A Blogful of Stiles and Drewe

A message from Ants  -  April 9th 2010

Sometimes it takes more than “Just a spoonful of sugar”, and sometimes “tuppence a bag” isn’t quite enough

Who hasn’t been affected, at some point in their lives, by cancer? Either by knowing a friend or loved one who has suffered from the disease, or even by contracting it oneself. I have lost several friends to cancer over the last few years and I know that the very mention of the “C” word strikes terror to the extent that some cannot even bring themselves to use it.

Imagine how much harder it must be to cope with cancer if you are a teenager. How cruel, unfair and frightening it must seem.
In March of this year I went to the launch of a new charity called Trekstock, set up by an inspiring young woman called Sophie Epstone, aimed specifically at raising money to help fund new research and pioneering treatments for teenage cancer sufferers. Trekstock is affiliated with both the Teenage Cancer Trust and Cancer Research, and is supported by people from the music and fashion industries.

In October 2010, I am participating in a sponsored 10 day trek through the foothills of the Himalayas, in Sikkim, India, in an attempt to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. It will be a gruelling hike, over many different types of terrain and at high altitudes. I start training for the trek in the next few weeks.

I know in these fiscally uncertain times we all have many financial commitments of our own to attend to, but if you feel you could make a donation to this worthwhile cause, no matter how small, I would be truly grateful.

I know that, amazingly, the Stiles and Drewe website receives around 500,000 hits a month. Just think how much money we could raise if every website visitor donated just one pound each! Think of how much good we could do together. But most of all, think how many suffering teenagers we may be able to help, encourage and support.

You have my word that every “tuppence” raised will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Wish me luck, and thank you so much for taking the time to read this. If you feel you can make a donation in my name please visit http://www.justgiving.com/AntsDrewe

Love

Ants x

Yes, we’ve disappeared for a while – but that’s because we’ve been writing, so we hope that’s a good excuse!

Work is complete on the first draft of Soapdish…we’re doing a reading in London in April to see how it plays. We’re also working on 6 demo recordings with a wonderful arranger to show the songs off. One of the songs is a trio – we haven’t really written a real trio in all these years….2 girls and a guy….and we’re really pleased with it. It’s called, The Way That It Sounds.

Betty Blue Eyes is the new title for our adaptation of Alan Bennett’s “A Private Function”. Cameron Mackintosh is producing it and we hope to open at West Yorkshire Playhouse next spring, coming into London for Easter. We are starting casting now and will soon have exciting news about creative team.

We are also just back at work on Soho Cinders. I know many people will be pleased to hear this, as we get so many comments about the songs on the Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe CD. Thanks! We are re-crafting the book and making the story fun, topical and, we hope, timeless. We hope to workshop it in the autumn.

George is also excited as it looks as though The Three Musketeers will finally get a UK production this Christmas….details to follow as soon as it’s all firmed up.

So – a quick news blast….thanks for reading and we’ll try and blog again soon.

George – London 31 March 2010

OK – so we are terrible bloggers! It is ages since we posted an update. The only good reason is that we have been so busy writing new material, so I hope you’ll forgive us.

Back in November 2009, just after opening MARY POPPINS in Los Angeles (where it took up residence at the Ahmanson Theatre until February 7th), George and I flew to New York for a reading of SOAPDISH – the show we have been writing with screenwriter Robert Harling. The reading went very well and featured Kate Baldwin and Chris Sieber in the roles made famous by Sally Field and Kevin Kline. We had almost finished the writing – but still had two songs to write and a couple of reprises in Act Two. The small invited audience gave us some very positive feedback and we have just returned from another writing stint with Bobby at his plantation in Louisiana, where we have got even closer to finishing it (the book and all the songs are written – but we still have the reprises to crack!). The plan now with SOAPDISH is to hold another reading (this time in London) in mid April, followed by a further workshop in NYC in June. If all goes to plan the show will open somewhere in the USA as a try-out in late 2011.

Having held the SOAPDISH reading in NYC in November we returned to London to hold a reading of our musical based on A Private Function, which is now called BETTY BLUE EYES. The exciting development for us was that our old friend Cameron Mackintosh had just decided to option the show – so instead of being a workshop to attract a financial backer, we held the workshop purely to make sure the show was working. Everything went very well – we had a great cast and Ron Cowen and Dan Lipman (the bookwriters) flew over from L.A. to work on it with us.

The plan for BETTY BLUE EYES is now to rehearse in Jan 2011, open at West Yorkshire Playhouse in the February then, if all goes to plan, to come to the West End in time for Easter 2011. The poster has already been designed and is fabulous! We are currently assembling our creative team and will post more as and when we have the details.

In the meantime, we are off to Amsterdam for the final run throughs of MARY POPPINS, which officially opens there on April 7th. Another production then opens in Melbourne in July – so I’m hoping to make my first trip to Australia.

I have also been working on the book of SOHO CINDERS with Elliot Davis. We have had a couple of lengthy brain-storming sessions on streamlining the story, and are returning to France to work on it with George next week – so we hope to get that show up and running (finally!) in the near future.

There are also plans afoot for a HONK! revival in London – as well as for a tour of the USA next year – so watch this space for more details.

Sorry again for being such lousy bloggers, it’s a bit late for a New Year’s resolution, but we will try to write more regularly in future.

Bye for now,

Ants

Stiles and Drewe to host new musical cabaret evening at Pigalle Club

Published Wednesday 16 September 2009 at 15:31 by Alistair Smith

Composers George Stiles and Anthony Drewe are to host an evening of new musical theatre at the Pigalle Club in London’s West End.

The evening, which will take place this Sunday (September 20), is to celebrate the launch of New Musicals Network and is in aid of Mercury Musical Developments and the Actors’ Benevolent Fund.

The show will feature songs by composers including Alexander Bermange, Charles Bloom and Olly Ashmore, as well as excerpts from fringe shows Austentatious and Only The Brave. Performers include Sabrina Aloueche, Lucy May Barker, Gerard Bentall, Jon Boydon, Richard Dempsey, Kirsty Hoiles, Cassidy Janson, Jeremy Legat, Lucy Mills, Michael Peavoy, Helen Power and Verity Quade.

Further details from www.newmusicals.org.uk

Ants and I are going to compere an evening of new writing in the West End on the 20th….

Do come if you can – proceeds benefit MMD, the charity we co-founded. Here are some details:

New Musicals Network Launches With Snappy Title at the Pigalle Club
New Musicals Network present Snappy Title, a charity cabaret showcasing songs from new musicals and featuring current and former cast members from West End musicals such as Sister Act, We Will Rock You and Wicked. It will be at the Pigalle Club, Piccadilly on Sunday September 20th at 7.45pm. All money raised will go to Mercury Musical Developments and the Actors’ Benevolent Fund.
Composers such as Charles Bloom, Alexander Bermange, Cathy Shostak and Joe Robinson (to name but four) will have their work featured during the evening, and there will also be excerpts from Austentatious (recent sell-out at the Landor Theatre) and Only The Brave (Edinburgh Fringe 2008).
We have a fabulous line-up of eleven West End artists taking part: Sabrina Aloueche, Lucy May Barker, Gerard Bentall, Jon Boydon, Richard Dempsey, Cassidy Janson, Jeremy Legat, Lucy Mills, Michael Peavoy, Helen Power and Verity Quade.
Renowned songwriters George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (Mary Poppins, Honk, Just So) will compere the evening in their own inimitable way.
All artists appear subject to work commitments.
The event will be directed by Peter Huntley, with musical staging by Damian Sandys, and the musical director will be Christopher Mundy.
Tickets are available through SeeTickets.com and are priced from £15.

Or – www.newmusicals.org.uk and click the “Buy Tickets” link on the homepage

Come and support new writing and make a noise…

George

Hey Beautiful Bloggers – hot news is that there’s a concert to celebrate the work of the world’s best orchestrator – Bill Brohn coming up. It’s called “West End to Broadway – by special arrangement” and it’s on Sunday 4th October at Drury Lane. They’re performing songs from Poppins and The Three Musketeers in it – and it’s going to be crammed with West End glitterati. Oh, and us too! We’re going to be reverting to type and playing Jane and Michael (don’t even ask who gets to wear the dress) to Caroline Sheen’s Mary Poppins in Practically Perfect. I’m hoping we’ll get a chaperone.

The huge orchestra will be conducted by Stephen Brooker and I’m thrilled that they’re going to be performing Paris By Night from my Three Musketeers. Bill orchestrated this in 2000 when it premiered in Switzerland and then in San Jose where we recorded it for CD. The show is looking set to received its UK premiere in 2010.

Have a look around to see what’s out there about the concert – here’s what I can find at the moment. Maybe you could all write to this site and ask them to spell poor Anthony’s “Drewe’ properly as well – lol!

But most importantly – come and see the concert. Bill is an amazing man – he’s orchestrated so many shows…Crazy for You, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Secret Garden, and Wicked…to name but a few. Plus he is quite possibly the nicest man on the planet and one of our very best friends. We really want this to be a night to remember for him.

http://www.reallyuseful.com/news/broadway-to-west-end-by-special-arrangement

More news soon – George

July 28th 2009

George and I have just arrived back in France after a very exciting week in London for the first reading of A PRIVATE FUNCTION. The bookwriters, Ron Cowen and Dan Lipman, had spent five days in France with us knocking the book/songs into shape, and George worked round the clock writing out the music as well as making rough demos of the remaining songs.

In London, we were blessed with a great little company of performers headed by Josie Walker and Michael Jibson as Joyce and Gilbert Chilvers (the Maggie Smith and Michael Palin roles in the film), with Julian Forsyth, Nick Holder, Ian Talbot, Paul Baker, Nigel Richards, Tim Bonser, Danielle Coombe, Caroline Sheen, Anna Jane Casey and Susie Blake (hysterical as Mother Dear!). It couldn’t have gone better, and we got a great reaction/feedback for our small invited audience. If we secure the creative team that we are currently pursuing, we hope to do a full workshop in London in late October. Watch this space!

We’re now having a few days off at L’Autre Ciel until Julian Fellowes (our collaborator on MARY POPPINS) arrives to discuss a new idea for a musical. We’ll let you know about that as soon as it looks like a real likelihood.

We received some exciting news about MARY POPPINS this week – it is confirmed to open in Melbourne, Australia next July – plus…there is an exciting development in the recasting of the Broadway production (which I can’t reveal here yet!).

PETER PAN CD is definitely being released in September – we will give you the exact date for the release and for a ‘cast signing’ in London as soon as we get the go ahead from the Speckulation who we are pleased to say have agreed to distribute the CD for us.

In the meantime, we need to get on and finish the songs for SOAPDISH – as the American producers for the show want to do a reading in NYC at the end of November…Eek! I think I’d better go and write some lyrics!

Until the next,

Ants

July 14th – Bastille Day!

Here we are back at L’Autre Ciel on Bastille Day, adding the finishing touches to A PRIVATE FUNCTION. Ron Cowen and Dan Lipman (our book writing partners on this show) arrive here from L.A. tomorrow for a final push on the writing – then all four of us head back to London for a reading of the complete musical next week. Very exciting. We are really pleased with the songs so are keeping our fingers crossed that the reading goes smoothly – we are certainly assembling an amazing cast.

We have actually just had a few days break with our old friend Howard Harrison (lighting designer on Mary Poppins). He has a place in Villefranche Sur Mer – between Nice and Monaco, with stunning views across the bay to Cap Ferat. We had a wonderful time there with him, Juan and Hugh – even though it took us 7 hours to drive across there from my house, it was well worth the trip. I’d never been to that part of France before and it really is lovely. Now I know where it is I’m sure I’ll be returning many times. I had my first experience of eating live oysters there – something I swore I’d never try…I guess I was too inebriated on local plonk to know what I was doing, but they were really rather nice. The thought of chewing live molluscs is still a bit of an issue for me though!

On things of a more botanical nature, Cindy was quite right about the courgettes – my vegetable garden was over-run with courgettes which had grown to the size of marrows in just 2 weeks! I’ve made chutney with one of them, the rest are still sitting in the kitchen looking like extras from the cast of Shrek – I’m not sure what I’ll do with them, but having picked them there are now new flowers emerging on the plants.

When we return here after the PRIVATE FUNCTION reading we will continue working on SOAPDISH. We are planning for a reading of that in NYC towards the end of November after our trip to L.A. to see the MARY POPPINS tour open at the Ahmanson. Incidentally the US tour is currently in the midst of it’s first move, from Chicago to Cleveland – so good luck to the crew, in particular, with the move. It’s not an easy show to dissemble and reassemble, and it is due for it’s first performance in Cleveland on Friday night.

The PETER PAN CD launch has been put back until September, when we will both be back in London and hope to get together with as many of the cast as possible for a signing session (and party!)

Well, that’s it for now. We’ll let you know how the reading of A PRIVATE FUNCTION goes, in the meantime I hope you are enjoying the summer as much as we are.

Ants

George and I have just had a great week in France working on A PRIVATE FUNCTION, and pitching a song for a new feature animation project (we’ll let you know if we get it, but I don’t want to jinx it!) – we picked the first of the tomatoes and courgettes for those of you who wanted to know after my last blog, and are hoping for many more when we return there at the beginning of July.

We are now back in London for a couple of weeks. We have been asked to sit on the panel for the Ian Fleming Awards on Tuesday. These are financial grants offered to young performers, and administered by the Musician’s Benevolent Fund. The panel is made up of Graham Bickley, Claire Moore and the two of us. It’s nice being able to give away someone else’s money!

We then go up to Kilworth House near Market Harborough – a big country house hotel that has a 500 seat open air theatre in it’s grounds. They are interested in doing HONK! next year, so we are going to have a look at the venue and meet the producers.

On the subject of HONK! – the 4000th license was issued recently to a group who will be performing the show for the whole three weeks of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The cast are performing a couple of songs tomorrow afternoon (at 2.10pm) at ‘West End Live’ in Leicester Square, so I’m going to pop along and show support, before going to see our great friend Alison Jiear in her one-woman show at Pizza on The Park.

George has a reading in London of his THREE MUSKETEERS before we both return to France to polish off A PRIVATE FUNCTION. The two book writers, Ron Cowen and Dan Lipman, are joining us in France in July to help us put the complete script together, then we all come back to London for a table reading of the show in late July – we will keep you posted. The show seems to have attracted a lot of interest and we hope to be able to announce the  first production, and creative team, very soon.

Oh, on PETER PAN, everything is finished and is looking and sounding great. We now just need to get a release date when George and I are both in London to attend the launch.We will be announcing this very soon, but I expect it won’t be until September now because of other commitments.

Till the next,

Ants

3rd June

I’ve just arrived back in France after three days in London – primarily to present the second Stiles And Drewe Award. This year it went to Olly Ashmore for his witty “Hot Flush 2″ song in which a daytime TV presenter cannot quite contain her angst at her marriage breakdown whilst presenting her morning magazine programme. Well done to all of the 12 finalists – and to the students who were competing for the Sondheim Prize. 

I was keen to get back down to L’Autre Ciel partly to continue work on A PRIVATE FUNCTION, but also because my courgettes, tomatoes and new quince tree need regular watering! – it was 88 degrees here yesterday, and today looks as if it will be even hotter.

George was in the studio in London yesterday mastering the PETER PAN CD, and I have just been sent the preliminary artwork for the booklet, so we are still hopeful for a late June release. George is off to the Tony Awards this weekend, where his partner Hugh is nominated for ‘Best Lighting’ for his work on MARY STUART – so we are all keeping our fingers crossed for him, as well as for the rather pleasingly large number of our friends who are nominated in several other categories. It looks like a good year for the Brits.

Well, I’d better start making notes on the PP artwork or you’ll never get to hear it!

Ciao for now (I know it’s not French, but it rhymes),

Ants