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Go Backstage With GHOST QUARTET
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Oct 29, 2022
The UK premiere of Dave Malloy's Ghost Quartet has taken up a winter residency at the newly opened Boulevard Theatre. BroadwayWorld UK reporter Jamie Body went along to chat to the cast and some of the creatives behind this chilling show - watch the video below!
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0:00
Now I don't know, but I've been told, there's two of everything
0:08
My name is Zubin Vala, and I can't tell you how to introduce my character, because we play quite a few of them
0:14
One of them is called The Astronomer, one of them is maybe called Monk, one of them is also a driver on the MTA, who I'm not sure has a name
0:22
Anyway, so there we go. drive and I'm Carly Gordon and I play Rose, Roxy, Starchild and Dunya's Island and Rose Red
0:34
It's really hard to describe actually it's so there's interweaving stories so he describes it
0:39
he subtitles it um Dave Malloy that is subtitles it a song cycle on love death and whiskey
0:47
and then there are different stories so there's a story that's related to
0:53
Scheherazade and Dhaniazade and the Arabian Nights there's a story that's related to a kind of a fairy tale to do with an
1:00
astronomer who lives in a tree and his love affair with two sisters called Rose
1:05
and Pearl and there's another strand that's to do based on a real event that happened on the New York subway
1:11
which is where a photographer took a photograph of somebody who'd just been
1:16
pushed in front of a subway train and this photograph is really quite depressing and gripping
1:23
when you see it. So there's all these different weaving strands and you weave them together and they're songs that are about love, hope, loss, piecing yourself together, having lost
1:33
yourself, kind of piecing yourself together, trying to work out who you are, memories of
1:39
families, loved ones. I think in a way it's about sort of like, it's a wonderful sort
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poetic piece that when you listen to the whole thing your mind kind of spools off into lots of
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different areas and i think that's what he intends there's no narrative linear narrative as you would
1:57
expect in other musicals there's so much stuff into this that everyone can take something from
2:03
and uh what i love about it is they sort of it's called like a circular story so all these different
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stories weave in and out of each other from different times different dimensions but they all sort of are related to one another And anyone can take what they want from the story So much stuffed into it
2:28
And, you know, assisted by this incredible music. It's the most beautiful music
2:36
If there's any reason to come and see a musical, it's the music. It's the most stunning music
2:40
It was the big thing that drew me in. And we do it quite well. Yeah. Cheers, Uvas. Romantic
2:47
Cheers, thanks. Bewitching was pretty delightful. Bewitching. Hmm. Hypnotic. Um. Lush. Thrilling
3:03
My name is Niccolò Purradi and in the show I'm playing different characters
3:08
I'm playing the bear. I'm playing the fool. I'm playing the pusher. I'm playing different instruments as well, but mostly cello
3:19
My name is Muna, I am playing, well, a version of myself, but it's a very difficult question
3:28
like, it's all a bit kind of, you know, meta in a way. But I'm playing the victim, Lady
3:35
Usher, Pearl and Scheherazade, they're my four characters. My first job was in the round at the Royal Exchange, I think about four years ago now
3:50
I don't know, I see rather than a hindrance, I see it as a gift to be in the theatre in
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the round because everywhere you turn you're giving someone else a different story
4:00
Especially with this space, it's so intimate that I really hope the audience feel like
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they're part of the story and like Nico said you know right behind me someone can
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touch me and everyone gets a different version of the story but what I hope is
4:13
that they feel part of it you know and I also think that it's so great that
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there is theatre around in the heart of Soho I don't think there are enough theatre in the rounds I think they're the best spaces you can have for a musical it's certainly
4:26
challenging because of the sound aspect of things and I know you know the art sound designer is
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incredible and there been working you know working with that and but you know I think the challenge makes it even more satisfying you know when everything comes together and yeah I think it just brilliant and such a
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beautiful space and a gift to be an ode to companionship okay oh wow okay I
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I would say... Spooky? A conversation about love and loss
5:11
Okay, friendship and whiskey. My name is Bill Buckhurst and I'm the director of Ghost Quartet
5:18
And I'm Ben Cox and I'm the music supervisor and arranger. I mean I have to say
5:23
I mean it's not every day that you get an opportunity to direct
5:28
this opening show of a brownie theatre so it's been an absolute thrill
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from day one working on this and not least because it is such a magnificent space
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I mean it's so beautiful it's a proper jewel in the in the West End
5:42
I mean it's what I love particularly about it is its intimacy I mean it just feels so
5:47
you know the actors are so close to the audience it really celebrates that relationship
5:53
and I love it I've always loved watching shows where as an audience member you feel kind of immersed
6:01
within the action and this is wonderful for them It's absolutely unique, I mean it's been a real
6:07
challenge and really exciting to work the music in such a small space because of course
6:11
it completely changes how the cast members hear each other, how the audience
6:15
hear the cast, you get a really unique experience as an audience member in this piece
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because if you're sitting in one place, you hear a different balance
6:23
If you're sitting in another place, you know, so actually you get, you could come back and see the show five times and you'd get an entirely
6:28
different sort of musical soundscape, which would be really interesting. But yeah, it's been, it's been kind of fun to
6:35
to be right up close to the audience and it's exposing, but it's so exciting, I think, for the performers
6:40
because they feel like they're really telling stories directly to individuals. These four, Zubin, Munna, Carly and Nico
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are just off the scale brilliant so talented not only are they brilliant actors of course
6:54
and singers but this incredible skill with so many instruments about 30 instruments I think some of you would like 30 not that you particularly know it because they play everything so effortlessly and such grace
7:09
and skill that you just get totally mesmerised by what they're doing
7:13
we're so lucky to have them in this cast I have to say
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and in terms of rehearsing it what was your experience like? What was amazing was that they are really
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really talented instrumentalists in their own right. And then we sort of threw
7:30
a load of new instruments at them as well, because Dave Molloy has written
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for all these really unique instruments. We've got auto harp, which is a thing
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of itself, a Celtic harp, lots of synthesizer, strange percussion instruments that aren't sort of usual
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Erhu, Chinese fiddle. And so, for example, Nicolò, our amazing cellist, is a fab cellist, but he's not
7:56
played an Erhu before and yet he just happened to pick it up and he was extraordinary
8:00
when we workshopped, do you remember we had to buy an Erhu
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we spent a week or so sort of playing around with instruments before rehearsal started
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and we got an Erhu and couldn't make a sound out of it
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at all, it was like it was really scratchy and then Nika came
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in and sort of you know with grace and effortlessness just managed to create this beautiful sound
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and, you know, that is one of the sort of lovely things I think about the show that Dave's written
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is that he sort of puts together instruments that you might not necessarily think would go together
8:39
but create this totally sort of magical sound, and played as well as these four played
8:47
I mean, it's really special to listen to. Yeah, OK, you're going to start
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I mean, scary's got to be in there, hasn't it? I think there are scary moments
8:56
Magical. Virtuosic. Thrilling. Where are we going next
9:08
I think it's a feast for the ears. Too many words, too many words
9:14
I'd say wildly imaginative
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