This was a moving scene buried in among the cold, hard, poetic play about war that is Mother Courage & Her Children. War looms large throughout the play, an angry deity unmerciful with the lives of the protagonists. It provides a means for them to survive and to prosper, but the catch is always death or suffering of some kind.

Bertolt Brecht wrote Mother Courage & Her Children on the eve of World War II and set it during the European 30-year war in the 1600s. But director Deborah Warner brings the play firmly into the present, shaping it to suit a public consciousness fed a daily dose of the suffering and politics of war.

War as a notion is embedded in contemporary life through a confounding mix of epic war films and graphic news reports from the front line.

In some ways, the sight of Mother Courage’s younger son’s bloodied body on stage isn’t something we haven’t seen before. Who can forget the bloodied, dusty bodies scattered across papers and TV screens after the latest bomb in Iraq?

But modern numbness is countered with noise, energy and live music – something people still respond to.

Musicians Duke Special and the band play their lonely, haunting sounds over the action as Mother Courage makes a good living from the war, but also loses her children one by one to it.

On occasion, Fiona Shaw, wonderfully engaging and feisty as Mother Courage, joins in defiantly belting out numbers, ecstatic at the business opportunities war has brought her.

Shaw is in good company; the entire performance is engaging and humorous. Mother Courage & Her Children is worth seeing on the basis of the entertaining acting alone.

And despite the darkness of the play, it’s full of comedy that’s delivered with perfect timing, particularly by Peter Gowen as the opportunistic chaplain.

Go and see Mother Courage & Her Children, it’s more than just a diatribe about the horrors of war. It forces us to look beyond the way we are taught to understand war and destroys all notions of good versus evil.

Andrew Bird stands out as a musical innovator who can genuinely be described as ‘genre-defying’. The Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist is renowned for his virtuoso live performances.

Sensational violin playing and a musical palette that includes vocals, guitar, glockenspiel and whistling make him a compelling performer. Bird has been on the road for most of the year promoting his CD Noble Beast – and now heads to London for two dates at the Union Chapel.

Q. What can audiences expect from your London shows?
Andrew Bird: Almost every show we perform some cover or change the arrangement of the songs and mix up the set as much as possible. I guess that I mix performance with writing – I regard them as almost the same thing.

Q. How do you go about making every gig unique?
Andrew Bird: I want to make every gig special – and keep it fresh for the audience and the band. If it was always the same I’d go mad. It’s what I call ‘the happy birthday principle’. If you had one more day to live and all you could do is sing ‘Happy Birthday’, you’d have to make it count and make it special.

Q. You seem to enjoy injecting jeopardy into your performances?
Andrew Bird: I might go as far as to say I cultivate it. It makes every show special. If everything was perfectly comfortable and executed, I’m afraid I would lose some edge.

Q. At a recent Chicago gig your violin dramatically smashed to the floor when it slipped from your hands. What happened?
Andrew Bird: It’s what could happen every night – and should happen more often. I got kind of excited, stepped on a cable, lifted the violin up and it snapped out of my hands and broke into two pieces in front of 3,500 people. And there’s a situation for you. I get strangely calm and philosophical at those moments!

Q. Do you use your classical training in your music?
Andrew Bird: I guess I use my classical training in my song writing – it’s part of my roots. But I have absolutely nothing to do with the classical mind-set and the culture around it.

Q. Your music is hard to pigeon-hole. How has it evolved in recent years?
Andrew Bird: Somewhere around the age of 27, I let the music consume me completely. That’s when my songs stopped sounding like any style in particular.

Q. It was around that time that you introduced your trademark whistling. How did that happen?
Andrew Bird: The whistling came out of playing the violin. The violin is an extremely painful instrument to learn to play and the whistling was so casual. There’s a certain geometry and fluidity to it.

Q. You make a lot of your music in a barn in Illinois. How does that affect what you write?
Andrew Bird: Spending time in a place where you can see the horizon, and where your eyesight calibrates to longer distances, affects the kind of music you hear in your head. It’s very different to being in an urban place and travelling all the time where you never look more than three feet in front of you.

Q. One of your new songs, Natural Disaster, was influenced by a trip to Niagara Falls. How did that take shape?
Andrew Bird: I was sitting in front of Niagara Falls and there’s such an immense amount of power that kind of puts your senses on edge like something terrible is happening. It also draws on some childhood memories of when I used to take a Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass and throw myself on a pile of decaying leaves and pretend that I was microscopic and examine nature.

Q. Your songs are full of strange words. What’s the attraction?
Andrew Bird: I’m fascinated by that time when things were still being discovered and named. I really enjoy reading natural history books and get a lot of my inspiration from them. I like words that take the listener outside the everyday vernacular. I also enjoy street language like Saul Bellow’s writings about Chicago.

Q. Your music has a sweeping, cinematic quality which some have likened to the film scores of Ennio Morricone. Is film work something that interests you?
Andrew Bird: I’m doing some film music right now to see if I’m cut out for it. But I think I’m a little more creative with meaning rather than just responding to other people’s ideas – so I’m not sure if it’s for me.

Q. What will be your next musical move?
Andrew Bird: I’d like to try to go back to recording with just one microphone – a really simple live thing, perhaps with the band standing around. On the other hand I thought about producing a kind of wall of sound collage.

Watch footage of Andrew Bird live

Andrew Bird plays London’s Union Chapel on November 10 and 11. Noble Beast is out now on Bella Union.

Gypsy was born when Arthur Laurents, following the success of West Side Story, suggested to his collaborators Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins that they should adapt Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoirs for the musical theatre.

It was proposed at that stage that the music and lyrics should be left in Sondheim’s hands but when the producers got Ethel Merman interested she insisted that the score be written by a well-known Broadway composer.

She had just had an unsuccessful run in Happy Hunting and was not proposing to trust herself to an untried composer again. Cole Porter and Irving Berlin were approached to write the score, but both turned it down so the job was given to Jules Styne.

Between them, Styne and Sondheim produced what is arguably one of the best show scores of all time. Catered as it was to Merman, it predominates in large brassy numbers but is equally adaptable to other leading ladies, as Angela Lansbury proved in her successful performance in the first London production in 1974 (which she subsequently took, with equal success to New York).

In fact there are many, the current writer amongst them, who maintain that whilst Merman is indelibly imprinted on the part, Lansbury was the greater of the two in her performance as she had subtlety, humanity and humour, which Merman lacked.

Merman was intransigent; she referred to herself as “Miss Birdseye” in that, by the last week of rehearsals, her character was frozen and she would not deviate from that performance throughout the run.

All very well if you are in your own starring vehicle where the rest of the cast has to play round you (as her ’30s and ’40s shows proved) but not so good when the book requires an interplay of character which may only develop as the run progresses, which is why Miss Lansbury and others score over her.

The play is, in essence, a series of episodic scenes delineating the rise and fall of Madame Rose and her child act; the emergence of June (June Havoc) as a potential star and the creation of Gypsy Rose Lee when June runs away and the troupe collapses.

Rose is aided and abetted by Herbie, a small time agent, who acts as her manager out of personal regard but even he is swamped by Rose’s overwhelming egotism and leaves too.

Rose battles on but is defeated by the real success of her ugly duckling, Louise, and finally confesses in the overwhelming Rose’s Turn that she is really living her own dreams through the children and that she did it all for herself.

A formidable part for any actress; in addition to having to portray Rose’s complex character she needs an ability to belt out numbers and generally dominate the stage and Swanbank have found the ideal Rose in Billie Stephens.

Apart from the fact she has the physical attraction that is essential, she has a strong and musical voice that is perfect for the numbers.

Whilst she lacks the stridency of a Merman, she still packs a punch when it comes to belting out a number as she proved without a doubt in Roses Turn. Her achievements in this respect were all the more remarkable as she, and the rest of the cast, had to fight an orchestra whose amateur playing, stridency and ignorance of the score was breathtaking.

I realise this is an amateur production and one cannot expect the RPO but I don’t think it too much to expect an orchestra which plays in tune!

But I digress, the infelicities of the orchestra did nothing to diminish the power of Billie Stephens’ performance… she was the domineering, caring yet careless mother; the woman whose wishes and ideals destroyed her hopes and happiness… – in a word she was Mrs Rose Hovick to a T and although she has announced this as her retiring performance I am sure that her swansong at Swankbank is the greatest performance of her career.

However, a star cannot shine alone and Mrs Stephens’ supporting cast was admirable; Mary Elizabeth White was a demure and touching Louise who showed even in the drabbest scenes that she had star quality, and it was no surprise that she was a triumphant Gypsy Rose Lee.

She was particularly moving in her quiet reminiscent number, Little Lamb, and her galumphing attempt to emulate her sister with Tulsa in All I Need Is The Girl.

Her sister, June, disappears in the middle of the play but Evey Bowman showed clearly in her scenes and songs the star quality the producers recognized in her.

As the long suffering Herbie, Mike Pardoe made one understand why he put up with Rose for so long and why in the end she was too much for even his dog-like devotion. A well studied performance and a good foil for Rose’s ebullience, Mr Pardoe made the part his own.

The audience loved the three burlesque strippers – Tessie Tura (Pam Taylor), Mazeppa (Holly Candlish) and Electra (Helen Perry) – but I was less dazzled by them. Their numbers are showstoppers but, as one line goes, “I do it with finesse” – and it was this that was singularly lacking in their performances. But as I said, the audience loved them and the audience is what matters… not me.

From the rest of the cast one has to pick Ben Grozdanovik’s Tulsa and his very proficient dancing. It is hard, however invidious, to pick out any of the others as they all had their moments which registered well and were I to list every one I would be here until Christmas.

It is, however, Rose’s show and this the director, Ray Jeffrey, acknowledged this and his deft direction and scene-changing kept her story moving fast and dramatically effective.

Had it nor been for the orchestra, I would have had no hesitation in giving this show an enthusiastic thumbs up for, as amateurs go, the performances are exceptional and cope very well with what is a very complex and difficult book.

However, perhaps by the time you get to make your way to Putney to see the show (and you should, for it’s well worth the trip!) the men with the instruments (I will not glorify them by the name of “musicians”) will have discovered what those pieces of paper with dots on in front of them are for and all will be well.

Don’t let them put you off seeing what is a very good show with an outstanding lead; Billie Stephens alone is well worth the price of admission and with her in the show everything, in the words of the song, “is coming up Roses”!

Gypsy – Book by Arthur Laurents (based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee).
Music – Jules Styne.
Lyrics – Stephen Sondheim.
Director – Ray Jeffrey.
Choreographer – Tamysn Salter.

Putney Arts Theatre – The Upper Richmond Road – Putney.
Wednesday, November 4 – Sun, November 8, 2009.

First performed on Broadway in 1990, Guare’s play is inspired by the true story of a flamboyant con artist who convinced wealthy residents of Manhattan’s Upper East Side that he was Sidney Poitier’s son.

In 1992, it received its London premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, with Stockard Channing reprising her Broadway role alongside Adrian Lester and Paul Shelley. That production went on to win the Olivier Award for Best New Play. And in 1993, it was adapted for film, again starring Channing but this time with co-stars Donald Sutherland and Will Smith.

Head’s recent theatre credits include the Savoy’s 2003/4 double bill Peter Pan and The Pirates of Penzance in which he played not one, but two pirate villains – Captain Hook and the Pirate King; and Otherwise Engaged, alongside Richard E Grant.

His numerous screen credits include Merlin, Spooks, The Family Business, Manchild, Silent Witness, Little Britain, Dr Who and, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Manville previously appeared at the Old Vic in 2007 in the stage adaptation of Pedro Almodovar’s Oscar-winning 1999 film, All About My Mother. Her other theatre credits include Pillars of the Community, The Alchemist, His Dark Materials and Some Girls. She has also appeared in films such as High Hopes, Secrets and Lies, Topsy-Turvy and Vera Drake.

Joining Head and Manville in the cast of Six Degrees of Separation will be RADA graduate Obi Abili (Dido Queen of Carthage, The Brothers Size, Fabulation, Angels in America), Steven Pacey (La Cage Aux Folles), Sarah Goldberg, Michael Goldsmith, Sara Stewart, Paul Stocker and Kevin Trainor.

Inherit the Wind continues at the Old Vic until December 20, 2009.
Read more

The Art of Music ’09 exclusive launch and club night – on November 18 -kicks off a week and a half long opportunity to view original, one-off canvases created by leading musicians and bands exclusively for No Surrender.

The exhibition will open with one wall of blank canvases alongside those already completed.

Works by artists such as Maximo Park, Ne-Yo, Placebo, Maccabees, LadyHawke, White Lies and Trustee KT Tunstall will be auctioned throughout the exhibition in order to raise funds to support the charity’s vital efforts.

Further adding to the exhibited work, videos of the canvasses being created will be projected on a gallery wall giving audiences the chance to experience the process from start to finish.

The exhibition will run daily at the gallery from 11am to 5pm from November 19 – 30 with free entrance.

To register for the guest list for the launch party and club night, please visit the website

Alternatively, you can follow the Trust on Twitter

Tickets for the acclaimed sessions – which take place between November 16 and 24 – are now on general sale at www.littlenoisesessions.org.uk

All gigs take place at the intimate Union Chapel in Islington.

Chart topping indie-pop band Scouting for Girls and the up-and-coming alternative act Stornoway will support Newton Faulkner on November 24, while Australian star Lisa Mitchell joins David Gray on November 23.

Marina and the Diamonds perform alongside Alexandra Burke and Alphabeat on November 17, with the energetic Egyptian Hip Hop opening for Lostprophets on November 20, and emerging singer songwriter Daisy Dares You taking the stage with Mika on November 18.

These performers join the impressive list of acts already confirmed including pop superstar Alexandra Burke, Editors, Florence + The Machine, Lostprophets, Richard Hawley and Mika, raising much needed funds for learning disability charity Mencap.

Hosted and curated by Mencap ambassador Jo Whiley, and now in their fourth year, Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions take world-class bands out of their comfort zone to present a rawer, purer sound meaning the crowd get to witness something very special each night.

Also set to take to the stage in the stunning surroundings of the Union Chapel are Hockey, The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, Everything Everything, Paloma Faith, The Blackout, Golden Silvers, The King Blues, Alex Gardner, Ellie Goulding and Erik Hassle.

Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions are also renowned for their unannounced special guests, so you never know who will turn up this year.

To buy tickets to these truly amazing gigs visit the website

Mencap’s Little Noise Line-up So Far:

Monday, November 16
Editors
The Maccabees
Bombay Bicycle Club
Everything Everything

Tuesday, November 17
Alexandra Burke
Alphabeat
Marina and the Diamonds
VV Brown

Wednesday, November 18
Mika
Paloma Faith
Alex Gardner
Daisy Dares You

Thursday, November 19
Richard Hawley
Hockey
I Blame Coco

Friday, November 20
Lostprophets
The Blackout
The King Blues
Egyptian Hip Hop

Saturday, November 21
Taio Cruz with special guests Tinchy Stryder and Chipmunk

Sunday, November 22
Florence + The Machine
Golden Silvers
Erik Hassle
Ellie Goulding

Monday, November 23
David Gray
The Low Anthem
Lisa Mitchell

Tuesday, November 24
Newton Faulkner
Scouting for Girls
Little Comets
Stornoway

Q. Were there long discussions about the tone of this movie?
George Clooney: The book, and there was a documentary done as well which was also very funny, had such a unique tone, and I thought Peter [Straughn] just nailed the script. This is a script that’s been around town for a while, and all of us have been aware of it for a bit – it was named as one of the best un-made screenplays, so we were all anxious to get our hands on it and see if there was a way we could do it. But Grant [Heslov] had the right ideas.

Q. Was there a eureka moment which caused you to be the people to take on the script?
George Clooney: These screenplays after they’ve been around for a while… even when they’re really good screenplays, things get attached to them and they get harder and harder to get made. There will suddenly be 30 producers and other people brought on, and it gets this baggage to it, that it really requires everybody being willing to come in. So, we were lucky to get Kevin [Spacey] and Jeff [Bridges] and Ewan all being willing to come in and play ball and have fun on a film that isn’t necessarily a slam-dunk. It’s not Transformers.

Q. You can’t seem to stop working with Grant [Heslov], who writes and produces and now directs you in this. What was that relationship like on set? Who’s the boss?
George Clooney: Grant’s the director, so he was the boss. That’s the fun of it… directors are the dictatorship. I had nothing but faith in him, he’s incredibly talented and smart, so I’m lucky to be his friend for almost 30 years.

Q. How was working with Ewan McGregor?
George Clooney: After the restraining order, it was really hard to actually work with him. It’s sort of shocking how absolutely fun and normal he is. We talked about the motorcycle trips he takes around the world and down through Africa. He fits into this group of actors that are really fun to work with… they’re all professional, they do all their work before they show up, and so by the time you’re on the set, there isn’t a whole lot of misery. There’s the work between “action” and “cut” and then the rest of time, you remember the rubber band fights, it’s fun. Actual food fights. I’m a big fan of his.

Q. Did you approach the character as if you were recreating a real-life person, or did you start from scratch?
George Clooney: It was whatever the script calls for. We’ve done films before, like Good Night and Good Luck, where we had a great responsibility for accuracy, but this is one where we thought there’s something funny to be had, and we could just do it.

Q. Why has it been so hard to make films about the Iraq war, and are we now in a stage where we can make films that will work?
George Clooney: Any topical subject, if it’s Hollywood, will be a couple of years later because you’ve got to write it, produce it and distribute it, so automatically you’re never going to be right on the cutting edge of stories. I think that we’ve been a little too close to the situation, and at times it’s such a polarising moment that it’s hard to make films that directly deal with that subject matter, since we’re in the middle of it still. But we didn’t think of this as an Iraq war film, it’s a very different story completely. I’ve done an Iraq war film with Three Kings, which holds up and seems to be still relevant. I think this one is just a glancing blow at Iraq, it happens to take place there.

Q. Do you believe in the paranormal?
George Clooney: I’m not a big believer in much of that. Everybody goes through déjà vu and things like that, but I’m not a big believer in many of those things. I find them to be mostly coincidence.

Q. How was working with the goats?
George Clooney: Yesterday I was a fox, now I’m working with goats. I tell you, this goat was a particularly nice goat. We spent a lot of time together. He wanted to go over the dying around me, so we worked on that for a while. The funny thing is, the goat was a great actor. He’d walk in and stare at the camera. If we could get Ewan to do that, it would help.

Q. Do you think the media’s obsession with celebrity is out of control?
George Clooney: Look, I’m the son of a newsman, I grew up around news, so I can understand the issue, which is that papers are losing subscribers and they’re getting less and less outlets… it’s a tricky thing. You’re going to have to sell papers. The problem is, there’s so little reporting anymore. Someone will write a story and it’ll be in 1,800 outlets from one person’s story. You’ll have no recourse, it’ll be false and you go: “It’s not true.” But they’ll say: “We’re not saying that… but a London tabloid has said it!” And they’re re-printing and re-printing things that aren’t necessarily true. I understand why it happens, but it’s certainly an issue.

Read our review of The Men Who Stare At Goats

Read our interview with Grant Heslov

Q. How soon did you decide to stop making a documentary and then turn Paper Heart into a movie?
Nicholas Jasenovec: Charlyne came to me originally with the documentary idea and I’m not sure how quickly it turned. But we started discussing it and were coming up with ideas… I suggested she should be on camera because the “I don’t believe in love” thing is a little bit exaggerated for the film. But she did have her doubts and I felt like that could be an important element that the audience should experience. So, once we made that decision we realised we needed a storyline and arc for her on-screen. One of our early ideas was that we weren’t going to find any answers. It was going to be unique to the individual what love meant. So, the only way she could truly understand that by the end of the film would be if she experienced it.

Q. Has there been an element of life imitating art, though, with your real-life relationship with Michael Cera?
Charlyne Yi: We’re friends. We never… I don’t know how it came about but even when he did the movie Juno there was talk about him and Ellen Page dating. But in this we play characters who are dating and there’s a sense of awkwardness. I think we also did lie quite a bit [laughs].

Q. Do you have any thoughts on why more and more comedians are creating shows and films based around reality-style plots? And using their own names…
Charlyne Yi: I think it happened in the past as well, with shows like I Love Lucy. I think for people like me and my friends… we don’t have that much range [laughs] as actors. Even someone like Al Brooks plays a version of himself all the time. We have range to show emotion but I don’t know about range to be a different character.

Q. How did the idea of creating models to tell the stories relayed by each interviewee come about?
Charlyne Yi: It was mostly because I kind of have ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder] and when I watch documentaries my mind tends to wander if it’s just a talking head. But even FBI shows usually show recreations, so I thought creating puppet shows might be an interesting way to go about it. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not.

Q. Nic, how was watching a different actor [Jake Johnson] play you?
Nicholas Jasenovec: I thought he was fantastic. It’s not really too much like me. We bought some of the same clothes and went shopping together but that’s about it. Also, we kind of had more fun with him and kind of made him the cliché, sort of independent first-time film director who puts himself in his movie. We made him kind of an idiot. He was the one we had the most freedom with. It’s a nice relationship that develops between him and Charlyne.

Q. Did you ever consider doing it yourself?
Nicholas Jasenovec: Briefly but I’m just a terrible actor and we were working really hard to blur the lines between the two halves of the film, so it didn’t feel awkward or abrupt when you cut between them. I think if I’d played the part you just would have known immediately when something was fake.

Q. Has either of your opinions on love changed since making the movie and interviewing all those people?
Nicholas Jasenovec: Not really, I felt like I had a pretty decent understanding of it going into the project, so it didn’t necessarily changed. But everyone who worked on the documentary portion of the film, just from meeting these people, hearing their stories and spending time with them… I think we were all really inspired, optimistic and hopeful that maybe there is someone out there for everyone.

Q. And Charlyne?
Charlyne Yi: Originally, when I wanted to make the documentary I was 19 and I was hanging around with a lot of eager male teens and not really people my age. I was questioning things like: “How do you know if it’s real?” “Will it last?” Whatever the length of the relationship, whether it was 30 years or two years, how did you know if it was real or not?

I think a lot of the time people like to re-write history and say it wasn’t real because they get negative feelings about them. But you never know how something is going to last, even a friendship, so I think once I realised that I kind of got to thinking that it is real if you believe it’s real. I also think that in movies or in stories that true love is forever. But that’s not true. It can last two weeks or it can last 40 years, but not necessarily forever.

Q. How similar to the Charlyne on film is the real Charlyne Yi?
Charlyne Yi: Um, I think there’s a lot of me. I have the same mannerisms, we have the same vocabulary and that sort of thing. But I think I am sometimes very big and alive. I’m kind of sleepy [jet lagged] right now but there were often times when Nic had to tone me down because I’m like a cartoon where I get really hyper at times. In that sense, me being myself was unrealistic for the camera. I’d watch myself sometimes and see footage of myself being real and I’d think: “Am I acting?” Or: “Oh my God, I’m actually being myself… It’s a disaster; we can’t put that on film!”

Q. Have you found that people have been confused by the film – that they believe everything is true?
Charlyne Yi: I think a little bit… usually I reassure them that it’s fiction and that kind of clarifies things. But with anything, when people see interviews or watch a movie they feel like they know the person and that is the person. So, it’s much more difficult telling them that it’s not me, even though it’s my name attached to the character. So, I have had people come up to me and pour their heart out and tell me about their love. I’m like: “No, I don’t know anything about that… Sorry!”

Q. Will you be doing something similar again in the future?
Charlyne Yi: I don’t think I’d ever want to mix elements of documentary and fiction again. I think it’ll be one or the other. And I don’t know if I’d want to be on the screen so much.

Nicholas Jasenovec: No, I think it was very specific to this story. I don’t think it would work for every story. Some people get kind of angry about it and confused. It sort of changes their opinion of the movie when they think it’s a documentary and then find out it’s half and half. That surprised me, actually… I never thought it would upset people because I thought that was part of the fun. So, I don’t know. It’s not that I’d avoid it but I do think it’s very particular to this story.

Read our review of Paper Heart

Q. How did you become involved in A Christmas Carol?
Andrea Bocelli: Well for me it was really a very exciting invitation and opportunity because I’ve actually always dreamed of being able to lend my voice to a film. Obviously, I would never have imagined being able to sing for a film of this importance and this size, but as we say in Italian and English too: “Never say never!” And, of course, dreams can come true. We also have a tradition in our fairly recent past because very important singers have sung a lot. So, I got involved with great enthusiasm and with the same kind of enthusiasm that many, many children – including my own – will look forward to this film. I’m really very honoured and thank everyone very much for this opportunity.

Q. Why does music have such emotional power – in that it can make us laugh and cry in the same instant?
Andrea Bocelli: The power of music is something that’s been well recognised for some time… man has known about it for a long time. Recently, it has been discovered that music also has a very important therapeutic power as well. But I think that film music is special because it offers a bigger possibility to contemporary musicians. In comparison, pop music has got a little bit stuck. It’s become somewhat formulaic with the sequences of two bars and a refrain and two bars… music for film is much more open and it allows the musician 360 degrees of freedom to touch people’s hearts.

Q. What did Dickens’ original story mean to you when growing up?
Andrea Bocelli: Well, I think it’s a very beautiful story and it’s a story that speaks principally to the hearts of children who are preparing to become grown-ups and adults. It explains those values that are necessary in order to achieve that. These are values that are conveyed in a language which is simple, clear and very moving.

Q. What are your own personal favourite Christmas songs?
Andrea Bocelli: Well, on my Christmas record [My Christmas] I have the pleasure of singing all the Christmas songs that have been part of my childhood and my life. But another great pleasure was the discovery of new ones that I didn’t know, which I’ve added and which gave me something like a new face to Christmas. And something that might have perhaps been missing from such a record would have been a brand new song, but thanks to this film we now have one. It’s completed the album.

Q. What does Christmas mean to you?
Andrea Bocelli: Christmas Day is the day when the best of each of us comes out. So, for me Christmas has always been the best day of the year for me since I was a child.

Disney’s A Christmas Carol is released in cinemas on November 6. Andrea Bocelli’s My Christmas is released on November 30, 2009.

The glittering lunchtime ceremony will take place at Cafe de Paris, where the three Broadway stars will be joined by British stage and screen actor Jeremy Irons, who is representing this year’s adopted charity, Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass.

There will also be live performances from Sister Act star Patina Miller, the stars of Christmas with The Rat Pack, and the company from the satirical musical comedy Jest End, who will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Awards with a specially written number.

The Broadway stars of Cat On a Tin Roof – who themselves boast an impressive collection of Tony Awards and other US accolades – are the special guest co-presenters, reading the nominations across more than 20 categories.

The race will then be on to decide the eventual Whatsonstage.com Award winners, with voting on the shortlists opening that day and continuing until the end of January. The final results will be announced and awards presented in front of a live audience of theatregoer voters at the Winners’ Concert on Sunday, February 14, 2010, at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

Last year more than 35,000 theatregoers voted online for the eventual winners on the Whatsonstage.com website.

To vote for your favourite performances and productions simply log on to the above website. The categories include Best Actor, Best Actress, Best New Play and Best New Musical as well as Best Ensemble Performance, Best Off-West End Production and Theatre Event of the Year.

And this year, to tie in with the 10th birthday celebrations, there’s a new category – Best West End Show, which applies to all current West End productions, including long-running blockbusters from the past decade.

This year has been dominated by the opening of big musicals such as Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Oliver! and Sister Act and major star turns including Jude Law, Anna Friel, Kevin Spacey, Rachel Weisz, Jane Horrocks, James McAvoy, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Dominic West, Rowan Atkinson, Ethan Hawke, Lesley Sharp, Nigel Harman, Richard Dreyfuss, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

For the main Award categories, all professional productions – from Fringe to the West End – which opened in London between December 1, 2008 and November 30, 2009, are eligible for nomination.

Both Awards events are held in aid of this year’s adopted charity, Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass, which gives young people the chance to learn from and be inspired by leading artists. Set up by the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1998, the hugely successful Masterclass programme has now welcomed over 40,000 people aged 17-30.

Events are given free of charge and occur at least one Friday a month throughout the year, focusing on all aspects of theatre from acting and directing to writing and producing. Although Masterclass events are designed for those at the start of their careers, theatregoers and others, of whatever age, are also welcome.

On November 2, 2009, the unforgettable songs and the characters adored by generation after generation come to life in a sing-along extravaganza that all the family can enjoy time and again.

With enduring messages for all – friendship, working together, helping strangers and, of course, there’s no place like home – this essential Christmas gift purchase will be available in feature-packed DVD or Blu-ray box sets or as a single-disc DVD, ensuring the film has a place in everyone’s hearts – and homes.

A special 4-discs box Collector’s Edition version will also be available at Harrods. Set in a sumptuous velvet-effect outer box and including 10 art cards and a 16-page booklet, the box not only contains the film in standard and sing-along versions, but also hours of added content including documentaries and interviews.

Based on a 1900 children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum, The Wizard Of Oz received five Academy Award nominations on release.

It won the Oscar for Best Original Score and Best Original Song and also gained a special award for Outstanding Juvenile Performance by a 4’11”, 16-year-old girl who quickly earned her reputation as “the world’s greatest entertainer”.

Put Judy Garland and Over the Rainbow together and you have, as her daughter Lorna Luft says: “The most perfect song in one of the most perfect movies ever made.”

And with this release’s brand new sing-along feature, you can now join in and be right in the action: dreaming of beyond the rainbow, wishing for a brain, being the King of the Forest and following the Yellow Brick Road.

Moreover, with a Blu-ray release that includes nearly four hours of all-new, never-before-available bonus features, there has never been a better time to enjoy The Wizard Of Oz in all its glory.

This must-have anniversary edition also brings the visual splendour of The Wizard Of Oz to the Hi-Definition world of Blu-ray Disc.

The film has been entirely re-mastered and the result is a release that is sure to make The Wizard Of Oz: The 70th Anniversary Edition a fantastic addition to the Blu-ray format.

The Blu-ray contains both standard definition and Blu-ray formats in addition to hours of bonus features on a third disc.

The film has grown since its 1939 release into a beloved phenomenon that almost no other movie can rival.

Oz made a new kind of history with its network television premiere in the USA in 1956: nearly 45 million people tuned in, marking the beginning of an annual tradition now sacred on both sides of the Atlantic.

© THE WIZARD OF OZ and All Related Characters and Elements Are Trademarks of © Turner Entertainment Co.

Win The Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Edition on DVD

To celebrate the release of The Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Edition on DVD, IndieLondon is offering readers the chance to win 1 of 3 copies of the DVD. Simply answer the following question…

Q. How many Academy Award nominations did The Wizard of Oz receive upon release?

Simply send the answer to Wizard Oz competition competition and include your name, address, telephone number and email

Following on from successful documentaries such as March of the Penguins and Arctic Tale, Meerkats – The Movie and Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins each provide a revealing and entertaining look at a family of meerkats and their struggle for survival in the harshest environment on earth; the Kalahari Desert.

What makes these natives of the African plains, even more remarkable is a family dynamic which bears an uncanny resemblance to our own.

Whether they are going through the routines of daily life, or locked in a very real battle to stay alive, Meerkats – The Movie and Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins take an inspiring look at how one family’s connection to each other and their surroundings, stands as a model of resilience and fortitude for us all.

Meerkats – The Movie is narrated by the late Paul Newman (in his last role), and directed by award-winning filmmaker James Honeyborne. Produced by BBC Films and The Weinstein Company, it was shot using ground-breaking techniques and filmed over six months in the Kalahari Desert by the award-winning BBC Natural History Unit.

Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and is a prequel to the hugely successful Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor which follows Flower, the leader of a meerkat group called Whiskers tribe.

Produced by Animal Planet, the film was shot over the span of two years and is based on research notes on the Kalahari Meerkat Project, a long term research project focused on studying the evolutionary causes and ecological consequences of cooperative behaviors in meerkats.

Both films are perfect stocking fillers for all the family this Christmas and are fun, engaging and educational for both children and adults. After watching you could be “comparing your meerkats” and why not as who could resist getting up close and personal to these adorable mammals?

Meerkats – Some Fun Facts…

1) Meerkats are a type of mongoose.
2) A group of meerkats is called a mob, gang or clan.
3) Average lifespan of a meerkat is 12 to 14 years.
4) The creatures are near-sighted and have poor depth perception. So they bob their heads up and down to help them take everything in.
5) In the wild meerkats burrow their dens to depths of 8ft. It protects them against summer heat and winter cold.
6) They are excellent hunters.
7) An average adult weighs about 1lb 10oz (730 grams) and is 12-14 inches long.
8) Meerkats use their tails to balance when standing upright.
9) They have one to five pups in a litter and start breeding at a year old.
10) The name meerkats derives wrongly from the word monkey.

Win Meerkats – The Movie/Meerkat Manor on DVD

To celebrate the release of Meerkats – The Movie and Meerkat Manor on DVD, IndieLondon is offering readers the chance to win both copies of the DVD (we have 2 packages up for grabs). Simply answer the following question…

Q. Which late, great actor narrates Meerkats – The Movie?

Simply send the answer to Meerkats competition competition and include your name, address, telephone number and email

As in earlier films like Sex, Lies and Videotape and Bubble, director Steven Soderbergh shows just how much can be achieved on a low budget and with a cast of mostly non-professional actors.

Against the backdrop of the 2008 US presidential race and the onset of the financial crisis, Sasha Grey plays a New York call-girl who offers her clientele a full ‘girlfriend experience’.

With a steady boyfriend and a growing professional reputation she appears to be a successful business woman. But life isn’t always that simple…

Soderbergh explores a world where relationships and bodies are commodified and the cold realities of the free-market economy and the struggle for a genuine private identity are inescapably intertwined.

The screening takes place at NFT1 on Monday, November 16, and will include an appearance on stage by Sasha Grey for a Q&A following the movie.

To find out more, please visit the BFI website

His extraordinary breath of work includes Code Unknown, Funny Games, The Piano Teacher and Hidden.

From November 12 to December 17, The Bfi Southbank will be screening all of his feature films presenting some of the most challenging, intelligent and ambitious cinema to be released in Europe.

The season also includes an extended run of Haneke’s latest film: The White Ribbon, winner of this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or.

To find out more and to book tickets, visit the website or view our special photo gallery

SEE ALSO: November highlights at BFI IMAX
Avatar – The IMAX Experience

The tramp Davies is offered shelter in a dilapidated London flat by two strangers who later turn out to be brothers, only to find himself embroiled in power games that are as terrifying as they are comic.

Written in 1960, The Caretaker was Pinter’s first big hit.

Pryce, a former artistic director of the Liverpool Everyman, was last seen on the London stage in Athol Fugard’s rarely seen play Dimetos at the Donmar Warehouse. His other theatre credits include David Mamet’s 1984 Pulitzer prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross (Apollo Theatre), Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, Hamlet, Miss Saigon (as the Engineer), Oliver! (as Fagin), My Fair Lady (as Professor Higgins) and the Broadway production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

In 1980, he appeared as Mick in the National Theatre’s production of The Caretaker.

His numerous screen credits include the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, The Brothers Grimm, Tomorrow Never Dies, Evita and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (film); and Victoria and Albert and Selling Hitler (TV).

Also reprising his role in the West End will be Peter McDonald (as Aston), whose previous theatre credits include Glengarry Glen Ross (alongside Pryce), Dancing At Lughnasa and Resurrection Blues (Old Vic), and Exiles and Aristocrats (National Theatre).

Directed by Christopher Morahan, the Liverpool Everyman production is the first revival of The Caretaker since Pinter’s death on Christmas Eve last year. It was last seen in London at the Tricycle theatre in 2007 and starred David Bradley, Con O’Neill and Nigel Harman.

Othello, with Lenny Henry in the title role, is currently playing in Trafalgar Studio 1.
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