January 2011

Start spreading the news: in 72 hours you’ve managed to buy 600 tickets between you for Tim’s New York show on the 4th May, meaning that the gig is now officially sold out!

If you’ve been putting off buying your ticket for some reason, fear not, as a second date has been added the next day, 5th May, also at the Gramercy Theatre. Tickets can be bought from LiveNation but you’ll obviously need to be quick as the previous lot certainly didn’t last long!

And I guess, as the saying goes, if he can make it there, he can make it anywhere…

Tim will be crossing the Atlantic again in May to perform at the Gramercy Theatre in New York, on Wednesday 4th May 2011, at 7pm.

Tickets go on general sale today, 28th January at 10:00 AM EST and are available from here, priced at $36.25.

The capacity for this venue is just 600 so I’d suggest you get a wriggle on for those tickets so as not to be disappointed.

Matilda, A Musical ends its extremely successful run at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon this weekend, with a final performance on Sunday 30th January, at 3pm.

It looks very hopeful for a London transfer but at the moment there are only numerous rumours. The first place to hear about this will be via the RSC mailing list. You can sign up to that here and of course we will be excitedly announcing any news too.

Earlier this week Matilda was awarded the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical. These awards recognise excellence for theatre throughout the UK and are selected by a group of professional theatre critics. The Peter Hepple Award for Best Musical (new or revival) was presented by Matt Wolf, at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Tuesday and was accepted by director Matthew Warchus and some of the children from the cast.

The production was sold out over Christmas and throughout January following the wonderful reviews it received after opening night on December 9th 2010:

The Telegraph *****

“A smash hit… this show will be unstoppable.”

“Director Matthew Warchus, … brings the show to life with a buzzing vitality that proves irresistible…But the biggest laurels should go to Dennis Kelly, whose script has both deepened the emotion of Dahl’s story while adding loads of splendid jokes of his own, and Tim Minchin, the Aussie comedian, who has written the music and lyrics.

The songs fizz with humour and great take-home melodies. Kelly and Minchin suddenly look like the brightest prospects for British musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.”

WhatsOnStage.com *****

“Tim Minchin’s music and lyrics sparkle with wit and energy, demonstrating a touch of genius to rival that of the eponymous Matilda. Complemented by Dennis Kelly’s book, they make up a piece which is by turns riotously funny and gut-wrenchingly poignant …, all brought vividly to life by Matthew Warchus’ masterful direction.”

More reviews here.

Shaun Tan’s 15 minute animation, The Lost Thing, based on the children’s book of the same name, has been Oscar nominated in the Animated Short Film category!

Why is this exciting news? Well, lest you’ve not yet heard of the already multi-award winning The Lost Thing, you may be interested to know that Tim provides the solitary voice in this film, playing the part of the narrator. We’ve already posted some videos about the making of it here, including footage of Tim during a voice record session.

The full list of nominees for Best Animated Short Film are:

Day & Night, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), Bastien Dubois

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, on the 27th February in Los Angeles.

A second show at the SECC in Glasgow has just been announced! On the 8th May 2011, Tim will be there along with the lovely Heritage Orchestra, performing, well, what he’s been performing since December.

If you missed out on tickets to the April date, act quickly and bagsy yourself the best seats in the house as tickets have just gone on sale today! Tickets can be bought online from TicketSoup.

Last night Tim performed at the Australia Day Foundation 2011 Gala Dinner, at Australia House and found himself presented with an award:

Young Australian Achiever of the Year in the UK

“To have achieved so much in his career at a young age is perhaps not surprising given Tim Minchin’s many talents and his focus. The Foundation awards great talent and in recognition of his extraordinary accomplishments to date the Australia Day Foundation consider Tim Minchin a worthy recipient of the 2011 Young Australian Achiever of the year in the UK award”, said Philip Aiken, Chairman of the Australia Day Foundation.

The Australia Day Foundation, gathers Australians in the UK to celebrate Australia’s national day, which falls on 26 January. This award has been presented annually since 2005. Previous recipients are Harry Kewell, Shane Osborn, Joe Roff, Chloe Chick, Matt Wilkin and Dr Ainsley Newson.

Also recognised and honoured last night were goldsmith Stuart Devlin who was awarded Australian of the Year in the UK and Honorary Australian of the Year went to former British High Commissioner to Australia, Lord Alastair Goodlad.

Congratulations Tim!

Here’s a useless fact for you. Did you know that the original planned name of the Royal Albert Hall was The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences? It’s true; it’s on Wikipedia.

Why do I mention this? Well, the arts and science will be meeting (kind of) at this prestigious venue when Tim performs there on the 28th April 2011 with The Heritage Orchestra!

Yes, you read that right. Tim’s performing at the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences Royal Albert Hall. Sure, he’s performed there before, but this time it’ll be all about him, his silly songs and his 55-piece symphony orchestra!

Tickets go on sale on Friday at 9am.

Tickets

Thought we ought to show this to you people who either haven’t been able to see Conan or haven’t looked this up on YouTube already. It’s the official video of Tim making his US telly debut with the oldie (but goodie), ‘Inflatable You’, which was correctly predicted by eight of you on the last blog about Conan. Enjoy!

Tim’s added two futher dates, in May, to his 2011 UK orchestra tour:

10th May 2011, SHEFFIELD Motorpoint Arena
Tickets available online here 9am Friday 14th January

11th May 2011, LIVERPOOL Echo Arena
Tickets on general sale here 10am Friday 14th January

Although, if you take a peek at Tim’s official fansite and forum Angry (Feet) you may learn something to your   advantage…

Tickets are priced at £35, plus booking fee and will also be available from Ticketmaster from 9am tomorrow.

“If you’re going to play big spaces, this is the way to do it; with a 55-piece orchestra and a juggernaut full of showmanship, making this a big show in every sense…a superlative night out.” (Chortle)

“Minchin…the insanely gifted Australian is rounding off the year with an audacious show that sees him accompanied on stage by the 55-piece Heritage Orchestra…Taken all in all, a thing of jaw-dropping wonder.” (Daily Telegraph, London)

For all the news posts we’ve done about TV appearances, this one’s definitely a first! That’s to say, it’s the first time that it’s been for the USA!

So, your exciting news is that Tim will be providing the entertainment on Wednesday night’s Conan, alongside interviews with Ice Cube and Dennis Leary! You’ll be wanting to tune your TV into tbs at 11/10c to catch him in all his glory.

Aussies, you too can see this as it’s being shown on GEM on Friday at 11:30pm.

Despite the pair being fellow gingers, Tim has already tweeted that he won’t be performing Prejudice due to ‘ginger’ not being a well-known enough phrase for a red-head in America so what do you reckon he’ll play instead?

Tim joins Robert Llewellyn on Carpool on the 12th January 2011, 8:30pm on Dave. The other guest that episode is David Baddiel.

Robert Llewellyn, who you’ll probably know from Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge, started Carpool, a very successful video podcast, some time ago. Uniquely, he interviews people of interest and celebrities as he picks them up and drives them to their destination. It was picked up by the UK digital TV channel, Dave.

The series started last year, with guests including: Chris Addison, Ross Noble, Rufus Hound and Rob Brydon, had a brief winter break over Christmas and will be back on our screens with Tim on the 12th January.

You can find more information on the show and watch a few preview snippets of Tim (being a nerd) and David from the upcoming show here. The page talking about Tim on the show, and with that photo of Tim and Robert can be found here.

Where do you reckon Robert will be driving Tim then?

Another year and another set of Chortle Award nominations, only this time Tim’s up for three, which is more than any of the other nominees!

He’s up for ‘Best Tour‘ with his orchestra show, ‘Best DVD‘ with ‘Ready For This?’ and, once again, ‘Best Musical/Variety Act‘

Last year, Tim had a 100% success rate, being nominated for, and subsequently winning, the ‘Best Musical/Variety Act Award’. Can he do it again this year? Well that’s all up to you, the lovely public! Voting is open now until 5pm on Sunday 16th January.

You’re still here? Oh, you want a link? Well then click here to vote!

(don’t forget, you don’t have to vote for Tim, just if you’re that way inclined)