Following the delighted audience reaction to opening night and the outstanding reviews that poured in, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s award winning production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical has, unsurprisingly, extended its booking period!
Tickets are now on sale up to, and including, 21 October 2012 and are available from:
RSC Ticket Hotline: 0844 800 1110
SEE Tickets: 0844 412 4652
To book online go to: www.matildathemusical.com
If you’d like to know more visit the Matilda The Musical website, where you’ll find a wealth of information about the show, the cast, photos, videos and even clips of the cast recording, which is available to buy here.
You can also catch up with the story so far of how Tim helped turn Roald Dahl’s famous children’s book into a hit musical by taking a look at this here Matilda Page, which details the development of Matilda The Musical from inspired idea to the West End stage…
Last Sunday at the Evening Standard Awards ceremony, Matilda the Musical won the Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical. It was presented by Miranda Hart and collected by Tim, Dennis Kelly and Matthew Warchus. There’s a short video of Tim, Dennis and Matthew receiving the award here.
During a week of press attendance Matilda The Musical opened on Thursday 24th November at the Cambridge Theatre in London’s West End. Here’s the opening night video showing some performance footage intercut with short interviews with members of the cast, the creative team and attendees:
“Writer Dennis Kelly and composer and lyricist Tim Minchin go to the top of the class with this anarchically joyous, gleefully nasty and ingenious musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s story.
Dennis Kelly’s script actually improves and deepens Dahl’s original. Meanwhile, Aussie comedian Tim Minchin has come up with a smashing score that combines take-home melodies with delicious lyrical wit in songs that consistently develop both the plot and our understanding of the characters.
A thrilling, warm-hearted production, which constantly combines comedy with a sense of wonder.”
“Matilda is a gem…enchanting. At the heart of this satisfyingly fresh adaptation of a cherished Roald Dahl story are Australian comedian Tim Minchin’s music and lyrics, which ooze humour…Dennis Kelly’s book switches smartly from grubby fun to a grown-up idiom.
This generous, big-hearted piece is already being spoken of as one of the best new British musicals in years.”
This video, the reviews and more detailed award information will all remain available, along with the rest of the story of Matilda so far, told in words, photos and videos on the regularly updated Matilda Page.
Do keep your eyes open for more Matilda news coming very soon and remember you can always sign up to the RSC mailing list.
Adelaideans! Are you looking for an amazing gift for your special someone this Valentine’s Day? Well look no further as we can confirm a second show with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on the 14th February 2012 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre!
Of course, this isn’t just restricted to couples so feel free to bring along friends, brothers, grandmas and cats* and let them share the magic too!
Tickets go on general sale on Wednesday, however, there’s a presale starting today at 9am on Ticketek and the password you’ll need is CAGE.
UK folk have been able to buy their copy of Tim Minchin and The Heritage Orchestra (Live at the Royal Albert Hall) for over a week now, but today is the day when it’ll be available for you Australians to buy from all good DVD retailers, so why not pop along to one, if only to see Tim’s face staring out at you from the shelves!
To celebrate the Australian coming out day for the DVD, we’ve got a funky little clip of Tim’s seven minute prog rock epic for the lactose tolerant, Cheese!
The Royal Variety Show prides itself on having “something for everyone” and this year Tim’s one of those special somethings…
This year’s spectacle will take place at The Lowry in Salford on the 5th December, and will be hosted by Peter Kay, with Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal in attendance.
Also performing along with Tim will be: magicians, Penn and Teller; mime, The Boy With Tape On His Face, and comedians Jason Manford and Greg Davies! Musical turns will be provided by Barry Mannilow, Cee Lo Green and Pixie Lott, amongst others.
The show will be aired on ITV later in December, and we’ll be sure to let you know when it’s on, so you can see which of Tim’s songs is deemed suitable for royalty!
On Wednesday night there was a Gala evening at the Matilda The Musical performance, hosted by Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity . Tim was one of many special guests, all there to raise money for this truly marvellous charity which believes that “every child has the right to a good quality of life, no matter how ill they are…” and works hard to provide nurses, carers, toys and equipment to improve the lives of seriously ill and disabled children in the UK.
At the event Tim; Quentin Blake, the illustrator who brought to life so many of Roald Dahl’s characters; Tony Ross, writer and illustrator of the Little Princess series and illustrator for the later publication of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ and author/illustrator Louise Yates, who wrote the award winning tale ‘Dog loves books’ all drew sketches to be auctioned on eBay for the charity. Tim drew Quentin Blake!
There will be six items up for auction, all sketches and charcoals and you can find more details and how to bid for them here.
EDIT: Once the auction closed on Sunday 27th November, @RoaldDahlFund, the official Twitter account of Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity tweeted: “Huge thanks to the splendid people who bid in our illustration auction – over £6k raised to help many families of seriously ill children”.
*****
White Wine In The Sun
This year, once again, all the proceeds from Tim’s beautiful, seasonally sentimental Christmas song ‘White Wine in the Sun’ will go to The National Autistic Society (NAS) which provides support, information and services for people with autism and their families and campaigns for “a better world for people with autism”.
It‘s available to download from various online sources including iTunes (as ever) but this applies to all legitimate downloads of the single from November 1st 2011 to February 1st 2012.
There will be yet more Tim on your radio stations and telly boxes this week! For your ease of viewing and listening pleasure, please find the dates and some ATTs* below for your perusal:
Front Row BBC Radio 4 7.15pm-7.45pm
Sorry, no ATT* available.
*Please note, again, these ATTs (approximate Timmy times) are subject to change and are just a guide
If you miss any of the national BBC radio shows you’ll be able to catch up later using the BBC iPlayer. BBC radio broadcasts and their iPlayer catchups are also available to listen to worldwide.
That’s right, if you’re in the UK, you should be able to pop down to your local DVD retailer of choice and see Tim’s face, resplendent with big hair and thick eye makeup, staring out at you from the shelves because Tim Minchin and The Heritage Orchestra (Live at the Royal Albert Hall) goes on sale today!
To celebrate this, we’ve got an exclusive, new clip just for you from the aforementioned DVD to whet your appetite for it.
Australians, you’ll be able to pick yourselves up a copy from the 23rd November.
Tim will be appearing on Blue Peter, 4.30pm BBC One this coming Monday, 14th November 2011. He and presenter Barney Harwood will be teaming up to write a comedy song about some of the people and programmes on CBBC. Quite a challenge!
EDIT: Unfortunately Tim’s appearance on Blue Peter appears to have been re-scheduled at the last minute. It now looks like Tim will be on tomorrow’s Blue Peter, 15th November, according to the BBC and it is listed as such here.
After such a busy Monday he’ll just be on the one radio show on Tuesday 15th November:
Steve Wright in the Afternoon BBC Radio 2: 2pm-5pm Tim’s talking to Patrick Kielty who is sitting in for Steve Wright.
Sorry no ATT* available for this one.
*Please note these ATTs (approximate Timmy times) are subject to change and are just a guide.
If you miss any of these shows you’ll be able to catch up later using the BBC iPlayer.
Admit it – who boogied to that then or became slightly hypnotised by the pretty lights?
In the UK Tim’s new DVD Tim Minchin and The Heritage Orchestra (Live at the Royal Albert Hall) will be released on the 14th November on DVD, Double play (DVD and Blu-ray) and as a special, limited, DVD edition from Amazon. In Australia it’ll be out on the 23rd November on DVD and Blu-ray.
Take a look here for the official trailer and full tracklist and details and you can already pre-order from the shop.
There are more funky video clips heading this way so keep your eyes peeled and stay on your toes at the ready to dance…
Here’s a bit of bloggage in honour of the coming out of my DVD, Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra (Live at the Royal Albert Hall).
The Heritage Orchestra is surely the coolest symphony orchestra on the planet (hard to verify, but very likely indeed), and I had an unbelievably incredibly excellent time touring with them.
Below are some ramblings from Chris Wheeler, the Heritage’s idiotic and sexually ambiguous producer. Below that are things that Pete and Brad and I wrote in an earlier blog, wot I’ve gone and reposted.
The DVD comes out in the UK on Monday (14th) and in Australia the following Wednesday (23rd). If everyone in those two countries buys a copy, then I’ll buy a castle in Italy and a monkey.
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Tim in big hair and tails at the piano whilst behind him Jules Buckley leads the Heritage Orchestra with flourishes of his 'wand' and sometimes dancing...
Chris Wheeler – Artistic Director of Heritage Orchestra: “Having been tipped off about Tim’s need for an orchestra by our sax player (who happened to have drugged him backstage at a Jamie Cullum gig) we decided to follow Tim for two weeks and plant sublimal messages about Heritage Orchestra to secure our booking. After one week the tuba player just about blew his cover in the mens lavatory right next to the target, not to mention our unstable Bassoonist who, unbeknownst to higher management, had a genuine fascination with Minchin and just about spilled her beans during one of many staged ‘within ear-shot’ conversations based on the greatness of Heritage Orchestra. Suffice to say, our relabelling of Tim’s favourite consumables with the words ‘book the Heritage Orchestra Mr Minchin or we’ll chop your bollocks off’ at his local Costcutter, must have swayed him, and we were soon to receive the call from the medieval weaponry department of Phil McIntyre Entertainment and be catapulted into the world of arena comedy. We no longer follow Tim, except the Bassoonist who does follow him a lot.
On a less serious note, our time on tour with Tim, Pete, and Brad was incredible. My passionate moment with Tim was a personal highlight. But it’s not often you get invited to tour around the country in a double-decker with 55 people who ‘know each other’ (I refrained from saying friends as some are lovers and others are sworn enemies), and rock-out on stage in front of thousands of people with a proper funny man – good times. Brad and Pete were sort of ok to be with too, I think that Tim felt sorry for them because they were outnumbered when we played nicky-nacky-noo in the hotel steam room with the wind section and three french horns, but Brad and I grew close after that. I think Brad and I will be friends forever. I love Brad.
Anyway, I find it hard to write a serious blog about a tour that was full of laughs and general tomfoolery. But of course we are the most professional orchestra in the goddamn world, and had the most advanced orchestral production setup we could have hoped for thanks to Tim’s uncompromising vision for this orchestral spectacular. Alleluia…… Alleluia.
Heritage Orchestra loves Tim, and we thank him and all those involved who made the tour and forthcoming DVD possible, what a pleasure.”
In addition to putting on a show with supremely brilliant lineup in aid of an excellent cause, Crisis are also offering four lucky people the chance to meet and greet Tim!
If you missed the first announcement, the show, Stand Up and Rock, takes place at London’s Hammersmith Apollo on the 20th December and, in addition to Tim, features Paul Weller, Graham Coxon, Jo Brand and The Choir With No Name, and if that’s not enough, it’s being hosted by the fantastic Ross Noble. Tickets are available from Gigs and Tours and Ticketmaster.
So here’s the exciting bit – Crisis are also auctioning two special pairs of tickets for the show on Seetickets, which include the opportunity for you to meet Tim! Bidding closes tomorrow night at 8pm, so dig deep and get bidding as all proceeds will help this wonderful cause.
Funds raised will go towards the Crisis at Christmas campaign, which is marking it’s 40th anniversary this year, as well as helping with Crisis Skylight centres, which provide education and training year-round. The Crisis at Christmas campaign provides a warm, safe place to stay for tens of thousands of homeless and vulnerably housed people and sets them up for a better year ahead. Further details of their work can be found on the Crisis website.
If you’re in America, Tim will be popping up on Sirius XM‘s Raw Dog Comedy, channel 99, this weekend! They’ll be airing an interview with him, which will be interspersed with performances of some of his stupid songs and some of his not so stupid songs. The dates and times you’ll need to hear this slice of awesomeness are as follows:
Saturday 5th November – 4pm ET
Sunday 6th November – 10pm ET
If you don’t have access to Sirius XM and still want a piece of Tim (or if you do, and want more), don’t forget that you can now grab a copy of his debut American DVD, ‘Ready For This?’ and if you’re near Providence or Chicago, then Tim has gigs there tonight and on the 10th, respectively.
Paul Weller, Tim, Graham Coxon and Jo Brand will headline Stand Up and Rock: an exciting music and comedy gig in aid of Crisis on Tuesday 20 December 2011, at the Hammersmith Apollo, London. The event will be hosted by Ross Noble.
Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people, working to end homelessness by campaigning and providing essential services and opportunities to meet individual needs. Stand Up and Rock comes as Crisis at Christmas is marking its 40th year of providing a warm, safe place to stay for tens of thousands of homeless and vulnerably housed people. Crisis at Christmas not only provides immediate help for homeless people over this critical time, but it sets them up for a better year ahead.
Joining the musicians and comedians on stage will be The Choir With No Name, an acclaimed choir made up of homeless people and others on the fringes of society. If you didn’t click the links above then more gig details and information about Crisis can be found here.
Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday 4th November from: www.gigsandtours.com and Ticketmaster. Both standing and seated tickets are available ranging from £39.50 to £75.00.
All proceeds from the gig will go towards Crisis’ life changing services at Crisis at Christmas and year-round in its Skylight centres across the country. Crisis will be asking gig-goers to sign up to a new campaign, No one turned away, calling for the Government to strengthen the law so no one is forced to sleep rough.
Tim:“Stand Up and Rock for Crisis is going to be an amazing night. Such a unique mix of acts, and a huge milestone for this brilliant charity. Can’t wait.”
Adelaideans! Are you looking for an amazing gift for your special someone this Valentine’s Day? Well look no further as we can confirm a second show with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on the 14th February 2012 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre!
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