Anthony Drewe, making musicals

I talk to Anthony Drewe, the award-winning musical theatre lyricist.

In collaboration with the composer George Stiles, Anthony has written songs for; the Cameron Mackintosh/Disney production of Mary Poppins, The Wind in the Willows, Half a Sixpence, Just So and Betty Blue Eyes.

And his Olivier-winning musical Honk! has been seen by more than 6 million people around the world.

As we hear about his wonderful career and listen to some of the beautiful songs he's written with composer George Stiles, Anthony talks to me about:

• How we went from a student zoologist to award-winning lyricist!
• How at first he was too shy to perform on the stage.
• Why he tries to stay "biologically true" to the animal characters in his musicals.
• After hearing Sweeney Todd he decided to write his first musical - despite having never done anything like it before!
• How George and he had to work as part-time decorators to fund their early musical writing career.
• Why he used wallpaper to help write his first musical.
• The emotive, shocking inspiration for his smash-hit musical Honk!
• His big break.
• What an animated film version of the Thumbelina fairytale and the musical Les Misérables have in common.
• How George and he got the job writing new songs for the Mary Poppins musical!
• The making of the Mary Poppins London show production - and the story behind the new songs he wrote for it with George Stiles.
• What Pamela Travers was really like to work with (was it Saving Mr. Banks?).
• Mrs. Banks' backstory.
• Why supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is said backward in the new version he wrote with George Stiles.
• His new musical Identical - and why he's still looking for identical twins to be in it!

ANTHONY'S CHALLENGE!

Write new lyrics for the song The Perfect Nanny or Practically Perfect from Mary Poppins, or NYC from Annie (choose one song). If you choose the song NYC, write new lyrics for it with the song title changed to "NHS".

Please listen to Anthony talk about his challenge in this Podcast before you start writing anything.

The winners of each song choice will be taken by Anthony to see the London production of Mary Poppins. Winners pay own travel and expenses.

Record yourself performing the new song and send your video/sound clip to: spotlightvideos2020@gmail.com

CLOSING DATE: 28th June 2020

THANK YOU ANTHONY - AND GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Music credits:
Mary Poppins (Original London Cast Recording)
Jolly Holiday, Brimstone and Treacle, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,
Being Mrs. Banks, Practically Perfect, Anything Can Happen, The Perfect Nanny
NYC Company, Kimmy Cobb, Ron Raines, Ruthie Henshall & Sarah French Annie (Original Studio Cast)
Prelude / The Ballad of Sweeney Todd Michael Ball Sweeney Todd (The 2012 London Cast Recording) Soundtrack
The Schuyler Sisters Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas-Jones, Leslie Odom, Jr., Original Broadway Cast of "Hamilton" & Renée Elise Goldsberry Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) Soundtrack
Heart of the Weave The Wicker Husband, Darren Clark and Rhys Jennings
Other songs kindly provided by Stiles&Drewe:
Different, Honk!
Every Tear a Mother Cries, Honk!
One, Two, Three Little Pigs, Three Little Pigs
Does the Moment Ever Come?, Just So
There's Always Tomorrow, Peter Pan

Chapters

• 1:11 The early years
• 4:53 The student zoologist
• 6:10 Animal characterisation
• 8:05 What made me want to make a musical
• 11:33 Our first musical: Tutankhamun
• 15:31 Our creative process
• 21:24 Working with Cameron Mackintosh
• 23:08 The making of Honk!
• 28:32 Why Honk! was so successful
• 32:56 Advice for young lyricists: how to succeed
• 34:30 The inspiration behind Hamilton the musical
• 37:37 The practically perfect way we got the Mary Poppins job
• 45:31 Being Mrs Banks - her backstory
• 47:04 Making supercalifragilisticexpialidocious even more super!
• 48:22 How we wrote new Mary Poppins songs
• 52:59 Replacing the film animation with choreography
• 55:46 His new musical: Identical
• 1:04:18 Overcoming writer's block
• 1:06:39 Looking back: my favourite songs
• 1:10:05 The story behind "Anything can happen if you let it"
• 1:12:46 Supporting new writers: The Stiles&Drewe award
• 1:20:19 Anthony's challenge!