Posts Tagged ‘West Midlands’

THRILLER LIVE moonwalks its way to Birmingham

Fans of dance and pop legend Michael Jackson have IDFB co-producer Birmingham Hippodrome to thank for bringing West End hit THRILLER LIVE to the city. The show is a celebration of the King of Pop’s music packed with awesome dance numbers. I spoke to Adrian Grant, the producer of this brilliant two-hour dance and musical extravaganza.

Adrian Grant photo

How did you cast for the musical? Have you had trouble finding artists for such an important role?

Casting the show is the most difficult aspect in Thriller Live because Michael Jackson was such a unique talent. I decided from day one that I didn’t want the show to be a straight tribute performance with one impersonator. I wanted to take the audience on a journey and display all of Michael Jackson’s different personas and talent on stage. Therefore we have 5 lead principal singers sharing the songs throughout – including a child for the early Jackson 5 hits, a soulful singer, the pop singer, a rock singer and a female singer which surprises many people – but she brings a lot of balance to many of the songs.

Thriller Live on stage

Then there is also the dancers. We have one lead ‘MJ’ dancer, who fronts songs such as ‘Smooth Criminal’, ‘Thriller’ and ‘Billie Jean’. On top of this we have 10 male and female dancers who bring the stage to life with fantastic choreography from Director Gary Lloyd. For these dancers it is a dream come true to be in a show inspired by an icon they grew up on, learning his moves daily.

Why is there a big gap between the first Jackson Celebration of ‘91 and the musical?

The Annual Michael Jackson Celebration started in 1991 and ran every years for 10 years. In 2001 Michael personally attended the show in London and watched over 100 performers pay tribute to him. Afterwards he came on stage and told the 3,000 fans in attendance that he thought the Celebration had been ‘beautiful and incredible!’

Adrian Grant and Michael Jackson

Is it true that Jackson didn’t want to start this show about him?

No, from the outset his management were fully aware of the show, and in 2007 Michael wished me luck with the production. He had always been fully supportive of the Annual Michael Jackson Celebration, even sending over his own video crew to film the event and fans.

It’s a great shame that he never got to see Thriller Live, but Kenny Ortega [Director of Michael’s This is It tour - ed.] recently told us that he was planning on coming to watch the show during his ‘This Is It’ stay in London – but dressed in disguise!

Do you believe that the performances scheduled in July in London would have meant his artistic rebirth? Or his golden moment had passed?

I believe the This Is It concerts would have reaffirmed Michael Jackson as the world’s greatest entertainer – and would have taken concert production to a whole new level. Michael was a perfectionist and was always looking to better his previous work. He was the ultimate showman, and he still had so much more to give – both on and off stage.

Do you see any possible heir of Jackson in the pop world?

There will never be another Michael Jackson. The music industry has changed and is far more instant then it was 10, 20, 30 years ago. Michael grew up during the Motown era, and worked hard with his brothers touring and perfecting their craft. Furthermore he learnt from greats such as Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson and James Brown. He always said he would ‘study the greats and aim to become better!’

You may find an individual who can sing better, or dance better – but what made Michael the King of Pop was that he did everything, and he did it so very well and with his own style. As a songwriter he was sometimes underrated – but like at hits such as ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Wanna Be Startin Somethin’, ‘Earth Song’ and ‘Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough’ – pure pop classics. As a singer he had an incredible 4-octave range, and as a dancer he created breakthrough videos such as ‘Beat It’ and ‘Thriller’, and was complimented by none other than Fred Astaire.

THRILLER LIVE will be at Birmingham Hippodrome on Monday April 18 until Saturday 30 April. Tickets are priced between £13.50 and £32.00. You can book online at www.birminghamhippodrome.com or call 0844 338 5000. Please remember that transaction fees apply.

We’re giving away two free tickets for the opening night on the 18th. Simply go to the IDFB Facebook Fan page, ‘Like’ us and tell us what your favourite Michael Jackson video is. We’ll do a draw and we’ll announce the winner on Friday April 15.

Also, on Saturday April 16, a mass Thriller flash mob will be descending on central Birmingham and you can be part of it. You can register online and to find out more, go to http://thrillerinthecity.com/.

Here’s the Thriller in the city video:

Thriller in the city is presented by Birmingham Hippodrome and supported by Dancing for the Games; a project inspired by London 2012 and part of the Cultural Olympiad in the West Midlands and DanceXchange.

Oddball Adventures

Over the past three weeks, Dancing the Waterways’ Maria Blundell-Palethorpe has been out and about on a canal barge dance adventure around the West Midlands. As she and the cast of Canal Work Dances prepare for finale performances back in Birmingham, she recalls the last few days of the team’s Oddball adventures…

Oddball

Day 5 – 21 Locks Day

The sun was shining, a very good sign, and by 9.45am we had four ladies who’d come all the way from Dudley just to see us perform… it was going to be a good day! A group of my students from Making Choreographers also came to watch and helped flyer prior to the show starting as our IDFB crew were stuck in Birmingham.  New Street Station had had a complete power cut, but the show must go on!

We performed a little after 10am to a crowd of about 20 then we headed into our first lock and the audience came with us.  It was a great feeling, I felt like the Pied Piper driving Oddball! Everyone helped out winding paddles and opening lock doors. I drove through the first few locks with the IDFB film crew following – some of the time I even had a cameraman perched on the roof. No pressure then! I kept imagining bumping the side and him toppling into the canal with all his very expensive equipment but it was fine, it all went very smoothly.

In lock 6, we stopped to  have a bit of an improvisation session on the boat. We had a great time jumping on and off, playing with the barge poles and the ropes. After an hour we decided we’d better push on and stopped again just shy of lock 13. A family had come to see the show and had travelled all the way from West Yorkshire so we moored up to perform especially for them. The IDFB team interviewed some of the Making Choreographers and we then stopped in lock 13 for them to have a go at choreographing their own piece on us.

By 4pm we were down to a team of five. My husband Rich had turned up on a bike to help, and by 4.30pm we’d reached the bottom. Yippee.

We continued towards the next junction stopping on the way to top up with diesel and took a left onto the Shropshire Union canal where we had to go through a lock which was only 1 inch high! We moored on the left to top up with water and said goodbye to Mary and her boyfriend Bos. Now we were down to 2.

We cruised along a little further and moored in Pendleford. Heading across the park, we got supplies from Morrisons, did some flyering and put up posters before going back to the boat. By now the landscape had changed entirely, no signs of any warehouses or old factories, just open countryside and lots of wildlife. I tried to moor but got grounded in the silt and Rich had to jump up on the roof of the boat and use the barge pole to push us out. In total we got grounded six times whilst attempting to moor for the night!  Eventually we moored successfully for the night and went for a walk back along the boats, flyering as we went and chatting to people. A long but rewarding day!

Day 6 – Somewhere between Pendleford and Brewood

Rich and I woke up to the sound of birds, and enjoyed coffee in the cratch overlooking fields of rape seed.  We continued our journey to Brewood, arriving around 2pm, and headed into the town to explore. Brewood is lovely, full of unique houses and fascinating buildings and really friendly people. We had a drink in The Admiral beer garden and headed back to the boat to have a late lunch. My dad turned up at 6pm to join us and we ate together on the boat. Once again by 10pm we were ready for bed, it must be all the fresh air!

Rich

Day 7 – Brewood

The rest of the team arrived at 11am. By 12.30pm we had quite a crowd of at least twenty people from the boats and up in the town. A lady who had been driving her daughters across the bridge caught sight of what we were doing, stopped and brought them to watch. We invited them onto the boat after the performance, which they loved. The lady said ‘what a treat’ it had been to see us.

After the lunchtime show we decided to develop some new material in the hope people might come back again and see us again. We made a fun, high energy short piece to Ray Charles’ Hit the Road Jack. We got a lot of attention from our rehearsals… one lady whose garden oversees the canal said she was inviting friends over to watch from her garden.

Kate, Kim and Mary headed up to teach a workshop with a group of young people whilst I got the boat ready for the show. At 8pm we had a really good crowd – people came down from the pub with pints, some of the young people from the workshop came down, and we also had people we’d seen earlier in the day. A lady approached us after and asked if we could perform again the next night. It turned out she was a Brown Owl and wanted to bring her brownies down. We said we’d be delighted.

Day 8 – Brewood

I woke up excited about the day ahead. We thought it would be great if we arrived back in Birmingham with even more material and could spend 3 full days performing it to passers by in the city centre to end our tour. Our 12.30pm show was well attended by walkers, boat owners and passers by, and one person even returned having seen us in Wolverhampton. We used the afternoon to create more work, and in the evening Kim and Mary taught another workshop to a youth group before a 6.30pm performance. Another very successful day of dancing on the canal!

Maria Blundell-Palethorpe

To read, the full Oddball Adventures, please click here. Catch Canal Work Dances today at 2pm at The Mailbox.

Get involved with IDFB

With four solid weeks of dance just over seven weeks away, we’re hard at it booking flights and accommodation, finalising contracts, designing (lots!) of print, getting the word out to the world’s media, and looking into fun stuff like merchandise. Also, having now finalised more details about our outdoor events, we’ve got some new opportunities for you to be a part of the 2010 experience too.

Outdoor salsa class, IDFB 2008 Jon Bushell
From auditions for professional dance artists and talented community performers, to vacancies for volunteers in event management support, there are lots of ways you could get involved with IDFB. To find out more, click here.