Olivier Awards and Mis Movie Musing
I woke up this morning to find that the Olivier nominations had been announced! An odd thing because I'd completely forgotten about them, especially since I've been bombarded with whatsonstage award stuff recently - the one fault of following numerous West End actors on twitter - yes Love Never Dies cast/Phantom official twitter I'm looking at you. So it was an extremely pleasant surprise to see David Thaxton nominated for Passion!
I live on what sometimes seems like the wrong side of the Atlantic so I haven't seen the show but I've heard it and it was absolutely fantastic.
Passion was new to me. I watched a few snippets on youtube of the London cast recording but hadn't really heard the score before sitting down to listen to the 2010 Donmar production. Obviously I'm a fan of David Thaxton, so I expected to at least enjoy the recording, but I was completely unprepared for how the show would affect me. At the time I was taking a few Uni courses and figured it would be a good incentive to make sure I actually did some work. Sit down and do some reading, earn a track or two. It worked for the first few but I soon found myself so absorbed that I couldn't stop. So I sat down in front of my computer with my earphones on in the dark for an hour or so and I listened and was moved. By the end I was teary-eyed and completely and utterly distracted. I gave up all illusions of getting any work done that night because the music was so beautiful. I can only imagine how powerful it must have been to watch the show live.
So thank you to the wonderful kind soul who granted me the gift of a Passion recording.
And although I don't expect that Thaxton will actually win, I absolutely think that he deserves to and I wish him all the best in the future!
On a more general note I remember that last year I actually watched the live stream of the awards on the Internet - the combination of Tony Head (aka. Giles!) hosting, an appearance by Ramin, and, of course, Les Miserables reeling me in. I have a terrible feeling that they won't stream it this year though. Lovely for Brits, less lovely for the few international fans. Hopefully there will be vids and stuff put on youtube and all that if not.
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In other news the Les Miserables musical page put up a question asking who should be cast in the movie version of the film. Unfortunately most of the suggestions are either ridiculous/terrible (I've seen Gerard Butler put up for both Enjolras - where is that brain bleach when you need it - and Jean Valjean - the only person who could possibly be worse than Gary Morris in the role?) or comprised entirely of the 25th O2 cast or tour cast. Clearly I need a life because I've been 'liking' most comments that include David Thaxton as Enjolras.
Who am I (unintentional but amusing Miz punage) to judge though. Ultimately I'd choose to film most of the people I saw live and fell in love with too. Until that happens its listening to my recordings and occasionally watching the TAC VHS for me.