Tim, Melanie C, Chris Moyles and Ben Forster will perform songs from Jesus Christ Superstar on ITV’s Easter special:
Andrew Lloyd Webber – 40 Musical Years this Sunday March 31st, 6:30pm – 8:00pm, on ITV1. (also ITVHD, STV, UTV and on ITV+1 at 7:30pm)
The 90 minute extravaganza, hosted by Michael Ball, will feature live music and one-off collaborations in celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s continuous run of hits in the West End over the past 40 years. The cast of Jesus Christ Superstar join a star-studded line up which includes Myleene Klass, Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberley Walsh and Il Divo. There’ll be interviews with Michael Caine and Sir Alex Ferguson along with insights from the composer himself. Classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic will perform a number from Lloyd Webber’s eagerly awaited new musical, Stephen Ward.
UPDATE: For those people asking, unfortunately, this will only be aired in the UK.
For some time I’ve been keeping certain tunes off t’internet in order to ensure audiences of my live shows get a few surprises. I like surprises.
However, as an Easter gift I’m putting the Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra (UK,Aus) version of “Thank You God” up on the YouTubular for y’all to enjoy. I do hope you do. It’s embedded at the bottom of this bloggerage.
The vid has a bit of standup on it too, because the song requires a bit of context for ye first-time listeners. You can skip to 05:25 if you wanna just hear the song.
A wee warning – it ain’t suitable for work or for those who are sensitive to irreligious content.
I want to also take this opportunity to point you towards my new shop. My webman, Neil, has been working hard on getting the thing more efficient and easier to use. And there’s a few new bits of tatt there, with more to come soon. I don’t recommend you buy a tee shirt with a massive picture of my massive head on it, as I think it’s a weird thing to do. However, you people do shit that I think is weird all the time… so knock yourselves out: UK & Europe Shop, Australasia Shop and North America Shop.
Hope you get a break over Easter and eat an amount of chocolate that won’t trigger diabetes.
Tim:“Here’s a guest blog from my friend Joe Stilgoe, who made an amazing radio show pilot the other week. I was lucky enough to be a guest. Thought you might be interested! He’s a fine man and a great muso. Check out his album here or here.”
Joe:“You might imagine an altogether different clientele when free wine is offered at 12 noon in the middle of Soho, but those who arrived at Ronnie Scott’s, blinking in the darkness and groping around for a svelte Chardonnay or a chunky Merlot, were a classy bunch, and of the same mind: WE’RE HERE TO BE ENTERTAINED. I had been asked by those kindly if misguided souls at Radio 2 if I could put together a new show of wit, warmth, music, mirth, jazz, soul, comedy, unique moments and exciting revelation. I said no. They said there would be free wine. I said YES. They bought me a drink. I said YESH. The first name at the top of my hit-list was your very own boy wonder Minchin, and after he said YESH as well, I knew we’d be able to cram in some other rather juicy guests and at least have a stab at making this thing work.
The aim of this lunchtime romp was to thrash around in a hot jazz club oven and magically create an hour long radio show, or cake, if you will, so the brief demanded plenty of high quality organic ingredients to get that perfect bake, and no soggy bottom thank you very much. Does a baking metaphor stretch to radio? Does it ever…
I’d asked Tim because I knew he would fit in perfectly, be the biggest star in the room by an Australian mile (km) and give me some space to concentrate on hosting the thing and trying to hold it together. I was a mixture of… No, I’ll leave it there. I was a mixture. (See? The baking thing is STILL going!)
The Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane dates for the Australian arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar sold out very quickly, so three extra shows have been added:
1st June 2013 Perth Arena
(On general sale from 9am local time, Monday 18th March 2013)
5th June 2013 Adelaide Entertainment Centre
(On general sale from 9am local time, Monday 18th March 2013)
12th June 2013 Brisbane Entertainment Centre
(On general sale now)
Just in case you’ve missed our earlier announcements: Tim’s reprising his award-winning performance as Judas Iscariot for the Australian arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, while Melanie C and Ben Forster will also be returning in their roles from the UK production as Mary Magdalene and Jesus.
Deal or No Deal host Andrew O’Keefe will play King Herod and Jon Stevens, who appeared as Judas Iscariot in the 1992 Australian arena tour of the show is taking on the role of Pontius Pilate.
As we announced here the arena production of Jesus Christ Superstar is heading to Australia in May/June 2013!
Tickets go on general sale tomorrow morning – 8th March 2013.
Tim’s in rehearsals right now preparing to reprise his award-winning performance as Judas Iscariot for the tour, while Melanie C and Ben Forster will also be returning in their roles from the UK production as Mary Magdalene and Jesus.
Deal or No Deal host Andrew O’Keefe will play King Herod and Jon Stevens, who appeared as Judas Iscariot in the 1992 Australian arena tour of the show is taking on the role of Pontius Pilate.
This weekend, in the run up to the arena tour in May/June, Australian TV channel 7 is running a dedicated special on Jesus Christ Superstar:
Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular 2013
7TWO: Saturday 9th March 2013, 1:30pm – 2:00pm*
Repeated on 7: Sunday 10th March 2013, 5:00pm – 5:30pm*
“An exciting behind-the-scenes look into the Australian production Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular, touring Australia in 2013. With Jon Stevens, Andrew O’Keefe, Tim Minchin, Melanie C and Andrew Lloyd Webber.”
The listings are here. *It’s probably worth checking the schedule for when it is airing in your state’s time zone.
Also this Sunday there’s an interview with Tim available on Sunday Night:
Our expat superstar
Tim will be talking to Ross Coulthart about his varied and successful career since moving overseas and about reprising his award winning role as Judas for the forthcoming Australian arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Tim has also offered himself up for an eBay auction! You have less than five hours left to bid for two tickets, in some of the best seats in the house, to see the record breaking, multi-award winning Matilda The Musicaland Tim will buy you drinks in the interval and entertain you with convivial chat and those sparkling blue eyes. Find out the details and bid for Tim here.
You can sponsor Mark on his epic challenge here and the link at the top of the page takes you to more information and the live streaming of the event and you’ll find more auctions* here.
You can also donate £5 by texting ‘Mark’ to 70005.
* Psst! At the moment gossip in a pub with Caitlin Moran is out bidding drinks with Tim at Matilda! I won’t tell him if you don’t…
UPDATE: The auction ended with a winning bid of £2,650.00. Congratulations to the winner and have a fabulous night!
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