50 Is The New Black

Last Thursday, as we posted, was Tori’s 50th birthday and the rest of the Internet joined the celebration going on in the Toriphile corner of the world, albeit with varying degrees of success.

Flavorwire kicked things off with their subjective list of Tori’s Top 100 Songs that, as they subsequently reported, sparked much debate on Twitter and spawned the #5ToriSongs hashtag. It’s still not quite dead yet and never too late to chime in if you disagree or agree with what the fine folks at Flavorwire opined.

Not to be outdone, Metroweekly entered the fray with a listicle of Tori’s albums, ranking them “from worst to first” posted on their SoundWaves music blog. For whatever reason, that didn’t seem to garner as much reaction as the Flavorwire piece…

The Frisky probably had the most interesting contribution with 10 Tips For Living The Tori Amos Way. Despite whiffing on the name of Y Kant Tori Read, they light-heartedly offered up some pretty serious advice — not a mean feat in the click-and-burn jungle!

The Huffington Post, The Awl and V Magazine also observed the momentous occasion.

But, most special of all, the cast and crea of The National Theatre’s production of The Light Princess, currently in rehearsals in London, marked the event with a rousing performance of “Happy Birthday” and cake. And who wouldn’t want a bunch of people with good voices singing you happy birthday? Certainly not us!

Check out the video posted on Tori’s website and some photos tweeted by Sam Adamson and Nick Hendrix:

Happy 50th Birthday, Tori!

The Piano Girl turns 50 today.

Tori, for making the world a brighter place and giving us all so many lovely days, we wish you the same in return, today and every day. Happy Birthday!

And BONUS, here’s the fan video put together to cap off the 50 Years Of Tori project, which raised $3,500 for RAINN:

Now Streaming: The Bullitts Featuring Tori...And More!

Way back at the end of 2010, we first heard of The Bullitts, a project by producer Jeymes Samuel and a who’s who of collaborators including Lucy Liu, Jay Electronica, Rosario Dawson, and, of interest to ones such as us, Tori Amos.

Since then, dribs and drabs of information about their debut album, They Die By Dawn & Other Stories, have slowly surfaced, not to mention several preview tracks and a trailer, but very little was known about Tori’s involvement in the project…until now.

A few days ago, The Bullitts announced on Twitter that the record would be released on July 9th and then, yesterday, a complete album stream was posted on the music website Consequence of Sound. Track 11, “Wait Until Tomorrow,” features vocals and piano by Tori and, as explained, is a lyrical co-write between Tori and The Bullitts.

It’s a pretty intriguing listen — both Tori’s contribution and the whole album alike! It’s available for pre-order on iTunes.

Check it out on the virtual turntable below…

Light Princess Ticket Reminder

Just a quick reminder that tickets to all performances of The Light Princess and the platform featuring a conversation between playwright Samuel Adamson and Tori on October 18th go on sale to the general public on Monday, July 1st.

Not sure if that is at Midnight British time or later in the day, but keep an eye on The National’s website to see when the purchase links go live.

Pre-sale tickets can already be purchased by National Theatre Supporting Cast members, Priority Members, Young Patrons and Advance Members.

In addition, there is a presale for American Express cardholders that can be accessed through the ticket pages on The National’s website.

Good luck to all who are going for tickets!

The Light Princess At Last!

After sharing three teaser clips from the poster for The Light Princess over the past couple days, The National Theatre has unveiled the complete image for the musical on Twitter this morning. They’ve also indicated that tickets will go on sale to the general public on July 1st.

If you head over to The National’s website, you’ll find that the show’s page is now live where it states that performances will start on September 25th. Additional ticketing details including prices and a schedule of when they will go on-sale — there are earlier dates for theatre supporters — are listed as well as the cast and show’s description:

Once, in opposing kingdoms lived a princess and a prince who had lost their mothers. Althea, unable to cry, became light with grief and floated, and so was locked away. Digby became so heavy-hearted that he could never smile, and so was trained as a warrior.

One day, he declares war. Althea is forced out of hiding and down to ground but, in defiance of her father, she escapes, only to encounter the solemn prince on contested land. Beside a lake the warring heirs begin a passionate and illicit affair. But for Althea to find real love, she must first confront the world’s darkness and face her own deepest fears.

The Light Princess brings together iconic singersongwriter Tori Amos with playwright Samuel Adamson and director Marianne Elliott (Curious Incident) in this spectacular coming-of-age story. A dark fairytale about grief, rebellion and the power of love.

Finally, there is one little bit of what we assume to the be lyrics for the show:

I’m done, Father, Keep your crown,
I swear you’ll never bring me down!
I am not queen material!

Update: The National Theatre’s webpage for the musical also links to this event, a special conversation between Tori and playwright Samuel Adamson where they will discuss the musical. This one-time discussion will take place on Friday, October 18th at 6pm at The Lyttelton Theatre, preceding that evening’s performance we assume.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on July 1st.

The Light Princess Poster, Piece By Piece

Update: the third teaser from The Light Princess poster is up!

Another snippet of #thelightprincess image. A new musical by Tori Amos & Samuel Adamson. Full image reveal tomorrow! twitter.com/NationalTheatr…

— National Theatre (@NationalTheatre) June 12, 2013

Update: The second snippet has been posted:

A second glimpse of #thelightprincess poster. A dark fairytale with music by Tori Amos. More tomorrow… twitter.com/NationalTheatr…

— National Theatre (@NationalTheatre) June 11, 2013

Keep an eye on The National Theatre’s Twitter stream as they’ll be posting snippets of the poster for The Light Princess during the week. The first image went up this morning and more will be posted today and tomorrow before the complete poster is unveiled on Thursday.

Here it is! First exclusive look at #thelightprincess poster. A new musical by <a href="https://twitter.com/therealtoriamos">therealtoriamos</a> &amp; Samuel Adamson <a href="http://t.co/X4FKXvT1QB" title="http://twitter.com/NationalTheatre/status/344384434142867456/photo/1">twitter.com/NationalTheatr…</a></p>&mdash; National Theatre (NationalTheatre) June 11, 2013

We’ll be posting a few more glimpses of #thelightprincess poster today and tomorrow before revealing the full image on Thursday.

— National Theatre (@NationalTheatre) June 11, 2013

The Curious Case Of A Curious Night At The Theatre

While we were out enjoying the Memorial Day holiday yesterday, a curious article from Time Out London’s “Now. Here. This.” blog came across the news wire.

Highlighting A Curious Night at the Theatre, a fundraiser for The National Autistic Society and Ambitious about Autism organized by actor Luke Treadaway and director Katy Rudd, the article indicated that Tori would be “singing” at the event. However, Time Out London’s listing for the event does not mention Tori and neither charity’s websites list her appearing — although Ambitious about Autism mentions her in conjunction with passes to a rehearsal of The Light Princess that is one of the several prizes that will be auctioned off.

Fortunately, muddy waters can be cleared: we’ve gotten confirmation that she will not be appearing at this event.

However, don’t let that stop you from attending if you can as the cause is good and the impressive line-up includes the one-off performance of a new Curious Detective Story written by playwright Simon Stephens and author Mark Haddon by the cast of The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time (including Luke Treadaway) , performances by Bat For Lashes and The Boxettes, comedy from Simon Amstell and James Corden, and special video appearances from Helen Mirren, Matt Smith and Andrew Scott. Not a bad evening at all! Plus, there’s that pass into a rehearsal for The Light Princess up for auction!

It all goes down on Monday, July 1st at the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End. VIP tickets are available via rsvpBOOK while regular tickets can be purchased from the Nimax Theatres’ box office.

The Light Princess To Open In October

After development and workshops and delays and more workshops, The National Theatre announced, during their January 30th press conference about plans for the coming year, that The Light Princess musical, created by Samuel Adamson and Tori and directed by Marianne Elliot, will finally be opening in October 2013!

The press release (Word doc) is short on specifics but confirms the title and the stars: Rosalie Craig and Clive Rowe.

So while the exact details and date and tickets are understandably yet to be sorted out, it is great to hear that this production will see the light of day.

Soon as there is word of when the musical will open and information about ticket availability, we’ll pass the word along.

Oh Yeah, The Light Princess...

Concrete details about the forthcoming The Light Princess musical are still elusive but, as The Stage reported today, it’s still firmly on The National Theatre’s radar for 2013.

The Stage indicates being told by a theatre spokesman that a production slot later next year is still being settled upon and that additional details and dates will be coming in the new year. The Stage also adds that Marianne Elliott, as has been previously reported, is still directing the performance.

So, nothing really new about the musical except an indication of when we should expect to hear about The National’s plans for the production.

Let's Bench Hunger!

Hungerthon 2012, the annual campaign to raise funds for WhyHunger, an organization working to end hunger and poverty in the United States and across the world, is well underway.

This year’s campaign includes a celebrity auction featuring a plethora of auction items and experiences donated by musicians, athletes, and other personalityes that you can bid on at CharityBuzz, including a piano bench signed by Tori Amos.

The auction continues until Thursday, December 13th at 4:20PM Eastern so if you’d like to add this to your home furnishings — and support a great cause in the process — you’ve got a few days to consider doing so!

And even if you don’t want to bid on the bench, consider making a donation to help out this worthy effort.