Reclaiming Songs For The Man!

Reclaiming Songs For The Man!

The Moa Lives! in association with STAMP at THE EDGE presents
SONGS FOR GUY
Written and directed by Kip Chapman

Love songs – boy meets girl, girl falls in love with boy, commence crooning. But where are the songs about man-to-man love, which the Top 40 overlooks and 7% of the population are ignored? They’re about to come out, loud and proud, with Songs For Guy, playing from September 7th at the Limelight Lounge, Aotea Centre, THE EDGE.

Songs For Guy sets to make reparations for classic songs of stage, screen and popular culture for gay men across New Zealand, combining the real life confessionals from the public with the works of Billy Joel, Dave Dobbyn and George Gershwin and productions including South Pacific and Chess. Songs you originally though were specifically aimed at the female of the species garner a whole new perspective and even show the ambiguity lyrics can have from an alternative outlet.

The creators at the helm of the production went on an extended period of research within the gay community, asking for feedback and sharing stories about their lives which would be used to weave the bulk of the songs together, rather than the songs weaving the narration together – all in a fabulous (or “fantitty” we believe is the new lingo) cabaret style setting.

The personal tales of what it means to love, how do you get that guy and what should we wear has given the show a voice by the gay community rather than explicitly from the gay community, and has even got to the details of the battles fought for modern day gay rights alongside what life was like for a gay man 20, 30, 40 and even 50 years ago.

Creator and organiser of The Chapman Kip Theatre Awards and the HACKMAN Theatre Awards, director Kip Chapman has become a hallowed member of New Zealand’s theatrical fraternity - his portrayal of the young Huck Finn in Big River won him The Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for best male newcomer in 2004 and he won an Outstanding Performance Award for his role as Alex in The Little Dog Laughed in 2008.

Chapman also co-created, wrote and directed APOLLO 13: Mission Control that won Most Original Play of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 2008. It continues to tour NZ and was last performed at the Sydney Opera House in March.

With Chapman at the helm, be brings some incredible talents of Auckland theatre present; performers Todd Emerson (The History Boys, Autobahn, The Reindeer Monologues) and Andrew Laing (Holding The Man, Berlin, Entertaining Mr Sloan) taking part in the production alongside Stephen Butterworth (Sweet Charity, Who Needs Sleep Anyway?, Boys In The Band), both choreographing and performing with the two, while Paul Barrett comes off the sleeper-hit that was Tic-Tic at this year’s NZ International Comedy Festival bringing not only his acting talent but his musical direction skills also.

ENDS

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