“Be fabulous, you brave and brilliant people! Break legs and hearts in equal measure – my love to all of you.” Joanna Lumley

 

“Oh how wildly deranged you are even to try. Oh how I admire you. Oh what are you thinking of? Oh, you wild, wonderful, fond and foolish people, the very very very very very best of luck to you.” Stephen Fry

 

Following the success of Sweet Charity at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Eyebrow Productions brings you Showtime Challenge 3:

Me and My Girl

at the London Palladium on Sunday 26th October 2008 

But this is no ordinary production.  Oh no.  We wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to take on a challenge.   

This show is going to be rehearsed, staged, costumed, choreographed, lit, constructed and performed all in only 48 hours.  And all to support the Anthony Nolan Trust. 

One Show.  One Charity.  48 Hours.

 

2008-10-26 19:30:00 GMT+00:00

until Showtime 3

 

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Tickets for Me and My Girl are now on sale and selling fast - an evening not to be missed!

 

Buy tickets here

Tickets are also available from the London Palladium box office.

Bill Snibson, a Lambeth costermonger, is revealed to be the new Earl of Hareford and his newly-discovered aristocratic relations are horrified.  Bringing him to Hareford Hall, they attempt to educate Bill into the ways of the gentry and separate him from his cockney girlfriend Sally.  The result?  Chaos of the most comical kind!  With a host of hilarious characters, witty one-liners and several toe-tapping, uplifting songs (including the famous Lambeth Walk, The Sun Has Got His Hat On and Leaning On A Lamppost), Me and My Girl is a sublime and sunny treat for all fans of musical comedy.

 

 

Right, there has been a lot of discussion about the rules of the challenge. Some people think that we are singing non-stop for 48 hours, others think that we are learning the lines and the tunes in 48 hours, and there are those that think we are staying awake for a full 48 hours. However, the rules are not complicated – we made them up ourselves:

1. Auditions – Open auditions. Thousands of people have applied to take part in Showtime Challenges 1 and 2. The Showtime Challenge offers an opportunity for anyone to have the chance to take part in a production on a West End stage. The 48-hour challenge mean that people with all sorts of careers and busy lifestyles can get involved because it does not include lengthy rehearsal periods.

2. Casting – the team then have the challenge of picking the cast. All candidates go through an intense audition process of separate acting, singing and dancing auditions. Too often, musicals exclude talented performers if the Musical Director thinks that someone cannot sing 27 octaves and not have perfect pitch. This is not the case. Musicals require fantastic all rounders as well as specialists in certain areas. This is not The X-Factor searching for certain individuals. Showtime Challenge auditions for an entire cast, and the director, musical director and choreographers work together to find fantastic performers as well as a great team.

3. The lead roles are then given their scripts and scores to learn over the following 6 weeks. This is done independently from Eyebrow Productions. There can be no rehearsing with the directing team or with each other.

4. Press Weekend – This is the first opportunity when the cast can work together as a team. They cannot perform songs from Me and My Girl, as that would constitute as a rehearsal and therefore a breach of the rules. During Showtime 2 the cast performed songs from shows including Les Miserable, Calamity Jane and West Side Story to thousands of Christmas shoppers in Covent Garden’s piazza. This was followed by a swift ale.

5. The Showtime weekend -

a. The rehearsing begins at 19.30 on the Friday evening. This is a run through of the entire production with no direction. This shows the team how well the cast have learnt their parts.

b. The Saturday is reserved for intense rehearsals – blocking, singing choreography and character work all have to take place in a very short space of time. The day finishes with a full run of the show. This can be depressing.

c. Sunday is the day when we get into the theatre. Lighting, sound, set, dancing, make-up and costume, orchestra and everything else needs to be completed by 19.00. The audience arrive and at 19.30 the show begins.

d. Everyone is required to go to the party and enjoy themselves.

 

For Showtime Challenge 3, Eyebrow Productions has chosen to support the Anthony Nolan Trust.

The Anthony Nolan Trust runs the UK's most successful bone marrow register. Each year, thousands of people with fatal bone marrow diseases reach a stage when their only hope of survival is a bone marrow transplant from a donor who shares the same tissue type. However, 70% of patients cannot find a suitable bone marrow match within their own family and have to rely on the kindness of a stranger to provide the lifesaving marrow they urgently need. As an independent Charity, the Anthony Nolan Trust continually relies on more donors coming forward and financial donations to support its lifesaving work.

 

Eyebrow Productions has enjoyed presenting theatre all over the country. Always performing with a full orchestra, Eyebrow has impressed audiences with slick performances and tight choreography that has generated unforgettable entertainment. Eyebrow Productions is a team of dedicated volunteers from a variety of industries including theatre, film and journalism to teaching, the NHS and government, who combine all these skills and experiences to produce powerful performances and events.

 

Past productions have included Stephen Sondheim’s Company and Assassins, which were both sell-out shows when performed in Bristol and Edinburgh. Kate Copstick from The Scotsman wrote: 'Sondheim is safe in their hands.' Having established a strong reputation with Sondheim musicals, Eyebrow went on to tackle Into The Woods, at the New Theatre, Oxford. In line with Eyebrow’s typically innovative style, this production, hosted by Mel Smith, was entirely put together in 48 hours.

 

Attracting attention nationwide, our directors cast the fairy tale characters from hundreds of hopeful applicants. This resulted in a fantastic cast that performed this incredibly intricate show to an audience of over 1500 with just two days of rehearsals. Stephen Sondheim described the venture as 'genuinely fresh and exciting'. The evening - First Choice in The Times -was a triumph, and the 'beautifully delivered' event raised funds for the Oxford Children’s Hospital £9 million campaign.

 

Eyebrow Productions was then asked to reprise its 48 hour challenge and completed a performance of Sweet Charity at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, presented by Gail Porter. The evening, reviewed as a fantastic performance, gave hundreds more actors and musicians the opportunity to perform on a West End stage. Several of the performers were successful in finding agents as a result of the evening. Sir David Jason added: 'And for such an experience to benefit the British Heart Foundation is indeed the icing on the cake.'

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