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Matilda The Musical has been nominated for Best West End Show in the 2017 Whatsonstage Awards. These awards are nominated by and voted for purely by theatregoers and the ticket-buying public.

Groundhog Day has been nominated in seven categories, including Best New Musical, with Andy Karl up for Best Actor in a Musical, along with:
Best Direction – Matthew Warchus
Best Choreography – Peter Darling and Ellen Kane
Best Set Design – Rob Howell
Best Lighting Design – Hugh Vanstone
Best Video Design – Andrzej Goulding

Voting is open until the end of January 2017. Thank you!

Winners will be announced at the Awards Concert on Sunday 19th February 2017 at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

Photo by Joan Marcus

On Monday night, Kylie Sturgess, a regular broadcaster on RTRFM and podcaster with Token Skeptic, hosted a ‘mostly Tim’ edition of the Snooze Button show, a late-night programme on RTRFM, an independent community radio station broadcasting, 24/7 at 92.1FM in Perth, Australia.

In the early hours they can be a bit creative with the playlists, so, at 4am on the 19th, Kylie devoted over an hour of the show to music by, related to or enjoyed by Tim, calling it ‘The Snooze Button (Angry Feet) Christmas Show!’ after his poem and fansite.

The Monday 19th December, 2016, Episode of The Snooze Button Show will be available for streaming for at least a further two weeks here. The full playlist is viewable on there too.

Snooze Button 19th December: “This show features an hour of songs by local musicians, taking a tour through some of the work by the Fisher family – Jim Fisher (including a song from this year’s Fremantle “Hidden Treasures Winter Music Series”, the bands Sensitive New Age Cowpersons, and Dude Ranch [with Lucky Oceans]); Tim Minchin (songs from his soundtrack with the Midnight Youth Theatre company production of Mother Courage in 1995; Matilda the Musical; Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 2012; soundtrack to TV show Californication; early band Timmy The Dog, along with some songs he mentioned on BBC’s Desert Island Disks); Tom Fisher (and the Layabouts); Lucy Fisher.”

Vogue Australia – January 2017
Photo by Julie Adams

Tim strikes a pose for Vogue Australia’s January 2017 issue as part of Vogue’s celebration of the Australians in Film Foundation.

Australians in Film is a Los Angeles based non-profit film, television and digital content foundation that supports and promotes Australian screen talent and culture in the United States.

The photo was taken at the Foundation’s 5th annual awards in Los Angeles, in October, at which Tim was Master of Ceremonies.

Vogue Australia January 2017 issue is on sale Monday 19th December.

Hey! It’s that time again and as in previous years, all November, December and January profits from the sale of Tim’s beloved sentimental Christmas song, White Wine In The Sun, will go to The National Autistic Society (NAS) which provides support for people with autism and their families.

There are two versions; the 2009 solo version and the 2012 studio version, with strings, french horn and more.

Along with the UK iTunes link above, here are a few more of the places you can download the 2012 single internationally: iTunes , Amazon (UK), Amazon (US) and 7digital.

If you have it already, you may fancy gifting it, along with the socks, jocks or chocs…

Tickets are now on sale for Groundhog Day on Broadway from Ticketmaster.com or by calling (800) 745-3000.

Previews, at the August Wilson Theatre, begin March 16th, 2017, with the official Groundhog Day opening night set for April 17th, 2017.

Andy Karl (Phil Connors)
Photo © Manuel Harlan

Andy Karl will reprise his much lauded London performance as Phil Connors, a cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Caught in a time loop, he’s forced to relive the same day again and again…and again.

Further Broadway casting is yet to be announced.

The show reunites composer and lyricist Tim, with director Matthew Warchus, choreographer Peter Darling and designer Rob Howell, four of the Matilda The Musical creative team. They have joined forces with writer Danny Rubin to collaborate on this new musical based on his 1993 hit film.

Groundhog Day is being produced on Broadway by Matthew Warchus and André Ptaszynski for Whistle Pig, and Lia Vollack for Columbia Live Stage.

Additional information can be found at groundhogdaymusical.com.

Groundhog Day enjoyed a hugely successful and critically acclaimed 10 week season at the Old Vic Theatre, London, in the summer of 2016.

Andy Karl (Phil Connors) Photo © Manuel Harlan

Groundhog Day The Musical has been nominated for The Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical 2016 as part of The Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

The winner is decided by public vote. So, if you enjoyed Groundhog Day at The Old Vic Theatre this summer, please cast your vote here. Thank you!

Voting closes at 23.59 this Sunday, 23rd October. The six shortlisted musicals are: Funny Girl (The Menier Chocolate Factory and The Savoy), Groundhog Day (The Old Vic), Guys and Dolls (The Savoy and Phoenix Theatre), Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (National Theatre) and Sunset Boulevard (London Coliseum).

The winner will be announced on Sunday 13th November, 2016, at the glittering 62nd awards ceremony, held at The Old Vic this year.

There’s now a new Groundhog Day The Musical website where you can sign up for the newsletter.

Tim was a guest on a couple of Podcasts, in LA, recently.

Recorded live at the LA Podcast Festival last month, Tim talked comedy, his inner-robot, working on ‘Larrikins’ at Dreamworks, his musicals and much more, on Stuart Goldsmith’s Comedian’s Comedian Podcast. Earlier in September, recorded alive at Wil’s home, he got all Wilosophical with Wil Anderson on Wilosophy, talking about death, beliefs, soup and more.

Comedian’s Comedian Podcast is available to download here or on iTunes.

Wilosophy Podcast is available to download here or on iTunes.

ICYMI: Back in July Tim was a guest on Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP). Audio and video were released last month, details here.

Tim’s heading to Santa Barbara, California, for one night only, to play at the Lobero Theatre on Sunday, October 30th at 8pm.

Joining Tim on stage as he performs a selection of satirical, hilarious and beautiful songs from his back-catalogue, will be a grand piano, polished to within an inch of its existence and a nice glass of red – for deftly wafting and sloshing during those animated talky bits…

Tickets go on sale this Friday, October 7th at 10am PST here.

This autumn, Tim’ll be lugging his enormous hairdo grand piano over to the Big Apple and donning some natty attire, befitting his fashion icon status biting satire, in order to perform a rare show at the Beacon Theatre in New York, as part of the New York Comedy Festival.

NAKED, from the ankles down, Tim will be hitting the stage (and his piano) at 9:45pm on Thursday, November 3rd, to rock your socks with a selection of songs from his unique, hilarious and beautiful oeuvre.

Tickets for Tim Minchin – Live and Solo are available from Ticketmaster and the Beacon Theatre.

Snap them up while you can!

UPDATE for those asking: The show will be about 80 minutes, with no interval.

Photo courtesy of the Old Vic

Groundhog Day the Musical’s hugely successful and critically acclaimed 10 week season at the Old Vic Theatre, London, has come to an end.

If you managed to spend some time in snowy small town Punxsutawney, this summer, you were part of something pretty special and the enthusiasm and joy of the audiences has been a delight to the cast, musicians, crew and creatives.

A selection of the 5* reviews can be found here.

So, the Groundhog Day posters and hoardings have been taken down…

…but last week, it was announced that:

Groundhog Day the Musical is heading to Broadway spring 2017!

Groundhog Day opens on Broadway, at the August Wilson Theatre, April 17th, with a start date for previews still to be set. There’s no information yet on the Broadway casting but we’ll keep you updated.

There’s a shiny new Groundhog Day the Musical website where you can sign up to the newsletter.

Andy Karl (Phil Connors) and Carlyss Peer (Rita Hanson)
Photo © Manuel Harlan

Tomorrow…

Back in July Tim was a guest on Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP).

The episode will be available on Wednesday 14th September. You can watch and/or listen via these links:

Video of the interview will be on iTunes and YouTube.

Audio will be on iTunes and British Comedy Guide.

“RHLSTP #114 Fish Pie Mix- Tim Minchin: Rich has exciting news that will make other puppet-sex enthusiasts very jealous, but there’s no time for even a brief wank using the hand of a 100 year old ventriloquist dummy as it’s the second coming of, if not the new Jesus, certainly the new Judas, Tim Minchin. The pair bring out the best worst in each other again, alternating between inappropriate chat about wangs and fufus and serious topics like the rise of anti-intellectualism, the imminent destruction of the planet and what motivates anyone to betray a living God. Also what would you do if you had the chance to destroy a space ship where a small majority of the aliens were evil? Should dirty britcom confessions be seen as a compliment? How does David Duchovny spend his spare time on set? Has anyone interviewing Tim not attempted the obvious Groundhog Day joke? And most importantly has Tim Minchin ever tried sushi? This is the one place that will tell you.”
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Tomorrow evening, Saturday 10th September 2016, Tim will be performing at the celebrations for the Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park, London.
Proms in the Park is an open-air concert, presented by Michael Ball and featuring a host of musical stars along with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Richard Balcombe.

Tim will be performing several songs from Matilda The Musical with two of the Matildas, Zaris-Angel Hator and Clara Read (pictured L-R) and the BBC Concert Orchestra (no room for them in the picture). He’ll also perform a song from his new musical Groundhog Day.

There are various ways to watch and catch up on Proms events including online video coverage from the Last Night of the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall and the Proms in the Park events around the country at bbc.co.uk/proms. We’re unable to give a time that Tim and the Matildas will hit the stage in Hyde Park but there will be a live blog at the above link and social media coverage which may give some indication on the day.

Please check here for all the ways to watch and listen, along with timings and what you can access if you are not UK based, but in summary:

The Royal Albert Hall event will be streamed live, whilst the Park events will be shown via BBC Red Button coverage.

Live coverage will also be available via BBC iPlayer.

After the events, on-demand audio and video content will be available at bbc.co.uk/proms.
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Matilda and Me airs in the UK on Tuesday 13th September at 9pm on Sky Arts.

(Repeat schedule, Now TV details and trailers below)

Narrated by Tim’s sister Nel, who co-directed with Rhian Skirving, Matilda and Me is a family documentary telling the story of Matilda The Musical‘s journey to the Sydney Lyric Theatre, where the Australian production of the global smash hit opened last year.

Through a mix of footage (including some rare family moments), interviews, musical performance and Australian Matilda The Musical rehearsals, Matilda and Me charts Tim’s long-term fascination with Roald Dahl and the intimate relationship that developed between him and the multi-award-winning musical, for which he is now internationally known. Specially shot footage of Tim globetrotting between LA, London and Sydney, culminates with his return home for the triumphant opening night of Matilda The Musical in Australia.

Nel Minchin: “Anyone who has a brother or sister knows what it’s like to grow up so close to someone, and yet still be surprised at who they turn out to be. It was a chance for me to go back in time and piece together how my brother Tim became ‘Tim Minchin’ right before my eyes.”

Tim: “When Nel approached me about being involved in a Matilda doco, I was mostly just excited that she (and her co-director, Rhian, who is one of my best mates) had an excuse to come to LA to hang out. But what they’ve created is really lovely and surprising. They have explored my (unremarkable) origin story, and woven it beautifully into the (remarkable) origin story of this musical… celebrating the world-class Aussie theatre industry on the way. Clever sis.”
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Andy Karl (Phil Connors) Photo © Manuel Harlan

Last night Tim attended the official opening night of his new musical Groundhog Day at The Old Vic Theatre in London.

The show received a full standing ovation from a delighted audience and enthusiastic reviews are rolling in:

The Telegraph *****

“Groundhog Day: the Musical is an instant classic – and could be better than the movie”

The Times *****

“so much fun that it should be illegal.”

“manages to couple laugh-out-loud British humour with American razzmatazz.”

The Independent *****

“Such a tonic that it’s a pity you can’t get a repeat prescription for it.”

The Stage *****

“An absolute triumph”

“…tone is finely established in composer Tim Minchin’s evocative and exhilarating score… It is at once supremely melodic, magical, haunting and hilarious.”

WhatsOnStage *****

“[Andy Karl’s] is an outstanding performance at the centre of a magnificent work that sends everyone out into the night cheering – and just a little wiser.”

The Guardian ****

“fantastically smart, clever and witty”

Evening Standard *****

“…relentlessly amusing, Groundhog Day is a treat.”
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Tim Minchin: The Live Collection is now available from JB HiFi here for $19.98.

This new box set provides the opportunity to watch all of the live shows Tim’s recorded in the UK so far – in one epic marathon if you wish!

You can track how the rock ‘n’ roll nerd developed his satirical lyrical trickery, piano thrashing wizardry, iconic dance moves and that ‘look’, as he plays at the Bloomsbury Theatre, then the HMV Hammersmith Apollo and finally the Royal Albert Hall with the Heritage Orchestra.

Comprising three discs, the DVD collection is region code 4, so it’s mainly for Australia and New Zealand.

These two hour+ shows are packed with songs and talky-bits. The individual DVDs will give you a full track-list but here’s an idea of the content:
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