Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Susan Boyle storms the stage once again in the musical of her life

"She was sensational," said Cathy Garraway, a 49-year-old from Sydney.

"It was worth coming half way around the world to see her tonight."

It is three years since Boyle, a devout Catholic, single and living on welfare in the small village of Blackburn, near the Scottish capital Edinburgh, became an overnight star.

It started when footage of her audition for a British television talent show went viral on the Internet.

In the video, the audience and the judges snigger as Boyle, looking dishevelled and more than a little eccentric steps on to the stage.

Then she opens her mouth to sing "I Dreamed A Dream", the hit from "Les Miserables" -- and that was when her life changed.

The footage has since received about 500 million hits on YouTube, according to the musical's producers. And she has gone on to record three albums that have sold more than 16 million copies worldwide.

The new musical is based on Boyle's autobiography, "The Woman I was Born to Be". It follows her from birth, when she was deprived of oxygen, through school when she was bullied for her learning difficulties, to the years spent caring for her mother.

The scene of her breakthrough moment at the audition had the theatre audience cheering and whooping. But they fell quiet as the tale turned to the intrusion of the press and her near-breakdown when she lost the talent show final.

The story is told as if Boyle is narrating it, with her memories revealed like dreams, full of laughter, dancing, music and the love of her large family, as well as heartache at the deaths of her beloved parents and sister.

"I felt that the world hadn't really heard Susan's voice," said co-writer and actress Elaine C. Smith, who Boyle personally chose to play the role.

Smith describes the singer's life as a "fairytale" but told AFP: "I didn't want it to be a sugary-sweet story.

"What fascinated me was that ordinary woman, and what she'd gone through in her life.

"It is a very delicate balance that you play the truth and you play it honestly, and there is fun in the show but there is also great pathos."

The singer approved the script, which is interspersed with hits from her albums and classic songs she associates with key moments in her life.

But she has yet to watch the musical in full, finding it too painful, Smith said.

Boyle remains mentally fragile, although there was little sign of nerves when she took to the stage Tuesday, sending the audience into a frenzy of delight.

"It just took your heart away," said 79-year-old Jeanette Mole.

After a week in Newcastle, the musical goes on a tour of Britain, after which the producers hope to take it to other parts of Europe, to Canada, the United States and Australia -- although many of Boyle's fans couldn't wait that long.

Maire Byrne, a white-haired 70-year-old from Dublin who was wearing an "I Love SuBo t-shirt", was among about 100 international fans who met online and arranged to come to Newcastle together to see the show.

"It was beautifully done -- this is what she wants the world to know about her," Byrne told AFP.

Meg Neiderer, a 52-year-old from Pennsylvania, added: "It's not just her music, her voice -- her story touches people. I can relate to her."

Smith echoed this, saying: "For 20 years we've been living in a completely celebrity-obsessed culture, where if you're not tall, thin, blonde and gorgeous, particularly as a woman, you don't count.

"Susan has sort of put a bomb under that."
Susan Boyle takes to stage in new musical of her life
03/28/2012 Susan Boyle made a triumphant return to the stage on Tuesday at the premiere of a musical charting her rise from humble church volunteer to global superstar.

Susan Boyle made a triumphant return to the stage on Tuesday at the premiere of a musical charting her rise from humble church volunteer to global superstar.

Wearing a glittering red dress, the 50-year-old received several standing ovations as she sang her signature tune, "I Dreamed A Dream", at the opening night of the musical of the same name in Newcastle.

"We love you," shouted out a member of the audience.

James Cameron hits on airwaves with 'Titanic' 3D launch

Cameron dived the wreck 12 times before filming the original, saying it "had a huge impact" on the end result.

"We shot the real wreck -- we didn't just build models of it," he explained.

He said he had told set-builders: "It's got to be exactly like you went back in a time machine and you were on the deck of the Titanic."

The director of smash-hit sci-fi adventure "Avatar" completed his dive of the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of the Pacific island of Guam, on Sunday morning local time, and revealed it had given him fresh inspiration.

"My interest in things like 'Avatar' -- creating new worlds -- all comes from my curiosity about our world, right here. Every bit of diving I've done feeds into the films that I've made.
03/28/2012 "Titanic" director James Cameron hit the red carpet in London for the launch of the Oscar-winning film's 3D version, as the 100th anniversary of the legendary ship's sinking approaches.

"Titanic" director James Cameron hit the red carpet in London for the launch of the Oscar-winning film's 3D version, as the 100th anniversary of the legendary ship's sinking approaches.

The US filmmaker jetted into the British capital on Tuesday, fresh from his seven-mile (11.2 kilometre) submarine dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the ocean's deepest point.

He was joined on the red carpet by the film's British star Kate Winslet and US actor Billy Zane for the premiere at the Royal Albert Hall.

"The 3D enriches all of Titanic's most thrilling moments and its most emotional moments," Cameron said on the red carpet.

"More than ever, you feel you're right there going through all the jeopardy that Jack and Rose go through," he added, referring to the film's two main characters, played by Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
In "Titanic", Winslet played socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater alongside DiCaprio as male lead Jack Dawson, in a dramatisation of the real-life maritime disaster that claimed more than 1,000 lives.

The biggest, most ambitious ship of the age hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from Southampton to New York, sinking on April 15, 1912.

The new release comes 15 years after the original. The film entered into movie history when it picked up 11 Oscars.

"It is a long time ago and it also feels like yesterday," Winslet told Sky News. "It completely changed my life and it gave me the opportunity to make creative choices.

"It's really great to celebrate it all over again. It's a very different experience, you really do feel as though you're on the boat, the water rushing round you," she added.

The Oscar-winning actress admitted that viewing her younger self would be "weird".

"It is like being forced to go through a photo album of your former self for three and a half hours solidly.

"I haven't seen the whole film in a very long time, I've seen little pieces of it, but it's a whole different me and we look much younger and our acting was different, hopefully not as good as now."

DiCaprio had been unable to attend the event because of work commitments, Winslet said.