Latest news with #CameronMackintosh
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Deer from billionaire's estate are invading Highland village again, claim locals
Deer from billionaire theatre producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh's Highland estate are said to be threatening nearby villagers, including children in a play park. Locals claim that the animals have now invaded the kids' play area in Mallaig, in Inverness-shire - where the impresario owns his sprawling estate - posing 'a danger and a health risk'. And one of the problems seems to be people feeding the creatures, luring them in. Sir Cameron's Nevis Estate promised to act over the latest incursion and stressed it had carried out a successful programme of culling in recent years to reduce the numbers. But minutes of a Mallaig Community Council meeting noted: 'Concerns have been raised that deer have been getting too close to the village - they have been in the children's play park - and represent a danger and a health risk. 'It is thought that the deer are being fed inappropriately, and this may be increasing the draw of the village.' Previously people complained that they have been 'cornered' by stags in 'dangerous and scary' situations. The Scottish Government wildlife agency NatureScot previously ordered a cull on the impresario's estate to reduce numbers. But the community council says it is once again contacting Nevis Estate and Nature Scot. Mallaig Community Council say its is contacting the estate and Nature Scot. Andrew Aitchison, factor for Sir Cameron's estates, said that people feeding the deer could be part of the current problem. 'It is not something we encourage but it's incredibly difficult to discourage,' he said. 'We will be talking to the community council. 'Over the last two seasons concerted efforts have been made to deal with the deer in the village and it has been successful.' He added that deer in villages is not an isolated problem in the Highlands. There are around 300 deer on the estate - and residents have previously estimated that up to 40 were regularly roaming around Mallaig. Sir Cameron has owned his estate in the port town for more than 25 years after falling in love with the area during a family holiday aged six.
Forbes
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Stephen Sondheim's ‘Old Friends:' Don't Miss This Broadway Experience
Bernadette Peters on the opening night of "Old Friends" at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre The run of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, the posthumous musical love letter to Stephen Sondheim, has been extended on Broadway until Sunday, June 29th, 2025. The show offers musical theatre enthusiasts living near or visiting New York City the rare opportunity to experience the humor, joy and pathos of more than three dozen songs from Sondheim's most cherished musicals in one of Broadway's most intimate theaters. The program includes tunes from such Sondheim classics as Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Company, Follies, and Into the Woods. Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga at a press event for "Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends" Old Friends was first conceived as a one-night concert in London's West End, but the loyal legions of Sondheim fans wanted more. The sold-out production was live-screened from the Gielgud Theatre in London and then broadcast on the BBC before being reprised on stage for 16 weeks. A North American premiere in Los Angeles preceded its arrival on the Great White Way. On Broadway, the show stars Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, who were part of the West End cast, joined by an array of talented performers from the London, Los Angeles, and New York productions. The company of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends Old Friends was brought to the stage by Cameron Mackintosh, a longtime friend and collaborator of Sondheim. The two developed the idea during the COVID lockdown, but Sondheim died in November 2021 at age 91 before it was realized. Bernadette Peters has often been called Sondheim's muse; she was a friend who worked closely with Sondheim and inspired him. He frequently praised the three-time Tony Award winner for her unique ability to express the depth of his music and lyrics in the roles she played: Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park with George, The Witch in Into the Woods, Rose in Gypsy, Desiree in A Little Night Music, and Sally in Follies. The revue celebrates Sondheim's extensive contributions to musical theater. Peters, who continues to bring the same vitality and joy she did decades ago, co-stars with the talented Lea Salonga. Best known for her Tony Award-winning performance in Miss Saigon, Salonga belts out memorable solos and duets with Peters. Although the songs are removed from the context of the musicals where they were first heard, the incredible Matt Kinley set design, staging by Matthew Bourne, 14-piece orchestra with arrangements by Stephen Metcalfe, and spectacular talents of the cast have created a virtual collage of Sondheim's talents in a single show. Stephen Sondheim in 1997 Sondheim is considered one of Broadway's most important musical innovators, credited with raising the bar on complex storytelling and sophisticated lyrics that advance a plot. Perhaps this show's name acknowledges the many friendships he forged during his career with musicians, composers and performers. (Old Friends was also the name of one of the songs from Merrily We Roll Along.) A protege of famed lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, Sondheim became a mentor to numerous other composers, including Jonathan Larson (Rent) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton). His own debut as a lyricist was in the 1957 musical West Side Story in collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein. Sondheim's obituary in The New York Times recounts his myriad contributions to musical theater, including a dozen Broadway shows, five of which garnered Tony Awards for Best Musical and six for Best Original Score. He also won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park. Old Friends marks the fifth revival of Sondheim's work since his death. Although there have been several revues of his music in the past, this retrospective tribute uniquely allows Sondheim fans to enjoy a wide breadth of his greatest hits in one sitting. It's impossible not to hum these energetic tunes long after the curtain closes. NY Times theater critic Jesse Green wrote about Old Friends: 'Any opportunity to experience how the feelings he channeled and the connections he made have mined our psyches and reshaped our world is an opportunity even old friends should take.' The limited Broadway engagement of Old Friends at the non-profit Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre will close on June 29, 2025. Running time is 2 hours 35 minutes with an intermission.
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Beatles' songs 'are heading to the West End as smash hit film Yesterday will be turned into a musical by Richard Curtis'
The Beatles ' impressive catalogue of music will reportedly be arriving on the West End for a brand new musical. Richard Curtis, best known for Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral, is said to be planning to turn smash hit film Yesterday into a stage show. Alongside fellow producer Danny Boyle, he reportedly held a major event in front of potential investors including Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The duo are said to still be looking for a theatre to house their West End show as they hope to turn the 2019 film into a roaring stage success for 'years and years'. An insider told The Mirror: 'This has been kept under wraps for months but it is a huge opportunity, and the prospect of a Beatles musical is too big to miss.' 'There was a performance this week to show the basics of what the production will be, and all the big players in London's theatre world came along,' they added. 'It's a no-brainer that any theatre will want to host it so there is likely to be a bit of a bidding war to secure it.' Richard, 68, wrote the script for the comedy/musical film while Danny served as director, and they are teaming up once again to bring their project back to life. In the movie, Himesh Patel took on the leading role of Jack Malik, a struggling musician who wakes up after being hit by a bus to discover nobody has ever heard of The Beatles. He decides to start singing The Fab Four's famous back catalogue in a bid to find fame as he is supported by his love interest Ellie Appleton, played by Lily James. If the film makes it to the stage, it will not be the first time that music from a world-famous band has inspired a musical. Queen's famous back catalogue was performed on stage in popular rock musical We Will Rock You by Ben Elton, while Michael Jackson's music featured in MJ The Musical. There have also been a string of popular films inspiring stage shows in recent years, with The Devil Wears Prada, Moulin Rouge and Clueless all currently featuring on the West End. The lives of The Beatles' stars are also set to be turned into four major biopics, with the cast for the Sam Mendes' project being confirmed last month. Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon, Barry Keoghan will star as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn will play George Harrison in the four films. Sam, 59, appeared at the Caesar's Palace event, revealing that all four films — called The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event — will come out in April 2028, with each film focusing on a different band member. 'We're not just making one film about the Beatles — we're making four,' he confirmed. 'Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply.' 'The Beatles changed my understanding of music,' he added. 'I've been trying to make a movie about them for years.' Speaking at Cinemacon, Sam said that he felt the story of The Beatles were 'too big for one film,' but he didn't want to turn it into a television series. 'Frankly, we need big cinematic events to get people out of the house,' the Skyfall director added. 'There had to be a way to tell the epic story for a new generation [...] I can assure you there is still plenty left to explore and I think we found a way to do that.'
AU Financial Review
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- AU Financial Review
Critics hated Les Miserables. Cameron Mackintosh trusted the public
Critics hated Les Miserables when the musical debuted 40 years ago – its producer, Cameron Mackintosh, remembers one called it 'the Glums' – yet over the next month it will play to 300,000 people in Australia. The billionaire British impresario, visiting Sydney last week to launch the Australian leg of a 16-month global tour for Les Miserables: The Arena Spectacular, doesn't hesitate when asked how the adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel overcame poor reviews to become a phenomenon that's sold more than 130 million tickets.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI copyright plans would be ‘undemocratic own goal', says Sir Cameron Mackintosh
West End impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh has said the Government's proposed changes to amend copyright law around artificial intelligence (AI) would be an 'idiotic and undemocratic own goal'. It comes after British stars including Sir Elton John and Simon Cowell backed a campaign calling for plans to allow big firms to use online material for AI without paying the creators to be changed. Under the proposals, an exemption to copyright would be created for training AI, so tech firms would not need a licence to use copyrighted material, and creators would need to opt-out to prevent their work from being used. Sir Cameron, who has established himself as a leading figure in musical theatre over the last five decades, pushed back against the plans in an opinion piece for The Times on Wednesday. 'I know firsthand the amount of hard work, talent and time it takes to develop a finished work – whether it succeeds or fails. I'm approaching 80 and I still work 50 to 60 hours a week much of the year', he wrote. 'So why should our Government be advocating that AI be given the right to mine our work for free? 'In a desperate rush to plug the nation's leaky finances it is rightly embracing the latest game-changing technical development, but without thinking through the unintended, damaging consequences.' He continued: 'The UK no longer has many industries that are truly world beating and increasing in value, so it would be an idiotic and undemocratic own goal to cripple one of the very few professions where people from any background or race, poor or rich, can succeed. 'So I am indignant that the Government should consider that it has the right to disregard our intellectual and moral rights by handing over, to a handful of powerful high-tech corporations, the fruits of our creative labour for free, enabling them to exploit and make money out of content they did not create, without any reasonable remuneration or say.' Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn are among more than 1,000 musicians who have recorded a silent album in protest at the proposals as they believe they would greatly damage the creative sector and see artists replaced in the long term. Some of the UK's biggest newspapers also launched a coordinated campaign across their front pages last week to raise their concerns about AI's impact on the creative industries. Following the push back, Sir Keir Starmer said he wants 'creatives to thrive' and that responses to a consultation on the proposals were being reviewed. Sir Cameron, who has produced three of the world's longest running musicals – Les Miserables, The Phantom Of The Opera, and Cats – added that this was a 'watershed moment' for the Government to 'make the right decision for the future not only of our country, but of humanity'.
