THEGAYUK

Tag: Movie Genre Muscial

  • FILM REVIEW | A Star Is Born

    ★★★★☆ | A Star Is Born

    The 4th version of this movie is all very up to date but how does Lady Gaga shape up in the ultimate diva battle against her predecessor’s madams Streisand and Garland?

    Nutshell – A well-trodden story of a male superstar whose career is on the skids who falls for a nobody whose star then goes stratospheric. 1937/1954 and then 1976 this exact story has been filmed all very successfully with the first two focusing on movie stars and the last one moving it to the music industry so as Barbra Streisand can belt out her top three hit ‘Evergreen’. The success of the 2018 film depends on the talent on show namely Bradley Cooper… fucking hot as hell and Gaga who is the current queen of our gay stratosphere plus the quality of the songs. With ‘Shallow’ now atop the singles chart and the album alongside it, we very definitely have all three massive ticks in the movies credit column. Yep, this is good stuff indeed.

    Running Time – 136 Minutes – Cert 15. This is a long drawn out affair maybe some of the middle songs could have been ditched.

    The Gay UK Factor – Lady Gaga‘s first full length starring roll including over a dozen new great anthems what could be queerer than that? Well just to make sure that plenty of pink pounds get handed over the cinema counter we get hunky Bradley Cooper topless too for many of the scenes – maybe the first movie ever where you will wank and lip sync at the same time.

    Cast – Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, David Chappelle and far too briefly, Alec Baldwin.

    Key Player – Although this is Bradley’s directing debut and he co-wrote it and starred in it as well as singing adequately many of the songs the movie always comes to life most when her ladyship is on the screen. This is a one-woman show. She is completely stunning and steals every single scene she is in and others sag without her regal presence. Never has a movie been so aptly titled… maybe a Megastar is born here certainly a new triple threat at least.

    Budget – $60 Million and its already made twice that back in just America alone – a bonafide hit plus CD sales, massive DVD sales, merchandise and with touring conglomerate Live Nation finance here this probably even a tour and stage show. This will run and run.

    Best Bit – 0.44 mins; The first time Bradley forces Gaga onto a stage in front of her first big audience is a real showstopper and it’s the fantastic big new number one hit ‘Shallow’ she sings and sings fucking well.

    Worst Bit – 1.25 mins; When Gaga makes it big and starts performing her own music we get a disappointing run of three sub-Ariana Grande type rejected album tracks when the film is crying out for another ‘Poker Face’ or ‘Bad Romance’. This section of the movie is as about as limp and as unfortunate as your cock after 10 pints when Tom Daley out of the blue offers you a booty call.

    Little Secret – Bradley Cooper sang and recorded some scenes live from the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury in 2017 immediately before he introduced the booked act Kris Kristofferson who was the male lead of the 1976 A Star Is Born opposite Streisand. This reboot was planned by Clint Eastwood in 2011 starring Beyonce until she became pregnant then it was Rihanna, Shakira & Selena Gomez; male leads were those well-known singing talents Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Cruise. Not only does Bradley write, direct and star in the film but one of his kids appears and the dog is his own hound, Charlie.

    Further Viewing – A Star Is Born 1-3, and musicals like Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, The Greatest Showman, La La Land, Bohemian Rhapsody etc plus Moulin Rouge, My Fair Lady, The Bodyguard, Strictly Ballroom and every romantic musical back to The Golddiggers Of 1933 belting out the ‘Lullaby Of Broadway’.

    Any Good – A stunning directorial debut by Cooper and a film that will make Gaga into a movie legend… it could have been written for her if it wasn’t 81 years old. This just works from start to finish and the 98% new songs (Only ‘La Vie En Rose’ you will recognise) are mainly memorable and downloadable. Well acted, beautifully shot and with an earth-shattering finale and climatic number. Gaga may have just missed out on the Oscar for best song two years ago but she is now the bookies favourite for Feb 2019. This is a great original musical applied to one of the oldest and oft-repeated stories in cinema. Never mind ‘Born This Way’ it appears she was Born to act.

    Rating- 77/100

  • FILM REVIEW | Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

    MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN – The sequel and a much more accomplished movie to the 11th most successful film of all time. Everyone is back bringing you over 20 Abba songs and a much better story with added Cher class.

    Nutshell – A movie released exactly 10 years after the first film tells us what the characters are doing also a decade on with parallel flashbacks to the origin story of Meryl Streep’s Donna character in the 80s from the first time around. So we get mother and daughter’s stories filled out and then grandmother Cher rolls in but its all about the tunes and we get some huge production numbers right from the outset with a vastly increased budget and Richard Curtis added to the writing team.
    Running Time – 114 Minutes – Cert PG.
    Tagline – ‘Thankyou For The Music Again’
    The Gay UK Factor – Well we only have a couple of lines but this is as gay as Lady Gaga doing a Madonna medley at an Elton John used buttplug auction. It was the gays that took over Abba’s back catalogue about 8 years after they disbanded leading to the stage musical. We have kept them close to our glitter covered hearts since whilst Cher became queen of the gays straight after she climbed on board a battleship with 500 sailors in just her knickers belting out ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ with a 40-foot cannon between her legs. It helps that two of the young leads in this movie are hotter than Tom Daley’s popper collection also.
    Cast – Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Meryl Streep, Cher, Dominic Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters, Andy Garcia, Colin Firth plus Benny & Bjorn from the greatest pop act of all time.
    Key Player – This is a love affair to Abba and with the same production team as before much credit also needs to go to the brains behind it all Julie Kramer, Phyllida Lloyd and Richard Curtis. That said there is no question that the breakout performance here is that of Lily James (Baby Driver, The Darkest Hour, Cinderella) playing the young Meryl character she is a great actor and lights up the screen and boy can that girl sing.
    Budget – $70 Million already made double that so, on to week two and the obvious second stage play.
    Best Bit – 1.12 mins; With a great life-affirming opening number ‘When I Kissed The Teacher’ and two great bits at the end one which will make you weep and the other that will make you sing at the top of your voice there is plenty of high points here. Yet when the opening blast of ‘Dancing Queen’ hits at a real key moment you will be flying as high as a bird on the wing. Pure joy in a bottle.
    Worst Bit – 0.18 mins; With any musical, you are going to get a couple of numbers which don’t work even the great Les Mis has that high pitched kiddie song. Here we get a rough as a dog’s ass version of ‘Kisses Of Fire’ but even that surpasses ‘Waterloo’ sung badly in a Napoleonthemedd restaurant sung by TV’s Hugh Skinner (ITV’s The Windsors & BBC’s W1A) and he makes Brosnan sound like Pavarotti on a good day here.
    Little Secret – How popular are musicals at the moment? The Greatest Showman soundtrack just had the longest run at number one of 27 weeks for 51 years since Julie Andrews was spinning around on an Austrian hilltop. Now it’s been knocked off the chart summit by this juggernaut. Through Chicago, Frozen, Les Mis, Beauty & The Beast, La La Land etc. we cannot get enough of musicals and there are many more in the pipeline.
    Further Viewing – Mamma Mia 1, Mermaids, Chicago, Phantom Of the Opera, Grease, Into The Woods, Evita, Dreamgirls, Summer Holiday, Blue Hawaii and the original beach musical classic South Pacific.
    Any Good – If you are a fan you will lap this up if not, then go see the boy’s own Mission Impossible or Dwayne Johnson films instead. This is really great, it is better than the original, partly due to the fact that it can break even further away from its stage origins and also because it can pick lesser known songs which fit better rather than having to be a greatest hits and forcing them into a story whether they like it or not and yes ‘Money, Money, Money’ & ‘Chiquitita’ we are looking at you. This just works, will make you feel joyous for a day or two after you have seen it and many times more when you buy the CD and DVD by the millions.
    This should have been a car crash in all honesty but it is full on Formula 1 massive success.
    88/100

  • FILM REVIEW | The Greatest Showman

    THE GREATEST SHOWMAN – The already award-winning musical of the original showman PT Barnum celebrating the birth of show business itself with all original songs including the best new gay anthem in 30 years… and it is now climbing up the pop charts.

    Nutshell – The greatest entertainer of all time in a classic rags to riches story of how he discovered that ‘freakshows’ and different people were of interest to the paying public if presented with fantasy and imagination and how he gave them all respectability. It goes from bankruptcy to the most famous three-ring circus shows of all time in Victorian era New York. With 11 songs that will be new to your ears which is unusual in this Mamma Mia, Chicago, Disney Musical era but many of them soon grow on you especially the big set piece ones. The movie Hugh Jackman has waited his whole life to make.

    Running Time – 105 minutes – PG.

    Tagline – ‘From The Writers and Producers Of La La Land‘.

    THEGAYUK Factor – Well it is a musical to start with and visually spectacular a la Moulin Rouge and this is about outsiders with public taste campaigning against them like black trapeze artists, midgets and bearded ladies with a good-looking penniless orphaned hero. It all comes together in the incredible new gay anthem “This Is Me” which will replace “I Am What I Am” from La Cage Aux Follie as the ultimate gay anthem from a musical in no short space of time. This movie is as gay as Kylie in drag belting out “It’s Raining Men” as she enters the Big Brother house.

    Cast – Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and the king of the abs fresh from The Baywatch beach Zac Efron.

    Key Player – The three men here Justin Paul, Benj Pasek  who together wrote all the numbers and Jackman who carries most of them off with aplomb. There is not really a bad tune here and all 11 have now entered the pop charts with the gay anthem getting the highest spot straight in the Top Ten even before it started picking up awards.

    Budget – $84 Million but it looks a lot more expensive maybe some good CGI. Brokeven in seven days and like all musicals, it tends to find its real home on DVD and TV with repeat viewings – this is the first money spinner of the New Year.

    Best Bit – 0.59 mins; The big set piece showstopping number “This Is Me” which has already won The Golden Globe for Song Of The Year and will now be the surefire Oscar winner in a few weeks time. The film’s misfits belt out these great gay-friendly lyrics and boy does it build, as Alex Zane announced on Sky it is the first key change ever that made him weep. Download this song now before every drag queen in the land gets their hands on it.

    Worst Bit – 0.05 mins: There is a lot to get through here and this leads to a slightly rushed finish and more annoyingly a mega rushed jerky beginning which simply does not engage. The rest is pure heaven.

    Little Secret – Barnum’s American Museum was so popular that crowds stayed too long and he could not squeeze new paying punters in so he tricked them with signs saying “This way to the Egress” which the audience thought was a new attraction not realising it means exit until they found themselves outside on the street. In January 2017, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that their doors were closing forever, due to decreased attendance and protests by animal rights activists. Their last shows were in May 2017 they did not last to see the opening of this movie.

    Further Viewing – Moulin Rouge, La La Land, Les Mis, Hugh Jackman’s warm-up musical, The School Of Rock, Hairspray, Phantom, Dreamgirls, Fame and Into The Woods if you must.

    Any Good – The Golden Globe and now the BAFTA nominations don’t lie this is a great piece of film and a labour of love for the main star. Will the songs become evergreen favourites? Well, we hope so and they are a lot better than the 11 dirges in La La Land. If it starts picking up Oscars watch that soundtrack sell big time as already it is beating Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran. Jackman is ace and Efron learned his singing craft down at the High School Musical so you are in good hands here. If you like musicals this is a great addition and you don’t get many nowadays if not then stick with The Darkest Hour, Jumanji or Star Wars who will all happily take your money off ya instead.

    Rating – 70% out of 100.

  • 60 Second Film Review | La La Land

    60 Second Film Review | La La Land

    LA LA LAND – The Awards vaccum of 2017 and possibly of all time, sings and dances around the Hollywood hills in the straightest musical ever made – but where are the hits?

    La La Land review
    CREDIT: Dale Robinette / Lionsgate

    Nutshell – A very simple girl meets guy tale in and around the modern day Hollywood area of Los Angeles. He wants to open a jazz club and save that brand of music forever, she wants to be a film actress. Cue song and dance numbers, separations and a knock out twist in the last 20 minutes. This is so old fashioned you expect Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers or Fred Astaire to appear at any minute hoofing around but don’t let that put you off.

    Running Time – 128 minutes; Certificate – 12A

    Tagline – ‘Here’s To The Fools That Dream’.

    THEGAYUK Factor – This is as pure a heterosexual movie as you will ever see so just enjoy the musical set pieces like a good little gay boy and imagine Ryan Gosling stripped naked fingering your organ instead of his loving piano.

    Cast – Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, J K Simmons and far far too much of John Legend.

    Key Player – Damien Chazelle, he wrote it, he directed it and it is wholly his wonderful vision. He has come so far since Whiplash and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Next up First Man the story of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon starring, yep you’ve guessed it Ryan big swinging dick Gosling.

    Budget – $30 Million but already made four times that and it is still a month until its big Oscar night marketing boost – this will be very very big indeed and deserves it.

    Best Bit – 0.02 mins; The opening number is possibly the greatest tribute to LA ever. A huge single track production number set on a gridlocked freeway and the poppiest number on the whole soundtrack. It makes you so happy to be alive.

    Worst Bit – 1.02 mins; When Goslings character is showing for the umpteenth time how much he likes old school jazz in a group recording session where the other musicians want him to play modern music. A lot of the jazz in this wonderful film is very dull indeed and there is a reason old school jazz died out – that’s because it was sh*t.

    Little Secret – La La Land won 7 Golden Globes more than any other film in history beating One Flew Over The Cookoo’s Nest. It is up for 14 Oscars… the most ever equal with All About Eve and Titanic. The opening freeway scene was shot on the same stretch as the famous bus jump from Keannu Reeve’s/Sandra Bullock’s Speed movie – yep they still haven’t finished building it 30 years on.

    Further Viewing – Moulin Rouge, Grease, Tommy, Rent, Dreamgirls, Chicago, Once, Hairspray and any musical from the 50s or 60s on BBC2 in the afternoons.

    Any Good – Yes it is very very good and deserves all its plaudits and awards BUT, and it’s a big but, the songs are at very best average and at time maudling. This is not a jazz revival and there are no hit’s here which is a slight issue for a musical. Never mind the leads are great, it looks fantastic and that opening and closing will stay with you for many months to come.

    Rating – 91% out of 100.

  • FILM REVIEW | Chi-Raq

    FILM REVIEW | Chi-Raq

    ★★ | Chi-Raq

    Chi-Raq review

    Chicago has such a high murder rate that from 2003 to 2011 there were more murders there than in the same years in the Iraq war. On one Independence Day, 55 people were murdered. And in one year alone, 400 school kids were shot. With stats like this, a film with a message about violence and murder in the Windy City is seriously needed. But don’t expect it from Spike Lee’s new film called Chi-raq (Chicago and Iraq).

    What we do get instead is a musical drama where woman ‘take away the pussy’ from the men in order to stop them from using their guns. This is triggered by the death of a local girl who is the daughter of a church going religious mum (Jennifer Hudson). This in turns leads Lysistrata (yes, that’s her character’s name – and she’s played brilliantly by Teyonah Parris), to withhold sex from her boyfriend Demetrius, whose nickname is Chi-raq (a surprisingly good turn by an unrecognisable and very buffed up Nick Cannon a/k/a the former Mr Mariah Carey). Lysistrata rallies her girlfriends to do the same, and they all band together to declare ‘no peace, no pussy’ while holed up in an armoury in downtown Chicago (the scene where Lysistrata seduces the general in charge of the armoury has got to be the most ridiculous scene this year). This sex strike makes the men crazy, they’re missing their women, and even the mayor’s wife joins the strike, causing him (played by D.B. Sweeney) to intervene in this major crisis that’s taking place in his city, and, of course, right before a re-election.

    Lysistrata rallies her girlfriends to do the same, and they all band together to declare ‘no peace, no pussy’ while holed up in an armoury in downtown Chicago (the scene where Lysistrata seduces the general in charge of the armoury has got to be the most ridiculous scene this year). This sex strike makes the men crazy, they’re missing their women, and even the mayor’s wife joins the strike, causing him (played by D.B. Sweeney) to intervene in this major crisis that’s taking place in his city, and, of course, right before a re-election.

    It’s the women who take centre stage in this movie; they’re sexy and hot and all of them seem to be wearing very little clothing, and what they do wear is extremely provocative – tight fitting tops and shorts – with padlocks over their crotches (yes, for real). It’s quite misogynistic. It all comes to a head when Lysistrata and Demetrius have a sort of sex-off to resolve the crises that are televised live for everyone to see. Really stupid stuff there.

    It’s quite misogynistic. It all comes to a head when Lysistrata and Demetrius have a sort of sex-off to resolve the crises that are televised live for everyone to see. Really stupid stuff there.

    It all comes to a head when Lysistrata and Demetrius have a sort of sex-off to resolve the crisis that is televised live for everyone to see. Really stupid stuff there.

    Spike Lee has a voice and the talent to make a film that could’ve highlighted the problems and issues dealing with Chicago’s murder rate, but instead he’s written, produced and co-wrote a satire/comedic farce that can’t decide whether it’s a musical, a tragi-comedy, or something so surreal and stupid that you can’t believe that it’s is unfolding right before your very eyes. The cast is first rate, including Angela Bassett as a woman who had a daughter that was killed by a stray bullet, and John Cusack as the local priest who has to preside over the many funerals that take place in the black neighbourhood.

    The music is excellent and the locations and cinematography are all first rate. Samuel Jackson is ridiculous as a narrator who pops up every now and then wearing very bright coloured suits – his role is a distraction that doesn’t really help the film’s narrative. Chi-raq was released in US cinemas in 2015 and was a commercial bomb, making only $2.7 million from a budget of $15 million. It’s a film that’s likely to recoup its cost back – deservedly so.

     

    Available on iTunes | Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | Sing Street

    FILM REVIEW | Sing Street

    ★★★★ | Sing Street

    (C) Lionsgate

    CREDIT: (C) Lionsgate

    It’s 1985 and the music of Duran Duran, Tears for Fears and Spandau Ballet were at the top of the charts. Sing Street follows the story of one young man during this era who decides to start his own band to woo a local girl.

    Dublin during this time was not a very good place to grow up. People were flocking to London where careers and money were to be made. Fresh, young and innocent Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), baby-faced yet intelligent and going through puberty, is struggling with the eminent divorce of his parents. They no longer can afford to send him to private school so he’s chucked into attending the very rough Synge Street school where he immediately gets beaten up by the school’s bullies. But Cosmo comes up with the idea of forming a band because he wants to impress pretty 16-year old Penny (Maria Doyle Kennedy) who he spots sitting on her stoop at a girl’s boarding house where she lives. Cosmo immediately takes a liking to her but she says that she’s going to become a model and is planning on moving to London with her ‘adult’ boyfriend. But Cosmo is really keen on her and in order to impress her, together with his mates, they form the Sing Street band, but there’s a small matter of sourcing instruments and getting others (preferably talented) to join. After lots and lots of practice in a friend’s living room, Sing Street actually become very good. But Cosmo is still keen on impressing Penny, so he and the band invite her to star in their music video, made on the very cheap. As Sing Street continue to get better and better, and with fellow band members, they become local celebrities. With Cosmo’s no good for nothing brother Brendan’s support (Jack Reynor), who was never actually able to follow his dreams of leaving Dublin, Sing Street continue their plans to be successful and to conquer Dublin.

    Sing Street is a good old fashioned British musical that could’ve been made with the Monkees back in the 1960s. But it’s now 2016 and Sing Street is a very good throwback to that era and captures the look and feel and sound of that time. Sing Street really works thanks to a great young cast and crisp direction and writing by John Carney (the Oscar-winning 2007 film Once). But it’s the music in Sing Street that will get you to tap your toe and to hum along. Music by the actual actors in the Sing Street band in the film, Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, and Adam Levine make this musical comedy drama a must see.

    Order your copy from: Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | The Last Five Years

    ★★★★| The Last Five Years

    The Last Five Years is a rare breed. It is an (off) Broadway Hit Musical that has been very successfully adapted as a movie and avoided the disastrous transition from stage to screen that usually ruins most of Broadway’s exports.

    The simple story explores a five-year relationship between Cathy, a struggling actress, and her boyfriend Jamie who is a new novelist destined for big things. The show bravely tells Cathy’s story starting at the end of their marriage and working backwards, whereas Jamie’s is told in chronological order.

    With very little dialogue this two-hander is a series of songs with the couple singing to each other about their romance as it takes off and then falls apart, and in fact there is only one number in the middle of the movie when they sing a duet. So Cathy starts with her sad lament Jamie it’s Over’whereas Jamie’s exuberant first song Shiksa Goddess is about when they first meet and he totally falls in love with her and declares she can be anything, but preferably not Jewish as his Orthodox family had pressured him for years.

    As the title gives away the young couple meet, fall in love, marry and then part all in five years. Cathy gets stuck midway doing Summer Stock Theater in Ohio (!) whilst Jamie’s literary success makes him the toast of Manhattan. Evidently so closer based on composer Tony Award Winner James Robert Brown’s own life that he had to change one of the original songs after his actress ex-wife threatened legal action.

    It is completely enchanting and although sometimes the songs are a tad more passionate than the actual relationship, the infectious score and the very witty lyrics make this movie such a sheer delight. Credit too for a rather wonderful performance from rising star Anna Kendrick who showed in Into The Woods recently that she can sing as well as she can act. She is teamed with handsome Jeremy Jordan (from TV’s Smash) who is obviously a seasoned musical performer.

    The original stage show was first produced in Chicago in 2002 before setting in off-Broadway and picking up a few Awards. It has aged well with time, and this movie adaption from director Richard LaGravanse (‘PS I Love You’) will appeal to people beyond the usual musical aficionados.

  • FILM REVIEW | Cupcakes

    ★★★★ | Cupcakes

    The Eurovision Song Contest, which is the epitome of the true meaning of ‘eurotrash’, really owes its continuing success to the thousands of gay men throughout the world who slavishly watch the Broadcast every year with such glee.

    There are few programs on television these days that are camper than this outdated competition that seeks to find a winner from amongst some of the most innocuous pop songs ever written.

    When director Eytan Fox was visiting the Berlinale Film Festival a few years ago and was channel surfing in his hotel room he came across the show and something must of clicked. Hence the man who gave us intensely serious gay dramas such as The Bubble and Yossi & Jaegar decided that this should be the basis of his new fluffy confection of a movie about agroup of disparate friends trying to win what he dubbed as UniverSong.

    Six motley neighbors in an apartment building in Tel Aviv each with their own hangups or quirks who don’t actually want to go public, do just that when the song they write together almost by accident, goes viral on YouTube and they somehow get chosen to be the official entry for Israel.

    The oldest one is middle-aged Anat whose husband has just walked out on her and their bakery business; there is serious Dana who works an aide to a government minister just to please her orthodox father and who is paranoid at doing anything remotely frivolous. Yael was once a beauty queen and is now a lawyer and is also desperate to be taken seriously; there is painfully shy Karen who prefers to just share her life with her cybermates rather than step outside of her front door; and punky lesbian Efrat the alternative singer/songwriter who thinks such a frivolous undertaking as this competition is completely beneath her. It’s only kindergarten teacher Ofrat with a penchant for sequin drag who is really excited about accepting the invitation to compete, despite the pleas of his neurotic closeted boyfriend who’s family business actually sponsors the show.

    As in a typical show business fashion the professionals who decide that as they know best, they take over and create a monstrously big production routine for the group to perform. It is a total disaster as it takes out every single nuance of homespun charm, and at the same time, completely exasperates the patience of these bewildered amateurs.

    This is a fairy tale after all… literally… and they seize back the song and the competition in order for them all to win the prize, which is not actually the trophy, but mainly about them getting the lives they all really want. Even the Baker comes back. It is after all, that kind of story.

    I’m still shocked that this is the work of sober filmmaker Fox, but in this lightweight, pretty colored, camp romp he shows he can be as whimsical and entertaining as the next man. Maybe Pedro Almodovar even.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | Amazon Prime | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | Merrily We Roll Along

    ★★★★★ | Merrily We Roll Along

    The concept of seeing a play on the big screen can seem a bit odd. Do you clap at the end? Will it be like watching a play or seeing a film? Will there be any atmosphere?

    You can rest assured that seeing The Menier Chocolate Factory production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ will be worth every penny spent and there’ll definitely be applause, even if the cast won’t be there to hear it.

    A specially recorded version of the multi award winning West End production at The Harold Pinter Theatre was recorded earlier this year and has been edited to perfection. The show is screening in over 300 UK cinemas starting from the 24th of October. It’s part of the amazing digital theatre range of shows and the first to be screened in cinemas, with the brilliant ‘Private Lives’ to follow next year and a range of shows that can be watched at home.

    It couldn’t have a better pedigree: written by the fantastic Stephen Sondheim, the work of an acclaimed director, a fantastic cast and more 5 star reviews than any other musical in West End history. There’s not a weak link in the cast and the choreography, music and sets are truly amazing. Even Sondheim himself stated that this production is the best he’s seen.

    The story follows a group of three friends (a composer, lyricist and novelist) as they start out seeking success, find success, fall out, make out, form and break relationships and generally break down. The twist of the story is that the whole of the plot is told backwards. Starting in the 1970s we two of the three friends and instantly learn what fates have befallen them. As the play progresses we gradually work back to the late 1950s and see how it all began and where the roots of their current situations began. The device works brilliantly and it’s both poignant and hilarious in equal measures.

    Watch the trailer and find your nearest screening here: http://www.digitaltheatre.com/screenings
    Find out more about Digital Theatre here and which productions are available to watch:
    http://www.digitaltheatre.com

  • FILM REVIEW | Leave It On The Floor

    If, like me, you’re a sucker for a musical about voguing set in LA, with a mainly unknown cast and containing some catchy tunes you’ve never heard of – this is the movie for you!

    The music is original, with the tittle track being one of the strongest – but wait till you hear the ode to JT, Justin’s Gonna Call… .made me smile! This film also wins the award for most original use of a bowling alley, and a fake pregnancy…. by a man…

    It has laughs, drama, dancing, tight vests, jaunty hats and fierce Gaga-esque outfits…

    Treat yourself – I defy you to not be tapping your toes at least to one or two of these little numbers. As with most musicals, its difficult to engage with the characters, they can seem quite superficial or two-dimensional, but that doesn’t stop this being a celebratory movie about being yourself and being, for want of a better line, born this way…

    The film is written by Glenn Gaylord, who also directed the movie “I Do“, which I’ll be reviewing nearer its DVD release date later this month.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | Amazon Prime | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | Hegwig And The Angry Inch

    ★★★★★ | Hedwig And The Angry Inch

    I’ve got to say, I’m not a big fan of film musicals, but when I was introduced to Hegwig and the Angry Inch, this all changed.

    I’m a huge fan of John Cameron Mitchell, who plays the lead: Hegwig, a transexual entertainer who changes sex in order to leave a segregated war torn Germany for a life of stardom (she hoped) in the USA.

    The film follows Hegwig and her merry bunch of band mates following Tommy Gnosis, a world famous rock star, whom she wrote songs with, before he got famous. Gnosis, once famous, denies Hegwig’s existence.

    The music is bitter sweet, with toe thumpers: Wig In A Box and thought provoking ballads, like The Origin Of Love.

    At the core of this bright and brilliantly directed piece is a sad iconic transexual, whose hair (slightly resembling a late Farah Fawcett) is looking for recognition, both for her music and for her Angry Inch…

    The soundtrack is a sound buy!

     

    BUY ON AMAZON | BUY ON iTunes