1 THE HEE BEE GEE BEESMeaningless Songs in Very High Voices
Status Quid "Boring Song"
Jack Michaelson "Dancing Up the Wall"
Beagles "Dead Cicadas"
Pee Cees"Too Depressed"
These are taken from the 1981 album "439 Golden Greats" or "Never Mind the Originals - Here's the HeeBeeGeeBees"
HeeBeeGeeBee informationfor info about the HeeBeeGeeBees cds email me @
heebs@michaelfentonstevens.com
2 THE CHICKEN SONG
The 1986 UK no.1 hit from Spitting Image.
Music by Philip Pope. Lyrics by Naylor and Grant of Red Dwarf fame.
Lead vocalists Michael Fenton Stevens and Kate Robbins.
"Let's Go Drinking and Driving " Spitting Image. Vocalists MFS and Philip Pope.
3 FIELDS OF AMBROSIA
extractOne of the major West End flops of the past few years in which Michael played the part of Doc. It was largely funded, written by and starred Joel Higgins, a very talented man and fantastic friend to the entire cast who, sadly, completely misjudged the way that a British audience and, more importantly, London critics would react to a musical about a traveling executioner. It was the second scene that really caused the gasps when Joel produced an electric chair and placed it in the centre of the stage and proceeded to execute a member of the cast, all this whilst singing of the Fields of Ambrosia, the heavenly place that he was about to send his victim to.
The critics were particularly vicious about the lyrics. Marti Sylvestri wrote the music of this sung through musical. It was sensationally good, although few people noticed. It seemed the subject matter of the musical blinded everyone making a true assessment of the piece impossible. However, back to the lyrics. Joel wrote them all apart, ironically from the line "The Fields of Ambrosia, where everyone knows ya.". Yes, isn't it awful. It was suggested to him by his wife and he always intended to change it. You get used to things though and, as it was one of the first lines written, it stuck. It also stuck out like a sore thumb and the critics jumped on it with glee.
People questioned Michael's decision to take part in this show but who knows when a musical is going to succeed and fail. Joel and all the other Americans were very confident in the project and a part in a West End musical doesn't come along every day. If one could always predict the success of a musical everyone would be as rich as Cameron Macintosh and he would be a great deal richer. Why does a musical about singing trains, or one about Cats with lyrics by TS Elliot or, indeed, a sung through musical in which the lead character is crucified at the end work when The Fields of Ambrosia failed so miserably. There were only twenty odd performances after six weeks of hard, intensive rehearsal. The one compensation was that at no time were any of the cast criticised for their performance. This was a top quality cast as I hope the extract above displays.
For more detail on this show and it's stars try Christine Andreas' web site. Christine played the female lead role of Gretchen.
If you are interested in buying the full cast recording you can order it from First Night Records.
WE ARE CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO GET THE HEEBEEGEEBEES RE-RELESED ON CD. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED EMAIL ME AND I WILL KEEP YOU UP TO DATE ON OUR PROGRESS AND LET YOU KNOW WHEN THEY ARE AVAILABLE.
Michael's Agent is Cassie Mayer Ltd
phone (0044) 020 7350 0880
or email
info@cassiemayerltd.co.uk
for Voice Overs contact Alex at EARACHE on (0044) 020 7287 2291
