WhatsOnStage Awards Voting Closes Today

Voting for the WhatsOnStage Awards closes tonight at Midnight GMT (that’s 7pm here on the east coast of North America, 4pm out on the west coast).

If you haven’t already cast your ballot of support for The Light Princess in any of the six categories it was nominated in — Best Actress in a Musical, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Best Set Design, Best Choreographer, London Newcomer of the Year, and Best New Musical — now is the time!

Please help get this production the recognition it deserves!

A Third Irish Show Is Added!

Update: Tickets are on sale now via Tickets.com!

According to the official Twitter and Facebook feeds, a third show in Ireland has been added to this spring’s Unrepentant Geraldines tour. However, this one is not in Dublin. Rather, it is at the Cork Opera House in (naturally) Cork and it will take place on May 5th. Tickets will go on sale this Friday, probably through Tickets.com.

Update: there’s an article on the Opera House’s website which confirms the ticket sale date of Friday at 9:00 AM GMT.

Listen: Marianne Elliot And Rae Smith Discuss The Light Princess

On January 9th, The Light Princess’ director Marianne Elliot and designer Rae Smith took place in a platform at The National Theatre to discuss their work on the musical with Rachel Cooke. Audio from that conversation is now available on The National’s Soundcloud page:

A Little Light Princess Update: Cheap Tickets & The Book

As the penultimate performances of The Light Princess begin this weekend, Time Out London is offering half-price tickets to several of the remaining performances of the musical. The only catch is that these tickets have to purchased by Midnight GMT on January 18th (i.e., late Friday night/early Saturday morning). Tickets are available for performances from Monday, January 20th through to Saturday, February 1st. Step to it! Chop chop!

Also, one other bit of musical news we keep forgetting to mention: Faber and Faber has published the text of The Light Princess, including both lyrics and book. The paperback is available directly from the publisher as well as The National Theatre’s bookstore and all the usual retailers and e-tailers of fine publications. Of course, if you find yourself at the venue either before or after the musical’s run ends, you can find the book there too — as well as an assortment of Light Princess merchandise.

Ladies And Gentlemen, Your Light Princess Update

If it had not been extended, tonight would have been the final performance of The Light Princess but the National Theatre continued the show’s run so there is still time to catch the production if you’re able to get to London over the next few weeks. Performances resume next Friday, January 17th, continue through to the 22nd, pick up again on Tuesday the 28th and run straight through to the final performance, a Sunday matinee on February 2nd. Tickets are still available for all performances!

Prior to today’s performance, there was a platform featuring director Marianne Elliott and designer Rae Smith discussing their work on The Light Princess with Rachel Cooke. Hopefully some of you were able to attend and that some footage from the platform shows up on The National’s YouTube channel sooner or later as well as we’re sure it would have been an interesting conversation to hear.

There is one other Light Princess-related platform coming up at The National: director Samuel Adamson will be one of three participants in In Context: Adapting Children’s Novels for the Stage. Adamson, Helen Edmundson, and Carl Miller will be part of a panel discussion moderated by Sebastian Born about the process of transforming the written word to the stage. This platform takes place on Thursday, January 16th at at 2:00 PM.

Also from the Adamson department, Boycotting Trends’ Alex Ramon posted his third and final interview with Samuel Adamson about The Light Princess. This lengthy and in-depth piece examines the response to the production and the staggering amount of sweat and love poured into making the musical float. It’s required-reading for anyone interested in the musical and while there is no executive summary possible, the key thing that will make everyone happy is the news that there will be a recording of the complete score! Unfortunately there’s no additional details but hey! We’ll take what we can get! And seriously, go read the entire interview — it’s great!

As the year comes to an end, the musical and its creators inevitably popped up in some year-end lists. Most notably, The Stage 100, TheStage.co.uk’s annual list of the most influential people in theatre, included both Tori and Marianne Elliot, in the writers and composers and directors categories respectively — although The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner takes issue with Tori’s inclusion. The Daily Mail’s Georgina Brown singled out Rosalie Craig for best performance of the year.

Speaking of which, it’s not too late to vote for Rosalie Craig for Best Actress in a Musical in the 2014 WhatsOnStage Awards! And don’t forget that there are five other categories that The Light Princess has been nominated in: Amy Booth-Steel for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Rae Smith for Best Set Designer, Steven Hoggett for Best Choreographer, Tori Amos for London Newcomer, and The Light Princess for Best New Musical. Voting closes on January 31st and the winners will be announced on February 23rd!

Get Into Under The Pink With After The Pink

It seems like just yesterday, we were all talking about Little Earthquakes turning 20 years old but, after the riding Gold Dust’s orchestral dragon in 2012 and floating with The Light Princess in 2013, it’s 2014 and that means Under the Pink is nearing its third decade out in the world.

That anniversary doesn’t come until the end of this month though, as The 405 observes, “Cornflake Girl” was released as a single 20 years ago this week in the UK. Still, any old-timer fans who remember waiting at a record store until midnight to buy the record on cassette or wailing and gnashing their teeth while trying to get through to Ticketmaster on the phone to get tickets for the tour have a few weeks to still feel young and carefree — assuming Little Earthquakes being old enough to drink hasn’t already dashed those emotions!

However, the folks who brought you the 50 Years of Tori Birthday Bash are not waiting until the end of January to get this party started. Rather, they’ve launched 20 Years After the Pink, an ambitious online event that celebrates Under the Pink through an on-going dialogue about artists inspiring artists and art affecting its audience and raising funds for RAINN.

At the core of After the Pink is Marta Woodhull who had the great fortune to be in Taos during the production of Under the Pink. During that time, she created her own art — drawings, photography, writings — inspired by the creative process around her which she is now sharing them with the Tori Amos community, allowing us to explore how we have changed and been changed by this album, by looking back to its beginnings.

Come join the fun on their website where you can learn much more about the extravaganza, view Marta’s drawings and photos, read about the making of Under the Pink and learn about their juried art show. Holy cow! So much stuff!

You can also follow along as After The Pink marches towards the album’s anniversary on all the usual social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Daily Mail Interview (January 4, 2014)

[My biggest achievement is] getting big boy record executives to see the piano wasn’t just for piano bars or for playing classical music or jazz standards.

With one month left for The Light Princess’ run at The National Theatre, Tori’s keeping herself in the news with this quirky little interview in this weekend’s Daily Mail where she fields a series of oddball questions about herself ranging from best and worst character traits to secrets to biggest regrets.

Thanks to @ToriAmosJP for bringing it to our attention!

read more...

Watch The Trailer For The Light Princess

Perhaps a little later than might have been expected, The National Theatre has released a trailer for The Light Princess. It was premiered on Time Out London’s blog today and features scenes from through the production accompanied by the song “Better Than Good.” You’ve all heard what the musical sounds like, courtesy of the four songs that have been released. Now enjoy this great taste of what the musical looks like!

WhatsOnStage Awards Voting Reminder

As we reported earlier this month, The Light Princess is up for six WhatsOnStage Awards this year: Best Actress in a Musical, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Best Set Design, Best Choreographer, London Newcomer of the Year, and Best New Musical. The winners of these awards are decided by us, the public, so please cast your ballot to support The Light Princess by voting for it before the end of January!

Results are updated regularly so you can see how the cast and creatives are doing in each category they were nominated in. Currently, Rosalie Craig has a slim lead but the others have fallen behind. Please help out if you can!

Geraldines, Come What May

As we’re into the annual slowdown while the year-end holidays are observed, we don’t anticipate any new news about either Tori’s forthcoming album Unrepentant Geraldines or the 2014 tour supporting it to be formally announced until the new year
starts. However, that doesn’t stop retailers from sometimes providing a little insight into when things might be expected and, sure enough, Australia’s JB HI-FI, which had already listed the album has added a release date: Friday, May 23, 2014 and is not taking pre-orders for it. Additionally, Direct Current Music has added Unrepentant Geraldines to their Upcoming Releases (in the left sidebar of every page on their site) with a release date of Tuesday, May 27, 2014.

So early indications are a late May release. Of course, this far ahead, that may just be a placeholder date so we’ll see…

Thanks Ryan and @onscarletswalk for the tips!