Shȃn takes scary role in Sweeney Todd

Popular Welsh singer Shȃn Cothi is about to step in the shoes of Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson.

 

The former West End star (pictured below) will transform herself into the rough Cockney schemer, Mrs Nellie Lovett,  in Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street which will be the curtain-raiser for the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod on Monday, July 7.

She be performing alongside old friends, opera superstar Bryn Terfel and the top tenor Wynne Evans aka Gio Compario in the Go Compare TV ads, in what promises to be a sensational opening night.

 

It will be a homecoming for one of Britain's top singing actors, Eric Roberts, who hails originally from Llangollen and will be playing the part of Judge Turpin.

 

Meanwhile, Alun Rhys Jenkins, one of the Three Welsh Tenors, will be taking the role of Beadle Banford while, mezzo soprano Leah Marian Jones, the former company principal at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, will be performing as the Beggar Woman.

 

They will be joined on stage by schoolboy Dewi Wykes, 14, from Ruthin, who was hand-picked by Bryn to play Tobias Ragg.

 

Dewi was alerted to the auditions for the role by his grandparents, Llinos and Tyrone Powell-Jones, who live in Wrexham, who had read about them in the Leader.

 

Earlier this year Bryn earned rave reviews when he played the Demon Barber in Broadway production co-starring Emma Thompson.

 

Shan is delighted to be part of the iconic international festival, forged in the aftermath of the Second World War with the aim of promoting world peace and harmony.

During the first full week in July every year since, Llangollen is becomes a cultural melting pot where Wales meets the world.

Singers and dancers, often resplendent in colourful national costumes, travel from the four corners of the earth to be part of the unique event.

For the time being though, Shȃn is concentrating on learning the role of the formidable Nellie Lovett.

 

“It’s scary to be honest”, she said, having just finished her morning Bore Cothi - Morning Cothi - show on BBC Radio Cymru, “It really is a huge role and I’m fully aware the audience will be full of real fans of the genre, people who know Stephen Sondheim’s work inside out.

 

“And while I have watched every production I can to get a feel for the role, I want to put my own stamp on the part.

 

“I do have a lot to live up to however, as there have been some amazing performers who have played the role. People like Angela Landsbury, who was the original Mrs Lovett, and Emma Thompson who won critical acclaim in the role opposite Bryn in New York just last month.

 

“Performers of that quality are the benchmark really and I’m going to have to work hard to get this important role just right.”

 

“I’ve taken on something really big and a bit out of my comfort zone.

 

“I’m spending three hours a day learning the part and thinking about how I want to present this mature, scheming, rough old Cockney bird to the audience. It’s going to be some transformation to be honest.”

 

But Shân says she accepted the role the second she was asked knowing she’d be appearing alongside old mates Bryn Terfel and Wynne Evans.

 

She said: “I competed at Llangollen many times but this will be my first appearance in an evening concert. I really am looking to get my teeth into the Mrs Lovett role.

 

“She a cheery sort whose business is on a bit of downward spiral due to a lack of fresh meat and she really wants to be a bit more than a landlady to the mean and moody Sweeney Todd.”

 

Shân Cothi was born, the daughter of a blacksmith in a little village, Ffarmers, in Carmarthenshire and graduated from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth having studied music and drama.

 

After leaving university she was initially a music teacher at a South Wales high school but decided to turn professional, as a singer, after winning the prestigious Blue Riband prize at the 1995 Abergele National Eisteddfod. 

 

Since then her career has spanned a wide range of music styles from opera to oratorio and musical theatre, she played Carlotta in Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera in the West End for 15 months, to traditional Welsh songs.

 

And she’s performed in some of the UK’s iconic venues from the Wales Millennium Centre to the Royal Albert Hall as well as abroad.

 

Bryn Terfel, Wynne Evans and Shân Cothi will appear in Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, sponsored by Pendine Park Care Organisation, at the Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod on the evening of Monday, July 7.

 

This year’s Eisteddfod will also feature concerts by Dutch jazz sensation Caro Emerald and veteran British rockers Status Quo as well as a world premiere of a new work, Adiemus Colores, by top composer Karl Jenkins.

 

He will conduct his Latin American themed work with American tenor Noah Stewart, Venezuelan trumpeter Pacho Flores and Latvian accordion player Ksenija Sidorova to the accompaniment of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod Orchestra.

 

The Friday night concert, Spirit of Unity, will feature the Cape Town Opera, Africa’s premiere opera company, famed for their "vibrant vocalism and high-octane stage performances".

 

Appearing with them will be Wales’ representative in Cardiff Singer of the World, Gary Griffiths, the Wales Millennium Centre Only Kidz Aloud Chorus under the baton of celebrity conductor Tim Rhys Evans and British Sinfonietta, one of the UK's leading independent professional orchestras.

 

The Choir of the World competition for the Pavarotti Trophy on the Saturday night is the blue riband event of the week-long festival which will close with a Sunday night concert by Status Quo.

 

For tickets and more information visit http://international-eisteddfod.co.uk/ or call the Box Office on 01978 862 000.     

Fiona's e-book novel has its paperback launch

A NOVEL which prominently features Llangollen has had its official paperback launch in the town.

The fantasy thriller The Last Changeling, which sees a breed of malevolent fairies battle for world domination, came out first as an e-book last year.

But after having sold around 1,000 Kindle copies, it has now been produced as a paperback version and its Llangollen-based author Fiona Maher hosted a special launch event at the Vintage Rose tearoom in the town on Thursday evening.

* Author Fiona Maher reads from The
Last Changeling at its paperback
launch in the Vintage Rose tearoom.

Fiona, who writes under the name of F R Maher, explained how the idea for the book came to her in a dream. 

She said: “We’ve had wizards and vampires, and I wondered what other supernatural beings would appeal to readers. 

“After a dream, I came up with the idea that it would be fairies - not the cutesy pink confections of modern cartoons, but the ancient malign creatures that haunted the forests, and stole children. 

“I called them metahominids - literally 'other men' - and I ask what if population pressure meant they started moving out of the country, and began invading our city spaces, like urban foxes? 

“What if we've been at war with them for centuries and the evidence was all around us? 

“If myxamatosis hadn't been developed for rabbits, but to spray on the barrows, the metahominid strongholds?”

Hero of the book is a young policeman named Watkin who gets caught up in a battle between a secret government department and metahominids in Kew Gardens.

In the melee, he is injured, and believes he has been involved in a UFO incident. 

However much he tries to find out what really happened, the government organisation, D9, evades all of his investigations. 

Dispirited, he gives up that line of research, and returns to his interest in UFOs. 

Watkin travels up from London to investigate the Beings of Bodfari, a legend that has been linked to UFO activity. 

En route, he stops off in Llangollen of which the author gives a vivid description taking in a number of well-known local sights and businesses such as Dinas Bran Castle, the Corn Mill, the railway station, the florists in Oak Street and the Watkin & Williams store in Regent Street. 

Coincidentally in Llangollen at the same time as Watkin is a D9 operative, travelling under the name of Sarah Deakin.

Her weapon of choice is a meaty survival knife, which she has brought to Llangollen to have its edges laced with silver - a lethal metal to all metahominids – at a local jewellers shop.

Fiona added: “The e-book has been fanastically well received, so I thought it was time I also produced it as a paperback.

“The e-book has sold very well all over the world, including Germany, Russia, America and China.

“I now plan to write a number of short stories and combine them into one book.”

The paperback version of The Last Changeling is available, priced £11.99, from Amazon.

 

The e-book version can be seen at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Changeling-Enigma-Wars-ebook/dp/B00B90EIRQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365110490&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+changeling

Latest roadworks bulletin

Latest roadworks notified by Denbighshire County Council are:

Birch Hill, Lllangollen, opposite Pren Ceirios, temporary traffic lights, to allow water works by Morrison Utility Services, May 6.

Abbey Road, Llangollen, outside Gelli, temporary traffic lights to allow water works by Dee Valley Water, May 9-14.

Regent Street, Llangollen, outside Prince of Wales, temporary traffic lights to allow water works by Dee Valley Water, May 15-19.

Fron Bache, Llangollen, road closure to allow BT works, May 6-8.

Berwyn Road, Llangollen, temporary traffic lights to allow retaining wall works by Conwy Structures, June 2-6.

 

Ensure you're registered to vote

Householders are being urged to ensure they are registered to vote ahead of the forthcoming European elections.

In order to vote in the elections on Thursday, 22^nd May, an individual’s name needs to be on the electoral register.

Citizens have until Tuesday, 6^th May to register.

There are a number of reasons why it is important to be included on the electoral register.

Elections can be called at short notice and if you are not registered you will not be able to vote.

Voting also ensures you have a say on the issues of the day while being on the electoral register can maintain your credit rating.

Registering is quick and simple. Just visit: www.aboutmyvote.co.uk and print off a registration form.

Alternatively, apply for the appropriate forms or check your name is on the register by contacting register@denbighshire.gov.uk

And you can still vote even if you are away on holiday by applying for a postal vote by 5 pm on Wednesday, 7th May, or by a proxy application form (not postal or emergency proxies) by 5 pm on Wednesday, 14^th May.

Jekyll & Hyde heading for Llangollen

Award-winning theatre company Limelight Productions aim to thrill audiences with their forthcoming  production of Jekyll & Hyde The Musical at Llangollen Town Hall from  Thursday 5^th to 7^th June. 

Glamorous, sexy and deliciously wicked in equal measures, Jekyll and Hyde is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic gothic novella.  

The Llangollen production features a talented cast performing some much-loved musical theatre songs such as This is The Moment, In his Eyes, the dramatic Façade.

Performances start at 7.30pm and there's a bar available. 

Tickets prices are £8 and £6.50 concessions. They are available from the box office on 01978 351315/07504031029 or Llangollen Tourist Information Centre in Castle Street.

Authors present cheques to three local groups

 

* Simon Collinge, left, and Andrew Gale on the back row with cheque

recipients from the various organisations. 

 

Cheques for £100 each were recently presented to representatives from Llangollen Welfare House, the Methodist Hall and St Collen’s Community Centre to celebrate 12 months since the Llangollen Community Book was published.

 

The book's authors, Andrew Gale and Simon Collinge, pledged that £1 from each copy sold would be donated to local community venues where most of the photographs it features were taken.

 

Simon Collinge said: “We were really grateful for the use of their venues to take group photographs and we were pleased to be able to give a £100 donation, as promised, to each of the three groups. 

 

"We are now endeavouring to further increase sales and hoping that more people featured in the book will purchase a copy, again putting more money back into the community.

 

"Over 300 copies have been sold but we still need to sell at least another 300 to break even on our original investment.”

The Llangollen Community Book features over 100 clubs, groups and societies and can be viewed at www.llangollencommunity.co.uk or purchased in Llangollen at Courtyard Books, Gales, Llangollen Museum and the Tourist Information Centre.

Historic railcar Daisy heads for Llangollen

* A Class 101 railcar known as Daisy.

A railcar which was once a famous celebrity in North Wales is to return for a gala at Llangollen Railway over the weekend of June 21/22.

The two-car set, known in its later days as “Daisy”, gained celebrity status in 1994 when it was repainted in historic British Railways green for services on the Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog line.

It remained in service until the last day of heritage railcar operation in December 2003, following which it was bought for preservation.

It later spent brief periods at both the Elsecar and the Chasewater Railways before moving to the Midland Railway in 2009 for contract restoration.

Since then both vehicles have been extensively rebuilt but Daisy has not yet seen public service.

She will arrive in Llangollen in late May where she will be used for driver experience and a photographic charter in the week before the gala, but she will see passenger service at Llangollen for the one weekend only. 

The annual Llangollen Gala has established a reputation as being one of the foremost events of its type and features up to 16 departures each way per day with the units working in two, four and six car formations.

This year trains will also travel as far as Bonwm on the new Corwen extension. 

As well as Daisy, four of the home fleet of diesel railcars will be in service each day and the line’s DMU Group will be exhibiting their partly-restored Class 105 trailer (made in Sheffield) and its Class 104 power car (made in Birmingham) at Llangollen station where visitors will see the extent of work required in the restoration of trains of this type.

There will be sales stalls as well as the customary Saturday evening social function, which will this year take place at Glyndyfrdwy Station, with a special train operating to the site.

In response to requests, Llangollen station’s buffet is to open specially early at 8.30am for breakfast on each day of the event and all the line’s intermediate stations will also be offering refreshments.

The Class 101 units were built by Metro-Cammell in Birmingham with production starting in 1955.

They were at one time one of the most numerous of the first-generation railcars and six of the type survived to the last day of operation in December 2003.

The oldest of Daisy’s coaches dates from 1956.

Chairman of Llangollen Railcars Evan Green-Hughes said: "We are delighted that Daisy’s owner has chosen to bring her back into service at our event and we are sure that there will be many people who will welcome her back to Wales where she is remembered with so much affection.

“Daisy was brought to Wales because railcars of this era had a unique design which allows passengers to see right through into the driver’s cabs, thus giving them an unparalleled view of the line and scenery ahead – just as the driver sees it.

"I am sure that many people will want to enjoy the view of the Dee Valley in just the same way when she visits us in June.”