Annette Stolt - Page 15

In 2014 the musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder won 4 Tony awards of which one was for the best musical. It won in contest with musicals like Aladdin and Beautiful - the Carol King Musical. As I seen both of them and really liked them. I had quite high expectations on 'Gentlemannen' as it is called in Swedish when I saw the dress rehearsal the 24th of January at Oscars Theatre in Stockholm.

During Christmas and New Year it is tradition in many countries to have special family musicals, pantos or plays, and that is the case in Sweden as well. It is normal either based one of the book by children author Astrid Lindgren or a well know fairy tale. The producer team Dr se&Norberg has this year chosen 'The Adventure of Aladdin'. I don't think the story need any further presentation as Disney made a film of it several years ago and the musical is running on Broadway and West End. Everyone know the story about Aladdin who finds the magic lamp and reveals the genie it in and is granted 3 wishes. However, Dr se&Norberg has taken the traditional story and creates a new musical with 12 newly written songs (music by Martin Landh and lyrics by Robert Dr se). They also change the names on some characters and add some new. The musical had it's opening night on boxing day in Stockholm and will play in Stockholm some more dates and then tour around Sweden. As it is a touring musical the scenery and technical effects has to be less advance than what you find in Disneys musical. No flying carpet, but instead a very clever solution with a tuctuc with a driver and the carpet on top. So the carpet is 'alive' which add a fun character to the story. The carpet is named Zlatan and was played by Bill Sundberg on the evening I saw it. He alternates with Mattias Olofsson.

The Swedish film As It Is In Heaven, which was nominated to Best Foreign Language Film in 2005, has been adapted to a musical which will have it's opening night the 13th of September 2018 at the Oscars Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden.

I've seen The Phantom of the Opera around 25 times and it's really one of my favorite musicals. The music is amazing, the clothes are wonderful and the storyline is classic with the beauty and the beast, the hero. The fragile Christine, who is abducted by the horrible phantom but rescued by her youth love but the fragile side of the Phantom is shown and she is torn between them. It has been played the same way since 1986 and Andrew Lloyd Webber and The Really Useful Group have kept firm in how it gets played and staged, by who, where and when. But when the Finnish National Opera was going to play it, they got permission to make a new adoption of it. The creative team, Tiina Puumalainen director, ??Teppo J rvinen scenographer, Marjaana Mutanen, costume designer, Osku Heiskane choreographer, Teemu Nurmelin light designer and Andreas 'Stanley' L nnquist and Sakari Kiiski sound designer, create a totally reworked musical. It started playing in Finland and was transferred the 23rd of September 2017 to Sweden and the Opera in Gothenburg. As I wanted to see Fred Johanson as the Phantom and John Martin Bengtsson as Raoul, I had to find a date when they played in the same performance, and the date was set for December 9th. Before I saw it, I had seen some pictures that appear on the website and in press and I have to say that I was both excited and curious about what to expect. I've seen the musical so many times so it feels like I know every sequin on the fantastic dresses and when an eyebrow is to be raised so it was with mixed feelings I booked the ticket. Should I like the changes or not? I had no doubt that Fred and John Martin would deliver as I seen them several times. Fred lastest in Sunset Boulevard on West End in London. The same role as he did on Broadway this year with Glenn Close. John Martin was understudy to both The Phantom and Raoul in Stockholm this year and I had the privilege to see him as Phantom. Both has absolutely amazing voices. But for the new adoption I was not sure...