Musical

Quadrophenia

14 May 2009

The current economic crisis has cast many minds back to the unemployment-wracked 1970s, so it’s perhaps apt that a new stage adaptation of The Who’s Quadrophenia – one of the decade’s most celebrated albums – is touring this year. Composed by The Who…

Lovelace: A Rock Musical

Respectful tribute to the Deep Throat porn star

10 Aug 2010

This rock opera goes a long way to rescuing its subject, Linda Boreman, from the ignominy of being forever associated with her screen persona, Linda Lovelace, and the 1972 porn film Deep Throat. The film made history for being the first to become a…

Beloved

A sprawling, messy epic on unrequited love from French director Christophe Honoré

10 May 2012

Christophe Honoré's Love Songs (2007) established a talent for musical melodrama that eschewed all the traditional razzle-dazzle trappings of Hollywood. Characters break into song as they casually stroll down a city street and the often banal…

Elle Fanning to star in film adaptation of Stuart Murdoch's God Help the Girl

Glasgow-set musical to commence filming in June

11 Apr 2012

When Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch created God Help the Girl back in 2009, he knew that he was writing a 60s girl-group soundtrack for a film that didn't yet exist. Now, after years of fund-raising and producing, a film adaptation of the album…

Mamma Mia!

3 Jul 2008

Set on a sun-kissed Mediterranean island, musical blockbuster Mamma Mia! features Meryl Streep as the mother of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a bride-to-be trying to identify her natural father amongst three wedding guests, played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin…

Evita

19 Jun 2008

MUSICAL Playhouse, Edinburgh, until Sat 21 Jun Performers bursting into song for no apparent reason is the slightly odd, but wholly accepted, calling card of musical theatre. But what better way to sidestep that moment of incongruity than to never…

Dickens Unplugged

16 Aug 2007

Unless you were brought up in a workhouse, you’ll be familiar with at least one of Dickens’ many tales. Beginning with Oliver Twist, this musical, is not quite as Dickens intended. We embark upon a full speed tour of his books, ending with A Christmas…

GFF 2012 - Day planner

Our highlights for each day of the Glasgow Film Festival

6 Feb 2012

It can be difficult, when any festival rolls around, to decide which events to skip in favour of others. Searching rigorously through the programme, referring back to the calendar, trying to fit in as much as possible - it's a painstaking piece of work…

Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience

28 May 2009

(U) 75min New Jersey’s most popular rockers get the 3D concert treatment. No, sadly this isn’t The Boss and his E Street Band in all their blue collar glory, but Disney Channel-derived band the Jonas Brothers – a power pop threesome who make the…

Glasgow Film Festival: Why I love Gene Kelly

Miles Fielder makes a song and dance about the charismatic movie star

3 Feb 2012

For a film lover who hates musicals (this writer), the GFF’s Gene Kelly retrospective ought to be a hard sell. Telling stories through song and dance, Kelly’s forte (the latter of which endeavours earned him a special Oscar in 1951), is anathema to this…

Kym Marsh eyes Corrie musical role

TV Gossip

9 Jan 2012

Kym Marsh wants to appear in 'Coronation Street: The Musical'. The 35-year-old actress - who plays Michelle Connor in the ITV1 soap - explained while she couldn't be in the stage version of 'Corrie' on a full-time basis because of her nine-month-old…

Gavin and Stacey: The Musical?

TV Gossip

5 Dec 2011

'Gavin and Stacey' looks set to be turned into a West End musical. Ruth Jones - who co-wrote the BBC series with actor James Corden, who is currently starring in West End play 'One Man Two Guvnors' - has announced plans for the show to be turned…

Dannii Minogue to make musical return

Music Gossip

26 Nov 2011

Dannii Minogue is considering resurrecting her music career. The 'Australia's Got Talent' judge hasn't released a record since 2007's 'Club Disco' because she has been too busy but was recently offered some tracks that "excited" her. She said: "I…

South Pacific

New York revival with refreshing emphasis on character in Rodgers and Hammerstein classic

15 Nov 2011

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer-winning musical set in and around a US naval base during World War II includes so many songs that have become standards that the plot seems almost surplus to requirements. You can almost feel the smiles of recognition…

Harry Hill for X Factor: The Musical

TV Gossip

12 Oct 2011

Harry Hill has confirmed his involvement in 'X Factor: The Musical'. The 'TV Burp' host - who reportedly turned down a £1 million pay rise to front another series of the ITV1 programme next year - is seeing if there is "any mileage" in the idea, and…

Damon Albarn wants to write Blur musical

Music Gossip

8 Oct 2011

Damon Albarn thinks he could create a Blur musical. The 43-year-old musician thinks his group's 1995 LP 'The Great Escape' has the right songs to become the basis of a stage production on as it represents a "snapshot" of the time when it was…

Tori Amos needed classical songs

Music Gossip

23 Sep 2011

Tori Amos would "never" have created her latest album unless she was composing classical songs for a musical. The singer/songwriter was inspired to take on the challenge of forthcoming record 'Night of Hunters' -a 21st century take on a traditional…

Sugababes sing Dancing Queen for Children in Need

TV Gossip

16 Sep 2011

The Sugababes had the audience dancing in the aisles at 'MAMMA MIA!' last night (15.09.11) for BBC Children in Need POP Goes the Musical. The girl band - made up of Heidi Range, Amelle Berrabah and Jade Ewen - took to the stage in 70s-style at the…

Only Fools and Horses: The musical

TV Gossip

7 Sep 2011

'Only Fools and Horses' is set to be turned into a musical. The classic TV comedy - starring Sir David Jason as wheeler dealer Del Boy Trotter and Nicholas Lyndhust as his hapless younger brother Rodney - could become a stage show in London's West…

Andrzej Zulawski's cult horror hybrid Possession released on DVD

22 Oct 2010

It certainly ranks as one of the most surreal moments in my life. I’m sitting in a Polish restaurant, having dinner (before a scheduled Q&A at the Filmhouse) with one of my all time favourite film directors, who is standing behind me, giving me a…

Plague! The Musical

Vibrant musical with sassy humour about a quest for fame and fortune

12 Aug 2010

In this vibrant musical cute but clueless Clive travels to London to find fame and fortune, but gets waylaid by jack-the-lad Jerry and finds himself working for an undertaker instead. In a plot featuring elements of Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist and…

Can't Stop The Music

21 Jun 2010

(PG) 118min (Optimum) This fictional Village People biopic/musical was released in 1980, and flopped dramatically at the box office, winning ‘Worst Picture’ at the first Golden Raspberry Awards. Blame it on America’s lack of tolerance at the…

Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist among Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010 highlights

5 May 2010

With The Edinburgh Film Festival 2010, which runs between 16-27 June, only a matter of weeks away, the red carpets are getting waterproofed and the popcorn machines are getting serviced. Now in its 64th year, the twelve day festival, packed with…

The Kreutzer Sonata

18 Mar 2010

(18) 99min Having discarded cumbersome period trappings for his superb, stripped down, contemporary Los Angeles-set Tolstoy adaptation Ivansxtc, writer/director Bernard Rose does the same with another story by the Russian master, the second in a…

Hipsters, Bad Lieutenant and a Frightfest at GFF

Glasgow Film Festival blog

1 Mar 2010

Friday afternoon. I decide to brave the vertiginous screens at Glasgow’s Cineworld Renfrew Street where some festival films are also showing. I make the perverse choice of Hipsters, a Russian film with no current UK distributor about a group of post…