Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Hard to believe but it’s now 10 years since Toyah was touring the UK playing the lead role in the musical Calamity Jane. Before a three-month residency at The Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End in 2003, the musical played at numerous theatres, and to thousands of people, during a nine-month UK tour that began in September 2002 at the Derngate Theatre, Northampton . It was an incredibly physical and demanding role for Toyah, making a year of shows all the more impressive. I was lucky enough to see Calamity Jane on a few occasions: In Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and London and each time Toyah and the show were fantastic. Visit Dreamscape’s dedicated Calamity Jane website. (Thanks to Andi)

A 1991 report from ITV Calendar News, featuring rare footage of Toyah’s Cheap Thrills performance, has just been uploaded to You Tube. Toyah visited a number of British prisons, while simultaneously touring theatres with Amadeus, in 1991 in Cheap Thrills, a specially written play based on the life of Janis Joplin. Click below to view and here for larger caps.

Toyah’s appearance on BBC1’s Clean Slate, also from 1991, has been uploaded too.

Evolution Pantomimes have updated their website with details and images for all of their 2012/13 festive season productions, including Toyah’s Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty at The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury

Cast: Gareth Gates, Toyah Willcox, Katrina Bryan, Ben Roddy, Lloyd Hollett, Faye Brooks, Ieuan Rhys. Director: Paul Hendy; MD: Chris Wong; Choreographer: Paul Tracy.

Tallulah, in Stephen Poliakoff’s American Days, was Toyah’s second theatre role, two years after Tales From The Vienna Woods. The play opened at The ICA, London on 12th June 1979 and also starred Phil Daniels as Gary, and Caroline Embling as Lorraine. American Days unfolds in the sterile London offices of an international entertainment conglomerate. Three would-be punk rock stars audition for a record company executive…

• Prosceneium: Calamity Jane: This set for Calamity Jane was originally built for the highly acclaimed professional tour starring Toyah Willcox.

• A new ‘Blackpool Pride 2012’ flyer has been released, with Toyah included. View it here.

• Time Out London: Time Out Says: Last year she celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of her most successful album ‘Anthem’ and tonight she’ll be celebrating 30 years since the release of her second best-selling LP, ‘The Changeling’. Wilcox will be performing prime cuts from the 1982 record, as well as other material.

• A random, but funny, reminiscence about the 12″ picture disc of ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ is included the latest blog by ‘Married To The Moz’. View here.

• Let’s Get Better Terms: It’s Jubilee Time Again: Jarman knows what he is doing visually, and enjoyed gardens (with or without plastic flowers), wastelands, and also had an eye for the beauty of people like Toyah, Jordan, Jack Birkett, Helen the dwarf and many others.

Toyah’s debut theatre role, playing Emma in Tales From The Vienna Woods, with The National Theatre Company, at The Laurence Olivier Theatre, London was an audacious beginning. The production had a large cast and also starred Stephen Rea, Warren Clarke, Brenda Blethyn and Elizabeth Spriggs. It was directed by Maximilian Schell and opened on 21st January 1977.

The first promo photo for Sleeping Beauty 2012. Click to visit the Marlowe Theatre’s website.

It’s only April but the Marlowe Theatre’s 2012 panto, and cast, has just been announced:

Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox are on board for the Marlowe Theatre pantomime…

Singer Gareth Gates and pop legend Toyah Willcox will be the star acts at this year’s Marlowe Theatre pantomime, Sleeping Beauty. After finishing runner-up to Will Young in Pop Idol in 2002, Gates went on to sell 3.5 million records with No1 hits such as Unchained Melody and Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake).

After a stint on Dancing On Ice in 2008, Gates – who will play the Prince – has performed in musicals Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Les Miserables, both on the 25th anniversary tour and in the West End.

A veteran of six Marlowe Theatre pantomimes, punk princess Willcox has had 13 top 40 singles and released 22 studio albums in her 30 year career. Set to play the Wicked Fairy, she has also presented TV shows The Good Sex Guide Late, Watchdog and Songs of Praise.

Producer Paul Hendy said: “Over the past few years, we have built a reputation for casting highly-talented performers, and Sleeping Beauty is no exception. In fact, they are all top quality – our leading man Gareth has an incredible voice and Toyah has to be the best female pantomime artist in the country. “All the cast are going to be a joy to work with and, more importantly, a joy to watch.”

Last year’s pantomime Cinderella – the first at the new Marlowe Theatre – was seen by a record breaking 83,000 people.  Sleeping Beauty will run at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, from Friday, November 30 to Sunday, January 20, 2013. Box Office 01227 787787 or visit www.marlowetheatre.com.

• The Marlowe Theatre website has also updated this morning with this news | Also reported by ITV News and Kent News.

2012 marks 10 years since Toyah took on the lead role of Calamity Jane, the musical that toured the UK and also enjoyed a residency at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End.

The, highly successful, production ran for over a year and, ultimately, played to more than 200,000 people through the UK, receiving numerous positive reviews along the way.

Toyah was great in the musical, and really took on the role of ‘Calamity’, giving an incredibly physical performance, but there were also tender moments. The pivotal scene, and song, of the show was ‘Secret Love’. The song is legendary and forever associated, just like Calamity Jane, to Doris Day. As you’ll hear below Toyah sang the song beautifully and her voice soars.

NB: This is a low-quality audience recording I’m uploading for fans to listen to. It’s highly unlikely that the mooted ‘Cast Recording’ of Calamity Jane will ever be released. Visit Dreamscape’s Calamity Jane mini-site here. (Thanks to Alec Kelly)

One of Toyah’s most famous theatre plays, Trafford Tanzi by Claire Luckham, is back… At the Empire Theatre, Blackburn at the end of this month in a production by Blackburn College Performing Arts Department and they even mention Toyah in their promotion for their play.

“You are invited to cheer and boo the characters as though you were present at an actual wrestling match.

Toyah Willcox was famous for her fantastic characterisation of Tanzi. This is a superb play you would be crazy to miss.”

Happy Halloween to you all – and spookily… a bunch of vampires will descend on Ipswich this evening. Rumour has it it the event will be filmed as well!! Toyah and Vampires Rock are at the Ipswich Regent, with a film crew capturing the show for a future DVD release (not confirmed as yet but highly likely).

PS. It’s exactly one year since Latex Messiah (Viva La Rebel In You) was released. Time flies!

PS. It’s                                 exactly one year since ‘Latex                                 Messiah (Viva La Rebel In You)’                                 was released. Time flies!