Festival Previews Video Blog

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Today we welcome Deborah Simpson to our web pages who has written a superb review of the show, Forget Me Not! Known as The People’s Soprano”,  Sharon Elizabeth, from Tauranga in New Zealand, is wowing audiences at the Brighton Spiegeltent & Garden with her show, Forget Me Not! The video above is of Elizabeth performing in The Aviator Club, which is also showing at the Spiegeltent.  Thanks go to Gemma Bliek for the stylish images.

Forget Me Not!
UK Premiere is Unforgettable.
The Parlure Spiegeltent & Gardens 8-10 May.
Deborah Simpson

Thursday was the UK premiere of Forget Me Not, Sharon Elizabeth is the deliciously naughty ex-flapper who tells the story of her life through the roaring 20’s in story and song.  First of all Sharon Elizabeths voice is way and beyond anything you expect.  A trained soprano she moved away from Opera for something more of a challenge.  Although she makes Forget Me Not look anything but a challenge as she easily reaches the operatic high notes of Musetta’s Waltz Song from Puccini’s La Boheme, and the lively comedy notes of ‘Soprano in the Shower’ written and composed by Sharon and her partner composer and Pianist Paul Lewis.

The audience enjoyed the classics as much as new compositions from Forget Me Not.

The audience was diverse, It appeals to all generations – you could take your granny to the show for the old songs equally your dad or husband would be tickled by the naughty love trysts. Forget Me Not is like reading a good book; you can’t wait to hear what happened next.

The concept of Forget-Me-Not came about because Sharon Elizabeth’s Father gave her a box of old music that no one wanted from his garage. “That was where forgotten love songs came from” she says. Then she thought to counterbalance the romantic numbers to sing comic songs. “Literally one morning I woke up and thought I should call the show Forget-Me-Not and then I went one step further and thought… Why don’t I become Forget-Me-Not!” she says.

Come to Forget Me Not – Bring your Granny, she won’t forget and just might remember a song or two!

Review Ends  - Deborah Simpson

Interview from Sharon Elizabeth

Months of research has given her a good understanding of what it was like to be a woman in the 20s-30s. “People think the 60s were wild but really the 20s blew the 60s out of the window” she said.

“Many Victorian ways and values were challenged and dropped by the youth of the day. For women it was an especially liberating time. Flappers were really partying for the sake of it. A lot of money had been made through the war and they were on a high with the sheer joy of being alive. There was an undercurrent of great loss in these times. Many men were lost in the war, and there was a huge man shortage! I have learnt that there was a fragility in the youth which is what I hope to capture with Forget-Me-Not’s secret that she reveals later in the show.”

“Another unique aspect of the show is that Paul and I have a singer and composer/pianist relationship which was very common in the day. With Paul’s years of being a top TV/film composer he often uses the music to underpin the mood as he would for the TV. I feel very lucky to have Paul’s talents in the show, as his sensitivity to me as a performer really makes the experience more enjoyable for me and the audience. 40% of the songs are original.” Sharon Elizabeth

Paul composed:

Forget-Me-Not
Join the Sisterhood
Soprano in the Shower

To a Lost Boy was based on a melody from a BBC4 doco film score that Paul composed this year and I wrote the poem and lyrics.

Mata Hari is a song that I have written (one lady yesterday thought it was the best song in the show and was convinced that it had come out of a
musical!!!!!!)

Old classics are:

Indian Love Call
It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie
You’re the Cream in My Coffee
Fascination
Begin the Beguine

And we even had full opera - Musetta’s Waltz Song from Puccini’s La Boheme.

People love the old songs and a comment I hear time and time again from my older audience members is - “I haven’t heard them in years” (hence forgotten love songs).

I came up with the concept and wrote the script and self-directed. I have approached the show totally from my intuition drawing on my years of being an entertainer. Audience participation is my thing!

I think Forget-Me-Not is good old fashioned entertainment.

Sharon Elizabeth
Forget Me Not x

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Click the link to check out our preview of the  The Aviator Club,

There’s luck out there and it’s good to see competition winners receive their much deserved rewards.  Since my article on the 2008 Bermuda Music Festival I received a wonderful Review with images from Tim Minter, the Evian Competition winner who won tickets to see Beyoncé perform at the Bermuda Music Festival.  Take it away Tim…

“Putting a music festival slap bang in the middle of one of the most conservative\outrageous, opulent\humblest, organized\laid back places, must surely create something quite unique. Think Wembley shrunken into a little English village where every bus driver, ticket person and seat wiper (yes someone actually had a cloth to wipe our seats!) is a familiar face.

Try and buy a ticket for this event though and you’d better be quick. When we tried, from the UK they’d all well and truly been snapped up. The only ones remaining were allotted to a single travel company who was selling them as packages including hotel and hospitality at US$800 and over when I last looked. The only way we managed to get tickets was to win them!

Because of the money flying around this place I think they have managed to put on something only possible on a much, much bigger scale anywhere else in the world. From the tiny queue for the entrance, the handful of good food stalls (check out the huge veggie curry portions at the completely quiet curry stall rather than the queues for the fried chicken or fish and chips) to the neat rows of cable tied garden seats and the queueless toilets this probably wouldn’t be possible anywhere else with these acts. Although sold out, this place definitely wasn’t crowded. Production was great too with a second smaller stage while the main stage was changed over. Huge video screens and a massive main stage meant you felt like you could be any world class festival. It’s all outside except for some seats right at the back on the raised seating in the Hamilton sports stadium and in living memory it has always rained to some degree no matter what the rest of the day has been like. For the high rollers there are quite a few enclosed, raised, private boxes in hospitality type cabins in the arena which I assume pay for most of the event. No amount of rain will dampen the crowd though, just expect some brollies in the way! We got about 15 mins of rain then it was all good again!

We sat out the support acts except for some pretty cool street dance on the second stage. The others included a famous local comedian and what turned out to be Beyoncé’s sister.

As soon as the main act started, the non existent stage security couldn’t handle the small crowd, including us who pushed forward for a mosh pit view and they gave up shortly after, content with just making sure there was a gangway of some description here and there. If you’d paid upwards of US$1000 for a front row seat you’d be sorely disappointed (just a tip there!) If you have a ticket for the arena seating you’re free to move around. If you’ve got one for the cheaper stadium seating at the back you’re not allowed into the main arena.

Beyoncé herself was amazing. I’ve never really considered going to see Beyoncé I have to say. But if she was playing at Glastonbury one day I might consider toddling along now! She filled the huge stage not only with her sizable all girl band but with proper star quality.

Two costume designer\seamstress friends of the people we were staying with in Bermuda had been roped into this for two days straight before the big night as none of the costumes had been used before and they had done a good job for sure. Not sure how many costume changes there were but they were all fantastic. Apart from some stage mopping after the rain and some showbiz fanning of Beyoncé by a stage hand (maybe one day I’ll get someone to do that for me!) the weather was great and performance spot on. I’ll leave the rest to some pictures…”.