My First: Interview with Jon Lee, star of Jersey Boys

There’s got to be a first time for everyone, even West End stars. Here’s the low-down on the first show-biz experiences of actor and singer Jon Lee, currently starring in Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre.

My First audition…
was for Oliver! My parents drove me to London, we were living in Devon at the time. I remember the queue going round the block. It was at the Lyric theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. There were so many kids there. I came away feeling really nervous as I wanted to audition for the part of Oliver! but they were only letting all the kids sing a verse of Consider Yourself that day.

My First job…
was Oliver! After about 6 more auditions and I got the part! Think I had just turned 12.

My First kiss…
was at the bottom of the playing field when I was 11 or 12. There was a little hill that went down into a ditch full of stinging nettles and brambles…. And who said romance was dead?

My First time on stage…
not including school plays, was with my local amateur dramatics group in Newton Abbot. I think it was The Boyfriend although with the amount of pancake make-up and lipstick, it could have been La Cage Aux Folles!

My First big break…
was Oliver! It made me realise that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I then won a scholarship to go to the Sylvia Young theatre school and everything just fell into place after that.

My First celebrity encounter…
was Jonathan Pryce who was playing Fagin at the time. I had no idea who he was so I wasn’t daunted or star struck at all. He was such a lovely man, so friendly. He always used to make me laugh on stage.

My First visit to see a West End show…
My folks took me to see Les Mis, I remember watching the show, pointing at Marius and saying to my Dad “I’m gonna play that role one day”

Jon Lee’s career spans theatre, TV, film and music, from playing lead roles in Cameron Mackintosh’s productions of Oliver! and Les Miserables, to appearing in BBC TV’s EastEnders and as a member of internationally successful pop group S Club 7. He is currently starring as Frankie Valli in the West End production of the Broadway hit show Jersey Boys.

LINKS

Book tickets to Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre in London

Jon Lee’s official website

Royal Mail release Musicals Stamps

The Royal Mail is celebrating seven decades of UK stage musicals with a set of stamps, issued today.

Eight shows are featured: Queen’s We Will Rock You, West End classic Oliver!, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Me and My Girl – first produced in 1937, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, Elton John’s Billy Elliot, and (slightly bizarrely) Return to the Forbidden Planet.

Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen helped launch the stamps at the Dominion Theatre today, and said: “We’re thrilled that We Will Rock You has been immortalised on a Royal Mail stamp. The image on the stamp takes us back to when we were touring as Queen and embodies the rock and roll music that we wanted to celebrate in We Will Rock You the musical.”

We know they can’t include everything but they have left out some biggies: Andrew Lloyd Webber doesn’t feature, which is odd given that he is probably Britain’s most successful living musicals composer. And the world’s longest running musical, Les Miserables, is strangely absent (yes, it was written by two French men, but the production is most definitely British). And no Leslie Bricusse, Noel Coward, Ivor Novello or Sandy Wilson work?

Click here to see the full set of Musicals stamps

LINKS

Royal Mail website

Oliver! – Christmas in the West End

Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane – Christmas in the West End

The West End stage in September 1994

A snapshot of what was playing in the West End in September 1994, including Sunset Boulevard, Crazy for You, Copacabana, Design for Living starring Clive Owen, Imogen Stubbs in Saint Joan and Ruthie Henshall in She Loves Me.

Ticket prices in 1994: Average top price tickets were £30 for a musical and £20 for a play.

Adelphi: Sunset Boulevard by Andrew Lloyd-Webber

Albery: Lady Windermere’s Fan, starring Francesca Annis

Aldwych: An Inspector Calls, directed by Stephen Daldry

Ambassadors: 900 Oneonta, written and directed by David Beaird

Apollo: Neville’s Island, starring Tony Slattery

Apollo Victoria: Starlight Express, directed by Trevor Nunn

Coliseum: Tosca, The Mikado

Comedy: The Official Tribute to the Blues Brothers

Dominion: Grease, starring Shane Ritchie and Sonia

Donmar Warehouse: Design for Living, starring Clive Owen, Paul Rhys and Rachel Weisz

Drury Lane: Miss Saigon, directed by Nicholas Hytner

Duchess: Don’t Dress for Dinner starring Royce Mills

Duke of York’s: Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey

Fortune: The Woman in Black, starring Mark Curry and Jeffry Wickham

Globe: The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan

Haymarket: Arcadia, starring Joanne Pearce and Roger Allam

Her Majesty’s: The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Harold Prince

Island Theatre at the Royalty: Once on this Island

London Palladium: Oliver!, starring Jonathan Pryce

Lyric: Five Guys Named Moe by Clarke Peters

National Theatre: Racing Demon, The Devil’s Disciple, The Seagull, The Children’s Hour, Sweet Bird of Youth, Broken Glass, Two Weeks with the Queen, Le Cid, Rutherford & Son

New London: Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber

The Old Vic: The Sisters Rosensweig, starring Maureen Lipman, Janet Suzman and Lynda Bellingham

Palace: Les Miserables, directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird

Phoenix: Blood Brothers, starring Stephanie Lawrence

Piccadilly: Only the Lonely

Prince Edward: Crazy for You

Prince of Wales: Copacabana, starring Gary Wilmot

Queen’s: What a Performance, starring David Suchet

Royal Court: Babies by Jonathan Harvey

Royal Opera House: Turandot, Le Cenerentola

RSC at the Barbican Theatre: The Tempest, The Hostage, The Venetian Twins, The Country Wife, Moby Dick

Sadler’s Wells: Cumbre Flamenca

St Martin’s: The Mousetrap, now in its 42nd year

Savoy: She Loves Me, starring Ruthie Henshall and John Gordon Sinclair

Shaftesbury: Out of the Blue

Strand: Saint Joan, starring Imogen Stubbs

Vaudeville: Dead Funny, starring Zoe Wanamaker

Victoria Palace: Buddy

Wyndham’s: The Miracle Worker, starring Jenny Seagrove

Oliver!

Cameron Mackintosh presents his triumphant new staging of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Oliver! is one of the most beloved British musicals, vividly bringing to life Dickens’ timeless characters with its ever popular story of the boy who asked for more.

This new production at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is even more spectacular than ever before, starring Russ Abbot as Fagin, Kerry Ellis as Nancy and a cast and orchestra of over one hundred. The sensational score is full of Lionel Bart’s irresistible songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more.

‘Oliver! Sets the West End alight’ Sunday Telegraph.

Book tickets to see Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actor Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actor Winners

Best Actor

2011 Roger Allam for Henry IV Parts 1 & 2
2010 Mark Rylance for Jerusalem
2009 Derek Jacobi for Twelfth Night
2008 Chiwetel Ejiofor in Othello
2007 Rufus Sewell for Rock ‘N’ Roll
2006 Brian Dennehy for Death Of A Salesman
2005 Richard Griffiths for The History Boys
2004 Matthew Kelly for Of Mice And Men
2003 Simon Russell Beale for Uncle Vanya
2002 Roger Allam for Privates On Parade
2001 Conleth Hill for Stones In His Pockets
2000 Henry Goodman for The Merchant Of Venice
1999 Kevin Spacey for The Iceman Cometh
1998 Ian Holm for King Lear
1997 Antony Sher for Stanley
1996 Alex Jennings for Peer Gynt
1995 David Bamber for My Night With Reg
1994 Mark Rylance for Much Ado About Nothing
1993 Robert Stephens for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2)
1992 Nigel Hawthorne for The Madness Of George III
1991 Ian McKellen for Richard III
1989/90 Oliver Ford Davies for Racing Demon
1987 Michael Gambon for A View From The Bridge
1986 Albert Finney for Orphans
1985 Antony Sher for Richard III and Torch Song Trilogy

Actor of the Year in a New Play

1988 David Haig for Our Country’s Good
1984 Brian Cox for Rat In The Skull
1983 Jack Shepherd for Glengarry Glen Ross
1982 Ian McDiarmid for lnsignificance
1981 Trevor Eve for Children Of A Lesser God
1980 Roger Rees for Nicholas Nickleby
1979 Ian McKellen for Bent
1978 Tom Conti for Whose Life Is It Anyway?
1977 Michael Bryant for State Of Revolution
1976 Paul Copley for King And Country

Actor of the Year in a Revival

1988 Brian Cox for Titus Andronicus
1984 Ian McKellen for Wild Honey
1983 Derek Jacobi for Cyrano De Bergerac
1982 Stephen Moore for A Doll’s House
1981 Daniel Massey for Man And Superman
1980 Jonathan Pryce for Hamlet
1979 Warren Mitchell for Death Of A Salesman
1978 Alan Howard for Coriolanus
1977 Ian McKellen for Pillars Of The Community
1976 Alan Howard for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2) and Henry V

Best Actor in a Musical

2011 David Thaxton for Passion
2010 Aneurin Barnard for Spring Awakening
2009 Douglas Hodge for La Cage aux Folles
2008 Michael Ball for Hairspray
2007 Daniel Evans for Sunday In The Park With George
2006 James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mower for Billy Elliot – The Musical
2005 Nathan Lane for The Producers
2004 David Bedella for Jerry Springer – The Opera
2003 Alex Jennings for My Fair Lady
2002 Philip Quast for South Pacific
2001 Daniel Evans for Merrily We Roll Along
2000 Simon Russell Beale for Candide
1999 The cast of Kat and The Kings
1998 Philip Quast for The Fix
1997 Robert Lindsay for Oliver!
1996 Adrian Lester for Company
1995 John Gordon Sinclair for She Loves Me
1994 Alun Armstrong for Sweeney Todd
1993 Henry Goodman for Assassins
1992 Alan Bennett for Talking Heads
1991 Philip Quast for Sunday In The Park With George
1989/90 Jonathan Pryce for Miss Saigon
1988 Con O’Neill for Blood Brothers
1987 John Bardon and Emil Wolk for Kiss Me Kate
1986 Michael Crawford for The Phantom Of The Opera
1985 Robert Lindsay for Me And My Girl
1984 Paul Clarkson for The Hired Man
1983 Denis Lawson for Mr. Cinders
1982 Roy Hudd for Underneath The Arches
1981 Michael Crawford for Barnum
1980 Denis Quilley for Sweeney Todd
1979 Anton Rodgers for Songbook

CASTING: Wolfboy, Dirty Dancing, Oliver!

Emma Rigby and Daniel Boys in Wolfboy; Ray Quinn to strut his stuff in Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre; Russ Abbot takes over from Griff Rhys Jones in Oliver!

WOLFBOY

Former Hollyoaks star Emma Rigby and recent Avenue Q lead Daniel Boys will appear at the Trafalgar Studios this summer to star in the psycho-sexual musical thriller Wolfboy (6 – 31 July).

The new musical premiered at the Edinburgh Festival fringe last year and has a book by Russell Labey, music and lyrics by Leon Parris and is based on a play by Brad Fraser.

The musical is a dark and disturbing tale of two troubled teenage boys locked in an asylum for their own good. Bernie has attempted suicide; David may or may not have the powers of a wolf. For them the outside world is a frightening place of abuse and violence. Bernie’s brother Christian and Cherry the young nurse on the unit, also hide secrets that surface in the night, when the moon is full.

Emma Rigby won a Best Actress British Soap Award in 2008 for her role on TV’s Hollyoaks playing Hannah Ashworth.

Daniel Boys appeared on BBC talent show Any Dream Will Do in 2007  and has since performed in a number of concerts and events including a special guest artist on John Barowman’s UK tour, and is a regular on BBC Radio 2′s Friday Night is Music Night.

The cast also includes Paul Holowaty and Gregg Lowe.

Book tickets to see Wolfboy at the Trafalgar Studios in London

DIRTY DANCING

X Factor and Dancing on Ice star Ray Quinn is to join the cast of Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre this summer, from 26 July to 27 November 2010.

Quinn, who recently appeared as Danny in Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre, will play the role of Billy Kostecki, Johnny Castle’s cousin, in the show for a limited season from 26 July. He will sing two iconic songs from the show – “Do You Love Me?” and “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life”.

Other cast includes Martin Harvey as Johnny Castle and Hannah Vassallo as Baby.

Dirty Dancing is now in its fourth year at the Aldwych Theatre and brings the action and music of the iconic film to the stage.

Special offer: Save £22.50 on tickets to Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre in London

OLIVER!

He stepped in for Rowan Atkinson last year and proved such a hit that Russ Abbot is to make his return to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in June, starring as Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh’s big-budget production of Oliver!

Taking over the role from Griff Rhys Jones from 14 June, Abbot will join Kerry Ellis as Nancy, Steven Hartley as Bill Sikes and Stephen Moore as Mr Brownlow.

No stranger to the role of Fagin, Abbot played the part in Mackintosh’s 1997 revival of the show at the London Palladium and then on tour.  The comedian and actor best known for his TV appearance including “The Russ Abbot Show” has also appeared in numerous musicals including My Fair Lady and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Doctor Dolittle and The Producers.

Special offer: Save £21 on tickets to see Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London

LEND ME A TENOR

Sally Ann Triplett and Matthew Kelly are to star in a new production of Lend Me a Tenor the Musical this autumn. The show will run at the Theatre Royal Plymouth from 24 September and then transfer to the West End (theatre to be announced).

Peter Sham and Brad Carroll’s musical, based on Ken Ludwig’s comedy, will be directed by Ian Talbot.

Other cast members include Damian Humbley and Michael Matus.

Links: Theatre Royal Plymouth

Oliver! – Save £23 on top price seats

Save £23 on top price tickets to see Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London

Valid Monday to Friday performances until the 12th June Excludes School Holidays

Oliver! is one of the most popular shows in the West End. Starring Griff Rhys Jones as Fagin and Broadway & West End Star Kerry Ellis as Nancy (from 29th March), Oliver! is one of Britain’s best-loved musicals, bringing Dickens’ timeless characters vividly to life.

Cameron Mackontosh presents this triumphant new staging of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece, featuring a cast and orchestra of over 100 and Lionel Bart’s sensational score of songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more.

Rupert Goold (Best Director, 2008 Olivier Awards), has restaged Sam Mendes’ acclaimed production, and along with Tony award winning director and choreographer Matthew Bourne, uses every inch of London’s greatest musical stage with even more sensational sets by Anthony Ward.

Griff Rhys Jones to star in Oliver!

Comedy appears to be a key factor in casting the role of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh’s multi-million pound production of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

First Rowan Atkinson was cast in the lead role when the show opened at the Theatre Royal in January this year, followed by current Fagin, Iranian comedian Omid Djalili. And now the producers have announced that TV and stage star Griff Rhys Jones has landed the part of Dickens’ greatest villain.

Griff shot to fame in the late seventies on satirical TV show Not The Nine O’Clock News alongside Rowan Atkinson. No stranger to theatre, he has won Laurence Olivier best comedy awards for his performances in Charley’s Aunt and An Absolute Turkey and has enjoyed great success on stage and TV.

Producer of Oliver! Cameron Mackintosh said, “I’ve wanted to work with Griff for years so I’m delighted that the marvellous role of Fagin has tempted him back to the stage this Christmas. Griff is an actor with an amazing array of successful talents, all of which will undoubtedly be poured into his unique and entertaining interpretation of one of Dickens’ most famous and beloved creations. I can’t wait!”

Griff joins the cast of the Rupert Goold directed show alongside BBC “I’d Do Anything” winner Jodie Prenger, as Nancy and performs from 14 December until June 2010.

BOOK TICKETS TO OLIVER!

Great Oliver! dinner and show packages from £32.50

Oliver! Reviews – Press Round-up

A round-up of Oliver! reviews

• The Telegraph: 4/5
  
• The Guardian: 3/5
• The Times: 4/5
• The Independent: 3/5

ON THE MATERIAL

Telegraph: “It’s a travesty of Dickens. It’s absolutely fantastic showbiz.”

Guardian: “Not even the expertise of the staging and a handful of fine performances can disguise the essential thinness of this piece of deodorised musical Dickens…. But although this is sanitised Dickens, Bart manages to write some thumping good tunes and provide scope for individual actors.”

BN: “Bart’s songs may be unsophisticated and the rhymes sometimes feeble (“where oh where is love, does it fall from skies above?”), but they’re so tuneful and put over such elan that last night’s audience rightly cheered Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two and several others.”

ON THE CAST

Please note: The role of Fagin is now played by Omid Djalili.

The Stage: “Djalili might not appear to be the most obvious choice for Fagin, but any doubts that miscasting may have taken place are soon put aside. Djalili puts his stand-up comedy skills to great use in scenes where he appears to be ad-libbing, making jokes about politicians’ expenses and the banking crisis, and, as you might expect, he demonstrates perfect comic timing”

Telegraph:  “Rowan Atkinson is both sinister and hilarious as Fagin… Jodie Prenger, brings a warmth to the stage you could warm your hands by, and wrings every last ounce of emotion from that deeply dodgy celebration of wife beaters, As Long as He Needs Me.”

Guardian: “Rowan Atkinson turns in a sprightly, distinctive performance… Atkinson also plays up the character’s sexual ambiguity…. If this revival is worth catching, it is largely for Atkinson’s saturnine comic presence. The biggest fuss, of course, has been about the casting of Jodie Prenger as Nancy on the strength of TV’s I’d Do Anything competition. The good news is that she acquits herself extremely well.”

Independent: “He’s funniest when fingering his stolen gems, or kicking his legs above his head in a sideways exit. But he’s not a malevolent, gleeful, stage-hogging, dubiously paedophiliac monster that you long for and Lionel Bart wrote, even if Charles Dickens didn’t. The moment Prenger appears, I’m afraid, the heart sinks. She seems to be hiding from the audience. Her voice is okay, but she can’t act and she doesn’t have the depth of lung power to fill a plastic bag, let alone a West End theatre on a nightly basis.”

Times: “all credit to Atkinson for giving Fagin at least as much menace as Jonathan Pryce and Robert Lindsay, who were superlative in Sam Mendes’s revival of the musical 14 years ago….And did Jodie Prenger, who won the role of Nancy in one of those deplorably sadistic television contests, justify her choice? I must admit she did. Initially she struck me as parading, posturing, performing rather than acting, but she went on to prove herself a tough, coarse, credible presence with a big, robust voice — and that’s all that is needed. “

Mail: “Rowan Atkinson, playing that warped scout master Fagin, was the eyebrow-wriggling, funny-walking, laugh-wringing supremo of the show last night… Jodie Prenger, who won the part of the doomed, decent Nancy in a primetime BBC1 talent show, stands up to the test like a sturdy galleon.”

Mirror: “Jodie Prenger took to the West End stage last night and claimed the bright lights of the big city for her own… Rowan Atkinson brought a touch of Blackadder and Mr Bean to gangmaster Fagin.”

ON THE TECHNICAL

Telegraph:  “It seems even more polished this time, even more vigorously and inventively choreographed by Matthew Bourne, even more spectacularly designed. Anthony Ward’s beautiful, multi-level sets are both picturesque and brilliantly ingenious, whirling us round the handsome piazzas and dark alleys of London before taking us underground to Fagin’s lair.”

Guardian: “Goold stages it with fluent efficiency, and Anthony Ward’s sets, with their perspectives of St Paul’s and their sliding bridges, are handsome to look at.”

Independent: “Ward’s designs look better than they did in the Palladium.”

Times: “I can’t say that Rupert Goold, who is credited as the director, does much to reinvent Mendes’s production as I recall it, but he certainly gets plenty of energy out of his cast… [Anthony] Ward makes London a character in its own right: a looming St Pauls, swiftly moving and interlocking alleys, and a very Dickensian murk for Bill Sikes to run through.”

THE LAST WORD

Telegraph:  “As most of us get poorer in coming months, this production is going to make producer Cameron Mackintosh even richer. It’s so enjoyable however that I find it impossible to grudge him a penny.”

Guardian: “For the most part, however, this is Dickens as jolly family entertainment stripped of the sense of solitude that has roots in the author’s own experience and that makes Oliver Twist such a disturbing novel.”

Independent: “A masterpiece is restored, but not in its fullest glory.”

Times: “His [Bart's] Oliver! remains as good and revivable as anything he wrote.”

Mail: “It is pointless to say that Sir Cameron Mackintosh has a hit because advance ticket sales are already enormous, but last night’s opening showed that its commercial success is deserved artistically.”

Mirror: “Oliver! is the perfect musical for our credit crunch times, packed with unhealthy school dinners, growing poverty and kids drawn to gang culture and crime. It will steal your heart. Please sir, can I have some more?”

The critics:

Telegraph – Charles Spencer

Guardian – Michael Billington

Independent – Michael Coveney

Times – Benedict Nightingale

Daily Mail – Quentin Letts

Mirror – Alun Palmer

The Stage – Matthew Hemley

BOOK TICKETS TO SEE OLIVER!AT THE THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE

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