Wuthering Heights musical/Bernard J. Taylor

[philly03]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 9:37pm

Wondering if anyone has ever seen a production play out of Bernard J. Taylor's Wuthering Heights the Musical. I recently re-found the concept recording, and actually enjoy some of the score. Apparently it's the only musical version the Bronte Society has endorsed.

This guy has quite a few musicals - Pride & Prejudice, Dracula, etc. but seems like they never reach larger stages.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 9:40pm

His Dracula is called Nosferatu.

[Zenobia]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 10:37am

I saw it when it first opened in Heilbronn/Germany in 1997 - it was very much helped by a great charismatic leading man but otherwise forgettable.

The same theatre did Taylor's Pride & Prejudice later which was a horrible idea from the start as the novel relies on sharp dialogue and doesn't lend itself to musicalization at all. I was bored stiff.

I also just realize it was 17 years ago. Thanks for making me feel old...

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 12:36pm

I felt old 15 years ago.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 12:40pm

I LOVE this concept album, it is brilliant camp. Here's a favorite song of mine, "Cathy!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK-Mha2522Y (They should have just renamed the musical Heathcliff!)

Taylor fascinates me. He must be independently wealthy, otherwise I have no idea how he has 15(!) works and actually quite a few recordings. (The rock musical Tom Brown: New Boy at School sounds genius.) http://www.bernardjtaylor.com/

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 1:05pm

Except Heathcliff already existed.

No, really. It was a Cliff Richard vehicle.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 1:09pm

I knew you would pop up in this thread! I remembered that Richards had a Wuthering musical but how could I forget it was called that??

[Zenobia]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 2:30pm

Both came out around the same time. Taylor blamed Richard for ruining his chances to get Wuthering Heights staged big time in London. After the Heathcliff debacle nobody was going near that story again for a while and the era of the big weepies ended anyway.

[stewart81]

Posted: 5/4/14 at 3:18am

I'm working on new orchestrations for this score right now. It has a production in
The UK next year by an amateur group. We did the same last year for Pride and Prejudice which was produced twice in the UK in the last 12 months.

Bernard lives in Twxas these days and I've worked with him on the new scores
for a few years and he is as excited as ever. Opera Moderne in New York is developing his Fitzgerald score for production.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/4/14 at 8:45am

For me it might have one advantage over other contemporary musical versions of classic novels: since I didn't much like the book, they couldn't ruin it for me.

[MHTY]

Posted: 6/11/14 at 4:59pm

Woking Amateur Operatic Society (Surrey, England)is the company who will be performing Wuthering Heights 5 to 9 May 2015, and I am directing it, and really looking forward to it. The script is clever and Bernard Taylor has totally captured the spirit of the book and the characters.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/11/14 at 5:22pm

Wuthering Heights came out a few years before Heathcliff, but I actually enjoy quite a bit of the Heathcliff score. Unfortunately, it was just too much of a Cliff Richards vanity project and the production itself was ridiculous.

[stewart81]

Posted: 6/12/14 at 2:46pm

I've been in touch with your MD Ian by email to discuss the revised score. Nothing in it is altering from the script/musical content but it is being tidied up throughout for the musicians.

[MHTY]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 5:39am

Yes, Ian has kept me informed of the re-writing progress, which I understand is going well, but I gather requires quite a lot of work. My rehearsals are starting on 3rd November, so the re-written PV score is really needed by mid Oct, ideally by 20th October, to give me the production team enough time to organize the printing of them in readiness for the introduction evening on 3rd November.Thank you.

[skylight2]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 1:16am

He wrote a Much Ado About Nothing musical as well. Did anyone like that?

[MHTY]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 4:07am

what was the production like? a bad production can ruin a show, however good the leading man is and the music is. And being a "professional" show does not always equate to being a good production.

[MHTY]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 4:14am

Well I am getting that story out again, Cliff Richard or not. And yes, Cliff Richards's show was just a vehicle for himself, it did not care enough about the story. That is the reason for its failure. Bernard Taylor script is clever and offers so much potential for staging. I hope by the time I have finished directing it, this show will be taken on by other Amateur Companies wanting to tackle material out of the ordinary.