Prinia
01-26-2008, 11:41 PM
Leebella from the forum found this bit
Two dreamers reach for the stars
January 26, 2008
Ten years ago two students fresh from university started writing a musical. Now their show is bound for Broadway.
IT BEGAN as an amateur production by two University of Sydney students, and now Angels The Musical is a multimillion-dollar blockbuster bound for Broadway.
Written by Marcus Cheong and Ken Lai from Sydney's north, the show is scheduled for a New York season on Broadway at the end of the year, after launching at the Strand Theatre in Louisiana in September. It will be the first production to open under Broadway South, a scheme designed to rebuild Louisiana's theatre industry after Hurricane Katrina.
Loosely-based on Milton's Paradise Lost, the show tells a story of war in the heavens between the angels and Lucifer's minions. The two friends wrote the musical's first incarnation 10 years ago during their first year out of university. Cheong, then a 24-year-old architecture graduate, wrote the script and lyrics, and Lai, a budding aeronautical engineer, wrote the music. To the horror of their parents, they soon abandoned their fields of study to pursue theatrical careers.
After an overhaul of the original production, the pair begged and borrowed from family and friends to raise enough money for a workshop performance before industry professionals at the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival.
"By that stage I knew the show pretty well, so I was watching the audience," said Cheong. "There were several points where I could see even the most grumpy old men wiping tears away. That's when I knew we had them."
One of the weeping audience members was a representative of Robert Blume, the executive producer of New York's Drama Desk Awards, the theatrical equivalent of the Golden Globes. Blume signed up to help produce the show, and attracted other Broadway veterans, including the Tony Award-winning set designer David Gallo.
"There are thousands of shows in New York vying for the attention of Broadway producers and most have doors slammed in their faces. But all the right doors have just opened up to us," Cheong said.
With a series of demonstration performances, creative merchandising ideas, and a pop version of one of the songs featuring Guy Sebastian, Cheong, now the show's head producer, managed to secure almost $17 million from investors.
The budget will allow the director, Richard Fowler, to invest in lighting effects and aerial choreography to create mid-air battles between angels and demons. Fowler said the production's success lay in its strong score. "The moment I heard the songs, I got goosebumps and knew these guys had something the world could get really excited about," he said.
It will be several months before a date and venue for the New York season can be confirmed, but Angels is guaranteed a spot on the Broadway stage, perhaps as early as November.
"On the road to New York we've had moments of sheer panic and terror, but somehow there's always been a way," Lai said. "It would seem like angels were watching over us."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/two-dreame...1157663311.html (http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/two-dreamers-reach-for-the-stars/2008/01/25/1201157663311.html)
Amazing - but not surprising. We keep finding songs that Guy has written, that others have recorded, or that he has done but they're on something we don't know about. I think his management must just be so inundated - and they manage Channel 7 Television peeps AND ex Miss Univerise Jennifer Hawkins. Great that they're also lawyers too. :) Must help quite a big.
Anyhow, last night Guy was a presenter and a performer on the Country Music Awards Australia Day night at Tamworth, in New South Wales - having been asked by the CMA association. He did a GREAT Bluegrass version of "Hold On I'm Coming" with multi award winning Gina Jeffries! They were so good, can't wait to actually see it (some could, some couldn't but it is coming on TV quite a few times - channel 10 are having it on Feb 3).
So - if you are curious - here is the download, courtesy of Janice and Chris
Bluegrass Hold On, I'm Coming (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VHF17ID7)
Two dreamers reach for the stars
January 26, 2008
Ten years ago two students fresh from university started writing a musical. Now their show is bound for Broadway.
IT BEGAN as an amateur production by two University of Sydney students, and now Angels The Musical is a multimillion-dollar blockbuster bound for Broadway.
Written by Marcus Cheong and Ken Lai from Sydney's north, the show is scheduled for a New York season on Broadway at the end of the year, after launching at the Strand Theatre in Louisiana in September. It will be the first production to open under Broadway South, a scheme designed to rebuild Louisiana's theatre industry after Hurricane Katrina.
Loosely-based on Milton's Paradise Lost, the show tells a story of war in the heavens between the angels and Lucifer's minions. The two friends wrote the musical's first incarnation 10 years ago during their first year out of university. Cheong, then a 24-year-old architecture graduate, wrote the script and lyrics, and Lai, a budding aeronautical engineer, wrote the music. To the horror of their parents, they soon abandoned their fields of study to pursue theatrical careers.
After an overhaul of the original production, the pair begged and borrowed from family and friends to raise enough money for a workshop performance before industry professionals at the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival.
"By that stage I knew the show pretty well, so I was watching the audience," said Cheong. "There were several points where I could see even the most grumpy old men wiping tears away. That's when I knew we had them."
One of the weeping audience members was a representative of Robert Blume, the executive producer of New York's Drama Desk Awards, the theatrical equivalent of the Golden Globes. Blume signed up to help produce the show, and attracted other Broadway veterans, including the Tony Award-winning set designer David Gallo.
"There are thousands of shows in New York vying for the attention of Broadway producers and most have doors slammed in their faces. But all the right doors have just opened up to us," Cheong said.
With a series of demonstration performances, creative merchandising ideas, and a pop version of one of the songs featuring Guy Sebastian, Cheong, now the show's head producer, managed to secure almost $17 million from investors.
The budget will allow the director, Richard Fowler, to invest in lighting effects and aerial choreography to create mid-air battles between angels and demons. Fowler said the production's success lay in its strong score. "The moment I heard the songs, I got goosebumps and knew these guys had something the world could get really excited about," he said.
It will be several months before a date and venue for the New York season can be confirmed, but Angels is guaranteed a spot on the Broadway stage, perhaps as early as November.
"On the road to New York we've had moments of sheer panic and terror, but somehow there's always been a way," Lai said. "It would seem like angels were watching over us."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/two-dreame...1157663311.html (http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/two-dreamers-reach-for-the-stars/2008/01/25/1201157663311.html)
Amazing - but not surprising. We keep finding songs that Guy has written, that others have recorded, or that he has done but they're on something we don't know about. I think his management must just be so inundated - and they manage Channel 7 Television peeps AND ex Miss Univerise Jennifer Hawkins. Great that they're also lawyers too. :) Must help quite a big.
Anyhow, last night Guy was a presenter and a performer on the Country Music Awards Australia Day night at Tamworth, in New South Wales - having been asked by the CMA association. He did a GREAT Bluegrass version of "Hold On I'm Coming" with multi award winning Gina Jeffries! They were so good, can't wait to actually see it (some could, some couldn't but it is coming on TV quite a few times - channel 10 are having it on Feb 3).
So - if you are curious - here is the download, courtesy of Janice and Chris
Bluegrass Hold On, I'm Coming (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VHF17ID7)