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Anorak News | Audience In A Coma

Audience In A Coma

by | 10th, November 2004

‘IT may be too early to laugh at al Qaeda – and the release of our musical comedy tribute to Osama bin Laden may have to wait a while.

Les Miserables

In the meantime, lovers of musical theatre will have to make do with The Producers, as Mel Brook’s show that began an extensive run in London’s West End last night.

Rarely has a theatre production garnered such extensive coverage, as all the papers stand in the rain to see the great and good arrive for the premiere before taking their seats for the main performance.

Such is its desire to be out on the town, that the Independent manages to be in two places at one and, in a piece called “Bridge Jones vs The Producers”, compares the premieres of last night’s new film release with the stage show’s opening night.

We won’t overly bore you with the details, other than to say the show is terrific (but, unless you’re a critic or celebrity ligger, don’t bother even trying to get a ticket) and the film is just what you’d expect from a sequel starring Hugh Grant.

What’s trickier to work out is what to make of the upcoming musical based on the life of Morrissey, the laconic singer of The Smiths.

The Independent says the stage musical production of the life of the old moaner is all set to open at London’s Lyric Hammersmith theatre next July.

But what can critics, American tourists and the drama teachers who make up the larger part of theatre audiences expect from this extravaganza of dour misery?

The report says that many of the singer’s fans are worried that Ben Elton may do for their hero what he did for the pop group Queen and turn Morrissey into an uplifting, all-singing, all-dancing show.

Morrissey’s legendary track, The Queen is Dead, will be renamed The Queen Is Alive And Slapping Her Thigh With Real Gusto and Girlfriend In A Coma will become Girlfriend Awakes And Breaks Into Song For No Good Reason.

But the fans need not overdose or have a collective panic attack just yet.

The production company behind the show says that this musical will be the “antithesis” of Mamma Mia, the hit show based on the life and music of Abba.

Cynics and downbeats, who number highly among Morrissey’s fans, will thus expect Morrissey: The Musical to be awful and a flop.

But know that the show will feature 20 Smiths songs arranged for string quartet with “percussive lute accompaniment” and sung “live” by a cast of six.

If this sounds an unlikely form of popular entertainment, then you can try and get in to see those singing Nazis down the road.

Or wait for Anorak’s Osama Bin Laden: The Musical…’



Posted: 10th, November 2004 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink