Backstage with Mike & Mel – Episode 61

Music Clip Intro (2.17) – ‘Benny’s Dispatch’ – In the Heights (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

Intro (7 mins)

MEL: Kia ora theatre nerds, you’re Backstage once again. I’m Mel Martin, sitting beside me is Mike Williams
and we’ve got your weekly dose of theatre yarns.

MIKE: If this is your first time Backstage, we’re based in Hamilton, NZ. We love theatre of all shapes and sizes,
we like to stay on top of who’s in what production, where, and we get very excited about debut productions
and new original works.

MEL: And lucky for us, here in the Waikato and indeed around the whole of NZ there is no shortage of either.
I’m mentoring as a part of Boil Up which is a development programme being run by The Meteor and excitingly
it’s currently fostering TEN completely unique, new stage works.

MIKE: For a region that has been a little bit slow in keeping up with the likes of Auckland, Wellington and
Christchurch in terms of artistic output, that’s a whole LOT of new work going to hit our stages in the near
future. <MIKE RESPONDING>

MEL: Our region and particularly Hamilton LOVES musical theatre. Audiences flock to it, local creatives jump at
the chance to get involved in it… This year, in Hamilton alone we have or are going to see Alice in Wonderland
Jr, Madagascar, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Heathers the Musical, Chicago, Assassins,
Mamma Mia, Back to the 80’s…

MIKE: And that’s NOT including the numerous musicals performed in the small towns outside of Hamilton or
school produced seasons. I think we can safely say we’ve justified our statement that Hamilton loves musicals.

MEL: And now that we’ve talked a whole lot about musicals, it’s nearly time to change track and talk some
about #PlayoftheDay ‘War Horse’.

MIKE: I’m not surprised that this has popped up Mel, you mention it every other episode, which means it must
have had some sort of impact on you, and I’ll be fascinated to talk about it with you. Before that though, it’s
time to get out your calendars and start noting things down, here’s what’s coming up around the place soon
ish:

List of What’s On This Month (4 mins)

 The Meteor
o ‘Meremere’ presented by Movement of the Human. - May 13
o ‘Damian and the Heartaches’ from Spoken Chronicles Theatre Company – 20-22 May
o ‘Heathers the Musical’ presented by BlackBox Creative. On stage in June.
 Clarence Street
o HOS are in rehearsal for Chicago, going to stage at the end of June.
 Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts (University of Waikato)
o
 Riverlea Theatre
o Hamilton Musical Theatre in rehearsals for ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
Forum. May 15-29
o Hamilton Playbox are in rehearsal for ‘Move Over Mrs Markham’ on stage mid-June.
 Nivara Lounge
o Theia and Vayne are on the Kirikiriroa stop of their ‘Creep’ Tour – Friday, May 7
o Painted presents another painting and drinks evening – Monday, May 10
 o Grrrl Fest are presenting their Basement Show – Saturday, May 15
 Morrinsville Theatre
o In rehearsals for ‘Menopause Made Me Do It’ by Devon Williamson – May 6-15
 Te Aroha Little Theatre
o In rehearsal for Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ On stage mid-year.
 Gaslight Theatre (Cambridge)
o In rehearsals for ‘Duets’ directed by Mike Williams. On stage in June.
 Matamata Dramatic Society
o
 Matamata Musical Theatre
o ‘The Last Resort’ by Judith Prior, directed by Yvonne Walker. May 13-22
 Putaruru Theatre Players
o In rehearsals for ‘Monky Business’ directed by Karen Goodacre & Amy Goodwin. May 12-22
 Thames Music and Drama
o
 Tauranga Musical Theatre
o ‘West Side Story’ directed by Darrell Nitschke. On now until May 8
 Tauranga - 16th Ave Theatre
o In rehearsals for Neighbourhood Watch by Alan Ayckbourn. Going to stage in July.
 Tauranga – Detour Theatre
o In rehearsals for ‘How to Train Your Husband’ by Devon Williamson. On stage in June.
 Auckland Theatre Company
o ‘Single Asian Female’ by Michelle Law. On now until May 15

UPCOMING AUDITIONS/OPPORTUNITIES:

 Hamilton Musical Theatre has just opened audition bookings for Mamma Mia at Riverlea Theatre.
Check out www.mammamiashow.co.nz for all the details.
 Cambridge Repertory Society is auditioning soon for ‘Funny Money’ by Ray Cooney and directed by
Steve MacMurray. Auditions 15 & 19 May. Check out FB for more info.
 Putaruru Theatre Players are audition on May 16 & 17 for their August season of “Exit Laughing”
written by Paul Elliot and directed by Allen Ward. You can message PTP on Facebook.
 Matamata Dramatic Society are auditioning for ‘Laughter is the Best Medicine’ an evening of comedic
sketches and short plays. Email Colin on thekemplens@xtra.co.nz for more information.

MIKE: As always, get in touch if you want to add something to the list: email backstagepodcastnz@gmail.com,
or send us a message on Facebook or Instagram

SONG (2:26) – ‘No Me Diga’ – In the Heights (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

MEL: ‘No Me Diga’ from #MusicaloftheWeek and the Original Cast Recording of ‘In the Heights’, you’re
Backstage with Mel and Mike, thanks to FreeFM for hosting us, and Creative Waikato for sponsoring us!

MIKE: So Mel, War Horse.

MEL: Okay, so for starters War Horse is originally a British war novel by Michael Morpurgo, first published in
the UK in 1982. After meeting a World War I veteran, Wilfred Ellis, who drank in his local pub at Iddesleigh and
who had been working with horses, Morpurgo began to think of telling the story of the universal suffering of
war through a horse's viewpoint, but was unsure that he could do it.

MIKE: Which obviously he eventually did because there was also the successful stage play and film adaptation.
In 1912, a bay Thoroughbred is born in Devon, England. At an auction, farmer Ted Narracott outbids his
brother for the colt, to the dismay of his wife Rose, because the family needs a working horse that can plough
the field, not a Thoroughbred. Their son Albert, names the colt Joey, and teaches him to come when he calls.
The pair form a close bond. Against all odds, the horse and boy successfully plough a rocky field, saving the
family's farm.

MEL: In 1914, as war with Germany is declared, Ted is forced to sell Joey to the army. Albert is heartbroken
and tries to stop the sale but is too late. Captain James Nicholls sees Albert's attachment to the horse and
promises to look after Joey. Albert tries to enlist but is too young, and before the company departs, he
promises Joey he will find him.

MIKE: While he is away at war, Joey bonds with Topthorn, a black stallion with whom he is trained for his
military role. The horses are deployed to Flanders with a flying column under the command of Nicholls and
Major Stewart. They lead a cavalry charge through a German encampment, but the unit is decimated
by machine gun fire. Nicholls is killed along with almost all his fellow cavalrymen and the Germans capture the
horses.

MEL: Gunther, a young German soldier, is assigned to the care of Joey and Topthorn. When his brother
Michael is sent to the front line, Gunther takes the horses and the four of them desert the war. The German
army soon tracks down the boys, who are shot for desertion, but the Germans leave without noticing the
horses and they are found by a French girl named Emilie the next morning.

MIKE: By 1918, Albert has finally enlisted and is now fighting alongside his cousin in the Second Battle of the
Somme. After a British charge into no man's land, Albert and his cousin miraculously make it across to the
German trench, where a gas bomb explodes. Albert’s cousin is killed by the gas attack while Albert survives,
temporarily blinded.

MEL: Meanwhile, the Germans are using Joey and Topthorn to haul artillery, under the care of Private
Henglemann. He cares for them as best as he can, but in one of the show’s most emotional moments,
Topthorn succumbs to exhaustion and dies.

MIKE: Joey eventually escapes, narrowly evading an oncoming tank, and gallops on his own into no man's land,
becoming entangled in barbed wire. Colin, a British soldier, makes his way to Joey under a white flag and tries
to free him. Peter, a German soldier, comes over with wire cutters, and together they rescue Joey. To decide
who should take the horse, they flip a coin, and Colin wins and guides the injured Joey to the British trench.

MEL: By this point the audience is on the edge of their seat, Albert and Joey are sharing the stage for the first
time since their separation in Act I. Albert hears about a horse’s miraculous rescue while recuperating….

MIKE: Just as Joey is about to be put down by a doctor who deems the horse too injured to recover, Albert
whistles to Joey who recognises Albert's call. Albert with eyes still bandaged, is able to describe Joey in perfect
detail, and the two are reunited.

MEL: Learning the full story, the soldiers agree to let Albert care for Joey during their joint convalescence. The
horse and farm boy return home safe to Devon at the end of the war.

MIKE: The book was adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford, who Michael Morpurgo thought was mad for
trying to put it into a theatre. The narrative of the book is told by the horse, because Michael wanted it to be a
story of universal suffering in the war, not told from one side or the other. But talking horses don't work on
stage, except in pantomime. Plus, he thought the epic nature of War Horse would be impossible and
impracticable to stage, or film.

MEL: Eventually it came to be considered by the National Theatre and Michael Morpurgo was told the horses
were to be life-size puppets, and the concept was birthed from there.

MIKE: War Horse premiered in October 2007 in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre in London, on a run
that ended in February 2008. It returned for a second run in September 2008, and closed again in March 2009.
MEL: It transferred to the West End's Gillian Lynne Theatre in March 2009, and the original cast featured Kit
Harington as Albert, who reprised his South Bank performance This production debuted an original score
composed by Adrian Sutton.

MIKE: The West End production met with critical acclaim for its powerful use of life-size horse puppets
designed by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, which we’ll get to shortly, and won an Olivier
Award, Evening Standard Theatre Award and London Critics' Circle Theatre Award.

MEL: War Horse closed on the West End in March 2016 having played more than 3,000 performances.

MIKE: As a co-production of the National Theatre and Lincoln Center, War Horse began preview performances
at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York City in March 2011, and opened on Broadway in April. The British
creative team were joined by an all-American cast.

MEL: Seth Numrich originated the leading role of Albert, and Matt Doyle played Billy. They played the roles of
Romeo and Juliet respectively in an all-male film version of Shakespeare’s play. Stephen Plunkett played
Lieutenant Nicholls.

MIKE: That production was originally scheduled to have a limited run, closing in June 2011, but became open-
ended after strong critical reception and ticket sales. It received five Tony Awards at the 2011 ceremony,
including Best Play, and closed in January 2013, after 718 performances.

MEL: And now to address the multiple horses in the room…

MIKE: There’s a certain kind of magic that happens in theatre when an audience chooses to believe in
something they cognitively understand isn’t real. It’s called the “suspension of disbelief”, and it can be
especially powerful when artists invite their audience to invest in an idea that really stretches their imaginative
power.
MEL: In War Horse, the show asks audiences every night to believe that a cane frame covered in stretched
fabric is a real-life horse called Joey, the protagonist of the play. And over two and a half hours, the play
follows Joey’s journey from a peaceful existence in rural England with his young owner, Albert, to the darkest
and most violent corners of Europe at the height of World War I.

MIKE: The National Theatre’s 2007 staging is one of the most profitable productions of a play ever, playing
long London and New York seasons and touring the world. It was turned into a successful movie by Stephen
Spielberg in 2011, but the real horse who played Joey in the film couldn’t quite compete with the emotional
tug of the puppet version, designed by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company.

MEL: Quote from Jo Castleton who played Rose Narracott in the National Theatre tour that came to Australia
and NZ: “Because the audience has to put as much investment as we do on stage in believing the horse is real,
I think they get quite a magical experience when, after a while, they forget that the puppeteers are there.”

MIKE: The puppet that represents Joey is operated by three puppeteers each night: one at the head, one at
the heart, and one at the hind. But this is no ordinary panto horse: when at full flight, the 30-kilogram, life-
sized contraption is an imposing force, galloping across the stage. Not only do they operate the physical
component, the puppeteers create all the horse noises themselves – which is rather appropriate when you
consider that a horse’s lung capacity is about the same as three humans’.

MEL: It’s a massive physical task for the puppeteers – The current puppetry director estimates the calorie burn
from each performance is about the same as running a half-marathon – but it’s an emotional one as well. Each
of the puppeteers has one “emotional indicator” for which they’re responsible: the puppeteer at the head uses
bicycle brake levers to rotate and move ears to indicate when the horse is afraid, agitated or angry; the
puppeteer at the heart bends their knees to move the horse’s body up and down to suggest breath; the
puppeteer at the hind operates the tail using a lever.

MIKE: And more important than mastering those technical elements is mastering the coordination among the
three puppeteers to bring a horse to life. The puppeteers rehearse together for weeks before the rest of the
cast began rehearsals, so they can coordinate their movements and make every performance feel alive and
fresh.

MEL: And when everything falls into place, the effect is properly magical. Not only are audiences moved to
tears at every performance, but sometimes that suspension of disbelief extends so far they genuinely believe
they see things that were never there. I’ve heard people say things like, ‘how did they get the eyes to blink?’
and apparently, they don’t. Or it looks like there was a different puppet in the second half when Joey was tired
and, in the war,’. No, it’s the same puppet.

MIKE: That sounds like quite the theatre experience actually.

MEL: Honestly, I think it might be the play that has had the most impact on me as an audience member AND
theatre maker. Please please see it if you get the chance again to see it.

SONG (4:55) – ‘Paciencia Y Fe’ – In the Heights (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

MIKE: ‘Pacienca Y Fe’ from In the Heights, in English that means Patience and Faith. Mel’s been chomping at
the bit to get this one out for a while, so you might as well tell us all about it.

MEL: Okie dokie, In the Heights is a musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and is essentially is first Broadway hit. The
story is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Dominican neighbourhood
of Washington Heights in New York City.

Over the course of the show, we encounter the many colourful residents of Washington Heights -- a New York
City neighbourhood on the brink of devastating change. Usnavi, the role originated by Lin himself, is a first
generation Dominican-American corner bodega owner, and his friends and family are dealing with the
pressures of rising rents and closing neighbourhood businesses. As one family struggles to figure out how to
pay for an Ivy League tuition for their brilliant and hardworking daughter Nina, her friend Vanessa is trying to
put a down payment on a new apartment, and Usnavi is trying to get back to the Dominican Republic to
reconnect with his roots after the death of his parents.

In Washington Heights, community is everything, and we see how each of these individuals struggles to survive
and how these same individuals come together as a community to mourn their losses and rejoice in their
triumphs. Throughout the show, we see the hard-working, every day people grapple with love and lust,
identity and racism, all while the prospect of a winning lottery ticket hangs in the air, potentially changing the
livelihoods of the people and the community forever.

At the time of its inception, In the Heights was a revolutionary new musical combining Latin rhythms and
dance with hip-hop lyrics to tell a relatable story about what it means to chase your dreams as you cling to
your roots, and to celebrate the community from which you grew.

Miranda wrote the earliest draft of In the Heights in 1999 during his sophomore year of college. After the show
was accepted by Wesleyan University's student theatre company Second Stage, Miranda added "freestyle
rap ... bodegas, and salsa numbers. It played from April 27 to 29, 2000 as an 80-minute, one-act show that
apparently sounded like "A hip-hop version of Rent. After seeing the play, two Wesleyan seniors and two
alumni, approached Miranda and asked if the play could be expanded with a view to a Broadway production.

A new version of In the Heights was then presented at the National Music Theater Conference in Waterford,
Connecticut in 2005, directed by Thomas Kail and with music director Alex Lacamoire. It then opened at the 37
Arts Theater off-Broadway, running from February 2007, through July 2007. Again directed by Thomas Kail,
with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and music direction by Alex Lacamoire. The off-Broadway
production was nominated for nine Drama Desk Awards, winning two, as well as winning the Outer Critics'
Circle Award for Outstanding Musical.
In the Heights then premiered on Broadway in February 2008 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The Broadway
production was again directed and choreographed by Kail and Blankenbuehler, with most of the off-Broadway
principals including Lin, reprising their roles.

The show recouped its $10 million investment after 10 months of running on Broadway. The cast
recording was released on June 3, 2008 and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, beating
the recordings of The Little Mermaid, Young Frankenstein, and the revivals of Gypsy and South Pacific. The
Broadway production closed in January 2011, after 29 previews and 1,184 regular performances. 

It was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards and won four, including Best Musical.

It went on to have a 2009-2011 national tour; and has been translated and performed in English, Spanish,
Japanese, German, and Danish.

And last but not least, there is a film adaptation hitting cinemas in June. It was supposed to be released in 2020
but thanks to COVID was pushed back. I’m eagerly awaiting its release.

MIKE: And that as they say, is all I have to say about that.

MEL: I know the hip hop elements of both In the Heights and Hamilton can be a little bit off putting. But I’ve
said it before and I’m happy to say it again, the hip hop is as user friendly as hip hop gets. You’d probably more
call it hip hop in the style of musical theatre, with really clever lyricism, and a show that leaves you feeling
really good despite some of the lows of the story.

MIKE: <MIKE RESPONDING>] Just a reminder to please get in touch with Creative Waikato if you or your arts
project could use their assistance. AND don’t forget to catch Backstage wherever you get your podcasts. We’re
available on AccessMedia-dot-NZ, I Heart Radio, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

MEL: Head over to Instagram and find backstagepodcastnz where I will be sharing today’s episode PLUS
#musicaloftheweek on our story. I’ve been Mel, he’s been Mike and you’ve been Backstage.

MIKE: We’re going out today with ‘Champagne’ from our #MusicaloftheWeek ‘In the Heights‘.

MEL: Stay classy theatre nerds.

MIKE: See ya!

SONG (2:44) – ‘Champagne’ – In the Heights (Original Broadway Cast Recording)