:00:34. > :00:39.On the review show tonight: Glenn Close's Oscar-nominated turn
:00:39. > :00:43.as a cross-dressing butler in the movie, Albert Nobbs. Cate
:00:43. > :00:47.Blanchett's dramatic return to London theatre in Big And Small.
:00:47. > :00:53.Novelist and playwright Michae Frayn's new book, which moves farce
:00:53. > :01:00.from stage to page. And Glee for grown ups, Smash, the latest hit
:01:00. > :01:04.musical series from the states. Plus, Richard Wright, Wolfgang
:01:04. > :01:08.Tillmans and Jeremy Deller, retour the Glasgow festival of
:01:08. > :01:14.contemporary art. Joining me in the studio to discuss all of this, are
:01:14. > :01:19.critic, jourpblgist and author of the book, Words and Music, the one
:01:19. > :01:23.and only, Paul Morley, broadcaster and former lecturer at Oxford
:01:23. > :01:28.University, Susan Hitch, prolific author and documentary maker,
:01:28. > :01:32.Marcel Theroux. We will also have live music from
:01:32. > :01:39.Rae Morris, specially selected for us by BBC Introducing, as ever you
:01:39. > :01:45.are welcome to join in conversation if you are on Twitter. Glenn Close
:01:45. > :01:50.is one of the leading actions of her generation, much lauded for
:01:50. > :01:54.Fatal Attraction and and as the ruthless lawyer, Patti Hewes in the
:01:54. > :01:59.hit series Damages. Her latest outing on the screen, Albert Nobbs,
:01:59. > :02:04.has resulted in an Oscar nomination, her sixth, and has been 30 years in
:02:04. > :02:09.the making. What is your name? Albert. Your real name? Albert.
:02:09. > :02:13.Playing the role of Albert Nobbs has been a labour of love for Glenn
:02:13. > :02:18.Close, a relationship which began when she performed the character of
:02:18. > :02:27.the hard-working butler, at the start of her career in 1982, in an
:02:27. > :02:31.off Broadway production in a play The life of Albert Nobbs. She now
:02:31. > :02:37.reprices the role directed by Rodrigo Garcia. Set in 19th century
:02:37. > :02:43.Dublin, in Morris's Hotel, Nobbs is one of a team of servants, Nobbs
:02:43. > :02:49.has a closely guarded secret, Nobbs is a woman. And has been
:02:49. > :02:55.masquerading to escape a brutal and impoverished existence. Having
:02:55. > :02:59.hidden her true idea fee for so many years, Nobbs has ambitions to
:02:59. > :03:03.escape service. Something she confides to a hotel guest, played
:03:03. > :03:13.by Brendan Gleeson. I have been thinking I might purchase a little
:03:13. > :03:18.
:03:18. > :03:23.business. A business, fancy that. What kind of a business? Perhaps a
:03:23. > :03:30.little shop. What kind of a shop? I'm thinking, maybe tobacco.
:03:30. > :03:36.Pauline Collins and Brenda Fricker make up the strong ensemble cast,
:03:36. > :03:42.also made up of an unrecoginsable Janet McTeer, whose character is
:03:42. > :03:48.married to a painter, with much more in common with Albert than
:03:48. > :03:56.Albert realises. Mr Page is working in the morning, and is looking for
:03:56. > :04:02.bad, I have told him he can go in with you tonight? With me, mam?
:04:02. > :04:12.Mr Nobbs, with you. But. What are you trying to say? My bed is full
:04:12. > :04:18.of lumps. Albert's quest for a better life is
:04:18. > :04:23.complicated by the courtship of Helen, a maid in the hotel, also
:04:23. > :04:28.forging her own escape from servitude, encouraged by her lover,
:04:28. > :04:34.Joe. Does Albert Nobbs add up to more than outstanding performances
:04:34. > :04:40.by two of the world's leading actresses. I could live here like
:04:40. > :04:44.Kathleen. Neither of us would be alone.
:04:44. > :04:49.Susan, did you feel you were engaged in this extraordinary
:04:49. > :04:54.story? I felt I was engaged by some of it. The emotional heart of it is
:04:54. > :04:59.the hotel household, and above all, the lesbian household. Which is
:04:59. > :05:02.Janet McTeer, as Hugh, and the young woman that she has set up as
:05:02. > :05:07.her wife. That is extraordinary, that is a real relationship, it is
:05:07. > :05:11.the only one on offer in the film. Did you think that Glenn Close's
:05:11. > :05:18.character, Albert Nobbs, it was almost so restrained, that you
:05:18. > :05:24.needed Janet McTeer to bring some he can sub regins. She was a more -
:05:24. > :05:30.- exuburance? You wanted her to be the heroine of the film. At times
:05:30. > :05:36.Glenn Close was in a slightly different movie to everyone else.
:05:36. > :05:41.The movie was naturalistic, and Rodrigo Garcia is that kind of
:05:41. > :05:45.director, but she was a grotesque figure. Because you didn't know her
:05:45. > :05:49.back story, it was one of terrible abuse and rape, you didn't
:05:49. > :05:54.understand why she was so restrained and repressed? It is a
:05:54. > :05:58.queer kettle of fish this film, I wonder if at the heart of it is
:05:58. > :06:03.Glenn Close's character, but some how he seems to have no heart, and
:06:03. > :06:06.you can't work out what sympathy you may or may not have with this
:06:06. > :06:09.character. Janet McTeer, in one sense, completely dominates the
:06:09. > :06:15.film. In another way, that is character that Glenn Close is
:06:15. > :06:18.playing, that she is a shadow. locking at the story itself, the
:06:18. > :06:24.literary heritage of this, Garcia himself, and others were involved
:06:24. > :06:28.in it, a great heritage? There are traces of that remaining, combined
:06:28. > :06:32.with traces of period drama. They are problematic, they have made it
:06:32. > :06:35.much too little, they don't trust the medium, it is all overwritten.
:06:35. > :06:40.Part of what goes wrong with the Glenn Close character, is she acts
:06:40. > :06:43.it, and then she says it, she is given an enormous numbers of
:06:43. > :06:47.speeches, trust it, she is a good actor, there is enough in the can
:06:47. > :06:52.for that film for them to have made a slightly different and much
:06:52. > :06:56.better film, cutting it differently A less stylised film, without the
:06:56. > :07:00.speeches, there was a trace of a one-woman show inside. She did it
:07:00. > :07:05.interestingly enough as a play first, that was the way she was
:07:05. > :07:10.approaching, it, where everybody else around her was naturalistic.
:07:10. > :07:16.The ensemble was terrific? It was brilliant, the look of the film is
:07:16. > :07:24.beautiful. The begin something brilliant as the hotel wakes up for
:07:24. > :07:34.breakfast, glos glees is -- Gleeson is amazing. And it doesn't turn out
:07:34. > :07:38.and as Upstairs Downstairs Downton Abbey. Loved it, it was not done in
:07:38. > :07:43.a cliched way, when I talk about the film it sounds like I'm
:07:43. > :07:47.thinking it is a masterpiece, but in the end I'm not drawn to it.
:07:47. > :07:53.are not allowed to say about the end? My feelings. From the nef
:07:53. > :07:59.vessel la, they have had to do -- novella, to fill the Hollywood
:07:59. > :08:03.three-act structure they have had to fill the story. The story comes
:08:03. > :08:11.from novella written in the 1980s, it is thought it was based on a
:08:11. > :08:15.real character, there were so many secrets in -- 1880s, it is thought
:08:15. > :08:20.it was based on a real character, there were so many secrets in
:08:20. > :08:28.Ireland, and it is not beyond that a you would bind yourself up to get
:08:28. > :08:33.a job. It is true it may be that Albert Nobbs is a real character.
:08:33. > :08:40.There is the wonderful scene on the beach, two women usually dressed as
:08:40. > :08:45.men are suddenly dressed in women's clothes, Hubert Page is there
:08:46. > :08:50.looking like Les Dawson in a dress, and Glenn Close looking like she
:08:50. > :08:54.might become herself in a dress, she did briefly, and then she falls
:08:54. > :08:58.over. It is the perfect metaphor, it tells you about her not being
:08:59. > :09:02.able to become a woman and the ordinary discomfort of the clothe,
:09:02. > :09:09.and the ambiguous sexuality. She doesn't understand her sexuality,
:09:09. > :09:14.she doesn't get it about Janet McTeer, Hubert Page and her real
:09:14. > :09:17.loving house hole. There is this comic thing about trying to find a
:09:17. > :09:22.wife, and wondering if she will tell her before or after the
:09:23. > :09:26.wedding that she's a woman. I love there was a lovely notion of
:09:26. > :09:32.secrets, there are so many secrets, that the little childlike something
:09:32. > :09:37.out of The Others, can look up and realise both these men are women.
:09:37. > :09:41.It is good they have built skeets into the lives of the other --
:09:41. > :09:45.secrets into the lives of the other characters. You thought it would be
:09:45. > :09:49.Albert Nobbs and then it all fades into the background. I'm thinking
:09:49. > :09:53.the reason why the film doesn't come off well. We are talking about
:09:53. > :09:57.a great film, it isn't quite a great film, I wonder at the heart
:09:58. > :10:03.of it is it can't get away from being a pet project. As much as
:10:03. > :10:11.there is the ensemble and the great locations. It needs slicing. Glenn
:10:11. > :10:13.Close's accent. I feel like to me that was also part of the accent
:10:13. > :10:19.wandering somewhere across the Irish see, back to south London,
:10:19. > :10:26.the East End and back again. You know, it feels mean spirited to
:10:26. > :10:31.quibble, but with a film like that you have to be seduced to buy the
:10:31. > :10:37.whole package. It is 48 hours since I have seen it, and it has stayed
:10:37. > :10:41.with me, I think McTeer as Hubert Page is the most beautiful thing I
:10:41. > :10:45.have seen. It is a shame to quibble, it could have been unbelievable.
:10:46. > :10:51.could have been unbelievable, if you want to quibble, you ought to
:10:51. > :10:55.see it yourself, Albert Nobbs is in cinemas next Friday. As we heard,
:10:55. > :11:00.Glenn Close spent 30 years getting her character from stage to skron,
:11:00. > :11:05.now a fellow Hollywood star is concentrating on her theatrical
:11:05. > :11:09.roots. Cate Blanchett has returned to the London stage for the first
:11:09. > :11:13.time in 30 years, the star of Elizabeth and The Aviator,
:11:13. > :11:17.Blanchett, along with her husband, is co-director of the Sydney
:11:17. > :11:27.Theatre Company, transfering from the bark can from Australia, Big
:11:27. > :11:27.
:11:27. > :11:30.And Small is a transfer of the work of --
:11:30. > :11:35.Blanchett's character is Lotte, a graphic designer who has separated
:11:35. > :11:39.from her husband, and who is in the grip of an emotional breakdown. At
:11:39. > :11:43.first she seems to deal well with the he is strangement, but as she
:11:43. > :11:48.journeys through Germany, she encounters repeated rejection,
:11:48. > :11:52.rather than the human contact and affection she craves. Part
:11:52. > :11:55.philosophical inquiry, part road movie, the play examines themes of
:11:55. > :11:59.despair, disconnectedness, and dissatisfaction, and appears to
:11:59. > :12:03.offer a depressing view of a soulless society. And with Cate
:12:03. > :12:06.Blanchett on stage for almost the entire performance, and with a
:12:06. > :12:10.running time of almost three hours, it sounds like a gruelling
:12:10. > :12:17.experience for both her and her audience. But does Blanchett's
:12:17. > :12:21.portrayal of a woman in crisis transfix rather than depress? Let's
:12:21. > :12:25.talk about the play in a moment, first of all we are talking about
:12:25. > :12:29.all these fantastic actresses abounding tonight. Cate Blanchett,
:12:29. > :12:33.her ability to command the stage, it is almost three hours she's on
:12:33. > :12:37.for? And it is OK. Considering what the play is, as such, it starts
:12:37. > :12:42.with a line that could have come from hamlet, it ends with a line
:12:42. > :12:46.that could have come from Beckett, in the middle is like Alice In
:12:46. > :12:49.Wonderland. She's journeying through what is essentially an
:12:49. > :12:53.Alice In Wonderland series of events and things that happen. At
:12:53. > :12:57.times it verges on clownish, at times it verges on she could be
:12:57. > :13:00.speaking a series of things we have given her to say. It is almost an
:13:00. > :13:03.extraordinary enthralling demonstration of technique, above
:13:03. > :13:07.anything else. It is amazing, and beyond anything else, you are
:13:07. > :13:11.basically watching Cate Blanchett do this. You can't get away from
:13:11. > :13:13.that. Can you get beyond the idea that the technique is amazing and
:13:13. > :13:17.she goes through all these different kinds of acting and
:13:18. > :13:21.scenes? It is not just her, the ensemble is really amazing and the
:13:21. > :13:25.staging is really amazing. When I saw it there there was a standing
:13:25. > :13:30.ovation at the end. To me I don't think the play is very good. I
:13:30. > :13:33.think it is a play from the 1970s, it is rooted in those times. There
:13:33. > :13:38.is a sense of alienation making sense when there was two Germans,
:13:38. > :13:42.and the red army was over -- Germans, and the red army faction
:13:42. > :13:48.was blowing up people in west Germany, I found it baffling and
:13:48. > :13:54.incomprehensible a lot of it. Her performance was what kept me in the
:13:54. > :13:58.theatre. Her performance made sense of it. There is so much of about
:13:58. > :14:01.that 1978 world not recoginsable for us any more. For women as well?
:14:01. > :14:06.Especially for women. There is a sense that this is the wrong tool
:14:06. > :14:09.for dealing with the difficulty of our world. It is this absurdism,
:14:09. > :14:13.that was 1978, we do irony and satire. That is what gets us. What
:14:13. > :14:17.you have here is something that doesn't make sense until she does
:14:17. > :14:20.something total low recoginsable through it, that is part of the
:14:20. > :14:25.brilliance -- totally recoginsable through it, that is part of the
:14:25. > :14:28.brilliance. You talked about a terrific ensemble, with her
:14:28. > :14:32.commanding the stage, could it have been done in a different way?
:14:32. > :14:36.should have been a one-woman-show. You could lose everything else,
:14:36. > :14:40.without a problem. It would be wonderful. We have seen two
:14:40. > :14:43.vehicles, Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, that wasn't a vehicle at all,
:14:43. > :14:50.it was a proper ensemble piece, even if it was a bit skewed. This
:14:50. > :14:56.one you want to slice it away with a one woman show at the heart of it.
:14:56. > :15:01.I would Putin her in a different vehicle. Glenda Jackson did it in
:15:01. > :15:05.the 1980s and people walked out. With another actress in the role it
:15:05. > :15:08.wouldn't have worked. If you take away the celebrity aspect, that is
:15:08. > :15:15.the essence of it, there is many things about this play that people
:15:15. > :15:18.would be squealing in horror and walking out. Even at the Barbican!
:15:18. > :15:24.What it enables Cate Blanchett to do is be extraordinary, we are
:15:24. > :15:28.allowing it to be. So I thought of it as a one woman show, in way,
:15:28. > :15:32.even though there is the ensemble, I thought it was a one woman show,
:15:32. > :15:39.she's always there in tense different settings. The whole idea
:15:39. > :15:42.is this playwright is talking about angst and break-up of relationships
:15:42. > :15:47.and alienation. Unfortunately this thing, which is drained away by two
:15:47. > :15:50.or three translations, by the feel of it, it becomes merely the
:15:50. > :15:55.backdrop of Cate Blanchett to demonstrate how extraordinary she
:15:55. > :15:57.is. The whole thing seemed to be leaning towards the inevitable
:15:57. > :16:02.standing ovation, which she delivers, out of character, and yet
:16:02. > :16:08.in character. We don't know if we have just been watching three hours
:16:08. > :16:11.of Blanchett because in way she's still that character. There
:16:11. > :16:16.something interest about where she found that character, I found it
:16:16. > :16:20.enormously recoginsable because it is about the excessive enthusiasm,
:16:20. > :16:24.and eagerness to please of the outsider at school. It is not the
:16:24. > :16:28.geek outsider, the one person she makes a friendship at a bus stop,
:16:28. > :16:38.but the one trying too hard to please and puppy like, you found
:16:38. > :16:42.that, that makes an actress does it. Going to the old school friend she
:16:42. > :16:48.hadn't seen since she was 13, and she was humiliated again. She comes
:16:48. > :16:54.out of that scene with the school friend becoming heir ter kal
:16:54. > :17:01.illness, -- hysterical illness, with a whooping cough-like terrible
:17:01. > :17:05.breath, she has absorbed it from her school friend. What dominates
:17:05. > :17:12.your mind, is what drew her to this, what does she think it is doing for
:17:12. > :17:17.her. What it is doing for her is ultimately an A to Z of how great
:17:17. > :17:22.she is. It was a three-hour by star solo, had you to admire the
:17:22. > :17:29.musician and all that, but do you want to sit through three hours of
:17:29. > :17:34.somebody playing Purple Haze. was the amazing bow they take.
:17:34. > :17:38.There was all sorts of things, wrestling with God in a sequined
:17:39. > :17:43.suit. She's physically very flamboyant, very appealing.
:17:43. > :17:50.play throws up the possibility it might be religious, extension,
:17:50. > :17:55.political, and then it is just all -- existential, political, but it
:17:55. > :17:57.is all just about Blanchett. can catch it at the Barbican.
:17:57. > :18:03.Michae Frayn has enjoyed a glittering career in theatre,
:18:03. > :18:09.fiction and journalism, with a seemless ability to sash shai
:18:09. > :18:16.between formal to the comedic. His award-winning farce, Noises Off, is
:18:16. > :18:22.enjoying a revival in the West End 30 years after it first premer ined,
:18:22. > :18:27.his first novel in a decade brings farce from stage to page.
:18:27. > :18:31.Skios, Frayn's first novel in ten years s a mad cap farce set in the
:18:31. > :18:36.Mediterranean. World renowned scientist, Dr Which have which have
:18:36. > :18:42.which have, is on the way to deliver a co-note speech at a
:18:42. > :18:45.cultural foundation, when his suitcase is purlioned by an
:18:45. > :18:50.opportunistic cad, Oliver Fox. While fox ememploys his charm to
:18:50. > :18:56.lap up the luxury of the intellectual retreat, the real Dr
:18:56. > :19:01.Which have which have stumbles around the island on a series of
:19:01. > :19:06.events with taxi drivers, women and goats. People have lives that are
:19:06. > :19:14.all very predictable, they make one wrong step and everything falls to
:19:14. > :19:18.pieces. And what is interesting is to see the fabric of causality
:19:18. > :19:26.interrupted by some quite abitary action on the part of a particular
:19:26. > :19:31.human being. "Gooden thought Oliver as he saw the smile, she thinks I'm
:19:31. > :19:36.him. All at once he knew it was so, he was Dr Which have which have
:19:36. > :19:46.which have." One of the things that makes farce possible in the theatre,
:19:46. > :19:46.
:19:46. > :19:49.is that the audience is a corporate animal. When people laugh, it
:19:49. > :19:52.enables other people to laugh. Whether farce is possible if you
:19:53. > :19:59.just have an audience of a single reader, I don't know. I would like
:19:59. > :20:03.to claim in this book, it is not just mere entertainment, it is
:20:03. > :20:08.experiment mental literature. "What kind of lecture was he going to
:20:09. > :20:14.give any way, had he some how got hold of the real Dr Norman
:20:14. > :20:19.Wilfred's text, or would he create a mockery of the electionure, a
:20:19. > :20:24.hoax lecture, in the spirit of the mass raid he was still performing,
:20:24. > :20:29.or would there be no -- masquerade he was performing, or would there
:20:29. > :20:34.be no lecture at all". It is a farce for you and no-one else, for
:20:34. > :20:40.the single man or women, it was an experiment, did it work? It is a
:20:40. > :20:43.very ingenious book. I used think there was two Michae Frayn, the
:20:43. > :20:47.deep thinking one and then the farceer. In this book you can see
:20:47. > :20:50.they are one in the same person. In the video we watched, he was
:20:50. > :20:54.talking about the fabric of causality, that is the
:20:54. > :21:00.preoccupation with the book. It is a philosophical novel about
:21:00. > :21:04.uncertainty and randomness and chance, and how human behaviour is
:21:04. > :21:07.absolutely contingent and unpredictable, it works as a
:21:07. > :21:13.philosophical exploration of that. Writing in a sense to entertain
:21:13. > :21:16.himself, did he entertain you with it? Not enough, I'm not sold on the
:21:16. > :21:20.single person farce theory, I think you need a lot of people in the
:21:20. > :21:24.theatre to have the patience for the long, long set up, and to enjoy
:21:24. > :21:29.it. That is a collective enjoyment. This is full of good jokes while
:21:29. > :21:35.you wait, it is a very long wait. Can I check your call ten times.
:21:35. > :21:41.And Mr Fox Oliver taken as a Greek greeting. Full of very, very good
:21:41. > :21:48.jokes. It is cleverly plotted, he puts it in the beginning and pays
:21:48. > :21:58.off ten chapters later. I wonder if he produced it with algebra. But it
:21:58. > :21:59.
:21:59. > :22:03.is cold, I don't read all ge bra for fun. -- Alg ebra for fun.
:22:03. > :22:07.stops you in a moment spinning and takes you back in. I was impressed
:22:07. > :22:12.by the ability, another technical challenge, can you make the idea of
:22:12. > :22:16.the farce work in a world of mobile phones and e-mails. Because in way,
:22:16. > :22:23.that should stop all, but it adds to it. Only if you believe the
:22:23. > :22:27.premise, which is that the girl, we won't go into the detail too much,
:22:27. > :22:31.so she's stupid enough to believe he's the main man. The girls are
:22:31. > :22:35.very stupid. He doesn't write stupid women particularly, but
:22:35. > :22:39.these are very stupid women. In a lot of films you have to get rid of
:22:39. > :22:43.the mobile phone, he keeps it going. Keeping technology in there. I
:22:43. > :22:47.enjoyed the dialogue and the characters, the minor character,
:22:47. > :22:53.the Crispin, the writer in residence at Skios seemed like
:22:53. > :23:03.familiar, struggling to write his poems. There was lots, you could
:23:03. > :23:03.
:23:03. > :23:09.imagine it was 10thou post-its on - - 10,000 post-its on the wall.
:23:09. > :23:13.Isn't there a lack of empathy in farce. It is also that there is
:23:13. > :23:17.something interesting about working on stage, actual lean when Jamie
:23:17. > :23:23.falls down the stage in the current production of Noises Off, you think
:23:23. > :23:27.ouch, ouch, ouch, as you go, and restraining your own imperfect pain,
:23:27. > :23:31.so with a distance of effort you see the distance between the actor
:23:31. > :23:34.you care about and the character you don't care about. The character
:23:34. > :23:38.didn't bother me at all, I cared about the conclusion, and I cared
:23:39. > :23:43.about the fact it was like a semi- crazed essay, I understand when you
:23:43. > :23:48.say about it being experimental. was thinking how is Michae Frayn,
:23:48. > :23:53.what rabbit will he pull out of the hat now. You are watching a
:23:53. > :23:57.magician saw his assistant in half. At the end he shows you the trick
:23:57. > :24:02.almost. You can read this book, and see it entirely on the stage, or
:24:02. > :24:07.you can see it in a goofy film. You can see it in either of those place,
:24:07. > :24:11.in a sense you can see it more easily than on the page? It is
:24:11. > :24:18.longing to be a film. It is such a reation from his previous group.
:24:18. > :24:23.Wonderful, painful, difficult, memoir of his father. Now he has
:24:23. > :24:29.gone back into all ge bra. He has never written the same book twice.
:24:29. > :24:34.He's a wonderful writer. He's still taking risks. He put himself
:24:34. > :24:40.through it and wrote it in a year, and managed to weave it together.
:24:40. > :24:43.It bears relationship to this book, wrote, The Human Touch, a
:24:43. > :24:46.philosophical inquiry. The mixture of order and chaos, that tipping
:24:46. > :24:50.into chaos. The chaos being the fundamental nature of things. And
:24:50. > :24:58.the lack of any absolute certainty about things. He's interested in a
:24:58. > :25:04.deep quantum level, and understands it. And it comes off on a comedic
:25:04. > :25:09.level. It is a quantum farce. don't think it is a philosophically
:25:09. > :25:13.subtle book. It is, and very easy to read, that is a remarkable
:25:13. > :25:18.achievement. A remarkable achievement, or not? Wonderful
:25:18. > :25:23.technically, and I don't care. it for yourself, Skios is published
:25:23. > :25:27.on the 3rd of May. If you prefer Michae Frayn on stage, or love both,
:25:27. > :25:30.you can catch Noises Off in London's West End.
:25:30. > :25:37.What links Marylin Monroe, musical theatre and Steven Spielberg. These
:25:37. > :25:40.arem soft elements that make up Smash, Sky Atlantic's new series
:25:40. > :25:48.set in the uber competitive world of musicals, which follows the
:25:48. > :25:56.highs and lows of putting on a show. Mr Schu and his glee club geeks
:25:56. > :26:01.became an surprise hit in 2009, with a mix of music and drama.
:26:01. > :26:07.Where glee Glee is all about aspiration, Smash heads deep into
:26:07. > :26:12.the big time. # Somewhere over the rainbow
:26:12. > :26:20.Focusing on successful songwriting duo Tom and Julia, played by Tony
:26:20. > :26:24.nominee, Christian Boyle and Deborah Messing, best known for
:26:24. > :26:30.Will and Grace, determined not to rehash an old musical, the pair
:26:30. > :26:35.come up with an original score, based on the life of Marylin Monroe.
:26:35. > :26:44.You could do a baseball number. With the help of the producer,
:26:44. > :26:49.Eileen, played by Anjelica Houston, who adds a sprig of comedic
:26:49. > :26:52.chemistry. They just need a leading lady.
:26:52. > :26:57.Katharine McPhee, American Idol runner up, whose innocence makes
:26:57. > :27:01.her perfect for the young Norma Jeanne.
:27:01. > :27:08.# Every day is so wonderful # Suddenly
:27:08. > :27:14.# It's hard to breathe However, hot on her heels is Ivy, a
:27:14. > :27:18.sexy, back row Broadway hoofer, desperate to be released from the
:27:18. > :27:23.chorus, Played by the star of the hit music
:27:23. > :27:28.of Wicked. It is not all American jazz hands, as London's glittering
:27:28. > :27:35.West End vies for attention, with a couple of Brits starring in the
:27:35. > :27:40.cast. Most notably, Jack Davenport, who stamped his mark on the UK
:27:40. > :27:45.psyche in his role in This Life. Smash she is his return of his
:27:45. > :27:50.bullying best, with the slightly dodgy director part of Derek.
:27:50. > :27:56.Darling I need to see everything you have got. Mrs Plenty of
:27:56. > :28:00.bitching and backstabbing, it is a surprise it is produced by firm
:28:00. > :28:04.family favourite, Steven Spielberg. Smash has original music, written
:28:04. > :28:11.by the team behind the hit show Hairspray, and rock, pop and
:28:11. > :28:15.country cover, and it melds rehearsal run-throughs with
:28:15. > :28:23.polished performances, will the more adult take on the genre be a
:28:23. > :28:29.smash with the viewers. That was so great. Is it Glee for
:28:29. > :28:34.grown-ups? I fell for the trailer and looked past by the givaway of
:28:34. > :28:38.executively produced by Steven Spielberg. I thought it would be
:28:38. > :28:41.for non-Glee fans and be an edgey take on the show. It is a soppy,
:28:42. > :28:48.fairly heart warming version of that idea. And dreadfully throws up
:28:48. > :28:53.all sorts of possiblities in terms of Spielberg joining in with Lloyd
:28:53. > :28:56.Webber of being part of popular music. The Marylin musical at the
:28:56. > :29:01.heart of it, will become the musical. You are so cynical.
:29:01. > :29:05.Because it is written, it is plausible. It is written by the guy
:29:05. > :29:10.who wrote Hairspray. Is it cheesey and camp enough? It is just cheesey
:29:10. > :29:15.UN I thought it was a great guilty pleasure, I really enjoyed it.
:29:15. > :29:18.There are sacharine moments, but what saves it from becoming too
:29:18. > :29:22.sweet is Jack Davenport comes on like a squeeze of lemon and is
:29:22. > :29:29.truck lent and repricing his Miles role from This Life. I really
:29:29. > :29:33.enjoyed it, stick in a few song and dance numbers. Nothing like enough
:29:33. > :29:35.lemon for me. There was something very interesting about the big
:29:35. > :29:39.American musical with two English characters in it. One, Jack
:29:39. > :29:42.Davenport, is straight out of Henry James, Europeans are difficult,
:29:42. > :29:46.dishonest, you don't know how to read them, this one is British and
:29:46. > :29:53.very dodgy indeed. I'm afraid he's the only moment I get interested.
:29:53. > :29:57.Not even in Anjelica Houston? quite good. I love Anjelica Houston
:29:57. > :30:02.and Deborah Messing, and The House at Pooh Corner house character is
:30:02. > :30:09.disappointing. She could be more acid. It is a set up for a long run,
:30:09. > :30:13.12 parts. I think it is very slick. There is a bit of a drop in the
:30:13. > :30:16.third one, a drop in energy, they have resolved some of the plot
:30:16. > :30:21.points from the first two. Do you think? Which of the two girls is it
:30:21. > :30:24.going to be? It is the other side, we have the pop song, the popular
:30:24. > :30:27.song, whether from Broadway or, what also happens outside the
:30:27. > :30:31.Marylin musical, is the characters themselves have their journeys,
:30:31. > :30:35.told through popular song, as you can see from Christina Aguilera,
:30:35. > :30:39.Adele will turn up later, exploiting the history of popular
:30:39. > :30:43.music without giving us a reading into why these things are so
:30:43. > :30:49.engaging and enduring. What happens is they have all the rehearsal
:30:49. > :30:56.sequences which turn into the full banana. Selling the musical, Kirsty.
:30:56. > :31:06.So cynical. Do they sow in, it seemed to me by the third episode,
:31:06. > :31:07.
:31:07. > :31:14.that stuff didn't meld at all, you didn't want any more of that.
:31:14. > :31:18.did turn into Glee, it seemed a bit of an idiom. They are trailing the
:31:18. > :31:23.musical. I don't think it will be that good. Marylin the musical is
:31:23. > :31:33.an elephant's graveyard. We talked of course, we saw shall we have a
:31:33. > :31:35.
:31:35. > :31:39.Joe deimaginey, shall we get a baseball line in. # Who's that man?
:31:39. > :31:43.He's the first place coach. # Throw him out
:31:43. > :31:51.# There isn't a doubt # That all men like to play
:31:51. > :31:55.# The national best # And I was just a little girl
:31:55. > :31:58.# I liked being dainty # And pretty
:31:58. > :32:05.# But now that I'm giving M # Sports a whirl
:32:05. > :32:10.# I find I kind of like # To get dirty
:32:10. > :32:15.Maybe it would have been better if the two Marylins would have been
:32:15. > :32:20.Glenn Close and Anjelica Houston. I do find musical theatre
:32:20. > :32:24.embarrassing, it is like Morris dancing. They are both equally bad.
:32:24. > :32:32.Both embarrassing. Paul's obsessed with this idea that we will have
:32:32. > :32:37.Marylin the musical. He wants to see it. The idea of using Marylin
:32:37. > :32:42.as fresh, minted music and using the covers. It is the Spielberg
:32:42. > :32:47.that they are allowed to commission an entire musical and create a
:32:47. > :32:51.slight weight soppy sitcom, that is an epic commission. There are dark
:32:51. > :32:56.lines in it? It is all about struggling actors with the
:32:56. > :33:01.rejection, that is ever green stuff. Going to auditions. It is cliched.
:33:01. > :33:08.Everyone loves seeing that. woman sexy, the other tender and
:33:08. > :33:13.sensitive, by the third episode the sexy one is now sensitive. What
:33:13. > :33:20.will happen next? It is cliched stuff. And Jack Davenport will get
:33:20. > :33:24.his jum uppance. He's in it to the end. With Homeland and House, the
:33:24. > :33:27.Brits are doing well in terms of American films on television and in
:33:27. > :33:32.the movies? If they are the only ones allowed to be complicated and
:33:32. > :33:37.interesting, as in this country, I'm not surprised. They are great
:33:37. > :33:41.on other roles, but capable to speak American. You don't get
:33:41. > :33:47.anyone who can't can cannot speak American, and Jack Davenport can
:33:47. > :33:53.speak American. Smash is on tomorrow evening at 10.00pm. Here
:33:53. > :33:57.in Glasgow, the biannual Glasgow international kicked off a visual
:33:57. > :34:01.festival this week, in every corner of the city. We sent these three to
:34:01. > :34:04.explore before they came into the studio. Here are some highlights.
:34:04. > :34:10.The festival's an event that happens across the city of Glasgow.
:34:10. > :34:14.It takes place in a lot of familiar contemporary art venues, but also
:34:14. > :34:18.in less expected places for contemporary art. Including
:34:18. > :34:23.Kelvingrove Art Gallery, known for its historic art collection.
:34:23. > :34:28.Richard Wright lives and works in Glasgow, we are looking at 14 years
:34:28. > :34:33.of work, works using traditional art and stories called techniques
:34:33. > :34:38.and spray-painting in enamel. There is a complexity in the work
:34:38. > :34:43.reflected in the exhibition. Carla is another artist from
:34:43. > :34:49.Glasgow with amazing opportunities all over Europe, not in Glasgow
:34:49. > :34:53.until this exhibition in Goma, her most substantial thing to do in
:34:53. > :34:57.Scotland. She has achieved differenciation in colour through
:34:57. > :35:02.all the wood she has used. That contrasts with a more plastic
:35:02. > :35:05.material that she has used. Wolfgang was the first artist ever
:35:05. > :35:09.to win the turner prize as a photographer. There is a real
:35:09. > :35:13.richness and depth, there is landscapes, portraits, still lives,
:35:13. > :35:17.there is what you could describe as abstract work, it is all our
:35:17. > :35:21.history in one exhibition. The festival very much grew out of the
:35:21. > :35:24.arts scene in Glasgow, it wouldn't happen if it wasn't for the fact
:35:24. > :35:29.that there is a healthy constituency of artists and
:35:29. > :35:36.independent art organisations in the city. The it came along as a
:35:36. > :35:42.moment to celebrate that. You might have spotted the fact
:35:42. > :35:47.that one was a bouncey castle and it ofn't quite a bouncey castle, it
:35:47. > :35:51.was a bouncey Stonehenge. You felt you were part of Stonehenge.
:35:51. > :35:54.loved it. I I'm not sure I felt I was part of Stonehenge, the
:35:54. > :35:58.original, I believed it in as a construction. It is beautifully set
:35:58. > :36:03.on a rising hill. You look at everything else around it. There it
:36:03. > :36:07.is. Everybody jumps an on the green bit, if you fling yourself against
:36:07. > :36:13.one of the great rocks it falls over, it is terrifying and great
:36:13. > :36:18.fun. How long did it take to blow up, I can't imagine. I thought
:36:18. > :36:21.concept actual art is childish and that makes it explicit. Did you
:36:21. > :36:26.jump around? I did, I thought more things like that around, in the
:36:26. > :36:30.Millennium Dome, they could have done that. Did Jeremy Deller entice
:36:30. > :36:36.you on to Stonehenge? He was standing around looking self-
:36:36. > :36:40.conscious on the side. The artist is like a city planner, it is like
:36:40. > :36:43.the wheel when it went up it brought pleasure to people. This
:36:43. > :36:47.will move around. It was cunning to have it open in Glasgow. I think if
:36:47. > :36:52.it had opened in the middle of the Olympics, which it is commissioned
:36:52. > :36:59.for, we might have been nor jaundiced. Very clever to bring it
:36:59. > :37:03.in Glasgow. Releases the joy. very hard work jumping on it.
:37:03. > :37:07.you're not 0-5 you are knackered. At least you didn't jump on the
:37:07. > :37:12.Karla Black, Goma, what did you make of it? I loved it, the smell
:37:12. > :37:17.hits you when you first go in. It is extraordinary, it is
:37:17. > :37:24.unreproducable, it is in the classical hall of Goma, it almost
:37:24. > :37:27.hills it with this huge wonderful smelling perfumed, layered, with
:37:27. > :37:32.the neo-classical, cellophane wreaths hung above it. It makes you
:37:32. > :37:35.very excited about the building and, wonderful, it doesn't come across
:37:35. > :37:40.in photographs. The point of it is the thing itself. That is rare and
:37:40. > :37:45.marvellous. I went to see the Richard Wright, I love him, so much
:37:45. > :37:49.about him is impermanent, this was works on paper over 14 years, my
:37:49. > :37:53.big disappointing, I love the gallery, but it is so hard to find
:37:53. > :37:59.it without much signage. What we want to sing from the rafters is
:37:59. > :38:04.isn't Richard Wright wonderful. The intcy of the work is amazing. --
:38:05. > :38:13.intricacy of the work is amazing, there he is, working away, making
:38:13. > :38:17.no fuss, 2009 Turner Prize winner. I went to see the new artists, to
:38:17. > :38:23.see, what does a young relatively unknown artist think about what
:38:23. > :38:26.they are now. Do they create stunts and incidents and events and epic
:38:26. > :38:30.scale. What was interested about this exhibition is you felt these
:38:30. > :38:33.new artists were crushed into a koorn. There was very little for
:38:33. > :38:38.them to express themselves in ways that we know. If there was one name
:38:38. > :38:43.in this collection that I in theed, that I thought may become that kind
:38:43. > :38:49.of artist was Ian Giles. In a sense here is someone that could begin to
:38:49. > :38:58.explore what a modern artist is, different med ya a being famous.
:38:58. > :39:03.Wolfgang Tillmans, the only photo- er to have won? This passed me by.
:39:04. > :39:07.I went, they said eclectic, I thought random, I thought it was
:39:07. > :39:11.abstract and heartless. I thought it was me. I thought my visual
:39:11. > :39:16.sense may have abandoned me. There is a brilliant view outside the
:39:16. > :39:19.window looking at the Clyde, it ofn't there. It is a selection of
:39:19. > :39:25.highlights, the whole point about the Glasgow festival, it is
:39:25. > :39:33.continuing until the 3rd of May. Just before we go, legendary by
:39:33. > :39:43.starrist, Bert Weedon best known for his guitar manual Play In A Day
:39:43. > :39:47.has died, aged 89, Eric Clapton, and others were some of the
:39:47. > :39:51.celebrities. He talked about his passion for guitars. Are you ready
:39:51. > :39:54.for rock'n'roll. What is it then about the guitar that makes it
:39:54. > :39:59.something which has got such popular appeal, even if you want
:39:59. > :40:08.play it well, people want to have one and play it? I don't know, it
:40:08. > :40:13.has got a symbol, a sexual thing, it is a beautiful thing, it is a
:40:13. > :40:18.thing of emotion, it is like a beautiful woman, you can cuddle it.
:40:18. > :40:28.I don't know what it is about the guitar, but it is, to my mind, the
:40:28. > :40:28.
:40:28. > :40:34.loveliest instrument of all. Can't be underestimated the impact
:40:34. > :40:39.he had. Not at all, before Bert Weedon this country had no guitar
:40:39. > :40:43.tradition, it was all coming from America, the blues and country, the
:40:43. > :40:48.idea that he did was create the possibility for there to be British
:40:48. > :40:54.guitar players. So he was basically the first guitar her ro. And he
:40:54. > :40:58.basically gave people the per-- hero, and he gave people in this
:40:58. > :41:04.country permission to be a guitar player, and we have become a
:41:04. > :41:07.country of great by star players. The generosity of the book, and
:41:07. > :41:11.hard learned skill over 40 years, made him a national treasure sure,
:41:11. > :41:18.before there was ever really such a word. Essentially he was the first
:41:18. > :41:27.then produced magnificent guitar heros because of Bert Weedon.
:41:27. > :41:33.is almost all from us. My thanks to Susan, and Paul and Marcel. We will
:41:33. > :41:38.be back with the book special on 11th of May. Stay with us on BBC
:41:38. > :41:42.Two for later with Jools. To get you into the mood, here is the last
:41:42. > :41:52.of the BBC Introducing musicians, Rae Morris, sheer she is with Don't
:41:52. > :41:52.
:41:52. > :42:00.# I keep hoping that we'll find # Another reason to compromise
:42:00. > :42:07.# And this time I'll break # Inside
:42:07. > :42:10.# I keep staring # To the past
:42:10. > :42:18.# And Alloa those feelings he compromise
:42:18. > :42:26.# This time I'll break down in side # Don't go
:42:26. > :42:31.# Don't go feel like you have to # Only if you want to
:42:31. > :42:38.# Fill my world with hope again # Hope again
:42:38. > :42:43.# Sometimes people make the wrong moves
:42:44. > :42:53.# Walking in the wrong shoes # Make me feel like hope again
:42:54. > :42:54.
:42:54. > :42:57.# Hope again # We keep on changing
:42:57. > :43:07.# And all the answers are hard to find
:43:07. > :43:07.
:43:07. > :43:14.# This time we'll go hand from hand # I'll shed some sorrow
:43:14. > :43:24.# Shed some sin # I hate this state we're in
:43:24. > :43:25.
:43:25. > :43:35.# This time I'll break down inside # So slowly
:43:35. > :43:35.
:43:35. > :43:41.# falls from your mind # Falls from your mind
:43:41. > :43:51.# Hope dies slowly # Falls from your eyes
:43:51. > :43:56.
:43:56. > :44:01.# Don't go # Don't you feel like you have to
:44:01. > :44:08.# Only if you want to # Fill my world with