Following a strictly limited summer season at the London Palladium, The Wind in the Willows: The New Musical is set to delight audiences of all ages, as it is screened in cinemas across the UK & Ireland over the Easter period - including the Odeon in Milton Keynes.
The multi-camera production of the much-loved musical adventure will be screened in stunning surround sound and in breathtaking high definition, bringing one of the highlights of London’s West End to local multiplexes and giving everyone the best seat in the house. Participating cinemas and booking links can be found at www.willowsmusical.com
Captured live from the London Palladium, The Wind in the Willows stars Rufus Hound as the amazing Mr Toad, Simon Lipkin as Ratty, Craig Mather as Mole, Neil McDermott as Chief Weasel, Denise Welch as Mrs Otter, Gary Wilmot as Badger and the entire West End company.
Based on Kenneth Grahame’s treasured novel, The Wind in the Willows was brought to the stage by producer Jamie Hendry in a new musical adaptation with book by Academy Award-winning screenwriter and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and Olivier Award-winning composer and lyricist duo George Stiles and Anthony Drewe.
Audiences will join Ratty, Badger, Mole and the impulsive Toad as they embark on a series of riotous adventures spiralling from Toad's insatiable need for speed! The production features eye-poppingly beautiful design, exuberant choreography, a gloriously British score, comedy, heart and thrills, sure to delight families across the country.
Gary Wilmot first rose to fame as a contestant on New Faces, with presenting credits since then including Showstoppers and So You Want To Be Top. His extensive musical theatre credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Savoy Theatre and UK Tour), Oklahoma! (UK Tour), The Pajama Game (Shaftesbury Theatre) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London Palladium). He recently starred in Dick Whittington (London Palladium).
The Wind In The Willows is screening in Milton Keynes. Does it have any significance for you?
Gary: I live just outside Milton Keynes, in Bletchley Park, so it's my local shopping centre. I've lived there for ten years now and I love Milton Keynes. It's fantastic with so much to do
What makes The Wind In The Willows the perfect Easter treat for families?
Gary: Families being together in the cinema is what it's all about really and it's a great show. Stiles and Drewe wrote some beautiful songs, probably the best songs ever written for any version of this story - and there have been many versions over the years. It's a glorious production and the cast were fantastic to work with.
What are your fondest memories of the Palladium run?
Gary: The atmosphere and the response from the audience. The Palladium has been recently renovated and they did a great job. It looks brilliant and it's really nice to work in, and the response at the end of each performance was fantastic. I wasn't on for the first 40 minutes or something like that, but listening to the reaction over the tannoy in the dressing room was so inspiring and I couldn't wait to get out there. It was like 'Let me at 'em!'
How important are filmed shows in terms of bringing theatre to the widest possible audiences?
Denise: An awful lot of people couldn't get to see it on stage. Not everybody can afford to travel to London or to pay the ticket prices so it's a great opportunity to reach a much wider audience. Hopefully people who haven't been theatregoers but who see it in the cinema might think 'Wow, I'd love to have seen that on stage' and that might lead to a future love of theatre for them.
Gary: The quality of this one is extraordinary. The idea of putting live stuff in cinemas has been around for some time now but I don't think it's ever been done as well as The Wind In The Willows. I've seen bits of it and I can't wait to see the whole thing. It's done like a proper film and hopefully we'll be seeing more and more filmed shows like this.
Did you modulate your performance for the filming?
Gary: We were very aware that the cameras were around and I think we instinctively softened our performances when the cameras were right in front of us, but what cinema audiences are going to get is what theatre audiences got on the night.
Why do you think The Wind In The Willows is such an enduring story?
Gary: If I knew that for sure I'd put it in a bottle and sell it. There are so many ingredients. It's enchanting and charming, it's a story of friendship and loyalty and that's always intriguing, isn't it? We see that all the time, when someone helps someone off a bus or an escalator. It's all about helping one another and also it's a fun story.
Denise: Mr Toad gets away with a lot and I think people enjoy that. Also it's a tale of friendship that's loved by children and adults alike.
Can you recall when you first encountered it?
Gary: I think I saw a production in Regent's Park about 15 years ago and I enjoyed it but it was really geared towards kids whereas this one is more for the whole family. I didn't know much about it before. I didn't read the book when I was a kid. I didn't read much at all because I was slightly dyslexic and it was more of an effort than a joy. I've developed my own little techniques for reading scripts and stuff since then but at school I couldn't figure out why classmates could read books really quickly and I struggled.
What were the biggest challenges of the production for you as actors?
Gary: For me it was about hitting the ground running. The show has one of the best opening numbers I've ever seen. It's so thrilling and there are moments where it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, but I don't come out on stage until a long time after that. Everybody's all settled into the show then bang, on comes Badger. I found myself pacing around the dressing room waiting to go on stage.
Denise: Trying to be an otter who isn't actually an otter, as it were, was a challenge. We aren't playing animals, we're playing the human form of animals so to speak – giving a nod towards that creature. I think a lot of people came and expected to see us wearing more fur with more traditional leanings towards those characters. Mrs Otter – who was originally just Otter in the story but I think Julian Fellowes [who wrote the book] thought we needed to have at least one principal female – is dressed in a sort of 1950s bathing suit to indicate this creature who is in and out of the water all the time.
How did you research the animal character?
Gary: I just saw Badger as an ex-military man, an ex-major or ex-colonel maybe, who is used to things being absolutely in order. [Laughs] If ever any army stories come up now I'm well-trained to do them. But I didn't watch any clips of badgers. I'm not one for doing that sort of thing, besides which they're more representations of animals with the relevant characteristics.
Were there any memorable gaffes or heckles during the run?
Gary: I bashed my head. There's a big hole in the middle of the stage that I had to squeeze through. I had to come out with some gusto, a bit like a hurdler putting one leg through then the trailing leg follows. I bashed my head doing that and for a few moments I didn't know where I was but I managed to get myself together again.
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