Dusty Springfield musical West End bound...will Broadway ever see the lights of Dusty - The Original Pop Diva? Maybe

[stage_door76]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 6:12am

Will Conyers at Broadway@Bedtime (part of an Australian radio network featuring Michael Lavine)has just announced over the airwaves in a conversation to Chelsea Plumley (an Aussie West End star) that "Dusty" has been signed for a West End season at the conclusion of its current Australian tour (which is also the world premiere). No producers have been openly linked to the transfer yet, but it's all officially confirmed and on its way!

Here's hoping that the current lead, Tamsin Carroll will get a chance to transfer. She makes the show!

Any thoughts?

Check out the musical here...

Updated On: 2/5/06 at 06:12 AM

[alterego]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 7:48am

The show isn't doing well in Melbourne, maybe it would do better in Britain.

[RYANWOODS]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 9:24am

I dont know where it can go! The West End i seeing a huge amount opening in 2006...

Sinatra!
Movin Out
Mack and Mabel
Sunday in the Park
Daddy Cool
Avenue Q
Evita
Wicked
Spamalot
Caroline, Or Change
Sound of Music
Lord of The Rings

and also rumours of Zorro: The Musical & Cabaret opening.
I dont where it could go!

[alterego]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 6:13pm

I'd imagine the best bet would be for a provincial tour.

[lfae]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 6:31pm

Dusty not doing well here? So, all the advance ticket sales mean pretty much nothing, huh?

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 7:30pm

The theatre was less than half full when I saw it last week. And Tamsin is missing a lot of shows through illness. It's not much more than a Vegas showroom piece. The script is desperately in need of a rethink.

[alterego]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 8:36pm

"So, all the advance ticket sales mean pretty much nothing, huh?"

Apparently all a publicity beat up. Don't believe everything you read.

[stage_door76]

Posted: 2/6/06 at 8:27pm

BUMP

[Talissa2]

Posted: 2/6/06 at 8:38pm

Well, it wouldn't be going to London until 2007 or so, since it still has most of the Australian tour left to do.

And not doing well? That's a load of rubbish.

As for the theatre being half full, I doubt that. Besides, the State Theatre's massive. Did you see how empty the place was during Full Monty? -That-'s not doing well.

As for missing shows, she's been sick. And she's been doing every show she physically can. No one can pull off eight shows a week in a role that demanding when they're sick.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 2/6/06 at 8:44pm

Didn't this already have a UK tour with a planned West End berth that never happened? Didn't Mari Wilson star as Dusty?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/6/06 at 8:46pm

Talissa, if you're addressing Wildcat's post, he said right in it that the reason she was missing was due to illness. And, if he says the theater was half full, it was half full the night he saw it. He is not a man prone to exaggeration, gossip, bitterness, or negativity. He was just reporting facts.

[Talissa2]

Posted: 2/6/06 at 8:49pm

popcultureboy, that must be a completely different show. This is one that's been produced in Australia.

[alterego]

Posted: 2/6/06 at 11:39pm

Talissa, the show isn't doing well, you can get half price tickets every day of the week at halftix, stalls, circle and upper circle take your pick.

[stage_door76]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 12:18am

So all this talk of advance sales and recouping money comes from where then?

I don't doubt any of you, I'm just interested to know that if all this negativity is true (which it probably is), then why has it been given the West End go ahead?

Mind you, although it's an originally Australian production, I think it's much more suited to London audiences.

And as for the script, if Wildcat says he thinks it needs some re-working he's probably right. But THREE people wrote that book! How could they have got it so wrong? THREE people!

Updated On: 2/7/06 at 12:18 AM

[alterego]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:15am

Maybe it's a case of 'too many cooks spoil the broth'. I think any show about Dusty Springfield would do better in Britain than Australia.

[mother cabrini]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:32am

wilcat may not be prone to gossip bitterness or negativity, but....I AM
talissa...your blinkered view of ms tamsin carroll would lead one to belive that the one of the main sources for the dusty musical...lesbianism...would be quite close to your heart....it would seem that ms carroll could walk center stage hoik up her skirt and defecate and you would be front row centre giving her a standing ovation....such bias is probably better served on the dreadful self congratulatory WAYAKKA....and remember....IF YOU DONT HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY ABOUT SOMEBODY....COME AND SIT NEXT TO ME!

mc..x

[stage_door76]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:34am

wow

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:38am

The show was extensively workshopped last year, yet the script seems to have gone downhill since then. There are far too many songs, many repeated more than once, so much of the dialogue comes over as a succession of song cues. The cutting of large chunks just before previews could account for the skimpiness of the character development. The humour relies excessively on hoary old jokes (this one crops up twice):

DUSTY'S HAIRDRESSER: Dusty! You're on!
DUSTY: Am I? How am I doing?

And, as in "Shout!", a previous bio-musical by the same writing team, too many famous names from the sixties are dropped simply to evoke a laugh of recognition. Overall, the script seems to be cobbled together from the most cliched bits of other musicals. A scene depicting Dusty's funeral seems to go on longer than the real thing, with no less than three characters delivering eulogies containing information we've already heard. That two significant moments in Dusty's life are handled as one-sided phone conversations by the aforementioned hairdresser shows the paucity of creativity on display.
The show's star, the gifted Tamsin Carroll, bears much of the weight of the proceedings and acquits herself brilliantly, but I was actively discouraged from seeing the show during one of her absences by at least two members of "Dusty"'s own production team, which seems to indicate a lack of confidence in the piece without Tamsin to carry it.
The entire tour is pre-booked so there's no danger of it coming off early, and I enjoyed it as much as similar shows such as "Leader of the Pack". Certainly the design by Roger Kirk is worth the price of admission. I'm sure it will do very well in overseas markets. I just wish the creative team had set the bar a little higher for themselves.

[stage_door76]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:43am

OOPS>>>Who is Dusty's understudy?

Updated On: 2/7/06 at 01:43 AM

[stage_door76]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:43am

I meant to ask; who is Tamsin's understudy?

Updated On: 2/7/06 at 01:43 AM

[Talissa2]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:47am

One is Kaye Tuckerman, who I've heard is fantastic in the role. A friend of mine who saw her said she sounded just like Dusty. And I know she can act. I don't know much about the other.

MC, I don't know what on earth I said here gave you that impression. As far as I can tell, it's utterly unfounded.

[Urban]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 4:37am

I have yet to see it and I have to say I am feeling less and less confident to shell out the money.

[alterego]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 6:01am

Kaye Tuckerman. Enough said.

Urban, purchase your tickets at Halftix that way you may only feel half disapointed.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:59pm

i dont know much about Dusty...i just remember her song with the Pet Shop Boys, she was pretty fabulous, i would probably want to see the show of her life, even tho the juke box musical is not my favorite kind of theatre. But i would go to see this show.

[stage_door76]

Posted: 2/8/06 at 12:26am

thats great muscle23ftl.

do you reckon that a broadway audience would appreciate the show or not if it was produced here? or would it follow along in the lines of All Shook Up, popular for a time, but then fade??

Updated On: 2/8/06 at 12:26 AM