Tickets are now on sale for BETTY BLUE EYES.
Previews start at The Novello Theatre on March 19th 2011
Press Night is April 13th 2011
For more info visit www.bettyblueeyesthemusical.com
Tickets are now on sale for BETTY BLUE EYES.
November 23rd 2010
Hi Everyone,
Just in case you can't read the important bits in the e-flyer for A Very Musical Evening (below)... Tickets go on sale at 12 noon on Monday 5th July. There are only 300 tickets, so you need to get in there quick! £30 (Unreserved seating) 7pm - Sunday 26th September at Wilton's Music Hall www.ticketweb.co.uk Tel. 0207 702 2789 Ants x
Please support my trek in the Himalayas to help the Teenage Cancer Trust by visiting http://www.justgiving.com/AntsDrewe
Who hasn’t been affected, at some point in their lives, by cancer? Either by knowing a friend or loved one who has suffered from the disease, or even by contracting it oneself. I have lost several friends to cancer over the last few years, and I know that the very mention of the “C” word strikes terror to the extent that some cannot even bring themselves to use it.
Imagine how much harder it must be to cope with cancer if you are a teenager. How cruel, unfair and frightening it must seem.
In March of this year I went to the launch of a new charity called Trekstock, set up by an inspiring young woman called Sophie Epstone, aimed specifically at raising money to help fund new research and pioneering treatments for teenage cancer sufferers. Trekstock is affiliated with both the Teenage Cancer Trust and Cancer Research, and is supported by people from the music and fashion industries.
In October 2010, I am participating in a sponsored 10 day trek through the foothills of the Himalayas, in Sikkim, India, in an attempt to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. It will be a gruelling hike, over many different types of terrain and at high altitudes. I start training for the trek in the next few weeks.
I know in these fiscally uncertain times we all have many financial commitments of our own to attend to, but if you feel you could make a donation to this worthwhile cause, no matter how small, I would be truly grateful.
I know that the Stiles and Drewe website receives around 500,000 hits a month. Just think how much money we could raise if every website visitor donated just one pound each! Think of how much good we could do but most of all think how many suffering teenagers we may be able to help, encourage and support.
You have my word that every “tuppence” raised will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Wish me luck, and thank you so much for taking the time to read this. If you would like to donate in my name please visit http://www.justgiving.com/AntsDrewe
Love
Ants x
Yes, we’ve disappeared for a while – but that’s because we’ve been writing, so we hope that’s a good excuse!
Work is complete on the first draft of Soapdish…we’re doing a reading in London in April to see how it plays. We’re also working on 6 demo recordings with a wonderful arranger to show the songs off. One of the songs is a trio – we haven’t really written a real trio in all these years….2 girls and a guy….and we’re really pleased with it. It’s called, The Way That It Sounds.
Betty Blue Eyes is the new title for our adaptation of Alan Bennett’s “A Private Function”. Cameron Mackintosh is producing it and we hope to open at West Yorkshire Playhouse next spring, coming into London for Easter. We are starting casting now and will soon have exciting news about creative team.
We are also just back at work on Soho Cinders. I know many people will be pleased to hear this, as we get so many comments about the songs on the Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe CD. Thanks! We are re-crafting the book and making the story fun, topical and, we hope, timeless. We hope to workshop it in the autumn.
George is also excited as it looks as though The Three Musketeers will finally get a UK production this Christmas….details to follow as soon as it’s all firmed up.
So – a quick news blast….thanks for reading and we’ll try and blog again soon.
George – London 31 March 2010
OK – so we are terrible bloggers! It is ages since we posted an update. The only good reason is that we have been so busy writing new material, so I hope you’ll forgive us.
Back in November 2009, just after opening MARY POPPINS in Los Angeles (where it took up residence at the Ahmanson Theatre until February 7th), George and I flew to New York for a reading of SOAPDISH – the show we have been writing with screenwriter Robert Harling. The reading went very well and featured Kate Baldwin and Chris Sieber in the roles made famous by Sally Field and Kevin Kline. We had almost finished the writing – but still had two songs to write and a couple of reprises in Act Two. The small invited audience gave us some very positive feedback and we have just returned from another writing stint with Bobby at his plantation in Louisiana, where we have got even closer to finishing it (the book and all the songs are written – but we still have the reprises to crack!). The plan now with SOAPDISH is to hold another reading (this time in London) in mid April, followed by a further workshop in NYC in June. If all goes to plan the show will open somewhere in the USA as a try-out in late 2011.
Having held the SOAPDISH reading in NYC in November we returned to London to hold a reading of our musical based on A Private Function, which is now called BETTY BLUE EYES. The exciting development for us was that our old friend Cameron Mackintosh had just decided to option the show – so instead of being a workshop to attract a financial backer, we held the workshop purely to make sure the show was working. Everything went very well – we had a great cast and Ron Cowen and Dan Lipman (the bookwriters) flew over from L.A. to work on it with us.
The plan for BETTY BLUE EYES is now to rehearse in Jan 2011, open at West Yorkshire Playhouse in the February then, if all goes to plan, to come to the West End in time for Easter 2011. The poster has already been designed and is fabulous! We are currently assembling our creative team and will post more as and when we have the details.
In the meantime, we are off to Amsterdam for the final run throughs of MARY POPPINS, which officially opens there on April 7th. Another production then opens in Melbourne in July – so I’m hoping to make my first trip to Australia.
I have also been working on the book of SOHO CINDERS with Elliot Davis. We have had a couple of lengthy brain-storming sessions on streamlining the story, and are returning to France to work on it with George next week – so we hope to get that show up and running (finally!) in the near future.
There are also plans afoot for a HONK! revival in London – as well as for a tour of the USA next year – so watch this space for more details.
Sorry again for being such lousy bloggers, it’s a bit late for a New Year’s resolution, but we will try to write more regularly in future.
Bye for now,
Ants
Stiles and Drewe to host new musical cabaret evening at Pigalle Club
Published Wednesday 16 September 2009 at 15:31 by Alistair Smith
Composers George Stiles and Anthony Drewe are to host an evening of new musical theatre at the Pigalle Club in London’s West End.
The evening, which will take place this Sunday (September 20), is to celebrate the launch of New Musicals Network and is in aid of Mercury Musical Developments and the Actors’ Benevolent Fund.
The show will feature songs by composers including Alexander Bermange, Charles Bloom and Olly Ashmore, as well as excerpts from fringe shows Austentatious and Only The Brave. Performers include Sabrina Aloueche, Lucy May Barker, Gerard Bentall, Jon Boydon, Richard Dempsey, Kirsty Hoiles, Cassidy Janson, Jeremy Legat, Lucy Mills, Michael Peavoy, Helen Power and Verity Quade.
Further details from www.newmusicals.org.uk
Ants and I are going to compere an evening of new writing in the West End on the 20th….
Do come if you can – proceeds benefit MMD, the charity we co-founded. Here are some details:
New Musicals Network Launches With Snappy Title at the Pigalle Club
New Musicals Network present Snappy Title, a charity cabaret showcasing songs from new musicals and featuring current and former cast members from West End musicals such as Sister Act, We Will Rock You and Wicked. It will be at the Pigalle Club, Piccadilly on Sunday September 20th at 7.45pm. All money raised will go to Mercury Musical Developments and the Actors’ Benevolent Fund.
Composers such as Charles Bloom, Alexander Bermange, Cathy Shostak and Joe Robinson (to name but four) will have their work featured during the evening, and there will also be excerpts from Austentatious (recent sell-out at the Landor Theatre) and Only The Brave (Edinburgh Fringe 2008).
We have a fabulous line-up of eleven West End artists taking part: Sabrina Aloueche, Lucy May Barker, Gerard Bentall, Jon Boydon, Richard Dempsey, Cassidy Janson, Jeremy Legat, Lucy Mills, Michael Peavoy, Helen Power and Verity Quade.
Renowned songwriters George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (Mary Poppins, Honk, Just So) will compere the evening in their own inimitable way.
All artists appear subject to work commitments.
The event will be directed by Peter Huntley, with musical staging by Damian Sandys, and the musical director will be Christopher Mundy.
Tickets are available through SeeTickets.com and are priced from £15.
Or – www.newmusicals.org.uk and click the “Buy Tickets” link on the homepage
Come and support new writing and make a noise…
George
The dynamic musical theatre songwriting partnership that is George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics) have been writing together since they met at Exeter University over twenty years ago.
George and Anthony have written five musicals together:
In 2004 they composed the new songs, additional music and lyrics, vocal and dance arrangements for the multi-award winning
MARY POPPINS, currently one of the UK's and Broadway’s biggest attractions.
Their first musical was TUTANKHAMUN (Northcott Theatre and Imagination Building); which they hope to revisit one day.
JUST SO was produced by Cameron Mackintosh and won the 1985 Vivian Ellis Prize…none other than Steven Spielberg then secured an option to turn it into a feature animation. Just So most recently played at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2004.
HONK!– which was commissioned by the Watermill Theatre in 1993 – has been produced over 4,000 times and won the Olivier Award for Best Musical in 2000, the FNB VITA Award in South Africa, and the Elliot Norton Award in the USA.
PETER PAN– A Musical Adventure, began life as a BBC concert presented in 2001 at the Royal Festival Hall starring John Thaw as a wonderfully menacing Captain Hook. Won Best Song and the Orchestras Award at the 1996 International Musical of the Year in Denmark.
They’ve started work on that very rare thing, an original musical called Soho Cinders which is currently at workshop stage; set in modern day London SOHO CINDERS has a very contemporary feel. It’s a 21st century fable, centered on an internet love-story that blends a strong vein of satire with a story of celebrity politics. It has a delicious leading song titled ‘I’m So Over Men’…
They have also written two revues and contributed songs to a variety of theatre, TV, and radio shows, including the
RSC’s SHAKESPEARE REVUE, THE CHALLENGE, and Dame Edna Everage’s LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU.
Independently,
George Stiles has collaborated three times with Sam Mendes as a composer at the Donmar Warehouse, and is the composer of:-
MOLL FLANDERS (winner of Best Musical in the 1995 TMA Awards).
TOM JONES (Theatre Royal, York, North Shore Music Theatre, NYMF New York) and, most recently.
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (Stadttheater, St. Gallen, Switzerland, and the American Musical Theatre of San Jose in USA).
Other recent projects include the score for Sam Mendes’s productions of HABEAS CORPUS, TWELFTH NIGHT and
UNCLE VANYA at the Donmar Warehouse and working as Dame Edna’s musical director and arranger.
Anthony wrote the lyrics for
THE CARD (Watermill Theatre, Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, and UK Tour - nominated for Best Revival in the 1995 Laurence Olivier Awards), and
A TWIST OF FATE (Jubilee Hall and Esplanade Theatre, Singapore, voted Best Musical of the Year).
As a performer he has been seen in ROGUES TO RICHES, as Porthos in George’s THE THREE MUSKETEERS in Denmark, and as Inspector East in his own A TWIST OF FATE in Singapore. As a director his credits include a revival of the musical SNOOPY at the Watermill, COWARDY CUSTARD at the Royal Academy of Music, HONK! in Cape Town, Chicago, Tokyo and Singapore, and JUST SO at North Shore Music Theatre, Massachusetts and S Festival Theatre.
George and Ants are founding board members of MMD, a charity which promotes new writing for musical theatre.
