Musicals and Other Shows

[Anita Bensoussane]

I agree about the structure of Half A Sixpence. I was in it way back in 2002 and I've always felt the plot meanders a little, especially after the two main characters get married. Flash Bang Wallop is a great number...but it almost feels like the show is over once that number is done with! The rest seems an anti-climax in some ways. I enjoyed being in it as a show though - our dancing was very energetic!

I can imagine it would be a fun show to act in! Flash Bang Wallop has been moved in the new production, meaning that that "coming to an end halfway through" feeling is avoided.

I wanted to add something to "The Wind in the Willows".
In a Cornwall travel guide I once read that Kenneth Grahame was friends with Cornish author Sir Arthur Quiller Couch from Fowey (whose daughter Foy was good friends with Daphne DuMaurier).
And on one of his visits Quiller Couch took Grahame to Lerryn Creek (this is a side "arm"/natural extension of the Fowey River which is actually no river at all, but an inlet with high tide and low tide).
They crossed the old stone bridge and walked along Lerryn Creek into the woods.
Supposedly these woods inspired Grahame to write "The Wind in the Willows".

That's interesting, Chrissie. I think Cookham Dean, where he lived, was also an inspiration.

In 1995 I crossed Lerryn Creek from the parking via stepping stones which are next to that stone bridge and walked through the woods all the way to St. Willow church and back.
Once I entered the woods, I noticed that it was low tide and the trees were hanging over the empty creek...it felt like an end time vision (don't know how to describe it in proper English words ).
Other than me there was nobody walking in the woods and the mood was kind of desolate/deserted, but I found it fascinating and actually enjoyed it.

Sounds like a magical moment, if rather creepy and solitary. I was once in a smooth, grassy clearing in a wood early in the morning. Everything was still and softly lit, drenched with dew and slightly misty, and there was a small, dark pool nearby. It somehow seemed quite unreal and I felt that I'd stepped into the Wood Between the Worlds from C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew.

[Chrissie777]

That's interesting, Chrissie. I think Cookham Dean, where he lived, was also an inspiration.

Where is Cookham Dean?

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's in Berkshire, about three miles from Bourne End which is in Buckinghamshire. It's not far from the River Thames.

[Rob Houghton]

I was once in a smooth, grassy clearing in a wood early in the morning. Everything was still and softly lit, drenched with dew and slightly misty, and there was a small, dark pool nearby. It somehow seemed quite unreal and I felt that I'd stepped into the Wood Between the Worlds from C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew.

That sounds very creepy and other-worldly! It also sounds like you might have eaten the wrong type of wild mushroom!

I've known moments like this and they are really affecting. Even once just driving near where I live there were suddenly no cars and no pedestrians and it felt like maybe the world had ended and I was the only one who didn't know!

Walking on the hills with my dad in Wales as a child, I can remember a similar feeling - at one with nature and totally submerged in the wilds with no one else about, as if it was the dawn of time. The feeling has stayed in my memory around 35 years.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I love being in a vast landscape where I can't see or hear any sign of civilisation. It's eerie but thrilling.

That sounds very creepy and other-worldly! It also sounds like you might have eaten the wrong type of wild mushroom!

[Wolfgang]

I was once in a smooth, grassy clearing in a wood early in the morning. Everything was still and softly lit, drenched with dew and slightly misty, and there was a small, dark pool nearby. It somehow seemed quite unreal and I felt that I'd stepped into the Wood Between the Worlds from C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew.

That sounds very creepy and other-worldly! It also sounds like you might have eaten the wrong type of wild mushroom!

Some may think it was the right type, Rob .

[Anita Bensoussane]

I once had a similar feeling while walking on a golf course. I know a golf course sounds rather prosaic, but it was at the edge of a wood and was a deserted expanse of velvety green fringed by trees and punctuated with bunkers which gave a feeling of small moon craters or (once again) the pools in C. S. Lewis's Wood Between the Worlds.

[Bannerman65]

I remember The Wood Between The Worlds well, Anita.

[IceMaiden]

so - Just counted my DVD's and videos (mostly DVD's) of musicals and I have 521 musicals from all eras (but I specialise in pre-1960 musicals). This includes Disney feature-length cartoons also, which are classed as musicals in my 'Hollywood Musical' book.

This is just musical DVD's - I have about 200 non musical classics and old movies too!

I don't suppose by any chance that in that collection you have the original London cast of Evita from 1978/79 do you? I am desperate for a copy of this and have so far scoured the internet searching to no avail .

[number 6]

I've just been watching (again!) a DVD of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds musical 'live'. It combines a live orchestra with a big screen animation of the story. Guest singers, such as Justin Haywood, grace the stage to compliment the experience. I've listened to the audio version countless times over the years, but it's nice to actually sit & watch the drama unfold in front of my eyes! Has anyone else seen the DVD?

[Rob Houghton]

so - Just counted my DVD's and videos (mostly DVD's) of musicals and I have 521 musicals from all eras (but I specialise in pre-1960 musicals). This includes Disney feature-length cartoons also, which are classed as musicals in my 'Hollywood Musical' book.

This is just musical DVD's - I have about 200 non musical classics and old movies too!

I don't suppose by any chance that in that collection you have the original London cast of Evita from 1978/79 do you? I am desperate for a copy of this and have so far scoured the internet searching to no avail .

Unfortunately not! Is there a DVD of this cast? I can imagine a CD but would be surprised that it was ever filmed and put on DVD.

I don't have the CD either.

[Tony Summerfield]

I actually saw Evita in London with the original cast (Elaine Paige and David Essex), and there certainly isn't a DVD of it, it is only much more recently that stage productions of musicals in the UK have been released on DVD (From Here to Eternity, Billy Elliot, Gypsy and Miss Saigon), DVDs weren't even around in the 1970s and nothing of this nature was released on VHS.

I don't think there is a CD either, as a record was released (and cassette) before Evita was even staged - Eva Peron was sung by Julie Covington on the record.

[Chrissie777]

I actually saw Evita in London with the original cast (Elaine Paige and David Essex)...

Tony, was that David Essex the pop singer?

[Tony Summerfield]

I've just been watching (again!) a DVD of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds musical 'live'. It combines a live orchestra with a big screen animation of the story. Guest singers, such as Justin Haywood, grace the stage to compliment the experience. I've listened to the audio version countless times over the years, but it's nice to actually sit & watch the drama unfold in front of my eyes! Has anyone else seen the DVD?

I haven't seen the DVD, but I did see War of the Worlds 'live' at the Dominion Theatre in London earlier this year with Jeff Wayne conducting two orchestras and a star group of actors, with a hologram of Liam Neeson doing the commentary originally done by Richard Burton. It was very good.

[Tony Summerfield]

I actually saw Evita in London with the original cast (Elaine Paige and David Essex)...

Tony, was that David Essex the pop singer?

Yes, but he is also an actor, Chrissie, as he has been in a number of West End Musicals, including incidentally, the version of War of the Worlds that I have just seen, about which I posted above. He was also in the original cast of this in the 1970s.