News Archive

Last night the New York production of Matilda The Musical, for which Tim wrote the music and lyrics, opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway to delighted cheers and a full standing ovation. The show, which has been in previews since the 4th March 2013, is today swinging high, feet kicking up to the sky at the marvellously glowing reviews across the board:

The New York Times
Ben Brantley describes Matilda as “the most satisfying and subversive musical ever to come out of Britain, where it was nurtured into life by the Royal Shakespeare Company… even more glorious than we were promised… truly revolutionary.”

The Washington Post
Peter Marks says “‘Matilda’ [is] by some large and tickling measure the most splendiferous new musical of the year…
With a delectably clever score by Tim Minchin and a slyly evocative book by Dennis Kelly, the musical, is distinguished by its wonderful look and a caliber of choreography for young people you rarely ever experience.”

Chicago Tribune
Chris Jones hails the production as “far and away the best new musical of the Broadway season, indeed one of the best family-oriented shows of any season” and describes Tim’s score as “remarkably rich, occasionally anthemic” singling out “a simple, gorgeous Tim Minchin song, ‘When I Grow Up.’ “

The New York Post
Elisabeth Vincentelli says “Once in a blue moon, a show comes out blazing and restores your faith in Broadway. A treat for ears and eyes, brain and heart, the glorious ‘Matilda’ has it all.”

Time Magazine
Richard Zoglin proclaims Matilda “the wondrous new musical from London that has just arrived on Broadway. It would be easy to call it the best British musical since ‘Billy Elliot’, but that, I’m afraid, would be underselling it. You have to go back to ‘The Lion King’ to find a show with as much invention, spirit and genre-redefining verve.” and says “[Tim Minchin] has written a score that seems all but woven into the scenery—simple but distinctive tunes, intricate lyrics, a touch of jazz here, or wailing rock there, but all of a piece, integral to the show and like nothing else.”

Matthew Warchus, Dennis Kelly and Tim joined the cast on stage for bows. Photographer: Ellie Kurttz

Matilda The Musical continues to play to packed houses at London’s Cambridge Theatre, inspiring and delighting adults and children alike. 250,000 tickets will go on sale on Monday 15th April here for the London production which is now booking until May 2014.

The original cast recording of Matilda the Musical, is available from iTunes and on CD from the RSC Shop. For more information about the show and for tickets to shows in London and New York head to the Matilda The Musical website.

Tim is to present a three part documentary on Absolute Radio about the life and career of David Bowie this month.

The first part of the series will focus on Bowie’s early life in post-war Brixton and career up to Ziggy (1947-1973), the second on the golden era of the Thin White Duke to Scary Monsters (1973-1980), while the last part will range from Let’s Dance to the new album The Next Day (1980 to 2013) and the V&A’s current David Bowie Is exhibition.

The story will be told by the friends and musicians who have played a part in Bowie’s life over six decades and it includes contributions from Bowie’s childhood friend and artist George Underwood, touring guitarist John “Hutch” Hutchinson and his guitarist Mick Ronson’s widow Suzi.

BOWIE will be broadcast, in three hour-long episodes, on Absolute Radio here, at 7pm on consecutive Sundays: the 7th, 14th and 21st April 2013. There will be also be a series of short online films featuring additional material and interviews. It will air again and be available on the website during the term of the exhibition at the V&A (until 11th August).

So if your inner Bowie nerd is crying out for your rock ‘n’ roll nerd to tell you all about that amazingly colourful career then this is the programme for you.

UPDATE: If you’ve missed any of these episodes then you can listen again here.

Hosanna! Yet more dates have been added to the Jesus Christ Superstar arena tour in Australia. Melbourne and Sydney will now have five shows apiece:

Sunday 9th June 2013
Sydney Entertainment Centre (Matinee)
Sydney Entertainment Centre (Evening)

Sunday 16th June 2013
Melbourne Rod Laver Arena (Matinee)
Melbourne Rod Laver Arena (Evening)

Pre-sale tickets will be available via www.frontiertouring.com/jesuschristsuperstar from Wednesday 10 April noon AEST.

Tickets go on general sale from 9am local time, Monday 15th April 2013.  The full list of dates can be found at jesuschristsuperstar.com.

Just in case you’ve missed our earlier announcements: Tim’s reprising his award-winning performance as Judas Iscariot for the Australian arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, while Melanie C and Ben Forster will also be returning in their roles from the UK production as Mary Magdalene and Jesus.

Deal or No Deal host Andrew O’Keefe will play King Herod and Jon Stevens, who appeared as Judas Iscariot in the 1992 Australian arena tour of the show is taking on the role of Pontius Pilate.

Tim, Melanie C, Chris Moyles and Ben Forster will perform songs from Jesus Christ Superstar on ITV’s Easter special:

Andrew Lloyd Webber – 40 Musical Years this Sunday March 31st, 6:30pm – 8:00pm, on ITV1. (also ITVHD, STV, UTV and on ITV+1 at 7:30pm)

The 90 minute extravaganza, hosted by Michael Ball, will feature live music and one-off collaborations in celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s continuous run of hits in the West End over the past 40 years. The cast of Jesus Christ Superstar join a star-studded line up which includes Myleene Klass, Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberley Walsh and Il Divo. There’ll be interviews with Michael Caine and Sir Alex Ferguson along with insights from the composer himself. Classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic will perform a number from Lloyd Webber’s eagerly awaited new musical, Stephen Ward.

UPDATE: For those people asking, unfortunately, this will only be aired in the UK.

Hi all, me here.

For some time I’ve been keeping certain tunes off t’internet in order to ensure audiences of my live shows get a few surprises. I like surprises.

However, as an Easter gift I’m putting the Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra (UK, Aus) version of “Thank You God” up on the YouTubular for y’all to enjoy. I do hope you do. It’s embedded at the bottom of this bloggerage.

The vid has a bit of standup on it too, because the song requires a bit of context for ye first-time listeners. You can skip to 05:25 if you wanna just hear the song.

A wee warning – it ain’t suitable for work or for those who are sensitive to irreligious content.

I want to also take this opportunity to point you towards my new shop. My webman, Neil, has been working hard on getting the thing more efficient and easier to use. And there’s a few new bits of tatt there, with more to come soon. I don’t recommend you buy a tee shirt with a massive picture of my massive head on it, as I think it’s a weird thing to do. However, you people do shit that I think is weird all the time… so knock yourselves out: UK & Europe Shop, Australasia Shop and North America Shop.

Hope you get a break over Easter and eat an amount of chocolate that won’t trigger diabetes.

Peace out mthrfckrs.

tx

Tim: “Here’s a guest blog from my friend Joe Stilgoe, who made an amazing radio show pilot the other week. I was lucky enough to be a guest. Thought you might be interested! He’s a fine man and a great muso. Check out his album here or here.”

Joe: “You might imagine an altogether different clientele when free wine is offered at 12 noon in the middle of Soho, but those who arrived at Ronnie Scott’s, blinking in the darkness and groping around for a svelte Chardonnay or a chunky Merlot, were a classy bunch, and of the same mind: WE’RE HERE TO BE ENTERTAINED. I had been asked by those kindly if misguided souls at Radio 2 if I could put together a new show of wit, warmth, music, mirth, jazz, soul, comedy, unique moments and exciting revelation. I said no. They said there would be free wine. I said YES. They bought me a drink. I said YESH. The first name at the top of my hit-list was your very own boy wonder Minchin, and after he said YESH as well, I knew we’d be able to cram in some other rather juicy guests and at least have a stab at making this thing work.

The aim of this lunchtime romp was to thrash around in a hot jazz club oven and magically create an hour long radio show, or cake, if you will, so the brief demanded plenty of high quality organic ingredients to get that perfect bake, and no soggy bottom thank you very much. Does a baking metaphor stretch to radio? Does it ever…

I’d asked Tim because I knew he would fit in perfectly, be the biggest star in the room by an Australian mile (km) and give me some space to concentrate on hosting the thing and trying to hold it together. I was a mixture of… No, I’ll leave it there. I was a mixture. (See? The baking thing is STILL going!)

Without wishing to give too much away, we were aiming for a combination of the great bits from Later with Jools Holland, with a topical theme running through, as heard on great radio shows that very few of you will remember (and I don’t either, but my Dad forced me to listen to them) like I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, In Town Tonight, and possibly even The Now Show. So, it had to be up to date, snazzy, entertaining and fresh. Tim kicked things off with the ‘Take My Wife’, and we were off and running. People were laughing, people weren’t leaving. Tim and I performed the world’s very first sung interview, with me at the grand piano and he on the Korg keyboard with weird buttons. We sung about Spice Girls, we veered into keys neither of us was comfortable in and I got the audience to sing ‘Tim, you’re not ugly’ in formidable unison, until everybody there knew they were really in the midst of something new and exciting. It felt wonderful, Tim was on top form, even though he’d been performing only a few hours before, and was due to fly to New York that evening to play again at 54 Below. How was that, by the way? Did you miss the Korg?

In between his two songs (obviously ‘Inflatable You’ was the second, with accompaniment from my stunning band who had only learnt the song minutes before) we had Heather Headley singing her and everyone else’s head off with magnificence and beauty and class, the beatboxing legend that is Shlomo, new Radio 2 favourite and Swedish chanteuse Emilia Mitiku, and one of my favourite composers (he wrote Black Beauty!) Denis King. The show seemed to be rolling along quite nicely, even when Tim called me a ‘jazz wanker’. There was a small gasp. Jazz clubs don’t normally play host to such words. But I soldiered on, mopped up my jazzy tears. Oh God, that sounds awful, not jazzy tears. Not after the other word. Oh no. Forgive me, everybody, PLEEEEEASE. FORGIIIVVVE MEEEEE.

Right. Sorry. What’s important to note is that your favourite auburn Antipodean Judas genius was a complete wonder, and because of Tim we could get hold of everyone else we asked, and because of Tim there’s a faint sniff of a chance that we might get this show a regular slot on the radio waves, although alas this was a pilot and it won’t be broadcast. I’m sorry you couldn’t be there to share in the loveliness and fun, but do have a look at the brilliant snaps taken by Matt Humphrey on the day, to see us in action. Hopefully we’ll meet again, you and I. Come and like me or follow me (but please not like Joss Stone, that’s too much) and one day Tim and I might be able to reprise our little slice of half-baked interview pie, and this time he won’t call me a wanker.

That’s where the baking metaphor, and my blog, ends.

Byeeeee!

Joe x”

www.joestilgoe.com
Facebook: Joe Stilgoe
Twitter: @joestilgoe

Photos: www.matthumphreyimages.com
For a gallery of Matt’s images from Joe Stilgoe’s BBC Radio Pilot click here.

The Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane dates for the Australian arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar sold out very quickly, so three extra shows have been added:

1st June 2013
Perth Arena
(On general sale from 9am local time, Monday 18th March 2013)

5th June 2013
Adelaide Entertainment Centre
(On general sale from 9am local time, Monday 18th March 2013)

12th June 2013
Brisbane Entertainment Centre
(On general sale now)

Tickets and the full list of dates can be found at jesuschristsuperstar.com.

Just in case you’ve missed our earlier announcements: Tim’s reprising his award-winning performance as Judas Iscariot for the Australian arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, while Melanie C and Ben Forster will also be returning in their roles from the UK production as Mary Magdalene and Jesus.

Deal or No Deal host Andrew O’Keefe will play King Herod and Jon Stevens, who appeared as Judas Iscariot in the 1992 Australian arena tour of the show is taking on the role of Pontius Pilate.

As we announced here the arena production of Jesus Christ Superstar is heading to Australia in May/June 2013!

Tickets go on general sale tomorrow morning – 8th March 2013.

Tim’s in rehearsals right now preparing to reprise his award-winning performance as Judas Iscariot for the tour, while Melanie C and Ben Forster will also be returning in their roles from the UK production as Mary Magdalene and Jesus.

Deal or No Deal host Andrew O’Keefe will play King Herod and Jon Stevens, who appeared as Judas Iscariot in the 1992 Australian arena tour of the show is taking on the role of Pontius Pilate.

Tickets and the full list of dates can be found at jesuschristsuperstar.com.

This weekend, in the run up to the arena tour in May/June, Australian TV channel 7 is running a dedicated special on Jesus Christ Superstar:

Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular 2013

7TWO: Saturday 9th March 2013, 1:30pm – 2:00pm*

Repeated on 7: Sunday 10th March 2013, 5:00pm – 5:30pm*

“An exciting behind-the-scenes look into the Australian production Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular, touring Australia in 2013. With Jon Stevens, Andrew O’Keefe, Tim Minchin, Melanie C and Andrew Lloyd Webber.”
The listings are here. *It’s probably worth checking the schedule for when it is airing in your state’s time zone.

Also this Sunday there’s an interview with Tim available on Sunday Night:

Our expat superstar

Tim will be talking to Ross Coulthart about his varied and successful career since moving overseas and about reprising his award winning role as Judas for the forthcoming Australian arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Sunday Night can be found here.

Some of you may have seen Tim’s tweets last night about fellow comedian Mark Watson’s epic 25-Hour Comedy Marathon for Comic Relief.

Tim has also offered himself up for an eBay auction! You have less than five hours left to bid for two tickets, in some of the best seats in the house, to see the record breaking, multi-award winning Matilda The Musical and Tim will buy you drinks in the interval and entertain you with convivial chat and those sparkling blue eyes. Find out the details and bid for Tim here.

You can sponsor Mark on his epic challenge here and the link at the top of the page takes you to more information and the live streaming of the event and you’ll find more auctions* here.

You can also donate £5 by texting ‘Mark’ to 70005.

* Psst! At the moment gossip in a pub with Caitlin Moran is out bidding drinks with Tim at Matilda! I won’t tell him if you don’t…

UPDATE: The auction ended with a winning bid of £2,650.00. Congratulations to the winner and have a fabulous night!