#1
Posted: 6/25/10 at 1:31am
Amanda Holden has been showing producers behind the £10million stage musical Shrek just how much talent she’s got.
The actress-presenter has auditioned for the role of Princess Fiona, the part voiced by Cameron Diaz in the animated Shrek films.
Amanda did an initial audition and was then recalled to sing and dance for the production team — and by all accounts ‘she played a blinder and was brilliant’, I’m told.
Audition: Amanda Holden wants to play Princess Fiona, the part voiced by Cameron Diaz in the films
She was, however, one of several people who tried out for the role.
It’s very early days and the audition process has a long way to go yet.
The full creative team — including directors Rob Ashford and Jason Moore, composer Jeanine Tesori, lyricist and book writer David Lindsay-Abaire and various producers from DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions — will all need to put in their tuppence worth on what they think of prospective cast members for Shrek.
More...BAZ BAMIGBOYE: High and mighty on screen, but hard graft is Michelle Dockery's real motto
It’s a shrewd move for Amanda, who’s coming hot from the phenomenal success of the TV show Britain’s Got Talent to a stage show that’s also a well-known brand name.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Absolutely no negotiations are going on yet. The production of Shrek The musical opened on Broadway 18 months ago and was a brilliant spectacle, but it didn’t warm the heart.
I remember not caring a monkey’s about the belching green ogre, but I applauded Tim Hatley’s witty sets and costumes.
Much work has been done on the show since I saw it.
A touring production opening in Chicago next month has enabled the directors to overhaul it from top to bottom.
Animated love: Princess Fiona and Shrek
There’s a new opening, new songs, improved illusions, a newly styled dragon and Shrek, I’m told, has a bigger heart.
Ashford told me recently that he and his associates have re-staged a lot of numbers and he has worked closely with Moore on making audiences care more about the title character.
‘I think you’ll be happily surprised,’ he said. a filmed version of the Broadway show was screened to theatrical agents in London and scores of actors have been seen for the four main roles of Shrek, Princess Fiona, Lord Farquaad and Donkey.
At one point Michael Ball was in talks, but his calendar is heavily booked with the successful UK tour of Hairspray, some concerts and a planned production of Sweeney Todd opposite Imelda Staunton at Chichester, to be directed by Jonathan Kent.
It soon became clear there was no way he could do Shrek as well.
Whoever ends up being cast, Shrek The musical is to begin performances at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, next May, with a likely official opening night the following month. Oliver!, the current occupant at the Drury lane theatre, will close on January 8 after a much-extended run.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1289438/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Has-Amanda-Holden-got-talent-Shrek-musical.html#ixzz0rq89pZ5G
He may be about to hand in his detective’s badge, but John Nettles can’t get away from murder that easily.
He is shooting his final Midsomer Murders episode, after which he will return to the stage to play Claudius and the Ghost in Hamlet opposite John Simm, another refugee from television-land.
Once upon a time Nettles was a theatre mainstay, particularly with the RSC, where he played major roles season after season.
The last time I saw him on stage was in Julius Caesar and Richard III — and he’s heeded the Bard’s call again, but this time for Daniel Evans artistic director of Sheffield Theatres.
Paul Miller will direct Simm, Nettles, Michelle Dockery as Ophelia and Barbara Flynn as Gertrude.
Adam Foster, Ben Lamb, James Loye, Joseph Mydell, Hugh Ross, Harry Lister-Smith, Roderick Smith and Colin Tierney are also in the company.
Hamlet begins performances at the Sheffield Crucible from September 22.
Nettles, who also starred in the long-running Jersey-based police series Bergerac, has played Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby in Midsomer Murders for 13 years.
It has been one of ITV’s most popular crime shows, but it was time Barnaby moved on from his police HQ in Causton.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1289438/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Has-Amanda-Holden-got-talent-Shrek-musical.html#ixzz0rq8FuCQg
Peter Egan and Robert Daws, who will solve the mystery of why the musical The Fantasticks is closing at the Duchess Theatre tomorrow night after a run of just one month when it ran for more than 40 years in New York.
That’s easy: the production had virtually no bookings and the critics hated it.
Egan and Daws will star in the show that follows it, Sherlock Holmes, with Egan playing Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero and Daws as Dr Watson.
Robin Herford is directing from an adaptation by Jeremy Paul.
The show had been on tour and producers Richard Temple and Ian Fricker swiftly arranged for it to come into town when managers at the Duchess realised The Fantasticks was in trouble.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1289438/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Has-Amanda-Holden-got-talent-Shrek-musical.html#ixzz0rq8PQN00
Martin Shaw and Jenny Seagrove who will star in a new production of the Clifford Odets classic the Country Girl, which hot director Rufus Norris will direct at the Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue, in October.
This is such a great play, but it’s a tricky balance.
Get it wrong — as they did on Broadway with Mike Nichols directing Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand two seasons ago — and you catch a cold.
Norris, I sense, will have a much better eye for this story about an actor trying to stay off the booze as he performs in an ‘outta town’ try-out for a new play and the wife who may be doing more harm than good.
There’s great meat on these roles if they can just get the balance and tempo right.
I saw Shaw in this play at the same theatre a long while ago, but he played another part, now to be taken by Mark Letheren. Luke Shaw, Nicholas Day, Peter Harding and Thomasin Rand also feature.
Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly were in the 1954 screen version.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1289438/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Has-Amanda-Holden-got-talent-Shrek-musical.html#ixzz0rq8XTRYx
The actress-presenter has auditioned for the role of Princess Fiona, the part voiced by Cameron Diaz in the animated Shrek films.
Amanda did an initial audition and was then recalled to sing and dance for the production team — and by all accounts ‘she played a blinder and was brilliant’, I’m told.
Audition: Amanda Holden wants to play Princess Fiona, the part voiced by Cameron Diaz in the films
She was, however, one of several people who tried out for the role.
It’s very early days and the audition process has a long way to go yet.
The full creative team — including directors Rob Ashford and Jason Moore, composer Jeanine Tesori, lyricist and book writer David Lindsay-Abaire and various producers from DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions — will all need to put in their tuppence worth on what they think of prospective cast members for Shrek.
More...BAZ BAMIGBOYE: High and mighty on screen, but hard graft is Michelle Dockery's real motto
It’s a shrewd move for Amanda, who’s coming hot from the phenomenal success of the TV show Britain’s Got Talent to a stage show that’s also a well-known brand name.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Absolutely no negotiations are going on yet. The production of Shrek The musical opened on Broadway 18 months ago and was a brilliant spectacle, but it didn’t warm the heart.
I remember not caring a monkey’s about the belching green ogre, but I applauded Tim Hatley’s witty sets and costumes.
Much work has been done on the show since I saw it.
A touring production opening in Chicago next month has enabled the directors to overhaul it from top to bottom.
Animated love: Princess Fiona and Shrek
There’s a new opening, new songs, improved illusions, a newly styled dragon and Shrek, I’m told, has a bigger heart.
Ashford told me recently that he and his associates have re-staged a lot of numbers and he has worked closely with Moore on making audiences care more about the title character.
‘I think you’ll be happily surprised,’ he said. a filmed version of the Broadway show was screened to theatrical agents in London and scores of actors have been seen for the four main roles of Shrek, Princess Fiona, Lord Farquaad and Donkey.
At one point Michael Ball was in talks, but his calendar is heavily booked with the successful UK tour of Hairspray, some concerts and a planned production of Sweeney Todd opposite Imelda Staunton at Chichester, to be directed by Jonathan Kent.
It soon became clear there was no way he could do Shrek as well.
Whoever ends up being cast, Shrek The musical is to begin performances at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, next May, with a likely official opening night the following month. Oliver!, the current occupant at the Drury lane theatre, will close on January 8 after a much-extended run.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1289438/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Has-Amanda-Holden-got-talent-Shrek-musical.html#ixzz0rq89pZ5G
He may be about to hand in his detective’s badge, but John Nettles can’t get away from murder that easily.
He is shooting his final Midsomer Murders episode, after which he will return to the stage to play Claudius and the Ghost in Hamlet opposite John Simm, another refugee from television-land.
Once upon a time Nettles was a theatre mainstay, particularly with the RSC, where he played major roles season after season.
The last time I saw him on stage was in Julius Caesar and Richard III — and he’s heeded the Bard’s call again, but this time for Daniel Evans artistic director of Sheffield Theatres.
Paul Miller will direct Simm, Nettles, Michelle Dockery as Ophelia and Barbara Flynn as Gertrude.
Adam Foster, Ben Lamb, James Loye, Joseph Mydell, Hugh Ross, Harry Lister-Smith, Roderick Smith and Colin Tierney are also in the company.
Hamlet begins performances at the Sheffield Crucible from September 22.
Nettles, who also starred in the long-running Jersey-based police series Bergerac, has played Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby in Midsomer Murders for 13 years.
It has been one of ITV’s most popular crime shows, but it was time Barnaby moved on from his police HQ in Causton.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1289438/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Has-Amanda-Holden-got-talent-Shrek-musical.html#ixzz0rq8FuCQg
Peter Egan and Robert Daws, who will solve the mystery of why the musical The Fantasticks is closing at the Duchess Theatre tomorrow night after a run of just one month when it ran for more than 40 years in New York.
That’s easy: the production had virtually no bookings and the critics hated it.
Egan and Daws will star in the show that follows it, Sherlock Holmes, with Egan playing Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero and Daws as Dr Watson.
Robin Herford is directing from an adaptation by Jeremy Paul.
The show had been on tour and producers Richard Temple and Ian Fricker swiftly arranged for it to come into town when managers at the Duchess realised The Fantasticks was in trouble.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1289438/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Has-Amanda-Holden-got-talent-Shrek-musical.html#ixzz0rq8PQN00
Martin Shaw and Jenny Seagrove who will star in a new production of the Clifford Odets classic the Country Girl, which hot director Rufus Norris will direct at the Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue, in October.
This is such a great play, but it’s a tricky balance.
Get it wrong — as they did on Broadway with Mike Nichols directing Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand two seasons ago — and you catch a cold.
Norris, I sense, will have a much better eye for this story about an actor trying to stay off the booze as he performs in an ‘outta town’ try-out for a new play and the wife who may be doing more harm than good.
There’s great meat on these roles if they can just get the balance and tempo right.
I saw Shaw in this play at the same theatre a long while ago, but he played another part, now to be taken by Mark Letheren. Luke Shaw, Nicholas Day, Peter Harding and Thomasin Rand also feature.
Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly were in the 1954 screen version.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1289438/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Has-Amanda-Holden-got-talent-Shrek-musical.html#ixzz0rq8XTRYx
