December 2012

About this time last year Tim wrote a little song of praise where “the idea was to compare [Jesus] to Woody Allen (short, Jewish, philosophical, a bit hesitant), and expand into redefining his other alleged attributes using modern, popular-culture terminology”.  He then joyously performed it on The Jonathan Ross Show at summer festivals all over the UK in 2012 and more recently at Homebake Festival, Sydney, Australia.

In November, Tim, his long hair, bare feet, beard and band* performed a warm-up gig (for the above Aussie festival) at The Coronet, London, the proceeds of which went to Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). The show was recorded for a documentary** and their euphonious performance of ‘Woody Allen Jesus’ has just been edited and put up on Tim’s YouTube Channel in violet-blue hue’d gloriousness for your delectation. Just in time for Christmas!

If that’s helped you into the Christmas spirit then you may fancy keeping the mood going with Tim’s beautiful, sentimental song about Christmas and family: ‘White Wine In The Sun’. A new studio version was released, earlier this month, with all December proceeds, once again, going to the National Autistic Society. Details of where to download it internationally here.

Merry Christmas!

*The beauteous and mellifluous Pete Clements (bass), Brad Webb (drums) and Tristan Cassel-Delavois (guitar).
**You’ll hear more about that next year…

The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Dodgers today announced the casting of the principal roles and the ensemble for Matilda the Musical on Broadway. In alphabetical order: Karen Aldridge, best known for her starring role on the Golden Globe winning series “Boss” on Starz is to play the warm-hearted librarian Mrs Phelps, Gabriel Ebert, whose Broadway credits include Brief Encounter and Red will play the colourful and feckless Mr Wormwood, Lesli Margherita, winner of a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in Zorro The Musical will play the flamboyant and clamorous Mrs Wormwood, and Lauren Ward, whose many London credits include Sound of Music and Philadelphia Story, will reprise her role as the kind and gentle Miss Honey.

As we already announced, here, the four girls making their Broadway debut to alternate playing the eponymous heroine, Matilda, are: Oona Laurence, Milly Shapiro, Bailey Ryon and Sophia Gennua, whilst the cruel and unusual Miss Trunchbull will be played by Bertie Carvel*, also making his Broadway debut to reprise his role as the hilariously terrifying headmistress, for which he won much acclaim and the Olivier for Best Actor in a Musical.

The ensemble is: Frenie Acoba, Erica Barnett, Judah Bellamy, Jack Broderick, Ava DeMary, John Arthur Greene, Emma Howard, Nadine Isenegger, Colin Israel, Thayne Jasperson, Luke Mannikus, Madilyn Morrow, Sawyer Nunes, Jared Parker, Celia Mei Rubin, John Sanders, Tamika Sonja Lawrence, Phillip Spaeth, Ryan Steele, Betsy Struxness, Samantha Sturm, Heather Tepe, Ben Thompson, Clay Thomson, TaylorTrensch, Beatrice Tulchin, and Ted Wilson*.

Auction in aid of Charity Buzz

There’s a charity auction for two tickets to the Opening Night Performance and Afterparty for Matilda on Broadway on April 11, 2013. Charity Buzz raises money for various nonprofit organisations in the US. This particular auction benefits the CFDA & Vogue’s Fashion for Sandy Relief Initiative. You can find out the details and bid here wherever you’re based but travel and accommodations are not included.

*Bertie Carvel and Ted Wilson appear with permission of Actors’ Equity Association.

As Tim let you know here, he’s recorded a studio version of his beautiful Christmas song ‘White Wine In The Sun’ and released it for download with all the December proceeds, once again, going to the National Autistic Society.

White Wine In The Sun [2012]
Written and performed by Tim Minchin
Orchestrated, mixed and mastered by Pete Clements
Guitar – Tristan Cassel-Delavois
Bass – Pete Clements
Recorded by Pat Collier at Perry Vale Studios

It’s now even easier to obtain internationally, even if you don’t use iTunes, because it’s available from 7digital. If you’re based in the UK or the US and prefer Amazon, it’s available from Amazon (UK) and Amazon (US).

Of course you can still download it internationally from iTunes, where you can gift it to another “apple person”, if you wish, by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the price and choosing “Gift this” or on your iOS device, tap the share button at the top of the screen. iTunes will send an email to your recipient to let them know and they can then download it with one click.

This version is taken from the Australian ‘Ready For This?’ DVD:

Sigh… It’s sentimental, I know.

My Matilda song book is actually really and truly out today! I’m so excited.

You can buy it from real, live, in-the-actual-world shops and from intangible, probably-magic, online shops here and here, and – even more incorporeally – as a digital download thing.

Yay! Merry Christmas!
 

Update: The song book will be available at the RSC shop in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Cambridge Theatre in London’s West End, at Musicroom stores around the UK and from all good music shops. If you’re not in the UK, both online retailers (linked above) ship internationally.

The shortlist of nominations for the 2013 Whatsonstage.com Awards were announced yesterday, covering the best UK theatre experiences in 2012.

These UK theatre industry awards are the only major theatre awards which are nominated by and voted for entirely by theatregoers and the ticket-buying public. Voting is open until January 31st 2013. You can see the full list of categories and nominees and cast your votes here!

Jesus Christ Superstar is up for FIVE awards with Tim nominated for his phenomenal performance as Judas:

Best Supporting Actor in a Musical – Tim Minchin, Jesus Christ Superstar
Best Supporting Actress in a Musical – Melanie C, Jesus Christ Superstar
Best Musical Revival – Jesus Christ Superstar
Best Lighting Designer – Patrick Woodroffe, Jesus Christ Superstar
Theatre Event of the Year – Jesus Christ Superstar’s arena tour

Following on from the show’s tremendous success at last year’s awards, this year Matilda The Musical is up for:

Best West End Show – Matilda the Musical, RSC at the Cambridge Theatre

The winners will be revealed at the Awards Ceremony and Concert on the 17th February 2013 at the West End’s Palace Theatre.

Tim’s had his photo taken again! This time it’s an intimate and pensive shot for Tough Crowd, an exhibition of photographs by Dave Brown (‘Bollo’ the Gorilla from The Mighty Boosh) in partnership with Afrikids.

They are portraits of many fine and well-loved comedians on the circuit, including: Tim, Tony Law, Tim Key, Ross Noble, Bill Bailey, Richard Ayoade, Julia Davis, Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, Nick Helme, Sara Pascoe, Davis O’Doherty, Chris Addison and many many more. Brown asked Tim and all his subjects to recall their worst moments on stage in order to capture some of the ‘dark side’ to stand up and achieve a moody and melancholy air to the collection.

The exhibition is at The Strand Gallery until 15th December 2012.

Limited edition prints are being sold here with all profits going to AfriKids, which is a child rights organisation working to improve life for Ghana’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

They are available in A3 size for £50 and A2 for £75. So you can browse the whole impressive collection via the link above or go straight to A3 Tim or A2 Tim for that Christmas gift that makes you popular forever or that treat to yourself just ’cause, in the knowledge that you are helping out a terrific charity which does amazing work.

Afrikids work ranges from traditional children’s projects including foster homes, schools and street child centres as well as tackling complex cultural issues such as child trafficking and child labour. You can donate or find out more about their work here.

Tim will be helping Tom and Alex celebrate the forthcoming apocalypse on their End of the World special, tomorrow morning, 7th December 2012, on triple j by providing the songs for the last ever Like A Version!

He’ll be live in the studio to perform one of his own tunes and his own interpretation of someone else’s. The show starts at 6am, but if that’s too early for you, the ATT* will be 7am-8:30am.

There’s no word as to what Tim will be playing, so you’ll have to tune in to find out which song he’ll be murdering lovingly re-imagining.

*Approximate Timmy Time

If you missed out on tickets to see Tim pretending to be Judas in Autumn, then fear not. Due to popular demand, a second UK tour of Jesus Christ Superstar has been scheduled for March 2013!

The main cast will remain the same, with Tim reprising his role as Judas, while Melanie C will play Mary Magdalene, Ben Forster will play Jesus and Chris Moyles will play King Herod.

You’ll be able to see Tim’s show-stealing performances at the following venues on the following dates:

Nottingham Capital FM Arena
10th March 2013

London O2 Arena
13th March 2013

Liverpool Echo Arena
15th March 2013

Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
17th March 2013

Manchester Arena
24th March 2013

Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
26th March 2013

Birmingham NIA
28th March 2013

Tickets will go on sale on Friday 7th December at 9am from jesuschristsuperstar.com.

Tim will be on Scott Mills on BBC Radio 1 this afternoon. The show airs between 1pm and 4pm but the ATT* is 2:40pm.

They’ll be playing the lovely new studio version of ‘White Wine In The Sun’, available on iTunes and now Amazon too, the December proceeds for which all go to the National Autistic Society, as Tim announced here.

If you can’t listen live you’ll be able to catch it on the BBC iPlayer later.

*Approximate Timmy Time

As some of you might have already spotted on Twitter, the long clamoured for official Matilda The Musical Songbook is now available for pre-order from The RSC here and Musicroom here! You can see the song list and preview some of the book’s pages via those links.

It is released on Monday 10th December 2012.

This songbook presents all Tim’s songs from the show, arranged for voice and piano with chord symbols. There’s also an eight-page colour photo section and Tim’s written an exclusive foreword/tip sheet explaining a little about his writing for Matilda and giving hints as to how everyone can enjoy the book to the max!

If you’re in the UK, you can watch some of the cast perform one of the show-stopping favourites on the 100th Royal Variety Performance tonight, Monday 3rd December, at 7:30pm on ITV.

Tim’s Judas is coming to Canada!

Here’s the chance for Canadians to see a shod, dreadlocked Tim betray Jesus, as he performs in screenings of the UK arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar!

The screenings will take place across a limited number of cinemas tomorrow, 2nd December and Wednesday, 5th December. You can find your nearest one at CinePlex.com.

If you’re still umming and ahhing over whether you should see the spectacle for yourself, you should head over to this post, watch the clips from the show and then imagine them on a big screen! If that doesn’t convince you, then nothing will.