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On Sunday, Tim performed ‘My House’ from Matilda The Musical at the glamorous Olivier Awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London. The audience loved it but was not shown on the ITV highlights (tut tut!) so just in case you’ve missed the many tweets about it over the last few days here it is:

*sigh*

Here’s the buzz. I’ll tell you what’s a-happening:

With the the Jesus Christ Superstar arena tour dates selling out at most venues across the country, additional shows have been added in Perth and Brisbane.

Sunday 2th June 2013
Perth Arena

Tuesday 18th June 2013
Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets go on general sale from 9am local time, Tuesday 7th May  2013.  The full list of dates can be found at jesuschristsuperstar.com.

If 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.

Matilda the Musical on Broadway has earned itself a whopping TWELVE nominations for this year’s Tony Awards!

Best Musical
Best Book of a Musical – Dennis Kelly
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre – Tim Minchin (Music & Lyrics)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical – Bertie Carvel (Miss Trunchbull)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical – Gabriel Ebert (Mr Wormwood)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical – Lauren Ward (Miss Honey)
Best Direction of a Musical – Matthew Warchus
Best Choreography – Peter Darling
Best Orchestrations – Chris Nightingale
Best Scenic Design of a Musical – Rob Howell
Best Costume Design of a Musical – Rob Howell
Best Lighting Design of a Musical – Hugh Vanstone

Tony Honours for Excellence in the Theatre – The four actresses who created the title role of Matilda The Musical on Broadway: Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon and Milly Shapiro.

For the full list of nominations in each category visit the Tony Awards website. The 67th Annual Tony Awards ceremony will take place on the 9th June, 2013, at Radio City Music Hall. There will be a CBS telecast and outdoor Times Square simulcast.

Congratulations to Tim and everyone at Matilda The Musical Broadway on this amazing news!
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It’s the Olivier Awards 2013 ceremony at the Royal Opera House, in London, tonight! The glamorous and star-studded event, which honours the very best in British theatre, will be hosted by Sheridan Smith and Hugh Bonneville.

Tim’ll be there, looking spiffing and twinkly, presenting the award for Best New Musical and he’ll be performing a song from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Matilda The Musical, for which he wrote the music and lyrics.

In April, last year, having received the maximum possible ten nominations, Matilda The Musical skipped away with a Guinness World Record breaking SEVEN 2012 Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical!

This year Matilda The Musical is up for yet another: The BBC Radio 2 Audience Award, which is a chance for theatre audiences to bestow this accolade on their favourite long-running London show. You can see who Matilda is up against and the full list of 2013 nominees here.

The Awards run from 6:30pm to 9.30pm and ITV is showing 90 minutes of highlights 10:15pm to 11:45pm. This will be on the ITV Player next week.

If you’re in London you can watch the arrivals and ceremony on screens in Covent Garden from 4pm, otherwise you can listen live on BBC Radio 2 from 6pm.

There’s more detail and razzmatazz on the Olivier Awards website and for behind-the-scenes Oliviers’ photos you can head to their Instagram page here.

Tomorrow evening, Thursday 18th April 2013, 9:30pm – 10:30pm, The South Bank Show on Sky Arts 1 profiles Tim!

Melvyn Bragg talks to Tim about his career, his love of language, rhymes, satire and exploring taboos. There will be live footage of Tim performing at the Royal Albert Hall with the fabulous Heritage Orchestra and from the Coronet gig in London last year.

The programme traces quite a bit of Tim’s early life in Australia, his childhood, education, early career and eventual decision to move to the UK. Tim’s brother Dan gets to spill some Minchin beans and you’ll even see some family photos.

In the studio Tim performs ‘When I Grow Up’ from Matilda The Musical and talks about writing the music and lyrics for the show. Director Matthew Warchus and writer Dennis Kelly are interviewed about working with him on the project.

You’ll find more details about the show and three taster clips, including one with Tim talking about controversy and another about Matilda The Musical on the Sky Arts website here.

The programme will be repeated on Thursday 18th April at 12:45am, Sky Arts 1 and on Sunday 21st April at 1:05am, Sky Arts 1.

Matilda The Musical pops up seven times in the 2013 Broadway.com Audience Choice Award nominations! The nominees are chosen by readers of Broadway.com and they are the only major US theatrical awards voted for completely by Broadway theater goers and fans.

There are 16 categories and Matilda The Musical has been nominated in five of them, including Favorite Musical. Three of Tim’s songs are up for Favorite song and Bertie Carvel is listed in three categories for reprising his role as the hilarious and formidable Miss Trunchbull.

Favorite New Musical – Matilda
Favorite Actor in a Musical – Bertie Carvel, Matilda
Favorite Diva Performance – Bertie Carvel, Matilda
Favorite Breakthrough Performance – Bertie Carvel, Matilda
Favorite New Song – ‘Revolting Children’, Matilda; ‘The Smell of Rebellion’, Matilda and ‘When I Grow Up’, Matilda.

You can see the full list of nominations and cast your votes here.

Voting closes on Thursday 2nd May at 12pm and the awards will be presented at a VIP ceremony on Sunday 5th May.

Last night the New York production of Matilda The Musical, for which Tim wrote the music and lyrics, opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway to delighted cheers and a full standing ovation. The show, which has been in previews since the 4th March 2013, is today swinging high, feet kicking up to the sky at the marvellously glowing reviews across the board:

The New York Times
Ben Brantley describes Matilda as “the most satisfying and subversive musical ever to come out of Britain, where it was nurtured into life by the Royal Shakespeare Company… even more glorious than we were promised… truly revolutionary.”

The Washington Post
Peter Marks says “‘Matilda’ [is] by some large and tickling measure the most splendiferous new musical of the year…
With a delectably clever score by Tim Minchin and a slyly evocative book by Dennis Kelly, the musical, is distinguished by its wonderful look and a caliber of choreography for young people you rarely ever experience.”
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Tim is to present a three part documentary on Absolute Radio about the life and career of David Bowie this month.

The first part of the series will focus on Bowie’s early life in post-war Brixton and career up to Ziggy (1947-1973), the second on the golden era of the Thin White Duke to Scary Monsters (1973-1980), while the last part will range from Let’s Dance to the new album The Next Day (1980 to 2013) and the V&A’s current David Bowie Is exhibition.

The story will be told by the friends and musicians who have played a part in Bowie’s life over six decades and it includes contributions from Bowie’s childhood friend and artist George Underwood, touring guitarist John “Hutch” Hutchinson and his guitarist Mick Ronson’s widow Suzi.

BOWIE will be broadcast, in three hour-long episodes, on Absolute Radio here, at 7pm on consecutive Sundays: the 7th, 14th and 21st April 2013. There will be also be a series of short online films featuring additional material and interviews. It will air again and be available on the website during the term of the exhibition at the V&A (until 11th August).

So if your inner Bowie nerd is crying out for your rock ‘n’ roll nerd to tell you all about that amazingly colourful career then this is the programme for you.

UPDATE: If you’ve missed any of these episodes then you can listen again here.

Hosanna! Yet more dates have been added to the Jesus Christ Superstar arena tour in Australia. Melbourne and Sydney will now have five shows apiece:

Sunday 9th June 2013
Sydney Entertainment Centre (Matinee)
Sydney Entertainment Centre (Evening)

Sunday 16th June 2013
Melbourne Rod Laver Arena (Matinee)
Melbourne Rod Laver Arena (Evening)

Pre-sale tickets will be available via www.frontiertouring.com/jesuschristsuperstar from Wednesday 10 April noon AEST.

Tickets go on general sale from 9am local time, Monday 15th April 2013.  The full list of dates can be found at jesuschristsuperstar.com.

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.

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.

Hi all, me here.

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.

Peace out mthrfckrs.

tx

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!)

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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)

Tickets and the full list of dates can be found at jesuschristsuperstar.com.

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.

Tickets and the full list of dates can be found at jesuschristsuperstar.com.

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.

Sunday Night can be found here.