Like Somone in Love: April 29 - May 3

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The James Dean of Jazz – Did he jump or did he fall?

For one week only, from 29 April – 3 May Blondini’s Jazz Lounge comes alive with the unforgettable music and intriguing story of Jazz Legend, Chet Baker. Like Someone in Love is a new musical play written and performed by David Goldthorpe and accompanied by a live three piece Jazz band made up of some of Wellington’s best. Having debuted to great critical acclaim at the 2007 New Zealand Fringe Festival, this is your last chance to see Like Someone in Love before it tours to the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin.

Known as the James Dean of the Jazz world for his good looks and bad boy reputation, legendary Jazz musician Chet Baker had an extraordinary talent both with his trumpet and his spare and captivating vocal style. But his life off-stage was the antithesis to his cool and subdued stage presence as he grappled with drug related jail time, failed relationships and above all his crippling life-long addiction to drugs.

Through songs and narrative, this play looks at Chet Baker’s life, his success, his weaknesses and ultimately his demise and sudden death. Did he fall from a hotel window in Amsterdam in a drug-induced haze or did he throw himself out when his talent could no longer save him?

Writer and performer David Goldthorpe says “if you don’t who Chet Baker is, you should.” He says Like Someone in Love is “a no-holds barred glimpse at who Chet Baker really was. It’s a chance to get closer to the real Chet Baker than you ever would by picking up a book or reading a CD cover.”

Goldthorpe has a self confessed love affair with Chet Baker’s music and style. Like Someone in Love is a love letter to Chet, which has been has been honed and polished by Goldthorpe’s collaborators’ director David Lawrence and musical director Tim Solly.

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“a simple yet classy show that might well mesmerise us with cool jazz if it did not also challenge us with flashes of fact that are hard to ignore.”

That’s how John Smythe described the show when it debuted at the New Zealand Fringe Festival in 2007. Reviewer Ewen Coleman from the the Dominion Post said, “This is no impersonation of Baker, or a boring chronology of his life, but an exceptionally well-researched piece, professionally put together…this is a show for theatre-goers as well as jazz-lovers, and one that deserves a repeat season.” This season is production company Ensign Toast’s answer to Coleman’s wish.

Like Someone in Love is a thrilling combination of beautifully melodic music, raw dialogue and an insight into the heart of a legend. It shouldn’t be missed.

Like Someone in Love
29 April – 3 May
9pm at Blondini’s Jazz Lounge,
Level 1 Embassy Theatre, 10 Kent Terrace, Wellington
$25 Full price / $15 Students or Concession
Bookings: Phone 3850170 or email bookings[at]davidgoldthorpe.com
For more information see www.davidgoldthorpe.com
This show contains references to drug use and violence.

ENDS

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