Dress Circle, 4 June 2011

In a brilliant cabaret moment, Mr Stiles shared another of his projects with us - a planned musical adaptation of Dame Julie Andrews' book The Great American Mousical, and sang for us one of the numbers in the role of "Adelaide the Mouse", who sounded suspiciously like Carol Channing - it was hilarious! [No video is available, unfortunately.]

Their newest project is Soho Cinders, which (despite not being about the life of the late David "Sinders" Morley), sounds intriguing. From their website :

Stiles and Drewe are about to embark on that very rare thing, an original musical.

It's called SOHO CINDERS and if you were read that there is a song in it called I'm SO OVER MEN it might give you a slight indication of where this show goes...

Rounding off with some of the background to the newest Cameron Mackintosh collaboration Betty Blue Eyes, and concluding with an explanation of just why in the scheme of things they had to perform their own numbers rather than choose from their pantheon of showbiz idols - Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim et al - as this would have taken far longer than this evening could possibly accommodate, the boys received resounding applause. And that was it for the theatrical memory-lane series. I hope there is another.

All in all, this was another splendid evening with a couple of charming theatrical queens - we loved it!

Stiles and Drewe official website

"Three words: Fab - u - lous!"

The lovely Russ got tickets for an unusual and very entertaining little event last night! Part of a series called These Are a Few of My Favourite Songs, which is on every evening this week at the Jermyn Street Theatre, basically the concept is music critic Mark Shenton interviewing guests from Theatreland about their favourite songs (and it is all in aid of supporting the Theatrical Guild). Guests include Bill Kenwright (tonight), Nicholas Hytner, Janie Dee, Sylvia Young and Styles and Drewe - a great line-up!



Last night it was the turn of Craig Revel Horwood. Now, as any of my regular readers will know I am no fan of "reality TV", talent shows or "celebrity" whatevers, so Mr Revell Horwood and his participation in Strictly Come Dancing had completely passed me by - a very good thing, as I had no expectations whatsoever of what the evening would consist of. But what a joy he turned out to be.

One of the campest things on two legs, the ebullient performer arrived on stage in a pink sequinned jacket to die for, and, after a few introductions and some background to his life, proceeded to perform one of his old audition numbers (for the first time in fifteen years apparently) - The Greatest Love Of All. It is a truly awful song, but at least he knew how to inject a little pizazz into it - Mr Revel Horwood used to be a drag queen known as "Lavish" (christened such by none other than Danny LaRue!), after all...

With amazing candidness, "dahling", he let us into all sorts of anecdotes about his childhood and his desperate desire to escape backwoods Australia (first as a musical prodigy, then by becoming a minor chef, a cable puller in a TV studio, and finally a dancer) and his domineering seafaring father (which meant he never had a permanent home for many years); about his teenage years as the "kept boy" of an (as yet) unnamed TV personality; his ill-fated marriage to a woman; and his early entry into showbiz.

Mr Shenton managed to tease some fabulous gossip out of him - such as the individual who was sacked from Miss Saigon because of lascivious and drunken behaviour (which provided an inroad for Mr Revel Horwood into the show), the disaster that was The Beautiful and the Damned, the trials and tribulations of working with everyone from Darren Day to theatre impresario Susan Stroman, and the back (and front) stage conflicts on Strictly.

On his time as a so-called "rent-boy", he certainly seemed to have no regrets: "It was the best thing that ever happened to me. He took me to the opening of Cats in New York; and Dream Girls had just opened on Broadway. I saw very clearly that I wanted to do that, that I wanted to be part of that life, and I'd do anything to get it."

He let us into stories about his worldwide productions, including (among many, many others) Spend, Spend, Spend, Sunset Boulevard, My One And Only (which we went to see in 2002), Hot Mikado, Hans Christian Anderson, Crazy for You, and one of which he was most proud (and proved another in a long line of learning curves in his career) - choreographing the Ballet Boyz in a tango Yumba vs Nonino, originally done in concert when two maestros of the genre Osvaldo Pugliese and Astor Piazzolla did virtual "battle" with their orchestras:

Osvaldo Pugliese vs Astor Piazzolla

Among the other songs he chose were Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, and something by a bizarre Aussie (I think) evangelist singer - "It taught me all about key changes, daahlings". Songs from shows in which he was directly involved - I'd Give My Life for You from the aforementioned Miss Saigon, and Someone Else's Story from Chess (the currently touring version of which is one of his "babies") - were sung by Caroline Sheen, accompanied by pianist Ben Stock.

He even revealed (and he would know, just having researched and produced a show called Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show, a musical based on the title of Neil Diamond's controversial fourth album of the same name which upset US evangelists) that originally Mr Diamond's famous tear-jerker Love On The Rocks began life as a bluegrass number called Scotch On The Rocks - but the producers made him re-write it, and the rest is history.

But campest by far was this number. It was not about the song at all - we all love Bette Midler's When A Man Loves A Woman from The Rose, after all - but the monologue with which she introduces it. For apparently, a very young Mr Revel Horwood proudly stood up in front of his English class in roughneck Ballarat, Victoria and recited the whole thing off pat - much to the astonishment of his sporty compatriots! He mouthed every word again last night, much to our delight:

Bette Midler - The Rose monologue

I loved this evening - and only wish I could get tickets for any of the other interviews this week!

These Are A Few of My Favourite Songs

The conversation last night was recorded and will be available to hear on Theatrevoice in due course.

Craig Revel Horwood's Chess is on tour now, and his new show with the Ballet Boyz Flamenco Flamen'ka opens at the Lyric Theatre in London on Thursday, 18 September.

Craig Revel Horwood official website

All Balls and Glitter, Mr Revel Horwood's autobiography is out now!

A feast of Divas

We went to see the rather faboo Christine Pedi [from Forbidden Broadway] in her one-woman show Great Dames last night, largely on the recommendation of the owner of Dress Circle theatrical music shop [The most homosexual place on earth!], and we weren't disappointed!

A show dedicated to the ladies of the musical stage was almost guaranteed to appeal, of course, but we were thrilled at what a brilliant mimic she is. She opens with the most captivating take on Julie Andrews (a feat that not many impersonators can manage), and isn't afraid to take the mickey (affectionately, of course) out of the great lady's inability to reach the high notes any more. As she sings songs from Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady, Miss Pedi wonders what Ethel Merman, Barbra Streisand and Patti Lupone might do if they were asked to play Eliza Doolittle - and sends them all up hilariously in the process.

Not content with providing us with alternative leading ladies for My Fair Lady, the "fantasy cast lists" get wilder. How about Chicago starring Angela Lansbury? Or maybe Bernadette Peters or Elaine Stritch? Miss Pedi captures the particular nuances of all these ladies with hilarious and sometimes cruelly accurate imitations.

Barbra Streisand (over)doing I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts? Brilliant! Carol Channing, Eartha Kitt, Joan Rivers? She does them all...

The show has some interludes of Miss Pedi singing classics in her own smoky jazz voice, but it is her comic impressions that really make the show special. One sketch had us in fits - an imagined musical version of the death of Anna Karenina (under a train) complete with a Russian version of On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe ("The Abkhazia, Tsiblisi and the Kiev line"): "Do you hear that whistle down the line…?". Genius stuff.

Her best (and most cruel) impression, however, has to be Liza Minelli, complete with all her nervous tics and "best friend in all the world" (everyone is her best friend of course) routines. Performing the songs of Abba in the style of Kander and Ebb, she captures both the skill and the ridiculousness of the great diva with hilarious results!

As a grand finale Miss Pedi recalls seeing the great Eartha Kitt singing I Will Survive and proceeds to demonstrate how she and others would do it - Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn all make an appearance - and the audience was in fits of laughter right to the end.

Here's the lady herself, performing a show in New York:

Christine Pedi - And I am telling you!

If you're a fan of great musical divas, if you like brilliant comedy in an intimate theatre, or if you are feeling down and need a real pick-me-up evening I highly recommend this show. We loved it!

Jermyn Street Theatre