Debut

This is the sound recording to the first A STAGE KINDLY cabaret tour, 'Debut', which played at The Battersea Barge and The Rosemary Branch Theatre in London, Autumn 2008. More details at www.astagekindly.com

The following text is taken from the playbill of this production:

A STAGE KINDLY is a new theatrical initiative which is being developed by Katy Lipson and Giles Howe. It is being set up to encourage and support new musical theatre writing.

 

Tonight’s performance is the project’s debut, and is a showcase of pieces from a selection of musicals from around the world, some of which have never been heard before!

 

There is a wealth of fantastic material that lives in the shadow of the mega-musical, both here in the UK and internationally, and the aim of A STAGE KINDLY is to offer a platform to bring these fantastic independent works to the audience they deserve.

 

A STAGE KINDLY is actually an anagram, of its founders, who as an independent   writing and creative production team themselves, understand the mammoth            undertaking of staging a musical. They decided that their combined skills and also the talent of the people around them could be utilised in not just developing their own work, but also the work of other people with a similar ambition, who may not be in a situation where they have access to singers, musicians, venues, and an audience. London is of course one of the most important cities for musical theatre, and the         opportunities A STAGE KINDLY offer an aspiring writer are as exciting for the writers as for an audience.

 

These humble beginnings hopefully belie the grand plans in mind for the future of A STAGE KINDLY, which aims to continue to bring together talented vocalists and   writers, and give audiences a taste of the future of the genre.       

 

Songwriting accreditations

SHOW: THE COMPANY OF WOMEN

MUSIC AND LYRICS: NOEL KATZ

SONG: Marry me, Maybe He Wouldn't Have Left Me

 

SHOW: THE CHRISTMAS BRIDE

MUSIC AND LYRICS: NOEL KATZ

SONG: Fluttering, I'm Happiest At Christmas.

 

SHOW: SLAY IT WITH MUSIC

MUSIC: PAUL KATZ

LYRICS: MICHAEL COLBY

SONG: Slasher Movie

 

SHOW: TALES OF TINSELTOWN

MUSIC: PAUL KATZ

LYRICS: MICHAEL COLBY

SONG: I Can Sing, Stars In My Eyes*

(*Vocal arrangement: Larry Moore)

 

SHOW: MRS MCTHING

MUSIC: JACK URBONT

LYRICS: MICHAEL COLBY

SONG: How Do You Make Magic, Crazy

 

SHOW: BALLET RUSSES

MUSIC AND LYRICS: DAVID REISER

SONG: A Revelation, When You’re In Love

 

 

 

SHOW: ALL ABOUT LOVE

MUSIC AND LYRICS: DAVID REISER

SONG: It’s Not How I Thought It Would Be,

Now That He Is Gone

 

SHOW: A FINE TIME FOR WINE

MUSIC: TONY OSBORNE

LYRICS: JONATHAN POSNER

SONG: The Clock Slows Down

 

SHOW: JOINED AT THE HEART

MUSIC AND LYRICS: GRAHAM BROWN AND GEOFF MEADS

SONG: You and I

 

SHOW: TURKISH DELIGHT THE OPERA

MUSIC AND LYRICS: GILES HOWE AND KATY LIPSON

SONG: Angel Delight, Jeremiad

 

SHOW: MIND THE GAP

MUSIC AND LYRICS: GILES HOWE

SONG: Am I Self Indulgent, Every Rose,

That Time Has Passed Now

 

SHOW: THE CHARMED LIFE

MUSIC AND LYRICS: MICHAEL GORDON SHAPIRO

SONG: Upon The Table

 

 

CAST:

 

 

Scott Armstrong graduated in September from The Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts three year Musical Theatre course. Credits whilst training include Isidor Strauss in ‘Titanic – A New Musical’, Judge Turpin in ‘Sweeney Todd’, The Baron in ‘Grand Hotel’ and Petruchio in ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. Since leaving Mountview, Scott has appeared in ‘Chess’ in concert at The Royal Albert Hall, ‘Casanova The Musical’ at the Greenwich Playhouse and with The Twelve Tenors in Luxembourg. In December Scott is making his pantomime debut as the Beast in ‘Beauty and The Beast’ in Weymouth.

 

Elise Bowd graduated from Arts Educational School in London with a BA Hons in Musical Theatre. Her theatre credits include: ‘Sinbad the Sailor’ at York Theatre Royal, ‘Peter Pan’ at the Malvern Theatre and understudy for Polly in ‘Crazy for You’ at the Gordon Craig Theatre.  Roles played while at college include: Aunt Em in ‘The Wiz’, Bird Girl in ‘Seussical the Musical’ and Anytime Annie in ‘42nd Street’. Elise created the role of Mrs Bailey in the workshop musical ‘It's a Wonderful Life’, and has recently performed in a workshop production of the new musical ‘Raindogs’ written by Andrew MacBean and Oliver Tompsett.

 

Nicola Henderson graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Drama and Theatre arts from the University of Birmingham in 2005.  She began singing from a young age, taking various grades, and also attended the British National Theatre School. She has performed in musicals such as ‘Smokey Joe’s Café’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, ‘Martin Guerre’, ‘Children of Eden’, and ‘Witches of Eastwick’. In her most recent show she played Genevieve in ‘The Bakers Wife’ by Stephen Schwarz at the Bob Hope Theatre.  She is about to perform as a soloist at the Tramshed Theatre in a Boubil and Schonberg Tribute Concert. Nicola is currently the lead singer of the fabulous function band, Firefly! and the new acoustic sister act, GloWorm.

 

Ruthie Stephens trained at The Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Her theatre credits include the workshop production of ‘The Diary - Anne Frank’ by Sean Jeffrey, a principal singer at the Monte Carlo Sport Club for Belinda King Productions and Casino Royale, a principal singer on the Queen Mary 2 for Cunard Line, and as Dandini in Cinderella at the Middleton Theatre for Mark Andrews Productions. Also, she has performed in the UK Tour of ‘Nympheaum’, and in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ as Dorothy for Pele Productions at the Millenium in Cardiff, and played the role of Hero for Two Big Boots Theatre Company’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ as Hero (Dir: Daniel Tyler).

 

PRODUCERS:

 

 

Katy Lipson trained at the London School of Musical Theatre., and has a BMus from Goldsmiths University. She is not only a musician, but also a singer, actress, composer, and music/drama teacher. Her credits include the world premiere of Charles Miller’s ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ at the Cochrane Theatre, London, the West End workshop of ‘Zorro the musical’, ’Jack and the Beanstalk’ at the Liverpool Everyman, and ‘The Last 5 Years’ at RADA. She was also Assistant Musical Director on the national tour of ‘Hot Flush’ starring Sheila Ferguson and Marti Webb. She was most recently in ‘Chess in Concert’ at The Royal Albert Hall, and currently teaches for the company Perform, leading drama workshops for 4-8 year olds as well as being a voice coach for The BRIT School. She is working on her own singer/songwriter album and is continuously writing new music.

 

Giles Howe is currently writing a concept album about the life and death of Lady Jane Gray, and a musical adaptation of the macabre fairytale ‘The Juniper Tree’. As a performer he has been in productions including, The Boyfriend (playing Pierre), The King And I (playing Louis), and in Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret (playing the dancing gorilla!) at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London. More recently, he performed in ‘Chess in Concert’ at the Royal Albert Hall. He was a featured vocalist in a gospel choir in Stockholm, and was this year broadcast live across Israel on the radio, improvising on the piano in promotion of an album he appears on which will be released later in the year. He has also released an album of experimental vocal music, distributed by Jamendo. He choreographed and danced in the pantomimes ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Cinderella’ in Winchester, and teaches piano and singing. He is currently working towards both a concert and a studio album of his compositions.

 

Katy and Giles most recently worked together on Turkish Delight the Opera, a musical they wrote and produced.  Three songs from it are being performed in tonight’s concert. The third London production of Turkish Delight the Opera was staged in August this year at The Rosemary Branch Theatre, London.

 

 

 

 

A STAGE KINDLY

astagekindly@aol.com

www/myspace.com/astagekindly

www.myspace.com/turkishdelighttheopera

 

GILES HOWE

gileshowe@hotmail.com

 

KATY LIPSON

katylipson@aol.com

 

DAVID REISER

davidreiser@ameritech.net

www.doollee.com/

PlaywrightsR/reiser-dave.html

 

MICHAEL GORDON SHAPIRO

mike@mikemusic.com

www.mikemusic.com

 

JACK URBONT

Sparkley925@yahoo.com

 

PAUL KATZ

Musicat245@aol.com

 

GRAHAM BROWN

graham@forcesrecruitment.co.uk

http://www.myspace.com/joinedattheheartthemusical

 

MICHAEL COLBY
Ludlow29@aol.com
 www.MichaelColby.com

 

NOEL KATZ

NoelKatz@yahoo.com.

 

JONATHAN POSNER

jonathan@wordstomusic.co.uk

 

TONY OSBOURNE

tony@ozzape.com

www.ozzape.com/tony -

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of songs:

 

 

Act I

 

I CAN SING - Ruthie

 

HOW DO YOU MAKE MAGIC - Scott

 

FLUTTERING - Elise

 

MARRY ME – Scott and Ruthie

 

WHEN YOU’RE IN LOVE - Nicola

 

ANGEL DELIGHT - Scott

 

UPON THE TABLE - Elise

 

THAT TIME HAS PASSED NOW - Nicola

 

I’M HAPPIEST AT CHRISTMAS – Ensemble

 

 

INTERVAL

20 mins.

 

 

 

Act II

 

SLASHER MOVIE – Scott

 

YOU AND I  - Nicola

 

IT'S NOT HOW I THOUGHT IT WOULD  BE

- Elise

 

THE CLOCK SLOWS DOWN - Ruthie

 

A REVELATION - Scott

 

EVERY ROSE – Giles and Ruthie

 

AM I SELF INDULGENT – Scott and Elise

 

CRAZY (DUET) – Giles and Katy

 

JEREMIAD – Katy

 

NOW THAT HE IS GONE - Ruthie

 

MAYBE HE WOULDN’T HAVE LEFT ME

– Elise and Nicola

 

STARS IN MY EYES - Ensemble