THERE’S quite simply something for everyone when it comes to the host of performers heading our way this year.
Indie rock gods the Kaiser Chiefs, comedy heroes The Mighty Boosh, musicals Cabaret, Fame and West Side Story, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Whatever corner of the country you hail from, you can be sure you will be well entertained.
Joyce Summers, press manager at Aberdeen Performing Arts, which runs Aberdeen’s HM Theatre, Music Hall and Lemon Tree, said she hoped the programme would excite and inspire audiences.
She added: “At HM Theatre, we start the year on a high, with the award-winning musical Sunshine on Leith, which will be followed in February by Calendar Girls – already the bestselling play of all time at HMT.
“We are confident we can maintain that high standard for the rest of the year with much to look forward to, including the sensational Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the theatrical-triumph that is Evita, Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, starring the incomparable Alistair McGowan, and a two-week Flying Pig Production on How to Look Good Glaikit, while next year’s Christmas show is the most popular pantomime of all time, the magical Cinderella.
“We are particularly proud of achieving our first major solo production in 2008 – the highly acclaimed Sunset Song – and hope to follow that up with another large-scale piece of work in the coming year.”
Joyce added: “At the Music Hall, we will continue our tradition of putting on the best in the way of comedy and music, including a very fine orchestral season climaxing with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, favourite funnymen Ed Byrne, Rob Brydon, Jimmy Carr and Paul Merton and unexpected delights such as the magnificent Shaolin Warriors.”
A host of top-class performers are also due to appear at The Lemon Tree, including Sandi Thom and Midge Ure.
At the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, artists as diverse as Pink, Lionel Richie, The Killers and the Kaiser Chiefs will provide music, with top entertainment from Al Murray, Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance and WWE’s Wrestlemania Revenge Tour.
Another highlight will be the return of Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds – Alive on Stage.
Celebrating 30 years since the release of the iconic album, this latest production promises to be a riot of music, film and high-tech gadgetry including heat rays, a hologram and a 35ft-high Martian fighting machine.
Jeff, who will conduct the Black Smoke Band and 48-piece ULLAdubULLA strings, said it would be the biggest and best show yet.
“This is our third year of touring and every time we have tried to top the previous one,” he said.
“The fact that this is an anniversary also gives us even more motivation to give the audience more unexpected additions.
“Each new tour is a big challenge and we like to make sure there are a few surprises in there.”
Jeff’s original concept album, based on the famous science-fiction novel by H.G. Wells, gained a massive following when it was released in June 1978, and has since spent more than 330 weeks in the UK album charts and sold more than 15million copies worldwide.
Its success was a big surprise for Jeff, who said: “When the album first came out, it was the height of the punk revolution and there I was producing a 96-minute album using a Welsh actor to tell a Victorian tale and a variety of singers to play the roles,” he said.
“It didn’t quite fit the mould of the day.”
Before he wrote War of the Worlds, Jeff was already enjoying a successful career producing and arranging music for an array of popular stars, including David Essex, but one of his life’s big goals had been to find a story he really loved which would inspire him to compose something really special.
When he came across Herbert George’s timeless tale, he realised he was on to something.
“I just thought it was a great story,” he said. “It has many inherent qualities that still resonate today in our modern world.
“But I’ve always thought that it’s at its most terrifying when you look at it through Victorian eyes, when we had only guns and canons to defend ourselves against these incredibly intelligent alien machines.
“Nowadays, there’s more of a level playing field than there was 100 years ago.”
As well as Richard Burton’s spellbinding narration as the journalist, the album is best remembered for a host of memorable performances from some of the era’s biggest stars, including David Essex, Phil Lynott, Julie Covington and Justin Hayward – who heads up this latest production’s cast of stars, alongside former Brookside actress Jennifer Ellison and Manfred Mann’s Chris Thompson.
Jeff said the stage show was a great opportunity to bring War of the Worlds to a new generation of fans and to take it even further using modern-day special effects, including the spectacular 11ft hologram which brings Richard Burton back to life.
He said: “When we first came to do the show, one of the big questions was, do we play the journalist as a live character on stage or do we try to bring Richard Burton back in some kind of form?
“We felt his voice was so iconic that we wanted to reproduce that in some way, because he just did it so perfectly.
“Nowadays, technology allows us to do pretty much anything, limited only by the imagination and the budget, so we came up with the idea of creating a hologram.”
Recalling what it was like to work with Burton, who was once Hollywood’s highest-paid actor, twice married to Elizabeth Taylor, and famous for roles in 1984, Where Eagles Dare and Cleopatra, Jeff said: “Richard was the complete opposite to what I, and everybody else, had expected during that era.
“He had the reputation of being a real hellraiser at that time, but the guy who walked into the studio to work with us was not like that at all.
“He was totally prepared, enthusiastic and very charming.
“He was a delightful man to work with.”
Tickets for The War of the Worlds – Alive on Stage, which is at AECC on June 10, are available at www.ticketmaster.co.uk or by calling 08444 77 9000.
There will also be plenty of variety on offer in the Highland capital over the next few months, with classical music, comedians, musicals and family shows lined up.
Things get off to a cracking start at Eden Court when Scottish Ballet bring the spellbinding tale of Sleeping Beauty to life with passionate dancing, stunning sets and costumes.
Musically, the Vatersay Boys get things moving with a Scottish evening at the Ironworks on January 24, when they take part in a Burns Night special, while the grandness of Rome and the greatness of China will come to life at the start of February when Ellen Kent and Amphitheatre Productions set up camp at Eden Court Theatre to present Turandot and Aida.
Comedians Janey Godley and John Cooper Clarke both have slots in the Ironworks in February, while outrageous comedian, magician and part-time psychopath Jerry Sadowitz brings his brand of outrageous comedy to Eden Court in March.
For those who enjoy old-style belly laughs, there’s fun aplenty in store when Paul Merton presents a tribute to the funny men of the silent movies at Eden Court in April and laughter is pretty much guaranteed when a cast, bearing the silliest of French accents, bring a stage version of the excellent family TV show Allo Allo to Eden Court in May.
The musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat should have everyone dancing in the aisles, while young theatre fans are in for a treat when the classic children’s tale The Tiger Who Came to Tea bounces into life at Eden Court in April.
Meanwhile, songstress Elaine Paige will entertain crowds at Perth Concert Hall next month, as will Toyah Willcox, who appears as the Devil Queen in Vampires Rock.
See Your Weekend each Thursday for interviews with the stars and all the top events.