Marty attempts a Richard Marrett

Who?

Richard Marrett is like this killer fuck-off amazing MD in NZ. He generally does all the big shows in the lower north island, and, prior to being allowed to idolise Guy Simpson, was one of the best MD's I'd ever had the pleasure of chillin' wid.

(He was also the composer of the god awful Once were Warriors musical. To this day, I cannot fathom how a man as clever and musically gifted as he is could spend years producing such utter horse shit. I guess OWW to Marrett is like "Passion" or "Bounce" to Sondheim.)

Anyway, Richard did this show in NZ called "Ovation". It was this revue / concert style show of theatre's greatest hits...there's hundreds of these shows done all the time. What made Ovation stand out from the pack was that it was really fucking good (except for when these 5 bastards tried to sing 'No matter what', and butchered the harmonies)

He gave the show a cleverly thought-out score, with refreshing new takes on beaten up old songs. ("I don't know how to love him" done with 5 women in funky jazz voicings. Tres chic.) It was a show in it's own right, rather than a shitty narrative by some tosser in a clowns costume explaining the plot outline of Les Mis, before a 65 year old soprano murders "I dreamed a dream" for the 100th time.


Anyway, I was so blown away by this concert production, that I thought I'd try to lend my hand to one. So, I'm currently furiously writing arrangements and orchestrations for a May 2007 concert production, currently untitled.

Working again with Devanasan Productions, we're using really shiny new stuff (colour purple, jersey boys, tarzan, little women, title of show, etc), and -- just like Dicky Marrett did -- I'm throwing together some funky new arrangements of shitty old tunes. (Don't quite know what yet...but it's on my to-do list).

So that's my first project for '07...and it's gonna be a bigun! Generally these gigs take about 6 months of arranging and orchestrating before you walk into a rehearsal room....we're working with about 8 weeks!

God I hope I don't fuck it up.