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The Guardian
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Stage musicals should embrace use of surtitles, says lyricist Tim Rice
Surtitles should be routinely used for stage musicals as audiences are often unable to fully appreciate the lyrics, the leading songwriter Sir Tim Rice has said. 'It's very frustrating at times, especially if you're the words man,' said Rice, 80, whose hits with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber include Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar. The pair have reunited to write songs for a comedy play, Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Days of Christmas, to be staged at Birmingham Rep this winter. Rice took encouragement from the growing popularity of TV subtitles for younger people, with one study finding that 80% of viewers aged 18 to 25 commonly have them switched on. 'Maybe there's a new generation coming up which would welcome surtitles in theatres,' he suggested. The lyricist, who is in the elite club of 'Egot' winners with Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards, said that he did not encounter the problem with solos, observing that 'you're always able to hear Don't Cry for Me Argentina' from Evita. He said that choral songs in particular can be hard to follow. 'I found that was a major problem with us years ago when we did Chess [his musical with Abba's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus], which did not do as well as it should have done although it's coming back to Broadway, believe it or not, this autumn. Time and time again, the lyrics couldn't be heard when it was choral. If you've got great singers like Tommy Körberg or Elaine Paige [in the 1986 production of Chess] singing the songs solo, you do hear the words, but the choral stuff can often be quite important and you just don't hear it.' When Chess was put on at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2008, the opening comic number Merano was accompanied by its lyrics on screen. 'And for the first time ever the song got laughs and a big cheer,' said Rice. 'And I thought, well, there you are!' Surtitles, creative captioning as part of the set design and the use of smart caption glasses are gradually becoming more common as accessibility improves in theatre. But musicals have still not caught up with opera, which regularly uses surtitles. Rice joked that theatre directors were reluctant to include them 'because it means people might spend three seconds not looking at the brilliant direction'. He singled out Hamilton's performers for their skill in clearly conveying Lin-Manuel Miranda's lyrics. Last year, the US star Patti LuPone – who played Evita in the musical's original Broadway production – said that many lyrics go misheard due to a lack of technical training and overbearing sound mixes. 'Young performers have no idea how to project,' added LuPone, who will perform a solo concert in London this month at the Coliseum. Reviewing a production of Evita at the Dominion in London in 2014, the Guardian's Michael Billington wrote: 'Has anyone thought of using surtitles in musicals? I ask because the one flaw in this highly skilled revival … is the lack of attention to vocal detail. We lose many of the heavily amplified words, and that matters in a musical that rests on its ambivalent attitude towards its protagonist.' Rice said that he and Lloyd Webber were 'hired hands' on Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Days of Christmas, created by Humphrey Ker and David Reed from the comedy troupe The Penny Dreadfuls. The songwriter said they had provided 'half a dozen little light moments' for the yuletide mystery (a play with songs rather than a full musical) which features Arthur Conan Doyle's Baker Street sleuth investigating the deaths of West End actors. Humorous lyrics were easier to write than serious or romantic ones, he said. 'If it's a funny song, you can use almost any word. Often just the fact that it rhymes with something else is the joke.' Rice quoted a couplet from another of his hits with Lloyd Webber, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: 'All these things you saw in your pyjamas / Are a long-range forecast for your farmers.' At the time he thought that was just an efficient rhyme. 'It's actually very funny – I don't think I realised!'
The Independent
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Coraline musical axed due to Neil Gaiman sexual assault allegations
A planned musical version of Neil Gaiman 's Coraline will not move forward due to multiple sexual assault allegations against the author. The stage adaptation of Gaiman's 2002 dark fantasy children's novella had been set to run at Leeds Playhouse from April 11 to May 11 before touring to Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester. In a brief joint statement posted on Wednesday (January 29), co-production partners Leeds Playhouse, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Birmingham Rep, and HOME, Manchester said: 'We have decided our production of Coraline – A Musical will not proceed. 'After careful consideration, we feel it would be impossible to continue in the context of the allegations against its original author.' The organizers added that ticket holders have been contacted directly via email. Earlier this month, Gaiman denied engaging in 'non-consensual sexual activity' after accusations of assault by multiple women. The American Gods author, 64, had been the subject of a lengthy New York magazine article that spoke to eight women who all accused him of sexual assault, including a long-term babysitter from New Zealand and a caretaker on his property in Woodstock, New York. Gaiman responded to the allegations on January 14 in a blog post titled: 'Breaking the silence.' 'As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognise and moments I don't, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen. I'm far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever,' wrote Gaiman. The author went on to say that he has reviewed correspondence with his accusers, writing: 'I went back to read the messages I exchanged with the women around and following the occasions that have subsequently been reported as being abusive. These messages read now as they did when I received them – of two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationships and wanting to see one another again. At the time I was in those relationships, they seemed positive and happy on both sides.' However, he did acknowledge personal failings, adding: 'And I also realise, looking through them, years later, that I could have and should have done so much better. I was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been. I was obviously careless with people's hearts and feelings, and that's something that I really, deeply regret. It was selfish of me. I was caught up in my own story and I ignored other people's.' Gaiman concluded his statement: 'Some of the horrible stories now being told simply never happened, while others have been so distorted from what actually took place that they bear no relationship to reality. I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. I'm not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can't accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn't do.' Since accusations against Gaiman first became public in a Tortoise podcast last July, several film and television adaptations of his work have been halted. It was announced last year that he is no longer a producer on Good Omens, the Prime Video series which will conclude with a single episode instead of a planned third series. Disney paused production on a film adaptation of Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Netflix canceled Dead Boy Detectives although that may not have been related to the allegations. The second season of The Sandman is still expected to arrive on Netflix later this year, as is the Prime Video series Anansi Boys.
BBC News
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Neil Gaiman: Coraline stage adaptation cancelled after allegations against author
A stage adaptation of Coraline has been cancelled following sexual misconduct allegations against the book's original author Neil - A Musical had been due to play at the Leeds Playhouse, Birmingham Rep and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh later this year. But a joint statement posted by the venues on Wednesday said: "After careful consideration, we feel it would be impossible to continue in the context of the allegations against its original author."Gaiman, 64, has denied allegations of sexual misconduct made by eight women, saying he has "never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever". Coraline, a dark fantasy horror children's novella was first published in 2002, and made into an animated film in three venues due to host the stage adaptation said ticket holders had been contacted directly via details to follow
