Matilda The Musical, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Dodgers, has announced a North American Tour commencing in May 2015.
Following technical rehearsals and performances in New Haven at the Shubert Theater, the tour will officially open at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. Amongst others, there will be dates in San Francisco’s SHN Orpheum Theatre, Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre and Dallas’ AT&T Performing Arts Center. A full touring schedule will be announced along with the casting at a later date and we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Matilda The Musical opened in April 2013 at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre to host of marvellously glowing reviews, won a slew of awards and has been celebrated on 10 “Top Ten” lists for 2013, including TIME Magazine’s #1 Show of the Year.
If you’d like to catch up with how Tim came to write the music and lyrics for the stage musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s famous book, then the story so far is here. You’ll also find the reviews and awards Matilda has received, both in the West End and on Broadway, along with photos and videos marking key chapters.
After its release last year on iTunes, the audio from the So F**king Rock Live DVD is finally available on CD too!
As Tim so eloquently put it in his blog post, “It is simply the audio from the DVD with the stand-up bits cut out, remixed by the clever ears and fingers of Mr Pete Clements.” The full tracklist looks a little bit like this:
1. So F**king Rock
2. Inflatable You
3. Rock ‘N’ Roll Nerd
4. Mitsubishi Colt
5. Ten Foot Cock and a Few Hundred Virgins
6. If You Open Your Mind Too Much Your Brain Will Fall Out (Take My Wife)
7. F Sharp
8. Canvas Bags
9. Nothing Can Stop Us Now
10. Some People Have It Worse Than I
11. If You Really Loved Me
12. Peace Anthem for Palestine
13. You Grew On Me
14. Dark Side
15. Not Perfect
16. Second Encore
You can grab yourself one of these silvery discs of goodness from this very website, whether you’re in Europe, North America or Australasia and if you’re in the UK, you might also get the opportunity to spot one of them in the wild at your local record shop!
Netflix UK has a month by month subscription for streaming various Films and TV programmes.
‘Ready For This?’ was filmed, in 2010, in front of a justifiably enthusiastic audience during a sell-out, 3-night run at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo, in London. It features: Prejudice, If I Didn’t Have You, Bears Don’t Dig On Dancing, Canvas Bags, Confessions, White Wine In The Sun, the acclaimed nine minute beat poem; Storm and many more.
The spectacular ‘Tim Minchin And The Heritage Orchestra Live at the Royal Albert Hall’ was filmed in April 2011. Tim is joined on stage by the awesome 55-piece Heritage Orchestra, led by Jules Buckley and by Pete Clements on bass and Brad Webb on drums. The concert features new orchestrations of favourites such as You Grew on Me, Not Perfect, Dark Side, Prejudice and Rock `n’ Roll Nerd, as well as Thank You God, Lullaby and many more.
Update for those asking on Twitter and elsewhere: there’s no word yet about Tim’s shows going up on Netflix USA or elsewhere, but if we hear anything we will announce here.
It seems that our wee secret has leaked: I’m working on a stage musical adaptation of the iconic and brilliant Danny Rubin script, Groundhog Day. Danny himself is writing the ‘book’, I’m writing music and lyrics, and Matthew Warchus (of Matilda fame) is directing.
For the handful of you who’ve never seen the film (philistines!), Groundhog Day is about a cantankerous weatherman who is sent to a small town to do a weather report, and gets stuck in a time loop, living the same day over and over again until – eventually – he figures out how to be less of a miserable, egotistical git. It’s about selflessness and acceptance and love and time and life and death and all that good stuff.
The 1993 Sony Pictures film was directed by Harold Ramis and starred Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, and is a true comedy classic. However, it would be impossible to try to translate the style and tone of the movie to stage… and even if it were possible, it wouldn’t interest me. (Or Danny or Matthew, for that matter).
Our version of Groundhog Day is going to be both instantly recognizable, and utterly different.
The central conceit is perfectly suited to the theatre, in my opinion. In fact, I think many of its ideas could be enhanced by the stage. It has the potential to be complex, dark, visually fascinating, and thematically rich, whilst still being a joyous romantic comedy with cool tunes and lots of gags. It’s certainly not an easy job, and I’m truly honoured – and genuinely excited – that Danny is letting me have a crack at it.
The idea of a Groundhog Day musical is not new; famously, Stephen Sondheim was rumoured to be working on the idea five or ten years ago. I’ve actually spoken to him about it (he is – if you’re wondering – a brilliant, witty, charming man), and the truth is he was only ever tossing the idea around. It got put on the back burner, and he is now happy that we’re making a go of it. We have Steve’s blessing – and it’s a blessing I value enormously.
So, we’re aiming for a workshop sometime towards summer, and hopefully we’ll have it on stage within a couple of years. But who knows? Maybe the whole project will get caught in a temporal vortex and we won’t be able to finish writing it until we’ve achieved wisdom.
Either way, you won’t hear any more about it from us until we know where and when we’re going to put it on. Back to work!
tx
PS I actually played two of the ballads from GhD at Koko in Camden a few weeks ago. Not sure whether, out of context, they meant anything to those of you who were there, but I hope you enjoyed them. I suspect some of you guessed the project ages ago anyway!
You may have already noticed that Matilda The Musical has been nominated for Best West End Show in the 2014 Whatsonstage Awards. These awards are nominated by and voted for purely by theatregoers and the ticket-buying public.
Voting opened in December and Matilda is up against Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, War Horse and Wicked. Sterling competition.
Matilda is currently second, just 2% behind Les Mis… the show that pipped Matilda to the post for this award last year! Close huh?!
So if you’d like to help make it Matilda‘s year for this award, you can cast your votes here!
There are a great many categories and you can only vote once but you can vote in as many or as few categories as you like. The Best West End Show category is near the bottom of the list.
Voting closes on the 31st January, 2014 and the winners will be announced on the 23rd February, at the Awards Ceremony and Concert.
Matilda, Broadway
In more exciting award news: The RSC’s Matilda Broadway cast album has been nominated for a 2014 Grammy Award, in the musical theatre category! The 56th Grammy awards will take place on the 26th January, 2014, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. More information here and here.
The spectacular Jesus Christ Superstar, with Tim playing his, award winning, dream role of Judas Iscariot, is on Channel 5 on Monday 30th December, 2013, at 11:35pm.
The show was filmed over two nights at Birmingham’s NIA, for a delighted and emotional crowd, when it first toured UK arenas in 2012. The fabulous cast also includes Melanie C as Mary Magdalene, Alexander Hanson in the role of Pontius Pilate, Chris Moyles as King Herod and winner of the ITV prime-time show Superstar Ben Forster in the title role of Jesus.
So if you want to see Tim brooding, rocking and [spoiler alert] dying in dreadlocks and tatts, now’s your chance. If the late time slot doesn’t suit you then fear not, it should appear on Demand 5 shortly after it airs.
UPDATE 30/12/2013: Our apologies – Channel 5 inform us that they will not be putting this up on Demand 5. However, if you can’t catch or record the programme, the DVD and Blu-ray are available in UK shops and online from various places including the JCS website and Amazon. (The DVD and Blu-ray are also available in Australia and the US.)
Here are a few (spoilery) clips to whet your appetite: (more…)
Tim will be joining a stellar line-up of guests for Jingle Bell Joe: Radio 2 House Party on Monday 23rd December, 2013, 10pm – 11pm (GMT) on BBC Radio 2.
Recorded live, before an appreciative studio audience, the show is hosted by singer-songwriter and pianist Joe Stilgoe who brings his band and plenty of seasonal fun and festivities to the proceedings.
Joe will be ‘singterviewing’ Tim at the piano(s) and Tim’ll perform a much loved favourite or two. Other treats include Dutch jazz vocalist Caro Emerald, performing A Night Like This, and 6 Music and Radio 2 DJ Cerys Matthews dueting with Joe on Baby It’s Cold Outside. You’ll also hear dashing Homeland star Damian Lewis as you’ve never heard him before.
So settle down with an appropriate beverage in front of a suitable source of twinkly light and heat, switch on the digital supplier of your radio signal and allow this delightful festive fayre to wash over you.
Remember:BBC Radio Twois available internationally, so you’ll be able to catch this worldwide if you can listen live.
If you miss it on the evening then the show will be up on BBC iPlayer, for those in the UK, shortly after it airs.
Tim and Joe at Ronnie Scott’s earlier this year
Joe has a shiny new album out on Christmas Eve Eve too: Songs On Film.
I’ll be playing non-comic originals and some not-at-all-amusing covers with my motley band of moderately talented musicians. There will be a support act of some sort, too, but we don’t know who it is yet. In fact, we don’t really know what the gig is going to be, except that it will be very good fun, and for a very good cause.
To reiterate: this is not a comedy gig. Well, not deliberately.
A message from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
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Australians! Are you ready to watch Tim cavorting naked on your telly screens? Well get excited because that’s exactly what’s going to happen! (Of course, if that doesn’t float your boat, it’s also a chance to check out how good he is at pretending to be someone else.)
From Monday 25th November 2013, airing at 10:30pm, Eleven will be showing season 6 of Californication, which features Tim’s silky-smooth acting skills in the role of the washed-up, drugged-up, frequently nude rock ‘n’ roll star Atticus Fetch, as he attempts to turn one of Hank Moody’s books into a Broadway musical. There will be laughs, tears and, of course, songs.
Atticus will feature in the vast majority of episodes, alongside other rock stars guest actors like Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols and Marilyn Manson from Marilyn Manson, so if you don’t want to miss out on any of his debauched antics, be sure to watch the whole season!
If you haven’t seen the preview clip yet, here it is again to lull you into a a state of excited anticipation:
The cast of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical will be kicking off the annual BBC Children in Need 2013 Appeal tomorrow night, Friday 15th November from 7:30pm on BBC One with a very special performance.
Viewers will be treated to a marvellous medley of numbers from the show. So if you’ve not yet seen it you can enjoy a fabulous taster of Tim’s music and lyrics. If you have seen it you’ll be able to re-live some of your favourite moments.
Since 1980 Children in Need, the BBC’s UK charity, has raised over £600 million to change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people across the UK. To donate please visit:www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey.
We already let you know, here, that the Broadway production of Matilda The Musical would be releasing its own original cast recording, but that was quite a while ago, so here we are again to tell that you it’s now available to buy in the shops, as well as from various digital retailers.
Apart from the brilliant Broadway cast, it differs from the equally marvellous London Cast Recording in that it includes ‘The Chokey Chant’ as well as all three of the acrobat and the escapologist stories as bonus tracks! (Bertie Carvel and Lauren Ward reprise their West End roles as Miss Trunchbull and Miss Honey).
The Deluxe Edition has yet more bonus tracks: ‘Perhaps a Child’, which had to be cut after the first Stratford-Upon-Avon performance and another version of ‘Naughty’ featuring all four of the original Broadway Matildas: Oona Laurence, Milly Shapiro, Sophia Gennusa and Bailey Ryon. Of course, all tracks can be downloaded individually too, if you simply wish to complete your collection.
For the full tracklist and to preview the songs, simply search for Matilda The Musical on your favourite digital retailer’s site, to yield all the editions available in your country or take a quick look on the iTunes listing at the Matilda the Musical (Deluxe Edition) [Original Broadway Cast Recording].
This Friday 25th October, 2013 at 10pm, Tim will be on QI on BBC Two (except Wales) and even BBC Two HD, if you wish to examine his intellect in exquisite detail. Stephen Fry hosts divinely, as always, and the other panellists are Isy Suttie, Bill Bailey and (of course) Alan Davies.
This is Series K and the episode subject is ‘Keys‘.
It will be up on the BBC iPlayer here shortly after it airs.
The 45 minute QI XL episode will be broadcast Sunday 27th October: 10:30pm BBC Two – England, HD only; 11:00pm BBC Two – Scotland only; 11:30pm BBC Two – Wales only and Monday 28th October 2013, 00:25am BBC Two – Northern Ireland only. Probably worth checking your local TV schedule.
If you really can’t wait a few days for a looksie, here’s the episode preview:
I have some very disappointing / uncool / annoying news.
Due to a highly unlikely and incredibly frustrating sequence of shitty events, the visa I require to play in the US this weekend has not arrived. The rules in the US (and most countries, I guess) about performing without the right work visa are very strict, so I’m not allowed to appear at Festival Supreme on Saturday night.
I’m hugely disappointed, because it was going to be great fun: the line-up is spectacular, the vibe is going to be brilliant and I adore Jack Black and want very much to please him.
But most of all, I feel sick about letting down the people for whom seeing my set was a big reason for buying tickets. I know some of you are travelling a long way, I know some of you had to save up to afford the ticket price, I know you’re going to be pissed off at me. It’s a right pain in the arse.
Please believe me when I say we have done everything we can to solve this. My manager has actually been on the phone to senators trying to find a way to get around this problem. But the fact is, every now and then, it’s just going to happen. As you may know, I confirmed my inclusion on the festival bill only a few weeks ago, and although we had no reason to suspect getting a visa would be a problem, we had only a little room for error. Then a couple of things happened (understandable but rather maddening bureaucratic glitches) which we didn’t / couldn’t predict, and perhaps the Government shut-down slowed things up (I don’t actually know)… and here we are. Majorly bummed out. I’m sorry.
I know you’re going to have an amazing time anyway. There are so many fantastic acts on, and I’m gutted I’m not going to be there to see them. Even if, for some crazy reason, I was your main reason for going, you’ll have a brilliant time without me. You have to try to catch Beardyman, and Reggie, and Sarah Silverman, and Zach, and Tig, and Patton, and Garfunkel & Oates… well everyone you can. These are some of my favourite acts in the world and some of my dear friends. If you like my stuff, you will love so many acts there.
Also, I really want to do something to try to make this up to y’all. I can’t promise anything, because it’s a bit of a logistical nightmare, but could you do something for me? Try to keep hold of your ticket stub from Festival Supreme. OK? Or if you don’t think you can keep hold of it, take a selfie with your sad, sad face next to the ticket before you lose it. That way, we have some chance of putting on some sort of free compensatory gig next year. Fingers crossed.
In the meantime, I’m really sorry. I’ve unwittingly really fucked a lot of people around. And I was looking forward to this gig so much. Mortified.
Photo courtesy of UWA (photographer – Ron D’Raine)
You’re probably already familiar with the speech Tim gave to his old Uni, The University of Western Australia, last month, when he received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters for his contribution to the arts.
Today it featured on ABC’s Life Matters. You can listen to it or better still download it as an audio file here, if you wish.
If you did miss Tim’s Occasional Address (where have you been?!) you’ll find a full transcript here and the video which has now gone viral, at over a million views, can be found on YouTube here.
After its release last year on iTunes, the audio from the So F**king Rock Live DVD is finally available on CD too!
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