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The Beatles‘ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” inspired way too many covers over the past 60 years. One of them came from a fellow British Invasion star who completely missed the song’s appeal. The cover in question almost feels like a joke.

Someone took the rock out of The Beatles’ ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’

Let’s rewind to the early 1960s. American pop music became a lot more middle-of-the-road and left rock ‘n’ roll in the dust. Nobody remembers much of the music that came out during this time. Then, The Beatles injected new life into the radio with rock ‘n’ roll hits like “She Loves You,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” This sets the stage for many more British acts to find success in the United States.

One of those acts was Petula Clark, most known for her hits “Downtown,...

The Beatles have inspired so many covers that it’s mindboggling. Most modern attempts to add something to the Fab Four’s sound aren’t impressive. Only one album of Beatles covers from this century is with your time. On top of that, the album is worth listening to again and again.

1 albums of Beatles covers is weird in the best possible way

What do Linkin Park, Aretha Franklin, Katy Perry, and Petula Clark have in common? They’ve all released covers of The Beatles. That’s not too surprising because so many artists want to pay tribute to the biggest rock band ever. During the 20th century, some Beatles covers were widely beloved, such as Elton John’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and Fiona Apple’s “Across the Universe.” After the year 200, few Fab Four covers garnered much attention or gained critical acclaim.

The best set of...

As if Rj finding out his girlfriend was a psychopath wasn’t enough, The Bold and the Beautiful’s Joshua Hoffman recently had to deal with a real-world kind of insanity. He went on social media and posted about it in a “kidding, not kidding” way.

Too Much

In real life, B&b’s Hoffman is not only an actor but also a musician. His LinkedIn page says, “My name is Joshua Hoffman, and I’m a multi-faceted artist known in music as my pseudonym Calvin Kingston. I’ve been professionally acting as well as writing, producing, and performing my own music since I was 15 years old.” Check out his music here.

However, the music lover recently ran into a situation that was too much to handle. He wrote on a now-defunct Instagram story, “Someone outside my building has been playing “Downtown” by Macklemore on repeat for the past 30 minutes,...

Is it just idiotic to keep hoping original made-for-streaming features might pass for real movies? Sure, there’s an occasional exception, but not Apple TV+’s The Instigators, even the generic title of which sounds like a dozen things you watched on planes and promptly forgot. The comedy-ish thriller about a pair of inept crime cohorts winging it after a botched heist boasts considerable resources, a proven director and a highly capable cast. But even an extended vehicular chase sequence involving half of Boston law enforcement and a trail of wreckage generates few sparks.

The Doug Liman film will play a week in theaters from August 2 before its global streaming premiere a week later. Which is one week more than the director’s last film — the silly but at least enjoyably pulpy Road House remake with Jake Gyllenhaal — got before dropping on Amazon.

As fodder to shove into high rotation on subscriber algorithms,...

A restless spirit with a roving imagination, Belgian filmmaker Michiel Blanchart, developed his feature debut “Night Call” while ever on the move.

“I go crazy when sitting behind a desk,” he tells Variety at the Nouvelles Vagues Festival in Biarritz, France, where the movie had its world premiere this week. “I can’t just get up from the couch and open my computer, because nothing would come out. Instead I followed a routine, walking across Brussels for an hour or two each day, heading from my home to the production office waiting for inspiration to strike — and if it didn’t, I’d turn around and walk for another hour or two. In the end, 80% of the film’s locations derived from that route.”

Blanchart, who will next adapt his award-winning short “You’re Dead Helene” into an English-language feature produced by Sam Raimi and TriStar Pictures, approached his inaugural feature from the outside in.

Exclusive: Jamie Lloyd, director of the history-making reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, reveals that his star Nicole Scherzinger initially “refused to consider” accepting his offer to play Norma Desmond in the show adapted from Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic.

“Nicole was not flattered,” he gasped, speaking to Breaking Baz backstage at the London theatre awards, held at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night.

Lloyd says that the show’s “obviously associated with Glenn Close’s iconic performance and therefore people think about Norma Desmond being a much older woman.”

Mmm, that’s unlikely to amuse Glenn Close.

He tells me that Scherzinger, a one-time member of The Pussycat Dolls, called Norma Desmond a “has been” and stormed at Lloyd that she “still looks good under the bright lights.”

Lloyd encouraged her to study Don Black and Christopher Hampton’s book and lyrics and to listen to Lloyd Weber’s music.

Ben Lanzarone, the composer, arranger, musical director and pianist who wrote music for such shows as Dynasty, Happy Days, Mr. Belvedere and The Tracey Ullman Show, has died. He was 85.

Lanzarone died Friday in his Los Angeles home of lung cancer, his family announced.

The Brooklyn native toured with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Art Garfunkel, Mary Travers, Anthony Newley, Petula Clark, Lainie Kazan and Mason Williams and for Broadway served as the musical director on the original 1972-1980 production of Grease and arranger on 1972’s Via Galactica and 1975’s Truckload.

His long association with TV producers Aaron Spelling and Douglas S. Cramer resulted in scores for Dynasty, The Colbys, The Love Boat, Vega$, Matt Houston and Hotel.

And for production companies led by Thomas Miller, Edward Milkis and/or Bob Boyett, he came up with music for episodes of Happy Days (including the one in 1977 when Henry Winkler’s...

Composer Ben Lanzarone, whose work was featured in television shows such as “Happy Days,” “The Love Boat” and “Dynasty,” died of lung cancer in Los Angeles on Feb. 16. He was 85.

Lanzarone received ASCAP’s “Most Performed Composer Award” for his work composing television scores. He wrote for episodes of “The Tracy Ullman Show,” “The Jay Leno Comedy Hour” and” Mr. Belvedere.” In association with Aaron Spelling and Doug Cramer, he composed many scores for “Dynasty,” “The Love Boat,” “Vegas,” “Matt Houston,” “The Colbys” and “Hotel.” In addition, he wrote the music for numerous episodes of “Happy Days,” “Laverne and Shirley” and “Mork and Mindy.”

Also an arranger, musical director and pianist, Lanzarone became a force in popular music when he began associating with Bob Crewe and Charles Fox. Lanzarone’s album “In Classic Form” came as a result of their collaboration, showing off his talent as a classical and jazz pianist.

Pop singer Petula Clark was one of several celebrities who sang backup on John Lennon‘s “Give Peace a Chance.” The “Downtown” singer didn’t completely understand what was going on at the time. Clark also revealed a certain something was missing from the recording session.

John Lennon’s ‘Give Peace a Chance’ was recorded at a famous protest

During a 2019 interview with The Guardian, Clark recalled singing English and French songs at a 1969 concert in Montreal. She was heckled for this choice, as the Quebec nationalist movement was going strong. Afterward, she went to see John for advice regarding the situation. The “Imagine” singer and Yoko Ono were in Montreal protesting the Vietnam War with one of their famous Bed-Ins.

“They were both still in their nighties,” Clark recalled. “I sat there, dripping water all over their bed, and told them the story. He said: ‘Oh, f*** ’em.’ I said: ‘Thank you,...

Elvis Presley is most known for his rock and pop hits, but he also recorded some classic gospel songs. A major pop singer performed backup on one of Elvis’ gospel tracks. She also discussed attending religious services with the “Heartbreak Hotel” singer.

The most famous member of a girl group sang backup on 1 of Elvis Presley’s gospel songs

Darlene Love was a member of the girl group The Blossoms. She might be most known today for her solo hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” which was produced and co-written by the legendary producer Phil Spector. During a 2018 interview with The Village Voice, Love was asked to name some of the gospel songs she recorded with Elvis.

“There is ‘Let Us Pray,’ the one from the movie we did with Elvis, Change of Habit,” she recalled. “That was his last film.” In fact, Change of Habit was Elvis’ final film as an actor,...

Exclusive: Paradise Square‘s Chilina Kennedy, Ryan Silverman (The Phantom of the Opera), Justin Matthew Sargent (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) and Ain’t No Mo’s Crystal Lucas-Perry have been cast in the upcoming Off Broadway musical A Sign of the Times featuring the songs of Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield and other ’60s hitmakers.

The York Theatre Company production begins previews February 7 at New World Stages and opens February 22.

The casting was announced today by the York in association with Richard J. Robin, President, Wells St. Productions LLC.

The cast also includes Cassie Austin, Erica Simone Barnett, Shawn Bowers, Alyssa Carol, Jeremiah Ginn, Kuppi Alec Jessop, Lena Mathews, Maggie McDowell, J Savage, Michael Starr and Edward Staudenmayer.

Additional casting will be announced in coming weeks.

The musical, which features a book by Lindsey Hope Pearlman based on an original story by Richard J. Robin, is set during...

Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange" is set in the not-too-distant future when roving British teenage gangs have mutated into bizarre, ultra-violent, morals-free hedonists who commit crimes to their hearts' content. The protagonist is Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) a 15-year-old punk who drinks drug-laced milk before taking to the street with his gang of droogs to savagely and gleefully beat and assault anyone who passes into their field of vision. Alex is eventually arrested and put into prison where the government subjects him to bizarre new rehabilitation techniques in an attempt to turn his mind away from violence. 

Throughout, Alex is depicted as clearly beyond redemption. He has no compassion and will never have compassion. When he reads about Jesus Christ being crucified, he imagines himself to be the Roman soldier whipping him. The government's brainwashing techniques only instill in him a...

A Sign of the Times, a new musical featuring the songs of Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield and other classic pop hits of the 1960s will have its New York City premiere Off Broadway at New World Stages this winter, with previews starting February 7, 2024, in advance of an opening night on Thursday, February 22.

A York Theatre Company production, A Sign of the Times features a book by Lindsey Hope Pearlman based on an original story by Richard J. Robin. Directing is Gabriel Barre, with music direction and orchestrations by Joseph Church and choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter.

Casting will be announced in coming weeks.

The musical, featuring such ’60s pop classics as “Downtown,” “Gimme Some Lovin’,” “Rescue Me,” “I Know A Place” and dozens more, had its world premiere at Goodspeed Musicals’ Norma Terris Theatre in 2016 and played a sold out run at the Delaware Theatre Company in 2018. A...

Elvis Presley‘s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, discussed her feelings about singing. One of her female inspirations worked with the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. The rest of them became huge stars as solo singers.

Lisa Marie Presley loved a female vocal group that worked with Elvis Presley

During a 2012 interview with Goldmine, Presley discussed musicians who connected to her. “When I was younger I loved The Sweet Inspirations,” she said. “I loved the song ‘Sweet Inspiration.’ They were like The Supremes then but they weren’t as high profile. I think they were underrated because my father snagged them at some point.”

The Sweet Inspirations performed backing vocals on some of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s albums from his comeback era. In addition, the band released albums of their own and performed backup vocals on albums by artists such as Petula Clark, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Dusty Springfield,...

Some classic rock stars got credit for things they didn’t do. John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” was inspired by a phrase he didn’t coin. Interestingly, the tune was inspired by a rabbi who was also a folk singer.

John Lennon felt he carried a torch by singing ‘Give Peace a Chance’

During a 1980 Rolling Stone interview, John discussed the slogan “Give Peace a Chance.” “We’re not the first to say ‘Imagine No Countries’ or ‘Give Peace a Chance,’ but we’re carrying that torch, like the Olympic torch, passing it hand to hand, to each other, to each country, to each generation … and that’s our job,” he opined. “Not to live according to somebody else’s idea of how we should live — rich, poor, happy, not happy, smiling, not smiling, wearing the right jeans, not wearing the right jeans.”

John seemed to distance himself from his saintly public image.

A music supervisor has a big job, as defined by the TV Academy: She or he “creatively contributes to the story, character development and overall narrative of the program by engaging in song selection, guiding original song creation and production, overseeing on-camera music performances… contributing to the creation of a unique music aesthetic.”

This year’s five nominees reflect those ideals:

Frankie Pine, music supervisor for “Daisy Jones & The Six,” was hired five years ago; she was even part of the casting process for the rise-and-fall story of a ’70s rock band. “It was all-encompassing,” she says, “being able to do every aspect of music to help create that authenticity.”

Pine submitted episode 8, which depicts the band touring the U.S. “We had all those on-cameras. Everything was done to playback,” she reports, “but everything was also recorded live,” providing multiple options during post-production.

The choice of non-Daisy Jones...

A famous producer wanted The Beatles‘ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to catch listeners off guard. He discussed what he thought of the final song. In addition, he revealed what he thought of three of The Beatles as people.

What The Beatles’ producer thought of ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ on a technical level

George Martin was The Beatles’ regular producer. During a 1995 interview with The Christian Science Monitor, Martin recalled The Beatles introducing him to the music of American rockers such as Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Their music sounded different from the British music of the era because of the technology they used.

Martin was asked if he could recreate that American sound by importing foreign technology. “No, because it’s not just technology,” he opined. “It’s a combination of the type of song, the type of arrangement,...

The charts pitted The Beatles‘ “A Hard Day’s Night” against a Dean Martin song. For a moment, Martin came out on top. Subsequently, he made a famous comment about The Beatles to Elvis Presley.

Dean Martin took on The Beatles’ ‘A Hard Days Night’ but he felt Elvis Presley couldn’t

The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” topped the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for two weeks. It spent a total of 13 weeks on the chart. The rock ‘n’ roll number appeared on the album of the same name. A Hard Day’s Night was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks, lasting on the chart for 56 weeks on the chart.

According to Stereogum, “A Hard Day’s Night” was knocked off its pedestal by Martin’s “Everybody Loves Somebody.” Martin’s hit was the No. 1 song in the United States for one week. After this happened, Martin reportedly assured Elvis, “If...

Tl;Dr:

George Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set on You” inspired a “Weird Al” Yankovic song about redundancy. Yankovic’s parody implies George wasn’t too creative. The original version of “Got My Mind Set on You” was in an acclaimed 2020s movie.

George Harrison‘s “Got My Mind Set on You” inspired a spoof by “Weird Al” Yankovic. Yankovic’s parody is hilarious. In addition, Yankovic pokes fun at the ways George changed the original version of “Got My Mind Set on You.”

How ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic mocked George Harrison’s ‘Got My Mind Set on You’

“Got My Mind Set on You” was originally a song by R&b singer James Ray called “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You.” It was written by Rudy Clark, who is also known for penning the standard “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss).” The first rendition...

Paul McCartney‘s “My Love” was one of his biggest hits during his time with Wings. In addition, Petula Clark also had a No. 1 hit called “My Love.” Notably, Clark didn’t enjoy her song at first and her opinion of it never changed.

Paul McCartney’s ‘My Love’ came out after Petula Clark’s hit with the same name

Clark released a hit called “My Love” in 1965. Meanwhile, Paul released a Wings track called “My Love” in 1973. During a 2013 interview with Songfacts, Clark revealed she wasn’t a fan of her hit. “We recorded three songs on that session,” she said. “We recorded them in LA, and I had to leave immediately after the session. I liked the two other songs quite a lot, but I really didn’t like ‘My Love.'”

Clark told Warner Bros. A&r executive Joe Smith she didn’t like “My Love,” but he was unmoved.

Petula Clark doesn’t consider “Downtown” to be “jolly” music. In addition, she said the track is partly about loneliness. Notably, the track helped her become one of the most successful female singers of the 1960s.

Petula Clark | David Redfern / Staff How Petula Clark feels about ‘Downtown’ after performing the song countless times

During a 2013 interview with Songfacts, Clark was asked to discuss which of her songs were interesting to her. “Well, this is going to sound really corny, something like ‘Downtown,'” she said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve sung the song, let’s face it. And over the years the images have changed in my head. When I re-recorded it for Lost in You, it was interesting.

“I had never thought of ‘Downtown’ as a jolly song about going out and having a good time,” she continued. “I’ve always thought there was this...

Great music can be difficult to understand. For example, Petula Clark’s “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” baffles the star who sang it. Notably, the oblique lyrics of “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” made it fit in with numerous other songs from the 1960s.

Petula Clark | Mirrorpix / Contributor Fred Astaire wanted Petula Clark to explain the lyrics of ‘Don’t Sleep in the Subway’

Clark co-starred in the 1968 Francis Ford Coppola musical Finian’s Rainbow with Fred Astaire. During a 2013 interview with Songfacts, she discussed talking with the movie star. “Well, I remember Fred Astaire, we used to spend a lot of time just sitting around singing,” she said. “I thought he was a great singer and he would sing those wonderful songs from his movies.

“Then he would get me to sing songs and explain,” she added. “He said, ‘What does this really mean?’ He wanted me to explain a Beatles song,...

Tl;Dr:

The Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere” was inspired by a line from “Cheek to Cheek.” Paul McCartney said he and John Lennon both loved the line in question. He compared the lines of the song to the way The Beatles wrote their songs. The Beatles | John Pratt / Stringer

Paul McCartney sometimes considers The Beatles‘ “Here, There and Everywhere” his favorite song. In addition, he revealed “Here, There and Everywhere” was inspired by a Fred Astaire song. Notably, “Here, There and Everywhere” appeared on one of the Fab Four’s most famous albums.

Paul McCartney likes ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ better than ‘Yesterday’

According to the 2015 book Conversations with Paul McCartney, was asked to name his favorite song. He revealed he sometimes said his favorite song was “Yesterday” because it’s been recorded by numerous artists, but more often he said his favorite song was “Here, There and Everywhere.

Tl;Dr:

Paul McCartney is a huge fan of The Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere.” He said the track reminds him of Fred Astaire’s version of Cole Porter’s “Cheek to Cheek.” The song isn’t as good as other Beatles ballads like “Yesterday,” “Something,” and “In My Life.” Paul McCartney and John Lennon | Bettmann / Contributor

Paul McCartney is often asked to name his favorite song by The Beatles. He often chooses The Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere.” Despite this, the song is not anything special.

Paul McCartney mentions The Beatles’ ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ so much

During a 2021 interview with NPR, Paul was asked why The Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere” is one of his favorite songs. “I think the structure of it,” he said. “I like it. It always reminds me, in structure, of a great Cole Porter song, ‘Cheek To Cheek,’ which Fred Astaire sang.

“And it starts off,...

Singer, actor, producer and activist Harry Belafonte, who spawned a calypso craze in the U.S. with his music and blazed new trails for African-American performers, has died of congestive heart failure at his Manhattan home, reports ‘Variety’. He was 96.

An award-winning Broadway performer and a versatile recording and concert star of the 1950s, notes ‘Variety’, the lithe, handsome Harold George Belafonte, who grew up in New York and Jamaica, became one of the first black leading men in Hollywood. He later branched into production work on theatrical films and telepics.

He’ll be remembered forever for his ageless ‘Banana Boat Song (Day-o)’, which Tim Burton employed to bright effect in his 1988 comedy ‘Beetlejuice’, reports ‘Variety’. And Belafonte also provided early employment to a future folk icon: His 1962 album ‘Midnight Special’ featured harmonica work by Bob Dylan.

Among the most honoured artistes of his era, Belafonte won two Grammys (and...

Harry Belafonte, the legendary singer, actor, and civil rights activist, died Tuesday, April 25, Rolling Stone has confirmed. He was 96.

Belafonte died at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with longtime spokesman Ken Sunshine adding the cause was congestive heart failure.

Related Harry Belafonte: Five Essential Songs Songwriter Keith Gattis, Whose Songs Were Cut by Kenny Chesney and George Strait, Dead at 52 Len Goodman, Longtime 'Dancing With the Stars' Judge, Dead at 78

Belafonte rose to prominence in the Fifties when his interpretation of calypso music popularized the sounds...

Have a yen for the music, style and glamour of ’60s Swinging London? Edgar Wright’s hybrid time capsule / music extravaganza / horror thriller is an audiovisual delight from one end to the other. Young women from different decades seek to conquer London by different means — they meet as soul twins in a ghost world, where bloodsoaked murders haunt their dreams. Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy are the psychic twins; stars Rita Tushingham, Terence Stamp and the late Diana Rigg bring the authenticity. Soho can boast the most creatively ‘alive’ visuals of 2021.

Last Night in Soho

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital

Universal Home Entertainment

2021 / B&w / 2:39 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date January 18, 2022 / Available from Amazon

Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg, Terence Stamp, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao, Synnove Karlsen.

Cinematography: Chung-hoon Chung

Production Designer: Marcus Rowland

Art Directors: Tim Blake, Victoria Allwood, Katie Money, Emily Norris

Costume Design: Odile Dicks-Mireaux...

A Sign of the Times, a new musical featuring the songs of Petula Clark and other hit-makers of the 1960s, is being developed and will have a reading in New York later this month.

The musical, which takes its title from Clark’s 1966 hit and features other songs of the era including the singer’s “Downtown” and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” as well as non-Clark songs such as “You Don’t Own Me,” “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss),” and “The Boy From New York City,” made its world premiere at Connecticut’s Goodspeed Musicals in 2016.

With script revisions and a new book by Lindsey Hope Perlman (Cassandra Complex), A Sign of the Times will get a developmental reading October 24-28 in New York. The musical is based on an original story by Richard Robin, and is directed by Gabriel Barre (Amazing Grace) with choreography...

We have to go back, /Film readers! Back to the Island filled with research stations, smoke monsters, birds that shout "Hurley!," eerie whispers, and mystical electromagnetic fields that heal paralysis. Although "Lost" premiered almost two decades ago, it left a lasting impact on television -- inspiring a plethora of mystery shows, including everything from ABC's "Flashforward" and Epix's "From." The ABC show fueled the audience's appetite for serialized and mystery-forward storytelling. Additionally, "Lost" launched the careers of many people involved -- not least of all "Watchmen" showrunner Damon Lindelof.

Looking back at "Lost," it's incredible to track where the show began and how its twists forever altered characters' fates. While the series occasionally meandered -- frustrating viewers with more questions than answers -- its characters were the show's beating heart. Let's take a trip down memory lane to revisit some old friends. Crank Petula Clark's "Downtown," climb on...

Sheryl Crow’s earliest musical memory begins in the backseat of a powder blue Plymouth Station Wagon. Only three years old at the time, she was being driven by her parents into the heart of her hometown’s commercial district when, fortuitously, Petula Clark’s “Downtown” came on the radio. Young Sheryl sang at the top of her lungs the whole way home.

It was the beginning of a lifetime of music that’s followed Crow from those simpler Kennett, Missouri origins to the height of musical superstardom in the 1990s, 2000s, and on through to today. When Crow speaks about those formative years now, it’s with affection for her hearth and kin, her parents’ musical tastes, and their encouragement for her to play piano for friends. But her favorite early singing memories of that time?

“It was really the quiet times when I could go sit at the piano by myself,...

Cameron Mackintosh, the London theatre owner and impresario, nixed the idea of having a host introduce artists performing at Tuesday’s one-night-only Old Friends tribute show honoring the legacy of musical theatre genius Stephen Sondheim, who died in November at age 91.

“All you need are Steve’s words and music, and our cast. They speak, or rather sing, for themselves,“ Mackintosh explained to Deadline before the star-studded event began at London’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

Worked like a treat. Thirty minutes saved, because Old Friends wasn’t lumbered with a host.

In any case, no one needed to introduce actress Julia McKenzie when she walked onto the stage, for it was she who, with Mackintosh producing, was part of an ensemble that super-spread Sondheim in the West End over four decades ago with a revue entitled Side By Side by Sondheim.

She’s one of the composer and lyricist’s foremost interpreters.

All eyes were on Judi Dench.

The legendary actress was seated stage right, performing one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest hits. The sound of her voice, accompanied by a 25-piece orchestra led by Alfonso Casado Trigo, held a hushed audience in awe.

There was spontaneous applause. The great dame was led off stage. She reappeared moments later to perform the number again.

“Goosebumps,” said Cameron Mackintosh, echoing the thoughts of those lucky enough to be gathered in the stalls of London’s Stephen Sondheim Theatre for several hours Monday, for a long day and night of technical technical rehearsal for Tuesday night’s celebration of Sondheim, a giant of theatre, who died last November at age 91.

Tuesday’s one-night-only show is called Old Friends, named after a number in the composer’s 1981 musical comedy Merrily We Roll Along. Mackintosh has been putting Old Friends together with Matthew Bourne and Maria Friedman staging,...

We’ve all seen our great share of streaming while in isolation during Covid, but nothing was a better reminder of the power of the big screen than the Edgar Wright-directed, produced and co-penned fantasy-horror-romance Last Night in Soho, from its visceral re-creation of the 1960s London to Anya Taylor-Joy’s sublime crooning of Petula Clark.

The movie follows Eloise, played by the charming Thomasin McKenzie, who is transfixed by the 1960s London which her late mother thrived and died in. She heads to fashion school in London, an industry her mother dabbled in, and begins to experience doppelganger moments whereby she’s in the body of an aspiring singer, Sandie, played by Queen’s Gambit‘s Taylor-Joy. Who exactly is Sandie?

However, the story, despite its nostalgia, goes dark, and it was always intended to be that way for Wright and co-scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns; the two meeting during...

1960s Soho, London comes back to life in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho. You can’t visit without paying a price though, as Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) finds out in the period psychological thriller.

Krysty Wilson-Cairns wrote the screenplay with Wright based on Wright’s story. Ellie is an American girl coming to London for fashion school. She rents a room from Ms. Collins when she doesn’t get along with her roommates. Every night, though, she wanders into the Soho night life district, and into the past.

Ellie witnesses the rise and fall of an aspiring singer, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Given a shot by a talent manager (Matt Smith), Sandie also finds herself prey to unwanted advances and violence. With her tenuous connection to the past, Ellie tries to find out what happened to Sandie.

British director Wright loaded Last Night in...

Sunday Am Writethru after Saturday Am update: The first full Halloween celebration in two years is taking its toll on the domestic box office, a grey cloud which many saw coming, with many trick-or-treating or attending parties last night. Essentially, whenever the holiday falls on a Sunday, it’s poised to gut the weekend as everyone celebrates on Saturday. On the bright side, Comscore is reporting that October rang up the best month to date during the pandemic with $638M, beating July’s $583.8M.

And, yes, we can blame HBO Max, too, when it comes to Legendary/Warner Bros.’ expected -62% decline for Dune, which looks to be filing $15.5M for the weekend. The Denis Villeneuve-directed reboot of the Frank Herbert novel, which Warners and Legendary have already greenlit a theatrical windowed sequel for, had a solid week of $53.8M. After a $5M Friday, Dune saw a 32% surge on Saturday with $6.6M.

Focus Features presents Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, a twisty psycho-thriller with a great soundtrack, as Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch goes wider, testing the appeal of a director whose films have been called the arthouse equivalent of Marvel.

Last Night, a time-bending genre tale, unspools on just over 3,000 screens — not exactly specialty but it’s from a writer-director who “can dip his toe into anything, a true specialty film, a more commercial film like Baby Driver, and now a psychological thriller that harkens back to Hitchcock, Brian De Palma and David Lynch,” said Focus distribution president Lisa Bunnell. It’s “more than a typical commercial slasher movie. It takes the thriller genre to a new level.”

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and screened at TIFF, where it resonated strongly with preview and festival audiences. Deadline’s review “called it a dark and delicious trip.

Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith star in a horror-thriller that takes a trip to the sleazy heart of London’s past

A trip to the dark heart of London’s unswinging 60s is what’s on offer in this entertaining, if uneven, film from screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns and director Edgar Wright, serving up a gorgeous soundtrack and some marvellous re-creations of sleazy Soho and the West End. There’s a tremendous image of the marquee for the 1965 Thunderball premiere in Coventry Street, and a show-stopping crane shot of Soho Square, apparently filmed from where the 20th Century Fox sign is now no longer to be found atop that company’s former premises.

Last Night in Soho is a doppelganger horror-thriller about a wide-eyed fashion student called Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) who has brought her mum’s old Dansette record player and Cilla Black and Petula Clark LPs up to...

Before she played The Queen Gambit‘s Beth Harmon in 1960s Kentucky, Last Night in Soho star Anya Taylor-Joy portrayed Sandie in Edgar Wright’s take on 1960s London. Wright’s psychological horror film revolves around Thomasin McKenzie’s Ellie in the present day, as she begins having vivid dreams involving a talented 1960s singer played by Taylor-Joy. The latter not only shows off her dancing prowess in the film, but she also turns heads with an a cappella performance of Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” Taylor-Joy credits Wright for directing “in beats,” as well as his vast music knowledge ...

Before she played The Queen Gambit‘s Beth Harmon in 1960s Kentucky, Last Night in Soho star Anya Taylor-Joy portrayed Sandie in Edgar Wright’s take on 1960s London. Wright’s psychological horror film revolves around Thomasin McKenzie’s Ellie in the present day, as she begins having vivid dreams involving a talented 1960s singer played by Taylor-Joy. The latter not only shows off her dancing prowess in the film, but she also turns heads with an a cappella performance of Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” Taylor-Joy credits Wright for directing “in beats,” as well as his vast music knowledge ...

In tandem with Edgar Wright's latest feature, "Last Night In Soho," Back Lot Music has dropped a single, sung by none other than the film's star. Anya Taylor-Joy ("The Witch") steps behind the microphone and croons a soulful, downtempo cover of Petula Clark's '60s chart-topper, "Downtown," in a crisp new music video dropped first on Taylor-Joy's Instagram, then on Focus Features' YouTube channel. Mondo Music and Death Waltz Recording Co. will also release a 7-inch record of the single, with an uptempo version of "Downtown" on the B-side. 

Each extended version of the classic pop song is produced...

The post Last Night in Soho Soundtrack Features '60s Deep Cuts: Listen to Anya Taylor-Joy's Cover of Downtown appeared first on /Film.

As someone who has been a fan of pretty much everything Edgar Wright has created throughout his career, Last Night in Soho was easily one of my most anticipated fall releases this year, especially considering the talent involved and its premise. And wow, does Soho feel like a huge evolution for Wright’s filmmaking career, as his latest is a spirited yet sinister examination of the dangerous nature of nostalgia, and I was left absolutely mesmerized by so many different aspects of his genre-bender time travel thriller that perfectly straddles the line between panache and panic.

In Last Night in Soho, we’re introduced to Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), an aspiring fashion student obsessed with 1960s culture. When she moves from her small village home to London to study fashion, Eloise quickly discovers that her fellow students are far more contemporized than she is, and she immediately feels out of place amongst her peers.

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in the ’60s, to escape from reality, as Queen might have written had they seen this film. It seems fitting to plunder a song to review Edgar Wright’s new film, Last Night in Soho, for the director drenches us with a cascade of tunes as we are plunged into London’s Soho circa 1965.

But before Wright turns back the clock, the film opens in contemporary Cornwall as Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), all wide eyed and porcelain skinned like an adorable doll, dances around her house in a cocktail dress made of newspapers. This sweet little thing lives with her gran (Rita Tushingham), her mum having committed suicide when Eloise was a child. She’s about to head to London to study at the London College of Fashion, but gran is concerned about her mental wellbeing, what with her having visions...

In one of the key scenes from Cameron Crowe’s 2000 film “Almost Famous,” an aspiring rock star played by Billy Crudup stands on a rooftop in Topeka, Kansas, throws out his arms and shouts, “I am a golden god!” As an expression of stoned rock-star hubris, it’s perfect – but it’s also based on a real rock star, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, who apparently made that proclamation from the top of the Continental Hyatt House in Los Angeles sometime back in the late 1960s or early ’70s.

Plant’s exclamation pretty much sums up Led Zeppelin, the subjects of Bernard MacMahon’s “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” which premiered on Saturday at the Venice Film Festival. They were true rock gods from a time when the music of the ’60s was splintering, fragmenting and in need of a new breed of gods – and they knew it, gloried in it and made light of it,...

Leave it to Edgar Wright to play with genre expectations and deliver yet another delightfully off-kilter thriller that also thrills with its undeniably trippy atmosphere and blast to the past of swinging 60’s London. The director of films like Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, The World’s End, and of course the cult classic Shaun Of The Dead has taken the seemingly glamorous and intriguing era of the 60s in Mod London circa ’65 and turned it into an increasingly menacing and dark period, but still fueled by a killer song selection that takes us from Cilla Black to Petula Clark. It is a mix that has you in its first half longing to go back to that period in time like protagonist Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) , but then maybe rethink that decision. Just like many of Wright’s twisty movies he doesn’t easily let the audience off the hook.

Edgar Wright’s long-awaited new film has plenty of what you might call The Wright Stuff. That is, it mixes comedy with more nerve-racking genres, it bursts with his love of pop culture, it explores his mixed feelings about the lure and the risk of nostalgia, and it includes several of his other favorite subjects, including London life and dodgy pubs.

“Last Night In Soho” also marks a refreshing change for the director and co-writer of “Shaun of the Dead”, “Hot Fuzz”, and “Baby Driver.” Left behind is his trademark hyperactive editing and insistent post-modernism; in its place is flowing movement and intense emotion. It’s not just different from his previous films; it’s different from everyone else’s previous films. Ok, you might mistake it for an extra-long episode of “Doctor Who”, but “Last Night In Soho” is still .

Another factor that separates it from Wright’s other...

Mixing glorious pastiche and gory ghost story, director Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho” will stand as one of the best London movies of the new decade.

That’s probably because, while it enjoys the present-day (or at least pre-pandemic) bustle of Soho, it positively revels in the area’s charismatically seedy past and its still-palpable legacy.

Much like his mentor, Quentin Tarantino, who gets a thanks in the closing credits but to whom the excellent soundtrack choices also owe a huge debt, Wright creates a faithful yet playful homage to a lost and legendary Swinging ’60s London that is hard to find these days but whose spirit remains vibrantly alive in movies, documentaries, photos, stories, a few buildings and, of course, hundreds of songs.

Since the current Covid-19 pandemic practically emptied Soho of its restaurants, nightlife and office workers (many British film production companies included), one might regard...

When Last Night In Soho director Edgar Wright submitted his latest film to the Venice Film Festival, he called it “a dark Valentine to Soho.” Elaborating on that, Wright told the Lido press corps this afternoon, “I love London, but there’s a lot to fear about it as well, so you have a conflicted relationship with the city… I’ve spent more time in Soho than I have on any of my couches at home. The story of the film and the film itself were inescapable at some point.”

Thomasin McKenzie stars as Eloisie, an aspiring fashion designer who is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer (Anya Taylor-Joy). But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something darker.

The film is steeped in the 60s and there are...

The new trailer for Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho begins with Thomasin McKenzie staring at a marquee billboard for Sean Connery’s fifth James Bond movie, Thunderball. For both her and audiences, it immediately lets us know we’ve been transported into a distant—and often romanticized—past. Yet instead of Bond, the actual tone of auteur Wright’s new film evokes an entirely different style: one as trippy as the fractured image of Anya Taylor-Joy staring back at McKenzie in the mirror.

Last Night in Soho has been the long anticipated and mysterious thriller Wright and Focus Features have been teasing out for years (it was originally intended for release in September 2020 before the pandemic). We’ve only known that the filmmaker considered it his first real horror film after lightly dabbling in the genre in the otherwise satirical zombie comedy, Shaun of the Dead (2004).

But now...

Before “All in the Family” debuted, there was a profound gap between real life and what was being depicted on TV series.

In his autobiography “Even This I Get to Experience,” Norman Lear wrote, “Until ‘All in the Family’ came along, TV comedy was telling us there was no hunger in America, we had no racial discrimination, there was no unemployment or inflation, no war, no drugs, and the citizenry was happy with whomever happened to be in the White House.”

When Lear and Bud Yorkin pitched “All in the Family” to CBS, that network’s executives were looking for something different — but maybe not That different.

A week before the un-publicized sitcom debuted on Jan. 12, 1971, Variety’s Les Brown summed up the first four months of the new season for the three networks. Brown wrote that CBS had a lock on “the rural middle-American viewership” with its “rustic sitcoms,...

As Covid-19 looks set to roil far into 2021, Studiocanal, one of Europe’s biggest film-tv powerhouses, is ramping up what it sees as its own antidote to troubled times: A sales slate arsenal of feel-good, light series answering a market need for escapist fare.

Drawing ever more from its network of Studiocanal-owned companies around Europe, in December Studiocanal confirmed sales rights to romantic drama “Two Lives,” from Spain’s Rtve and Bambu Producciones. In January, ITV premieres “Finding Alice,” a second chance in life dramedy starring “Bodyguard’s” Keeley Hawes, from the U.K.’s Red Production Company.

Next week, on Jan. 11, French pay TV giant Canal Plus premieres one of its most anticipated Creations Originales of the year, retro French mystery dramedy “UFOs,” produced by François Ivernel at Paris-based Montebello Productions.

“There’s a clear demand for escapism in drama due to the current circumstances,” said Beatriz Campos, Studiocanal senior VP,...