'Priscilla, Reine du Désert': La comédie musicale à voir.

Queen Machines
'Priscilla' and 'Mormon' are two of the most enjoyable shows on Broadway right now and are both must-see musicals for gays
Published on June 9, 2011, 11:43am

There's no ABBA turd in the Broadway version of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. In fact, in transporting Stephan Elliott's beloved 1994 film to the stage, Elliott and co-book writer Allan Scott completely scrubbed reference to the Swedish dance-pop darlings, replacing them with Madonna.
And that's the funny thing about Broadway. The Great White Way can take something you love, change it in a way that seems suspicious – Did ABBA deny them permission or something? – and then win you over anyway.
No doubt, Priscilla will win you over in a big way. It's not the best musical you'll ever see – neither the story nor the music is original, for starters. But it just may be the most endearing, and possibly the most fun you can currently have at a Broadway show.
If nothing else, your smile muscles will be sore as you walk out of the large Palace Theatre. As in the movie, the story here is that of a gay man meeting his young son and reconnecting with his ex-wife. She's hired her ex-husband and his fellow Sydney-based drag performers to put on a show in the sticks of Australia. The story follows the girls as they travel through the Australian outback, confronting homophobes and thugs along the way.
But never fear: The tough and tender moments are far outnumbered by those providing sheer delight, joy and bawdy humor, not to mention spectacle. From Ross Coleman's rousing choreography to Brian Thomson's over-the-top sets to Nick Schlieper's fantastical lights, the production team goes all out in making sure you walk away dazzled. Not to mention covered in glitter. (And hopefully you'll be untouched by the projectile ping-pong balls.)
It's a bit puzzling that only the costume designers got a nod for a Tony. Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner's work here is, in fact, every bit as high-camp and awe-inspiring – Halloween-inspiring, too – as the costumes they designed for the film. And every bit as worthy of an award. (They won an Oscar for the film's costumes.) But probably the most stunning aspect of the entire show is the rotating LED bus, which displays a rainbow of colors, and serves as a scene-chewing backdrop for most of the production.
Priscilla also failed to nab Tony nominations for its spot-on chipper cast, save for Tony Sheldon, who plays transsexual character Bernadette with oodles of sweetness and sensitivity. Meanwhile, Keala Settle all but steals the show performing just one number ("I Love The Nightlife") as a rural pub's ugly tomboy Shirley, who doesn't like the visiting drag queens one bit. Settle's brief, bravura performance is the stuff of legend.
The show's music comes straight, so to speak, from an '80s-era gay man's jukebox, heavy on disco and early dance-pop: Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Thelma Houston, Pet Shop Boys, Donna Summer. I said it was fun, right? Say what you might about Priscilla lacking in originality. You can't deny its audience-pleasing charm. It's got real heart.
MOVING FROM the desert to the possibly divine, it certainly seems blasphemous to create a musical outwardly spoofing one religious group and its sacred text. Ultimately, however, The Book of Mormon will speak to anyone, of any denomination or faith, who's ever tried to believe in a higher power – as well as those who actually do.
From the creators of South Park and Avenue Q, Book of Mormon focuses on a group of Mormon missionaries as they try to convert a hard-knock tribe of Ugandans, who've all but given up on religion. (They repeatedly sing a popular, Lion King-spoofing chant, "Fuck You God.") The show's naive, white-bread, gay-yet-repressed American Mormons are ill-prepared to win over such hardened skeptics. They only break through when the bumbling Elder Cunningham, played by the riotously funny Josh Gad (Comedy Central's The Daily Show), goes ''making things up again,'' in this case wildly adapting Mormon scripture to fit the modern African context.
The season's most-buzzed about musical, sure to rake in a good portion of its near-record 14 Tony nominations, The Book of Mormon tackles religion and belief in a pretty remarkable way. We humans seem to have an ingrained need to believe in something, anything, even if so much of what we're told to believe doesn't make sense. Therefore we doubt. Creators Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone explore this conundrum while offering no easy solutions, in the process actually sidestepping the musical tradition of offering concrete resolution. "This is sort of what God is going for,'' goes a common refrain about leaving things open for interpretation. And so they effectively do.
The Book of Mormon drags a bit in the second act, most notably with "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream,'' which becomes a sci-fi abyss. And the trio's music and lyrics are both catchy and cute, but not entirely clever and certainly not groundbreaking. The musical is a real ensemble piece, with an across-the-board strong cast. As Nabalungi, the Ugandan girl who so desperately wants to escape her rough life she'll practically believe anything, Nikki M. James just may break your heart. The production team is also universally up to snuff, though Scott Pask's work with scenic design seems to stand out a bit more than the rest.
At times, it almost looks like the promised land.

PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
4 stars and a half
The Palace Theatre
1564 Broadway
1-877-250-2929
priscillaonbroadway.com

THE BOOK OF MORMON
4 stars and a half
Eugene O'Neill Theatre
230 W. 49th St.
800-432-7250
bookofmormonbroadway.com

Source: Metro Weekly magazine, Washington, DC newspaper.

Show Cabaret "In Vogue: Songs by Madonna".

Madonna is played by a man. Madonna est jouée par un homme.

Michael the male Madonna
Louise Nunn / The Advertiser / April 28, 2011 6:08PM

Michael Griffiths had a lot of fun at Vale Park Primary School, joining the Greek and Italian girls singing Madonna's Holiday in the common room at recess.
It was the start of a love affair that will bring him full circle in a show about the Material Girl at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, In Vogue: Songs by Madonna.
Yes, Griffiths is a 37-year-old man with a voice several registers lower than Madonna, but that's not going to stop him singing her songs.
"The hook is I present them from her point of view, so I am Madonna in the show," he says. "But I don't mimic her, and I'm certainly not dragging up. I will be me, a young man who sings things in a much lower key than she did, and the audience will just have to go with the ride.
"They'll have to accept they're listening to Madonna, talking about her career, her marriages and her songs, and other very personal and very revealing things."
In fact, Griffiths is more than qualified for the task.
He studied piano and composition at the old Flinders St School of Music and then Elder Conservatorium, while dabbling in Adelaide's amateur music theatre scene.
It was a hobby until he realised it was what he wanted to do, and left for Perth to study at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Australia's only tertiary music theatre course at the time.
Upon graduating, Griffiths moved to Sydney, where he landed a job as a Delltone in the Australian production of the Johnny O'Keefe musical Shout!, coincidentally playing alongside Cabaret Festival artistic director David Campbell, who starred as O'Keefe.
Griffiths hasn't looked back, show hopping from mainstage musicals We Will Rock You to Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Jersey Boys, in supporting roles but doubling as understudy to some of the big leads. "I think I'm seen as very versatile, which is a blessing and a curse," he says.
"It's a blessing because I'm employed but a curse because I think people like the fact I can cover a number of different roles in one show."
He's happy but keeping his fingers crossed for that big break, which in a way is where Madonna steps in. In Vogue is Griffiths' first solo show and a chance to "sing in the way I want to sing". "I haven't done as much straight singing as I'd like, showing off what I can do," he says.
Madonna is a gift of a subject because her songs are so good better, in fact, than generally acknowledged.
"I think maybe in time that will be the popular consensus but you hardly ever hear people talk about her songwriting," he says.
"From about the True Blue album, she's co-written almost everything she's done.
"So if nothing else I'd like people to come out of this show with an appreciation of her as a songwriter."
Not that Griffiths and his writer, Dean Bryant, are planning anything remotely approximating a Madonna appreciation hour. "It's going to be very funny and very camp and very witty and very acerbic," Griffiths says.

WHAT: In Vogue: Songs by Madonna
WHERE: Artspace
WHEN: June 15 to 17
COST: $29, $25 concession

Source: Adelaide Now.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2011 - Singer Michael Griffiths from cabaret show 'In Vogue: Songs by Madonna'.


On the cover of supplement of Australian newspaper
"The Advertiser" - April 28, 2011.
En couverture du supplément du journal australien
"The Advertiser" - 28 avril 2011.

La pièce 'Madonna et Moi' fait ses débuts américains à Rock Hill.

'Madonna' play makes US debut in Rock Hill
By Jason Chisari - Correspondent
Published: Friday, Apr. 08, 2011 / Updated: Friday, Apr. 08, 2011 06:42 AM

ROCK HILL -- The aptly named Edge Theatre Co. has no qualms about the productions it runs: It tries to push the envelope.
Edge Theatre's latest undertaking, "Madonna and Me," playing tonight and Sunday at South Pointe High School, is no different.
"This play isn't for everyone," said director Jimmy Chrismon, who is also a theater teacher at South Pointe High School. "Yet the themes are timeless, and I think that audiences will find a character or a situation that rings true to themselves."
Set to the music of Madonna's nearly 30-year career, the play is a coming-of-age tale that follows friends from their formative teenage years into early adulthood.
Madonna's musical and stylistic reinventions serve as a metaphor for the characters' growth, as their friendships change, and in some cases, fade away, as they grow older. Like the inspiration behind the play, the content takes risks. Chrismon compares the material to a PG-13-rated film.
It is the fourth play written by playwright Tommy Kearney, who flew from his native Great Britain to witness the American debut in Rock Hill.

Two years in the making
The play has particular sentimental value for Chrismon, a lifelong Madonna fan who has directed more than 100 plays. He worked with Kearney for nearly two years to see "Madonna and Me" come to fruition.
"The cool thing about this play is that Madonna isn't a character, just an ever-present influence on the characters, which also mirrors her impact on my life," Chrismon said. "Kearney has been incredibly gracious in collaborating with me on this production, and I can't wait for everyone to see the fruits of our labor."
Audiences can expect whip-smart dialogue, emotional moments and even a dance number, along with Madonna's 90s hit "Vogue." The South Pointe High School auditorium seats 1,500 people, but Chrismon set up nearly 75 on-stage seats to establish an intimate setting for audience and cast members to share.
Chrismon says you don't have to be a fan of Madonna's music to see the appeal of the universal truth which lies at the heart of the play.
"Friendship, love, acceptance and staying true to oneself are the main elements of the play," Chrismon said, "and in life as well."

Want to go?
"Madonna & Me" by Rock Hill's The Edge Theatre Co.
8 tonight and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday
South Pointe High School auditorium
Tickets, $15 for adults and $10, students and seniors. Tickets available online at theedgetheatre.org and at the door.
A portion of the proceeds will go to Raising Malawi.
For further information on the play, the actors, director and playwright, visit www.theedgetheatre.org and http://www.madonna-and-me.co.uk/.

Source: The Herald - Rock Hill, SC.

Maggie Monahan and Jay Kistler run through a scene of 'Madonna and Me.'
Photo: Melissa Cherry.

Brian Einersen: Madonna devrait refaire ses chansons en versions juives.

Madonna Should Re-Do Her Songs
By Michael Musto, Wed., Feb. 2 2011 @ 11:00AM

And make them Jewish!
That's comic Brian Einersen's view anyway.
After all, she years ago gave up her Christian background in favor of the Kabbalah.
So Brian says Madonna needs to re-record her hits and instead sing:
"You must be my lucky star of David."
"Rabbi Don't Preach. I'm keeping my condo."
"Neurotic, neurotic. Take your hands off my body. Or I'll sue."
(And to the tune of "Vogue") "Come on and sue, sue. Let your lawyer fill out the paperwork. Oy vey."
And how about "Like a Prayer (For The Dead)"?

Source: Village Voice - New York News - La Daily Musto.

Brian Einersen

Madonna dans 'The Place' en GB.

At 40, The Place Remains Crucial To UK Dance
The Guardian (UK) 05/11/10
Posted May 12, 2010 08:15 AM

"The rollcall of dancers, choreographers and performers who have trained, rehearsed, performed or simply fallen in love with dance at the Place is as eclectic as it is long: there's [Matthew] Bourne, Richard Alston and Siobhan Davies, not to mention Madonna, Kate Bush and Helena Bonham Carter."

Source: Arts Journal.

The Place: dreams in a drill hall

Founded four decades ago by a man who lost his legs in the war, the Place sparked a dance revolution. Stars who studied there explain its magic
Judith Mackrell
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 May 2010 22.30 BST

The year was 1966 and a hotelier and art collector named Robin Howard was determined to introduce contemporary dance to ballet-dominated Britain. Howard had lost both his legs fighting in the second world war, but the injury only served to fire up his passion for dance. He was an evangelist, and his dreams took a step closer to reality when he opened a small dance school that operated out of a cramped studio in a down-at-heel area of London that smelled of cat pee.
Three hard years later, Howard found a new building that would allow his school to expand. He called it the Place, and in this converted drill hall just off the unlovely Euston Road, his fledgling school began to take proper shape. Now a much more respectable endeavour, it was christened the London Contemporary Dance School. It was here, too, that Britain's first modern dance company – the London Contemporary Dance theatre – was born.
In the four decades since, contemporary dance has grown from a minority art form into a serious industry. Work by Matthew Bourne, Wayne McGregor and Russell Maliphant can fill the largest venues, and the profession employs thousands of choreographers, dancers, teachers and administrators. But even after 40 years, most members of this thriving industry are still just a few degrees of separation away from the modest building where it all started.
The rollcall of dancers, choreographers and performers who have trained, rehearsed, performed or simply fallen in love with dance at the Place is as eclectic as it is long: there's Bourne, Richard Alston and Siobhan Davies, not to mention Madonna, Kate Bush and Helena Bonham Carter. (The artist Tracey Emin almost studied there, but decided against it for fear of being made to stop smoking.) This weekend sees the culmination of celebrations that began last autumn to mark the 40th anniversary of the Place. The festivities will include performances that recall some of the earliest experiments in British contemporary dance.
Initially, Howard's venture received only minimal state funding, and Howard's own pockets weren't bottomless. Anthony van Laast, an early student and now a West End choreographer behind shows such as Mamma Mia!, remembers being paid five shillings an hour to paint walls and shovel rubble to get the venue open on time.
The school's students were a raggle-taggle collective of art students, ballet dancers, film-makers and musicians. Alston, then 19, was among them, and remembers an intoxicating spirit of adventure: "I just loved the idea of being at the start of something new." His fellow student Siobhan Davies agrees. "The school took almost anyone, which meant there was an interesting mix of students, like [film-maker] Sally Potter and Diana Davies, an early feminist."
The students were also excited to be sharing the Place's studios and its tiny, 300-seat theatre with the LCDT troupe. Given the lack of trained dancers in Britain, the company's director, Robert Cohan, and several of its dancers had been imported from the renowned Martha Graham company in New York; to awestruck teenagers such as Davies and Alston, the Graham dancers seemed like celebrities.
But money remained tight. To stave off the threat of bankruptcy, the Place's theatre and studios were rented out to paying clients. "Monday evenings were always interesting," says Alston. "That was the night for the New Cinema Club, which was a bit dodgy, a bit blue. We always had to warn the girls to be careful as men in macs with slightly steamed up glasses had a tendency to 'get lost' and end up in the showers."
The Place was firmly international in outlook, welcoming all dance styles and all choreographers. Alston's most vivid memory is of an installation by Meredith Monk, doyenne of the New York avant garde, "which involved all these strange little campfires on the stairs". Davies remembers turning up to rehearse with the US choreographer Remy Charlip and finding "an enormous French picnic laid out from one end of the studio to the other. I think he was trying to relax us. We were all very intense in those days, because we felt we were working on such a new art form."
By 1978, contemporary dance was firmly established in the UK, a volatile mix of earnest experimentation, mainstream performance and fashionable Lycra – and the Place continued to be its beating heart. Mark Baldwin, now director of Rambert Dance Company, remembers arriving in London from New Zealand and finding that the building was "a concentration of everything that was young, exciting and cool". The school had expanded by then, as had the company – so in 1987, Howard hired a full-time programmer to build up a new calendar of dance performance.
John Ashford was as utopian a supporter of dance as Howard. Not only did he turn the Place into a vital showcase for young choreographers, he also opened up the building to give them office space. Shobana Jeyasingh and a very young Wayne McGregor were among the first to benefit: being part of the Place gave their careers a dramatic impetus. One year, a Belgian festival showcasing this new generation of British dance-makers excluded Jeyasingh because of her Indian-sounding name. "It was John who fought the battle to get me included," she recalls.
Another Ashford initiative was Resolution! – an annual open season that gives a platform to Britain's rawest, most untested talent. Baldwin cringes as he remembers his own first offering in 1991. "I had two TV screens showing a video, a composer reading out passages of Nietzsche in this very shrieky falsetto, and me and two dancers moving maniacally fast," he says. But it was still a career-making moment: "The great thing about the Place was that you felt you could do anything there."
Today, the Place no longer works solo: other schools, rehearsal spaces and theatres crowd the UK dance scene. But it's precisely because dance has become so competitive that the Place remains crucial. As Jeyasingh says: "Dance has got very glossy. We still need the Place as somewhere that choreographers can fight for the right to think and debate – and, if necessary, to fail."

Source: The Guardian.

Spirit of adventure ... London Contemporary Dance theatre rehearse at the Place.
Photo: Anthony Crickmay.

Madonna de nouveau à la comédie musicale de Broadway "Fela!" avec sa fille Lourdes.

They're the Material Girls
By TODD VENEZIA
Last Updated: 8:06 AM, March 27, 2010
Posted: 2:48 AM, March 27, 2010

They hardly look like Madonna and child anymore. The cougar pop star and her daughter Lourdes, 13, could have passed for sisters as they stepped out dressed to the nines after catching the hit Broadway musical "Fela" at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. Mother and daughter are joining forces on the Material Girl fashion line and their head-to-toe garb begs the question: Who's raiding whose closet these days?

Source: NYPOST.

27 March 2010 02:03
Fascinating Fact 9025

Madonna enjoyed Jay-Z and Will Smith's Broadway musical Fela! so much, she took her daughter Lourdes to catch a performance of the show in New York on Thursday (25Mar10). The pop superstar first saw the play, about the life of revered African world music star Fela Kuti, last week (begs15Mar10).
Source: Contactmusic News.

Madonna attended the Broadway musical "Fela!" with Jesus Luz in New York last week (March 18, 2010). She came back a second time as she brought her daughter Lourdes to watch "Fela!" a week later on March 25, 2010.

Sadie Frost va jouer une jeune fan de Madonna.

Don’t Jude get any closer
Published: 25 Nov 2008
 
JUDE LAW and ex-wife SADIE FROST chat politely at a party last night – but keep their distance.
The cool get-together was very different to displays in the past – when the two seemed barely able to keep their hands off each other.
Jude, 35 – sporting a greying moustache and Tintin quiff – ran into Sadie at a theatre awards bash at London’s Royal Opera House.
Fashion designer and actress Sadie, 43, mother of his three kids, watched him present a gong to stage guru MICHAEL GRANDAGE. He will direct Jude in the title role of Hamlet next year.
Meanwhile, Sadie will play a teenage Madonna fan on the West End stage.

Source: The Sun.

Read more here: 'Touched... For The Very First Time', one-woman play in February 2009

Lire plus ici: 'Touched... For The Very First Time', un one-woman show en février 2009.

 
Sadie Frost and Jude Law in 2008 (left) and 2002 (right).

Lucky Star – Madonna à 50 ans: Une Célébration de l'Anniversaire.


Sunday, June 22, 2008; Posted: 7:49 PM - by Chicago News Desk

Lucky Star – Madonna at 50: a birthday celebration-
 "Original Takes on an Original Artist"

Melissa Young goes from “Redheaded Broadway” to “Blonde Ambition!”

Melissa Young in Lucky Star – Madonna at 50: A Birthday Tribute brings original takes on an original artist at Davenports Piano Bar and Cabaret located at 1383 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, Thursdays August 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2008 at 8:00PM and Saturday April 16 at 8 PM at the Duplex Piano Bar and Cabaret in New York City.
Melissa Young, has been performing in and around Chicago for over 11 years and is delighted to be presenting her newest solo cabaret performance about the woman who has taught her time and again about breaking the societal mold of what a female should and can be. Learning to make her own rules and follow in her idols foot steps is where Melissa’s passion originated and for that, she always gives credit to Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. Brass, sass, and a willingness to show her ass (as she did this past June for a Season of Concern benefit concert) is how Melissa Young lives... thanks to inspiration from Madonna.

In Lucky Star – Madonna at 50: A Birthday Tribute, Young performs the music of America’s most original artist, Madonna, in celebration of her 50th birthday on August 16 of this year. Over 20 of Madonna’s songs get a musical makeover through American musical idioms. Lucky Star is a tribute show that dares to ask such musical questions as: What if Madonna met Disney to revamp “Papa Don’t Preach?” or if the next hit show on Broadway was Material Girl: the musical? Jazz, Country, Swing, and even Raggae all meet Madonna, America’s most loved and hated pop icon. Darly Nitz, co-creator of the longest running cabaret show in Chicago history (The Nitz & Howe Experience) as well as the “best party in town” directs, with Mark Burnell, a long-time Chicago pianist–in and out of the jazz and cabaret world–plays and musical directs.

Nick Green of The Chicago Reader has said "Melissa Young ensures that the show is open, inviting and an awful lot of fun." Kennette Crockett of the Windy City Times has said of Melissa's performance in BackStage Theatre Company's dirty summertime revue Everything's Sexy, "Melissa Young possesses all the passion and sharpness that one expects of the work." Interviewed many times over by Lawrence Bommer and Nina Metz for The Chicago Reader, The Chicago Sun Times and The Chicago Tribune, Melissa Young repeatedly woos Chicago audiences with her wit and fast paced humor.
Melissa Young, a proud member of the Chicago Cabaret Professionals, has had the pleasure of working with many off-loop theater companies, as well as starred with 1981 Miss America Susan Powell and Broadway's Nat Chandler in Show Stoppers at the Valentine Theater in Toledo, Ohio.
Tickets for Lucky Star at Davenports are $15 with a 2 drink minimum. For information and reservations, call (773) 278-1830. More information can also be found at www.melissayoung.com.

Source: Broadway World.