BroadwayWorld.com Netherlands Stories

Cult Movie FLODDER To Be Made Into Musical, Fall 2014

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:00:25 PST

Albert Verlinde Entertainment has announced it will make the Dutch cult-movie FLODDER into a musical. The musical will premiere in the fall of 2014 and play a single theatre. Jos Thie is set to direct.

FLODDER, a 1986 movie about an anti-social, dysfunctional family who move to an affluent, upper-class neighbourhood as part of a social experiment, attracted a big cult following, several sequels and a spin-off TV series. Its politically incorrect brand of humour and the mayhem caused by the Flodder family, earned the movie a large cult following.

Dick Maas, who wrote, directed, and produced the original movie, will be involved in the musical version as 'consultant', Verlinde said. Verlinde also stated he hopes the show will be 'over the top and sexy'. Casting has not yet been announced.

Prior to FLODDER, Albert Verlinde Entertainment will bring FLASHDANCE to the Dutch stage, a musical adaption of the movie DE KLEINE BLONDE DOOD, and a reveusical about Dutch comedian Wim Sonneveld.

Nationale Reisopera To Present SWEENEY TODD in 2014

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:16:37 PST

De Nationale Reisopera, a Dutch opera company dedicated to operatic productions that tour the Netherlands, will present Stephen Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD in 2014. The company, which recently has had to deal with a cutback in government funding of 60%, will present the musical in the same season as DON GIOVANNI, ST. JOHN'S PASSION and the opera spectacle AIDA.

In the tour by the Nationale Reisopera, Nina Ledjerman will play the role of Johanna and Mark Omvlee will be Anthony. Further casting is still to be announced. Marcel Sijm will direct, scenic design will be by Marc Warning.

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (1979) won the Best Musical award in the 1979 Tony Awards and the 1980 Olivier Awards. It is regularly presented by opera companies around the world.

Search Is On For Dutch BILLY ELLIOT

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:13:40 PST

Stage Entertainment, led by Joop Van Den Ende, have announced it will start a nationwide search for young boys to take on the challenging title role in a Dutch production of Billy Elliot. The company has included Billy Elliot in its to-do list for years, and now takes a first step towards realizing this plan.

Talented boys of ages up to 11 years are invited to join the so-called "Billy Elliot sCOOL" where they will be taught by a team from Stage Entertainment, the National Ballet, and the Lucia Marthas Dance Academy. Training takes place over a period from October 2013 to May 2014, during which the boys will attend classes for two afternoons per week and in weekends. The purpose is to convince the English creatives that indeed there are sufficient boys of sufficient talent to enable a succesful run of the show in the Netherlands.

The availability of talented boys to play the role of Billy is a particular challenge if a Dutch production were to succeed. Due to labour laws that are more strict than in the UK or USA, Dutch children are in principle only allowed to play 24 days per year. Thus, a Dutch version of Billy Elliot would require many more alternating Billys than elsewhere. Clearly, the original team behind the success of the musical, is worried that a small country such as the Netherlands might not offer sufficient talent. It is unclear if the production will attempt to get some sort of an exemption from the Dutch child labour legislation.

On their website, www.musicals.nl, Stage Entertainment specifically calls for boys with a passion for dance who aren't necessarily classically trained at a high level, but who have the guts, openness and stamina to become Billy Elliot. Hopefuls will first need to audition for the Billy sCOOL. Candidates from Belgium who speak Dutch are also invited.

Only after potential Billys have proven themselves, will the company continue its search for and training of the other young roles in the musical, including Michael and Debby.

Billy Elliot the Musical is the joyous celebration of one boy's journey to make his dreams come true against all odds. Set in a small town, the story follows Billy as he stumbles out of the boxing ring and into a ballet class, discovering a surprising talent that inspires his family and his whole community and changes his life forever. In London, the musical is currently in its 9th year and recently welcomes its 4 millionth visitor. The West End production was nominated for nine 2006 Laurence Olivier Awards and won four, including Best New Musical. The Broadway production received a whopping fifteen 2009 Tony Award nominations and won ten, including Best Musical.

A Dutch production of Billy Elliot, if it were to happen, would not be the first non-English Billy Elliot. In 2010, a South Korean production opened in Seoul.

Pia Douwes to star in German NEXT TO NORMAL

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:28:53 PST

It hasn't been a secret that she wanted to play the role of 'Diana' in the Dutch premiere of the Brian Yorkey/Tom Kitt musical NEXT TO NORMAL. Pia Douwes, the Dutch musical actress who had already starred in London, New York, Vienna and all over Germany, lost the role to Simone Kleinsma (with whom she previously shared the role of 'Norma Desmond' in the Dutch SUNSET BOULEVARD tour).

Now Douwes gets a second chance to show the world her interpretation of the role. She has been announced to star in the German premiere of the show, FAST NORMAL. The show will have its premiere on October 11th in the city of Fürth, some 380 km south of the country's capital, Berlin.

The lyrics have been translated by Titus Hoffmann, who also directs. Joining Douwes will be Dirk Johnston (MAMMA MIA), Thomas Borchert (TANZ DER VAMPIRE, REBECCA), Sabrina Weckerlin (JEKYLL & HYDE) and Dominik Hees (SPRING AWAKENING).

Cast Announced for Dutch JERSEY BOYS - Tim Driesen, Dieter Spileers and More!

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:47:57 PST

Tim Driesen, Dieter Spileers, Robbert van den Bergh and René van Kooten will be portraying Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons in the Dutch version of JERSEY BOYS, due to open on September 22nd in Utrecht.

Valli will be played by Belgian-born Tim Driesen, who is mostly known for his roles in the UK and on the West End. He played Mark Owen in the Take That musical NEVER FORGET and is currently part of the cast of ROCK OF AGES at the Garrick Theatre.

Dieter Spileers will portray Bob Gaudio. Spileers, like Driesen, is Belgian and recently understudied Fiyero in the Dutch WICKED.

Robbert van den Bergh (Nick Massi) is currently alternating the title role in the hit musical SOLDAAT VAN ORANJE.

Tommy DeVito will be played by René van Kooten who has been playing leading roles in the Netherlands for the past few years, such as Jean Valjean in the LES MISERABLES revival, Alex in ASPECTS OF LOVE, Dr. Fine/Dr. Madden in NEXT TO NORMAL, Gaston in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and Radames in AIDA.

The Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning hit musical JERSEY BOYS, the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, is the story of how a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were thirty.

JERSEY BOYS opened at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway to critical acclaim on November 6, 2005. It is currently playing in New York; London; Las Vegas; Brisbane, Australia; and across the U.S. on its 2nd National Tour.

In the Dutch version of the show, the songs will remain in English while all dialogue will be translated into Dutch. JERSEY BOYS will play the Beatrix Theatre in Utrecht.

Danish Arts Council Reveals Details of Jesper Just's Multi-Channel Film and Installation

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:57:37 PST

The Danish Arts Council announces details of Jesper Just's new film and site-specific installation Intercourses, along with the parallel international graphic campaign by design studio Project Projects for the 55th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, June 1 - November 24, 2013.

Jesper Just confronts the paradoxical nature intrinsic to Biennale commissions in the Giardini: the pavilion as physical representation of one country in another country. Using this as a point of departure, Intercourses examines themes of architectural pastiche and cultural dislocation by creating an immersive, multi-faceted environment. Made up of five channels, the film is set in a replica of Paris, France, in a suburb of Hangzhou, China. Unlike many replica cities, this one is fully functional, though in contrasting states of construction and decay. Just's treatment of the location challenges the viewer's preconceived notions of space and time, rendering obsolete the distinction between real or imagined memories, between factual or fictional connections to a place.

The film follows three men, interwoven within the scenes, but it is the city that is the main character. Just explains, "I've worked in the past with the idea of architecture performing, with a building or structure as a main performer, a main protagonist. And here there was the possibility of working with a whole city. I was thinking about ways to make the city the protagonist or mediator between these characters, making them connect via the architecture. I wanted to explore how you could take something as superficial as this architecture and then turn it into something connecting humans."

The projections will vary in size from one meter to 15 meters depending on the scale of the room they inhabit, underscoring the spatial element of Just's presentation. The exhibition begins before the visitor has entered the pavilion, with architectural interventions defined by Just that create a new geography, engaging the viewer on a visual but also a physical level. The architecture will orchestrate the audience's relation to the work, choreographing the viewer's experience of the pavilion.

The parallel graphic campaign by design studio Project Projects will communicate and extend the ideas of doubling and dislocation intrinsic to Just's installation. Rather than documenting or representing the complex filmic piece, Project Projects will implement a conceptual graphic strategy for display in both physical spaces and online. The physical element consists of distributed posters that juxtapose black-and-white stills from Just's film with a newly-developed graphic symbol. This symbol is derived from a Chinese character that is inverted, manipulated in form, and iterated in multiple stylistic variations. The result is a two-fold abstraction that is part language, part graphic, representing the liminal space between multiple worlds. During the Venice Biennale, different sets of posters will be posted publicly in five satellite sites (Copenhagen, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, and Shanghai) to present a parallel world and window onto the project. An accompanying website offers glimpses and fragments of the filmic piece.

"Intercourses signifies that which lies in-between: dialogues, connections, and exchanges," explain Project Projects principals Prem Krishnamurthy, Adam Michaels, and Rob Giampietro. "Instead of taking the Pavilion as its singular location, our graphic design strategy reaches out to other contexts, elsewhere, in a manner that is both translingual and context-aware."

Visit www.danishpavilion.org for more information.

Defying Gravity In Three Languages

Sat, 04 May 2013 05:17:18 PST

Willemijn Verkaik has been wowing Broadway audiences as Elphaba in Wicked since February 12. She's the only actress to have played the role in more than one language, having appeared in the Dutch, German and Broadway productions.

A recent feature story by the Dutch TV network RTL included Verkaik performing "Defying Gravity" in a mixture of the three languages. The segment has made it to YouTube, for your enjoyment:

West End To Welcome Another Dutch Fantine, Na-Young Jeon

Sat, 04 May 2013 05:16:49 PST

After Celinde Schoenmaker, who currently plays the role of Fantine in West End's LES MISERABLES, another Dutch musical actress has been cast for this role: Na-Young Jeon has cancelled her upcoming stint as Maria in a production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR to star in the West End hit musical.

Jeon caught the national spotlight as Kim in the Dutch 2012 revival of MISS SAIGON. The revival featured a brand new song ("Toch nog"/"Maybe") replacing "Now That I've Seen Her", which in turn replaced "Her or Me". In 2009, Na-Young Jeon won a Musical Award for her role in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, in the "up-and-coming talent" category.

Schoenmaker is set to leave LES MISERABLES on June 15th, moving on to play a Dutch version of LOVE STORY. It's unclear when Jeon will have her opening night.

The production of Jesus Christ Superstar, originally starring Jeon, is to play an old hangar in an industrial part of the city of Rotterdam. Its director, Daniël Cohen said the production was sad but also proud to see Jeon go.

Photo: Na-Young Jeon (musicals.nl)

BWW Reviews: Dutch Musical Theatre Community Welcomes New King

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:50:18 PST

The Dutch musical theatre community participated actively today in the festive ceremony with which HRH Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands passed the torch to her son, Willem Alexander.

After the formal part of the ceremony, the new King and his wife, HRH Queen Maxima, set sail on the Amsterdam IJ, passing by various ships dedicated to themes such as ballet, music and gay pride.

One of these boats was packed with musical theatre actors, performing a 7-minute medley of musicals of Dutch origin. These included SOLDAAT VAN ORANJE, DE JANTJES, CISKE DE RAT, CYRANO (featuring Bill Van Dijk who also performed the title role of this production on Broadway), EN NU NAAR BED, 3 MUSKETIERS and revuesicals dedicated to Ramses Shaffy and Wim Sonneveld.

Joop Van Den Ende, founder of Stage Entertainment, was part of the inauguration committee.

On the 30th of April, being a national holiday, theatres in the Netherlands were dark.

Both Beatrix and her son and various members of the Dutch royal family have visited premieres of Dutch musicals in the past, most notably CISKE DE RAT and SOLDAAT VAN ORANJE.

Photo: Then-HRH Queen Beatrix posing with the opening night cast of CISKE DE RAT (2007).

Voting Opens for the 2013 BroadwayWorld Awards! Vote Now for the Best of the 2012-13 Theatre Season...

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:39:40 PST

The Tony Awards nominators had their say earlier this week and now it's your turn! We're pleased to announce that voting has now opened for the 11th Annual BroadwayWorld.com Awards!

Once again last year, hundreds of thousands of theatregoers and fans weighed in, breaking site traffic records and further solidifying the BroadwayWorld.com Awards place as the largest and most popular online Broadway polling event of its kind, open to all and with fully visible and audited results. Voting is open through May 31, 2013.

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