Richard Dempsey's Blog

A Spotlight On Cabaret at The Landor.

Well I performed my cabaret on Sunday. I really enjoyed it!. We sold out. Two months in the planning. Lot's of time talking and singing through material with Dan Jackson, my friend and MD, quite a lot of nerves leading up to it but the evening was one filled with huge love and support from the audience and great performances from my guests.

I've wanted to do a cabaret for a long time and never have quite had the nerve to do it, but it seemed like the right time. Having watched and enjoyed many cabarets I've learnt the key to cabaret is to be yourself and be comfortable with that,so I did my best to do that!

I went ahead and found a series of songs that I related to or were from shows I've done. Bizarrely, a lot of the songs I've done in shows related to where I was at that point in my life or fitted in well with some of the stories I had to tell.

Dan had some great ideas and we embarked on putting them together. One in particular seemed to go down quite well, an arrangement of I've Seen You alongside Mika's I See You, we ended the first half with it.

My dear friends, Clare Foster, Gemma Wardle, Anne Reid and Lesley Nicol generously gave their time to be my guests

and were stunning. Anne and Lesley gave a brilliant and hysterical rendition of I Can Cook Too from On The Town in keeping with their roles in Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs. Gemma sang up a storm with Till There Was You and Clare gave a very moving preview of her performance in Crazy For You. I am so grateful to them all.

Dan played (and sung) beautifully and I was so lucky to also have my old Guildhall chum and neighbour Laura Melhuish on violin.

It's such an interesting thing cabaret, terrifying in theory but to have the the opportunity to share something of yourself and your life is a real luxury.

I such a fan of musical theatre, so to have the chance to sing songs I've never had the opportunity to sing before was great. 

A lot of people wanted to know where the songs were from so here is a list

Streets Of Dublin (Ahern and Flaherty. A Man Of No Importance)

Mad Morld (Tears For Fears)

Larger Than Life (Ahern and Flaherty. My Favourite Year)

She's Always A Woman (Billy Joel)

Different (Honk)

I Can Cook Too (Bernstein) Anne and Lesley

Giants In The Sky (Into The Woods)

I Wanna Make Magic (Fame)

All The Wasted Time (Jason Robert Brown. Parade) with Gemma

Till There Was You (Music Man) Gemma

Now I Seen You (Honk) I See You (Mika)

The Sun Has Got His Hat On (Me And My Girl)

Cherry Pies (Cole Porter) with Clare

Someone To Watch Over Me (Gershwin) Clare

Does The Moment Ever Come (Just So)

What More Can I Say  (William Finn)

I've Been (Next To Normal)

17 Again (Annie Lennox)

Flight (Craig Carnelia)

I Was Here (Aherns And Flaherty. The Glorious Ones)

The Wind And The Rain (Twelfth Night/George Stiles)

 

 

 

 

Propeller's Pocket Dream @ The Udderbelly

The Pocket Dream is back! Ed Hall's Propeller men are back in town with the one hour version of Ed's full scale A Midsummer Night's Dream that has toured the world and run in the west end. This 6 man cast of Propeller members, old and new is playing alongside the current world tour of Comedy of Errors and Richard III (currently in Boston but soon to be seen at Hampstead). We are playing in the Udderbelly next to The Royal Festival Hall, otherwise known as "The Big Purple Upside Down Cow". If you haven't seen it up at the Edinburgh Festival before, it's basically a huge tent in the shape of a cow with a magnificent beer garden or "Pasture" to enjoy in between the array of shows playing. This year, we have us belting through the Dream, as well as Paul Daniels, Showstoppers, Ida Barr, Rory Bremner, Jenny Eclair and much more.

It's been great to revisit the Dream, especially in this venue which is buzzing with atmosphere. The Pocket dream was set up a few years ago to introduce kids to Shakespeare and this venue is perfect for kids and adults alike, a giant Connect 4 and Jenga is available to play with while the adults consume Magners.

I've particularly enjoyed working with some Propeller actors that I've heard so much of before, Propeller legends you could say! Vinnie Leigh and Jonny McGuinness , alongside Babou Cessay, Tam Williams and Alastair Craig. It's been really great, and all having worked with the company on the big show or with each other before there a shorthand in the rehearsal process.
The post show discussions have been very interesting here, from one child who wanted to know 'where was the changeling boy?", to the young lad who misunderstood our stage fighting workshop and actually slapped another kid (not very hard) and made it into the Time Out review.

And a scorching Spring to go with it. Look out for Comedy of Errors and Richard III, they really are fantastic shows.

Me And My Girl

Me and My Girl. What a journey this is! We started rehearsals in October and didn't waste anytime. 3 rehearsal rooms, a cast of 25, dream creative team and blissfully fun material to work on.

Daniel Evans the new Artistic Director (and all round super talent and Guildhall colleague) led the meet and greet which included everyone that worked in the theatre, all handing the microphone to each other and climaxing in Miriam Margoyles making everyone roar with laughter.

Within a week we'd learnt 90% of Stephen Mear's brilliant choreography and most of the music and then knuckled down to putting it together. Anna Mackmin, Stephen Mear and Jae Alexanda all lead their rehearsals with focus, democracy and warmth and we are a very happy company.

The cast are fantastic! Daniel Crossley and Jemima Rooper lead the company with such ease, brilliance and truth and have an instant chemistry. Miriam Margolyes and Patrick Ryecart bring so much experience and humor to the rehearsals and I marvel at Josefina Gabrielle's talent and invention and enjoy being reunited with her in a very different world from last time (Fame in 1995!!).

The ensemble are just extraordinary, all 'triple threats' and so accomplished and just lovely people. So we're a pretty happy bunch.

By the time we arrived on Peter McKintosh's brilliant revolving set we were gagging to get in front of an audience. After a smooth tech we were slightly held back by 4ft of snow falling and preventing a lot of the paying audience members making the first couple of previews. Luckily the audiences of Sheffield dug their way out of their homes and it was a joy to share it finally. Press Night was a blast, great to have friends and family here to support and take the edge of critics coming. Luckily the reviews have been fantastic which is really thrilling.
The Sun Has Got His Hat On!

Real Babies Don't Cry

Well the Edinburgh Festival was quite an experience and one that I would not have missed. Firstly The Gilded Balloon, our venue, is an explosion of creativity, rooms and rooms full of shows from theatre and comedy to song and dance. Karen Koren, the queen of comedy and mastermind of this venue was our co producer and was just a dream to work with, so kind generous and supportive. Always immaculate in the Loft Bar (conveniently located next to the Turret Theatre where were playing) handing out glasses of very nice Sauvignon Blanc and introducing everyone to each other. And the amazing Sharon Burgess, the general manager who runs this extraordinary operation with such finesse and warmth.

Paris

Welcome to my blog! (And a huge thanks to the brilliant Philip Crammond for
setting it up).

The Lost Musical Project "Paris" by Cole Porter at Sadlers Wells was a real
treat to be part of. This was my third Lost Musical (the last being "I'd
Rather Be Right" ten years ago!). The audiences are so enthusiastic and it's
brilliant to hear the material come to life. Of course it was great to be
working with my dear friends Anne Reid and Clare Foster and to be reunited
on another Cole Porter musical (we all met on Out Of This World at
Chichester 5 years ago). I think the Lost Musicals are such an important
project and Ian Marshall Fisher works so hard to research and compile these
lost gems. There are 3 more this season and one in New York later this year.

Talking of "gems" I must mention Love Story The Musical at the Minerva
Theatre Chichester. I went last week with my friend Peter McKintosh who
designed it (beautifully) and had a wonderful and emotional evening. It's a
brilliant piece of work with a gorgeous score by Howard Goodall and great
performances especially by Emma Williams.

In a few weeks I start rehearsing Real Babies Don't Cry by Stewart Permutt
which will be performed at The Edinburgh Festival. It's a really interesting
three hander (Janet Prince and Amanda Symonds produce and all three of us
perform the play) about a lady who has a obsession with dolls. Really funny
and dark. I've not performed at Edinburgh before and I'm really looking
forward to it. It's directed by Gene David Kirk and we'll be doing a few
performances at Jermyn Street theatre where Gene is Artistic Director.

In September I'm slipping back into Titania (and Helena!) for a short tour
of Propellers (all male) The Pocket Dream. I love this show, we did it two
years ago before we did the full scale version. It is one hour and really
punchy and aimed at kids, we'll be Hampstead Theatre for a week and tour the
country.

Propeller have recently announced their next world tour, the shows will be
Richard III and Comedy of Errors which is very exciting.

R x