2012: What BWW:UK's Writers Are Looking Forward To!

Julia Hogg

As always I'm looking forward to this year's season at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. I missed out on the sold out 2011 Landor Theatre production of Ragtime, so I'm looking forward to seeing it at the Open Air Theatre instead (and crossing my fingers that the weather behaves)!

I'm also curious to see some Broadway transfers in the form of The Book of Mormon and American Idiot which are likely to open later this year. In the something-of-a-guilty-pleasure category, West End Eurovision is always one of my favourite theatre events of the year, in which West End casts each perform a Eurovision song from years gone by, competing against each other to raise money for the charity TheatreMAD. An enormous amount of effort always goes into the song interpretation, choreography and costumes, and overall it's a high energy evening, ridiculous amounts of fun and benefits a very worthy cause.

Robert Gould

As a passionate and fanatical theatre-goer, I approach the start of yet another year with a huge sense of excitement and optimism. Yes, I did say “optimism”! Despite my fears regarding the apparent lack of productions of new musical theatre in the UK and the worrying trend of juke-box musicals and mega-movie-musical-adaptations that threaten to stifle originality and new creative writing, I still believe that the musical theatre art form I love so much can and will rise above it all and continue to grow and thrive.

My optimism stems partly from the existence of a number of highly talented musical theatre songwriters whose unique and original voices are just crying out to be heard - such as Laurence Mark Wythe, Dougal Irvine, Michael Bruce, Tim Sutton, Christopher J. Orton, Pippa Cleary & Jake Brunger, Joe Sterling and others - and partly from the knowledge that there are still a handful of brave producers (such as Simon Greiff, Danielle Tarento, Peter Huntley, Katy Lipson, Giles Howe,
Billy Cullum and Michaela Cartmell-Hull, et al) and forward-thinking, cutting-edge theatres like the Southwark Playhouse, the Landor, the Finborough, etc., that are dedicated to enabling new and original theatre to thrive.

I am also excited about certain specific upcoming musical theatre revival productions in London during the early part of 2012. Firstly, the star-studded one-night-only staging of Stephen Schwartz’s brilliant and under-rated Children Of Eden at the Prince Of Wales theatre on January 29 - followed later in the year by the West End transfer of the Chichester Festival revival of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, the Landor theatre production of Rupert Holmes’s The Mystery Of Edwin Drood and the revival of Adam Guettel and Tina Landau’s edgy and compelling musical Floyd Collins at the Southwark Playhouse.

Plus I am already salivating at the prospect of witnessing Broadway legend Tyne Daly gracing a West End stage as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s play, Master Class. (McNally is one of my favourite dramatic writers and I marvel at the way he has so successfully bridged the worlds of playwright and musical theatre librettist - being the only writer to win two Tony Awards for Best Play AND two Tony Awards for Best Book For A Musical.)

In addition, I am very excited about another one-night-only event on Sunday February 5th at the Actor’s Church, Covent Garden - the second Gigging4Good charity concert, which will yet again aim to raise money for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital following the success of their first venture in July 2011. Once more there will be a huge array of West End star performers on show and this time there will even be a 30-minute showcase of songs from a brand new musical, My Land’s Shore (with a cast led by former West End Jean Valjean JoNathan Williams).

I have to admit to having a vested interest in this show that obviously increases my anticipatory excitement - as I am the co-writer (with composer Christopher J. Orton) of the musical My Land’s Shore. Even more exciting is the fact that a studio cast recording of My Land’s Shore will be released by SimG Records later this month.

I hope that many musical theatre lovers will get to hear the songs and become as excited by the prospect of this new piece of musical theatre writing as I am. That would really begin to justify my optimism!

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