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New Voices London Concert to Feature Lumley, Moore, Pilkington, Pulver and More
By Mark Shenton
18 Sep 2008
The New Voices Collective, formed in New York City in 2001 to showcase up-and-coming theatre composers — and which soon went on to see more established songwriters sign on — will present the first in a series of concerts in London next month.
The debut concert will take place at the Southbank Centre's Purcell Room on Oct. 12 under the title New Voices – Broadway Outside the Box.
The featured composers, whose work will be heard in this first concert, are Jason Robert Brown, Sam Davis, New Voices artistic director Joel Fram, Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, Andrew Lippa, Paul Loesel, Steve Marzullo, Marc Smollin, Georgia Stitt and Joseph Thalken. They are amongst the extensive pool of established writers who have been challenged by the collective to step outside of their normal habitat and explore different styles with new collaborators.
Amongst the material being presented on Oct. 12 are the two pieces that Brown and Stitt each wrote for their wedding, "These Two" and "In This Room," which were then premiered at New Voices' Summer Bash. Both pieces feature string quartet and voices. An arrangement of Lippa's "I'm Not Waiting" for string quartet and piano will be heard. Marzullo, who was the original music director of Once on This Island, played piano for the Broadway production of Ragtime and frequently conducts Mamma Mia!, brings his pop sensibility to "crossover" art songs, setting both American and English poets (a poem about Central Park, a sonnet by Sir Walter Raleigh) to music. Loesel (who has played keyboards at Wicked since the beginning and is developing a musical of his own) has set to music three poems by the Persian poet Hafiz and a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay called "Recuerdo," which happens to adorn the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. There will also be a "story" song by Sam Davis – a musical fable about the fate of "The Cookie Boy" (eaten by a wolf, as in all fairy tales) — and another song, reminiscent of the Broadway style of Kern or Gershwin, that evokes the pleasures of a Sunday in Greenwich Village.
The cast comprises Damien Humbley (The Last Five Years at the Menier Chocolate Factory, The Woman in White and Fiddler on the Roof in the West End), Eliza Lumley (Mary Poppins), Claire Moore (Miss Saigon), Dianne Pilkington (Wicked), Lara Pulver (The Last Five Years at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Parade at the Donmar Warehouse), Oliver Tompsett (Wicked) and Matt White (Ragtime). The concert will also feature Mark Etherington on piano, Julian Leaper and Alice Butcher on violin, Helen Neilson on cello, Steve Pierce on clarinet and Andy Philip on guitar.
The concert is produced by Alastair Lindsey-Renton and JAC Entertaiment, and will be directed by NVC co-founder Annette Jolles.
To book tickets contact the box office at 0871 663 2500 or visit http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/music/productions/new-voices-42117.
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