Und auch Barry Manilow war dort

Ich bin nicht sicher, ob er wirklich live gesungen hat, wenn man sieht wo sein Mikro war. Kerry Ellis hat auf jeden Fall gesungen, denn man hört deutlich wo der Text der beiden abweicht.

Wie auch immer, ich fand es toll. Und Barry Manilow ist und bleibt eine Legende.

More clips from the Oliver Awards

Tribute to Stephen Sondheim

I was there :)

Ok, ich muss gestehen, der Auftritt von ihr war eine echte Überraschung für mich. Und es war wirklich toll, sehr anrührend die Verleihung des Preises an Stephen Sondheim.

The Western Mail, 17.03.2011

Rowling's teacher who inspired Harry Potter's Prof Snape dies at 71

TRIBUTES have been paid to the teacher said to have inspired one of JK Rowling's most memorable characters.

Former head of science John Nettleship, 71, died after a battle with cancer.

He taught the budding novelist chemistry during her years at Wyedean School, Chepstow.

Mr Nettleship came to take pride in his fictionalisation as the severe potions wizard Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series that made Rowling a multi-millionaire.

Mr Nettleship discovered his link to Professor Snape when he was played by Alan Rickman in the record-breaking movie franchise.

He said at the time: "The first I knew was when a someone knocked on the door and said: 'You're Professor Snape aren't you'.

"I suppose I was quite strict as a teacher, but I said to my wife: 'They think I'm Professor Snape.' "She said: 'Of course you are - but I didn't want to tell you'."

After being initially unhappy about the comparison, Mr Nettleship is said to have come to terms with the connection and made guest appearances at Chepstow Bookshop, where Rowling shopped as a youngster.

Matt Taylor, the shop's owner, said: "It is very sad to hear of the loss of John. He was a lovely man and he will be very much missed."

Mr Nettleship also gave talks and created a pamphlet - Harry Potter's Chepstow - about the local landmarks that are heavily connected to many of the series' locations.

He told reporters at the time: "Authors can only build on their own experiences so characters to some extent are bound to be based on people they've met.

"Quite a lot of my ex-pupils recognise the original character when they see the film. They come to me and say, 'We saw you in the movie, sir'. But I just laugh about that. The great thing though is that Alan Rickman was picked to play the character and the ladies think he is good. That made things better."

Mr Nettleship remembered his former pupil as a quiet but smart child.

He was yesterday remembered by those who knew him as a highly-regarded community member throughout his life, through his profession as a teacher, Labour Party activist, Caerwent community councillor, and family man.

Labour councillor Armand Watts was 15 years old when they first met at a party meeting. The Chepstow councillor said Mr Nettleship told him of requests to do tours in America due to his Rowling connection.

He said: "I think he was genuinely proud of the Harry Potter connection. I think it was a bit of a novelty at first, but then the books began to reach a global market. It must have been overwhelming."

Mr Nettleship is survived by his wife, Shirley, three children and two step-children. Mrs Nettleship described her pride in her husband's achievement, saying: "He was a real advocate for people's rights, especially for women's rights. He was a dedicated campaigner for the Labour Party and always believed in fighting for the underdog."

A spokesman for JK Rowling said the author did not wish to comment.

The funeral for Mr Nettleship will take place at noon on Monday at Caerwent church.

BRENDAN HUGHES

John Gabriel Borkman in New York

The Irish Times, 15.01.2011

Abbey's snowy Ibsen takes New York by storm

THE ABBEY Theatre's production of Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's (BAM) Harvey Theatre on Wednesday before a packed audience that included luminaries of the Irish cultural and diplomatic world and American sponsors of the arts.  The production, which features Fiona Shaw, Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan and John Kavanagh, broke box office records during its seven-week run in Dublin last autumn, said Abbey director Fiach Mac Conghail, who travelled to New York for the US opening.  The production will continue in Brooklyn until February 6th. Two-thirds of the tickets for the run had been sold before opening night.  Former US ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, a fan of the Abbey since her years in Dublin, called the performance 'really beautiful' and 'so well-acted'. Anne Anderson, Ireland's Ambassador to the United Nations, and writer Colum McCann also attended.  At the opening night party in the theatre, Irish-American philanthropist and chair of the American Ireland Fund Loretta Brennan Glucksman, chief executive of Culture Ireland Eugene Downes and McCann reminisced about the series of informal suppers that led to the Imagine Ireland cultural season, of which the Abbey production is an important part. Niall Burgess, former Irish consul general in New York, and actor Gabriel Byrne, Ireland's cultural ambassador, also attended the suppers.  John Gabriel Borkman tells the story of a disgraced but unrepentant banker who has served years in prison for embezzling his friends' money. 'The spectre of Bernie Madoff looms large,' Mac Conghail said. The play also 'reminds our public here in the US that we might be in some financial and political trouble, that it's not all fiction,' he said.  Board members from the Abbey Theatre Foundation, a new US group still in the process of being formed, attended the opening. 'We have two objectives,' said Mac Conghail. 'To bring the best of Irish actors and Irish theatre to the US. The second is to raise money, because there isn't money left in Ireland.'  Glucksman said she was amazed that a century-old play could be so topical: 'We could put names on it -- which I shan't right now -- but it's in our newspapers every day, the curse of greed just doesn't change and we never learn.'  Rickman, Duncan and Kavanagh delivered excellent performances, 'But it is Ms Shaw, an actress of infinite cunning, who walks away with the production,' the New York Times said yesterday, describing the set as a 'snow-piled ice palace'. Shaw plays Borkman's estranged wife, who lives one floor below him and refers to Borkman only as 'himself, the bank manager'.  'Everything about Ms Shaw's Gunhild from her hobbled walk to the way she clasps her stomach, as if trying to contain the pain within -- evokes a soul crippled by years of cancerous confinement,' said the newspaper, which called Shaw 'an expert in the art of festering' and a 'human flame-thrower'.  At the opening night party, Shaw said the Abbey's production of Frank McGuinness's new version of Borkman shows Irish theatre must broaden its horizons. 'The repertoire in Ireland must, must now start to include everything in the 17th century that we forgot,' she said. 'We must start embracing Jacobean plays, Shakespeare plays. It's our century as well.'  The US audience seemed to treat Ibsen's dark tale of a family undone as a comedy, laughing even at the most tragic moments. 'New Yorkers are much more sensitive to irony, and that's what the laughter was about,' said BAM executive producer Joe Melillo.  The Harvey Theatre was created by Peter Brook and Harvey Lichtenstein when they brought Brook's adaptation of the Sanskrit poem the Mahabharata to New York in 1987. Like Brook's Bouffes du Nord in Paris, the Harvey was derelict and has been left in its distressed state, with ceiling frescoes and columns showing its former grandeur.  In Dublin, the set for Borkman showed a late 19th-century interior. In Brooklyn, antique furniture is placed among snowdrifts on the stage, which extends into the audience.  'This theatre has an extraordinary sense of layers of history,' said Downes. 'It's like a palimpsest, with all the ghosts and layers of time. It's a unique space. The Abbey has done it proud tonight. The Abbey has done Ireland proud.'

LARA MARLOWE in Brooklyn

Alan Rickman

Bonner General-Anzeiger, 22.02.2011

Der beste Bösewicht

Der jetzt 65-jährige Alan Rickman verkörpert mysteriöse Charaktere perfekt

KevinCostner soll nach den Dreharbeiten zu "RobinHood - König der Diebe" dafür gesorgt haben, dass die Szenen mit AlanRickman als Sheriff vonNottingham gekürzt werden. Costner wolle nicht imSchatten des Briten stehen, so munkelte man. Gelungen ist das nicht.In vielen seiner Filme spielt Rickman die großen Stars an die Wand. Selbst ist er trotzdem nie zumWeltstar geworden. Gestern nun ist der Schauspieler, der zuletzt als Lehrer Severus Snape in den Harry-Potter-Filmen zu sehen war, 65 Jahre alt geworden.

Rickman gehört zu den Schauspielern, die mit wenigen Gesichtsausdrücken und Augenbewegungen mehr erzählen können als andere mit großen Worten. Mit Bravour spielt er verschlossene, mysteriöse Bösewichte. "Als Schauspieler verurteilst du die Charaktere, die du spielst, nicht", sagte er einmal. Dass er nie den Sprung in die erste Reihe der Hollywood-Stars schaffte, scheint Rickman nicht zu stören. Im Privatleben ist er bescheiden und skandalfrei:Seit mehr als 30 Jahren lebt er in London mit einer Ökonomie-Dozentin und Kommunalpolitikerin zusammen.

Aufgewachsen in London als eines von vier Kindern einer Arbeiterfamilie, musste Rickman mit acht Jahren den Verlust des Vaters verkraften. Schon während der Schulzeit spielte erTheater, studierte dann aber Grafikdesign und machte das Schauspielen zum Hobby. Nach ein paar Jahren als Grafiker ging er - mit 26 Jahren - an die Schauspielschule. Er wurde zum gefragten Theaterschauspieler, war Ende der 70er Jahre zwei Jahre Mitglied der RoyalShakespeare Company. SeinenDurchbruch auf der Leinwand schaffte er 1988 als Gegenspieler von Bruce Willis in "Stirb langsam". Doch wechselte er immer wieder zurück an die Bühne - auch als Regisseur.

Den meisten dürfte er aber als die ambivalenteste Figur der Harry-Potter-Filme bekannt sein: Als Lehrer Severus Snape, der Harry und seine Freunde schikaniert - aber immer wieder dafür sorgt, dass Harry nichts passiert.
dpa

Bilder - The Olivier Awards, Part 2

Man wartet in der Schlange. In unser Nähe ein späterer Gewinner, ansonsten aber keine Stars. Die kamen über den roten Teppich.

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Hier ein paar Bilder. Ich erkenne allerdings niemanden :(


Der Entlass funktionierte ohne Probleme. Wir hatten die teueresten freiverkäuflichen Karten gewählt und saßen dafür wirklich gut.

End of the Rainbow

Update:

Am Freitag abend stand "End of the Rainbow" auf unserem Programm. Es gab keine Half-price-Tickets mehr, aber über das Hotel konnte man verbilligte Karten für 27,50 kaufen. Eine Summe, die sich gelohnt hat.

Hier kurz der Inhalt:
It’s December 1968 and Judy Garland is about to make her comeback… again. In a London hotel room with her young new fiancé at her side, Garland battles with a tornado of drugs and alcohol as she undertakes an exhausting series of concerts at the Talk of the Town to try and reclaim her crown as the greatest talent of her generation. Despite a series of failed marriages and a wrecked Hollywood career, Judy remains a tough, compelling, remarkable woman always armed to the teeth with her legendary razor-sharp wit.
With a breathtaking performance by Tracie Bennett, supported by a six piece onstage band, the production features Garland’s most memorable songs including The Man That Got Away, Come Rain Or Come Shine, The Trolley Song, and of course Somewhere Over The Rainbow. (End of the Rainbow)

Es geht um das späte Leben von Judy Garland und wenn man mehr über ihren Tod erfahren will, kann man auch hier Videos vom Biography-Kanal sehen (englisch)

Lebenslauf

Aber zurück zum Stück:

it was brilliant. Tracie Bennett plays Judy and sing her songs.

Sie kopiert Judys Bewegungen und ihre ganze Art und Weise und dann fügt sie Kleinigkeit hinzu und der Charakter auf der Bühne ist Judy und Tracy.

Die kleine Überzeichnung macht das Stück auf. Man ist auf einer Berg und Talfahrt und denkt ab und zu an Charlie Sheen, der das ja auch alles ganz toll findet. Dabei ist der Niedergang und die erniedrigung so sichtbar, dass es weh tut.

Am Ende hat man Mitleid mit ihr und die Hoffnung schwindet als ihr der neue junge Boyfriend die Pillen aufdrängt, damit sie auftreten kann und will. Ein tragisches Ende bahnt sich an.

Ganz toll auch der Pianist: Hilton McRae spielt ihn.

Die beiden Darsteller waren auch für den Olivier Award 2011 nominiert, leider haben sie ihn nicht gewonnen.

Aber wer in London ist, sollte sich das Stück nicht entgehen lassen. Wir hatten plätze in der ersten Reihe - einfach super. Beinfreiheit und man sieht einfach alles.

The Olivier Awards

Bilder vom Sonntag vormittag. Regen. :(

Bilder - In the forest ....

Noch immer gilt - das Stück war einfach schlecht. Klar, wenn man matthew fox 1 1/2 stunden lang fluchen hören will und es toll findet, dass er seine schwester als hure bezeichnet, dann ist man hier richtig. und wenn man sich langweilen will.
Meine empfehlung: keine

In the forest, dark and deep

what a boring play.

wirklich keine chemie. matthew fox is really bad. in fast jeden satz das fuck-wort . vollkommen unnoetig. hat keinen sinn es dauernd zu sagen.
ich war froh, dass es zu ende war. at least olivia williams was

olivier awards in london today

grosser ereignis in london. mal sehen wer gewinnt oder verliert. mehr informationen und bilder morgen.