Long Live the Village Green was once a blog in which I shared my concerns for our earth's well being, while exploring ways to make my life more sustainable and less harmful to the planet. Time passes and focus shifts, especially when forces array themselves against the public school system. As a public school teacher, I see top-down decisions destroying years of progress and growth. This blog will now focus on speaking truth to those who would privatize education.
If you happen to be living or visiting in the UK, you can attend an Obama inauguration viewing party -- for free -- at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, in East London. It is a very appropriate place to hold such an event, as this area of East London is home to immigrants from around the world, a microcosm representing the world's hopes and dreams:
Obama Inauguration
Barack ObamaCelebrate the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama with Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Theatre Royal will be screening the full historic event LIVE from Washington DC as it happens on Tuesday 20 January.
The Inauguration of Barack Obama is scheduled for 5pm. Our doors are open from 4pm.
The event will be hosted by Kat Francois
Live entertainment in the Bar, DJ ‘til late
Hot Dogs, popcorn etc!
FREE ENTRY
Places are limited and allocated on a first come first served basis so, to make sure you get yours contact Emma on 020 8279 1138 or e-mail: invites@stratfordeast.com
In the same email from the the Stratford East, this request. If you haven't voted in the Theatregoers Choice Awards for Ray Davies's musical, Come Dancing, there's still time:
What's On Stage Theatregoers Choice Awards
There's still time to vote in the What's on Stage Theatregoers choice awards. We're chuffed to have 2 of our shows nominated. So if you haven't cast your vote yet then click here.
Ray Davies and the Kinks released Come Dancing on State of Confusion in 1983. A wonderful video soon followed, complete with period characters and costuming, and it was shot at the Ilford Palais, the dance hall lovingly brought to life in the song's lyrics. Ray's been talking about writing a musical based on that song for years.
This is not one of those "grab a bunch of a pop group's hit songs and try to write a story around them" types of musicals now popping up all over Broadway and the West End. Come Dancing is is authentic in content and presentation, without any excess. It is all heart and full of truths both hard and tender. As fellow Kinks fan Rupert advised me outside the theatre -- you will need a hankie to get you through it. Rupert and his aunt had seen the matinee and were lingering outside the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Rupert had managed to snag an autograph from Ray when he dashed out for something to eat between shows.
I stood in front of the theatre, in awe of its storied past. It was Joan Littlewood's home for many years, the place where she produced theatre with a social conscience and used techniques that were innovative for her time. And oh yes, she was a total rarity -- a woman directing and producing in an era that was singularly devoid of women in creative control of what appeared on a professional stage. Her work was born of commedia mixed with agitprop. "Oh What a Lovely War" first appeared here, along with "A Taste of Honey" and "Fings Ain't What They Used to Be." The theatre has maintained its mission of service to the community, a community that features 160 different spoken languages brought there by immigrants from around the world.
Littlewood described theatre as a living breathing process: "Good theatre draws the energies out of the place where it is and gives it back as joie de vivre." Come Dancing lives up to Littlewood's expectations of good theatre. It was the perfect venue for this musical tale of a working class family living in post-war Britain in the years just before birth of rock and roll.
The big bands played jazzy dance music on a Saturday night at the Ilford Palais. The stage setting was simple and inclusive of the audience, spilling over and blurring the line between audience and performer. The Palai's dance floor was bordered by cafe chairs and tables on the side and back, while on the other side a functioning bar served both actors and audience during the pre-show and at the interval. The five piece band was perched up above the band leader's microphone at the rear of the stage. Front and center, a revolving circle provided dancing and acting spaces. Actors flowed in and out of audience areas, and on stage local couples danced through time back to the 1950s
There were no glitzy set changes. Pools of light served to define places other than the dance hall. We always knew where we were: on a rooftop, in the family home, out in the street -- even though there were no furnishings. The acting was impeccable, each character vibrant and all too human. Based on Ray's memories of observing his older sisters' preparations for a Saturday night dance, the plot involves the love of a young white girl for a black musician from Jamaica. The impossibility of such a connection is juxtaposed with the moment in time when black music began to stir the souls of young white teenagers. Indeed, three young men form a rock band as the the Big Band era winds down. The new beat underscores the changing rhythms of life in Great Britain. Old ways are broken up as entire neighborhoods are torn down, families relocated and given elocution lessons to cover cockney origins.
The musical confronts the harsh reality of a white culture that could not bring itself to talk to, let alone shake the hand of, a black person. It also reminds us of our working class roots and how socio-economic forces and family culture shaped our outcomes.
There are twenty new songs in Come Dancing. They are not typical musical theatre by any means. They are not written to stop the show with excessive glitter and an endless chorusline, but simply to tell the story. Their changing musical influences chart the progress of a young man's musical education. Ray has stated that music in this show is a tribute to the first music he listened to -- his older sisters' records. I'm probably not the only one looking forward to an original cast recording of Come Dancing. Fans are hoping for a move to the West End, and then on to NYC.
The dancing is wonderful, the singing glorious, and the story is one not to be forgotten. My only nagging concern about this musical is will it be allowed to stand on its own without the presence of creator/narrator Ray Douglas Davies? Yes, it is his story, but it is a story that should eventually be released for others to perform for audiences scattered here and there. As pleased as I was to be leaning over the royal circle balcony for a fantastic view of Ray telling his tale, I could not help but think that "Tired of Waiting" at the beginning was not necessary. I did note that the family name in the musical is not that of "Davies." I tried to imagine some other actor telling the tale as if it were his own. I'm quite sure that it would work, which pleases the director within me.
Tired of Waiting (Ray) Come Dancing - part (Ray) My Big Sister (Ray) Putting on the Face (Ray, the Sisters) Gonna Change the World (Rita) Saturday Night (Tosher, Sid and Basil) When the Band Begins to Play (Frankie, Company) A Penny for your Thoughts (Frankie) Because I'm Yours (Frankie, Annie) The New Towns are Coming (Rose and Arthur) I Got Me a Knife (Tosher) Rock Till You Drop (Tosher, Basil and Sid) Believe in Yourself (Rita) There's Gonna Be Something Better (Julie, plus Rita) We Might Never Be This Way Again (Company) Do It! (Rita) Why I Love You (Frankie) If I remember correctly, this is a pastiche of a very bad love song and is only a snatch Wherever You Go (Julie) Truly Beautiful (Company) The World Won't Keep Us Apart (Julie, Hamilton) In Heaven (Company) A Better Thing (Ray, Hamilton, Frankie) and Come Dancing as an all cast finale
In an interview, Davies stated that the story is timeless, that youth, violence, family conflict and class are all intertwined and continually played from generation to the next. The only thing that changes, he said, are the clothes. See for yourself in the show extracts released to YouTube by the theatre:
Tonight is one of those I don't have time to blog nights -- there's been a lot of that around here lately, sorry! It's the busy fall production season along with a bunch of other looming deadlines as well as wonderful travel opportunities.
I hope to be blogging to you from the UK this weekend as Ray Davies must trump DEVO. No offense DEVOtees -- I'm plenty pissed that concert was scheduled for the one weekend of the past 15 years I will happen to be in England! I'm quite sure that the Civic will be THE place to be in Akron, Friday night. I'll be jealous of you all on Friday, if you promise to drool with envy over my front seat ticket to see Come Dancing on Saturday!
But I vowed to see "Come Dancing" when I first heard Ray was writing it over a dozen years ago. And so I'm off Thursday night and back Monday night. Going to see as much theatre as I can possibly fit into the extended weekend including a John Webster play, The White Devil. From Wikipedia: "The play itself explores the differences between the reality of people and the way they depict themselves as a good, "white" or pure." It sounds so topical.
But the reason I opened up Blogger tonight really has nothing to do with anything I've just written. I was motivated by Rachel Maddow, who has fast become my favorite commenting TV head. She had Connie Schultz on tonight (go here for Connie's take on Sarah Palin and be sure to read this one.) -- and that made me wonder why Connie's opinions haven't been sought out more often? It was totally refreshing to see her on screen chatting one-on-one with Rachel, who doesn't go for the bunch of voices chattering in opposition shtick. She prefers to go face to face with one guest at a time, engaging them with insightful questions that draw the discussion to deeper levels rather than the shows that prefer to have people shouting over each other.
She had Barbara Boxer on and asked her about will the Democrats do something about the abuses of power and spying on citizens that went on during Bush's years of expanded presidential super powers. Boxer said yes, but they have to do it in the right way -- so that it will never happen again. She also commented that the Democrats are going to have huge urgent tasks ahead of them so it might not be the first item on the list.
I say this to Senator Boxer, whom I admire greatly, look -- you have all those standing committees in the senate with the power to convene, investigate and take testimony. Surely one of them is available for examining domestic spying procedures. If you get that big old fool proof majority this time, put FISA back under judicial oversight. All the schlepping around the globe with terrorists and torturing them in secret foreign locations -- that needs to stop too.
Rachel had a guest later on, a lemon-sucking Enterprise Institute upper class twit who attempted to make the point that the tone of Rachel's show was equivalent to the threats and derogatory remarks coming from the McPalin rallies. The guest smirked and sneered as he derided the first 41 minutes of her show, which as I mentioned, featured two very distinguished American women who engaged quite civilly with Rachel from unabashedly progressive viewpoints.
Yeah -- I'm digging the Maddow show and hope you are too. Here's a fine example. Rachel Maddow on Sarah Palin's lies:
Wow! Breaking news here from Jolly Old England - Ray Davies will star in his own musical, Come Dancing! He will play the role of Terry, the musical's narrator. Hmmm, wondering how many solo numbers he wrote for himself? Will he dance as he narrates? I'm remembering that charming little soft shoe number he did in Absolute Beginners.
The musical is based upon the era of big band music, right before rock and roll. Davies used to watch his older sisters get ready to go out to the Ilford Palais, a storied dance hall long since torn down and paved over, according to the Kinks song "Come Dancing" that has turned into the title of this musical.
I had no idea that Ray would be in this production when I ordered my front row ticket earlier this week! Only 40 pds, which seems not so expensive these days, but I was reminded that the Stratford East is not West End, more like off-B'way here in NYC. Anyway, to say that I am thrilled beyond all imagining that I am actually going to be in the audience for this production is not an exaggeration! Will try to blog about it from the UK if at all possible. I've got until mid October to figure it all out!
I've been waiting years for this! We've heard hints and promises about this musical over the past ten years. Finally, it reaches the stage this fall. I am madly going over my finances and calendar to make sure I can get there for a weekend.
Latest News: Kinks-y musical at Stratford East First published: 16 Jul 2008
Ray Davies, former front-man of sixties band The Kinks, has turned his tuneful hand to theatre, creating new musical Come Dancing, which will premiere at the Theatre Royal Stratford East this autumn.
Inspired by the famous Kinks song of the same name, Come Dancing, which runs from 13 September to 25 October (press night 24 September), is set in the 1950s around the Ilford Palais ballroom. Conjuring the innocent, care-free days of youth, it tells a tale of love triumphing over adversity.
Davies, whose hits with The Kinks include Waterloo Sunset, You Really Got Me, All Day And All Of The Night and Lola, has written a host of new songs for Come Dancing, in addition to working with writers Paul Sirett and Terry Johnson to create the book for this new production.
Sirett's work has previously been seen at Stratford East, where his Ska musical The Big Life was a huge hit, prompting a transfer to the West End. Playwright and director Johnson is also no stranger to London's Theatreland, where his previous productions include Dead Funny, Cleo Camping Emmanuelle And Dick and Hitchcock Blonde.
The production is directed by Theatre Royal Stratford East's Artistic Director Kerry Michael, who directed Stratford East's most recent West End transfer, The Harder They Come, which is currently entertaining audiences at the Playhouse.
Come Dancing's creative team also includes designers Harriet Barsby and Jenny Tiramani, musical director Robert Hyman, choreographer Omar Okai and lighting designer Jo Joelson. Casting is yet to be announced.
Show Details: Come Dancing showing at: Theatre Royal Stratford
I'm still struggling to catch up with work and real life after four rollicking days in NYC. I've got pix to share of the DUMBO Art Festival, NYC trash practices, and other amazing visuals plus a play review -- but some breaking rock and roll theatre news trumps all:
The long talked of (and wished for by this fanatic) production of Ray Davies' large scale musical called "Come Dancing" is in development at the Theatre Royal East Stratford.
COME DANCING
Music and Lyrics by Ray Davies, Book by Ray Davies, Terry Johnson and Paul Sirett
Ray Davies of The Kinks fame has set this large-scale musical in 50’s London, where we see the world though the eyes of young Terry and his big sister Julie. She loves dancing at the Ilford Palais but with the community fast changing it is clear things will soon never be the same again. Ray’s hit song ‘Come Dancing’ is the one classic in an otherwise completely original new score.
No dates posted, not even a summer or fall season type designation. However, this is the most firm notice we've had about this musical in the works for so many years. I'm holding on to my bonus days in case it should open during the school season. I signed up for the Theatre Royal's email newsletter so I can be one of the first to book a seat.
The Theatre Royal looks like it is a progressive theatre organization. Home to Joan Littlewood and her left-wing theatre company for many years, it is currently focused on developing new work, with a multicultural, socially aware perspective. Now playing -- Genet's "The Blacks."
