Sierra Boggess

Sierra Boggess who originated the role of Christine Daae in Love Never Dies, and has been workshopping the Broadway version of  the European production of Rebecca, has been confirmed to play the lead female role –  which isn’t Rebecca herself, that character is dead from the start of the story.

Sierra’s role will be the heroine dubbed as “I” in the new musical adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. De Winter’s second wife.

Rebecca The Musical with Sierra Boggess

“I” in Rebecca

“I” is what we call the story’s main protagonist and narrator, because we never learn her given name. A shy, self-conscious young woman from a lower-middle class background, she begins the novel as a paid companion to Mrs. Van Hopper, a wealthy American woman. In Monte Carlo, she meets and marries the older, wealthy Maxim de Winter, and becomes “Mrs. De Winter,” mistress of Manderley.

Rebecca The Musical Dates

Rebecca The Musical  has booked the Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway for a run beginning on March 27, 2012. Jointly directed by Michael Blakemore and Francesca Zambello, the production will open on April 22nd 2012.

Sierra made her Broadway debut creating the lead role of Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Rebecca will be  It will be a reunion for Sierra and her The Little Mermaid director, Francesca Zambello.

Sierra Boggess on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/sierra_boggess

Love Never Dies Australian Cast

Love Never Dies Australia Cast

The Australian Christine is to be played by a previous Christine from The Phantom Of The Opera. Anna O’Byrne has already played the part to great acclaim in an Australian tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Anna is an award-winning classically trained singer, and has performed as Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera and appeared in works by Mozart, Puccini and Ibert for The Victorian Opera, Victorian College of the Arts and Victorian Youth Opera.

The Phantom  in the new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies is being played by Ben Lewis.

Ben’s previous stage credits include the original Australian cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical, Sir Galahad in the original Australian cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot, two-seasons as Count Carl-Magnus in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, Urinetown with Sydney Theatre Company and Polites in The Odyssey for Black Swan and the Malthouse.

Performances begin in Melbourne on May 29th 2011 at the Regent Theatre.

Are you free on Saturday night, 9th October? If so you can enter the competition here on the Love Never Dies blog and stand a very good chance of winning a pair of top price tickets for the Saturday Night performance at the Adelphi Theatre on London, with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess – I’ve seen it and it’s by far the best show in London for the present, with beautiful music, spectacle, and set design. You’ll love it whether you’ve already seen Phantom of The Opera or not, makes no difference.

The top price tickets to this hugely popular musical theatre show have been kindly provided by TheatreBreaks.com

To enter the competition all you have to do is leave a comment here on this blog, saying why you’d like to see Love Never Dies on Saturday. You can post it either on this competition post below, or anywhere else on the blog within the next 23 hours starting from now, Friday 8th October at midday.

At 11.00am on Saturday, tomorrow, the day of the show, the winner will be chosen, notified by email by Saturday afternoon and two Love Never Dies tickets will be arranged to be collected from the box office with the lucky winners’ names on them!

Here’s a crowd video of the song courtesy of theatre breaks youTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTHqBoo_4tc

After Sierra, Ramin and one of the Gustav’s came on and sang a duet but I’ll leave that for another post.

Just look at the appreciative comments left about Sierra again:

• rayna181
  Beautiful. I swear i never get tired of? her gorgeous voice!!
• ChristineMeram
  i love this? song sooo much! breathtaking!
• Masq92
  cant wait till this comes? to new york
• PrettyEowyn
  Sierra dazzling, as ever. It is so sweet? and delicate! ^^
• dookydocs
  seen love never dies twice , Sierra got standing ovations on both? occasions. truly stunning
• zacmari12
  amazing! ?
• theAmandaBean
  She looks? and sounds like an angel!
• Ozcellenc2
  OH WOW!!!!
  She becomes better and better and better.?

  
  

The show is a casting competition for another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Wizard of Oz which opens in London in April 2011 with a Leading Lady – the part of Dorothy, chosen by the public. Sierra Boggess helped out with the final four contestants during the week giving them advice on singing, stamina, and the West End Leading Lady lifestyle which the lucky winner might expect.

So what will the critics and press reviews make of it? Well in many ways, it doesn’t really matter because, having seen one of the early previews and loved it all, especially the score, I’m certain that the great British musical theatre going public is going to really enjoy this musical extravaganza. It’s a modern production that builds on the language of musicals and delights the eye and ear, while twisting the emotions appropriately as the plot unfolds. There were one or two effects that didn’t work quite as well as others, but from all accounts the show had already improved considerably on the first preview, and it’s now a case of tweaking a show that is ready for the world rather than implementing any big last minute redesigns.

Maybe if you go and see Love Never Dies in three months time, for a summer theatre break, it will be a more mature production, perhaps with a new final ensemble or something to smooth over any slight disappointments, but the characters are set and most importantly, the music is a final piece that holds together very well. I’ll be throroughly recommending Love Never Dies as a new musical top choice choice for London theatre breaks.

Bluebird is a passionate new musical, set during World War Two and charts the story of ordinary people living in extraordinary times. It tells the heartbreaking story of Roberta Jones (Sarah Lark) as she comes to terms with her husband Pete (Stephen Weller) going off to war. Roberta, a nurse, soon meets the charismatic U.S. serviceman Ben (Ramin Karimloo) and a friendship grows, much to the disapproval of best friend, Jane (Abi Finely).

Ramin Karimloo remarked:

It was great to help out a new and up and coming British composer. (Gareth Peters) He has put his heart and soul into this project. I think he’s done a great job and was honored to be asked to take part in it and also have a song written for me. It was also a lot of fun to go back to singing with a rockier sound.