The El Train opens at Hoxton Hall

 

Very pleased that the The El Train opened this week at Hoxton Hall to some wonderful five star reviews. I’ve written music and created the sound design for the collection of three one act Eugene O’Neil plays directed by Sam Yates and Ruth Wilson – Before Breakfast, The Web and The Dreamy Kid. Ruth Wilson (who has two Olivier awards including last year’s best actress for Anna Christie) also stars in two of the plays.

The score features a live seven-piece jazz band led by vocalist Nicola Hughes linking each of the three plays.

The reviews so far have been fantastic, with the Telegraph writing –

“..the staging is bleakly beautiful, the original score by Alex Baranowski sensational, the performances brutally truthful.” ****

Michael Billington in the Guardian –

“..a spellbinding 90-minute evening… the atmospheric power of Alex Baranowski’s prefatory jazz music and the resonant singing of Nicola Hughes, who sombrely tells us that “death is slow, death is sure” ****

And Kate Kellaway in the Observer –

“The joint is jumping.. to the ecstatic sound of virtuoso jazz trumpeter Mark Kavuma and company. The magnificent Nicola Hughes – velvet-voiced – seals each play with a song… a pitch-perfect sense of O’Neill’s prose and of theatrical sound: the thunder of train and storm.” *****

The show is running up until the end of December at Hoxton Hall. For more information and to book tickets, go to the El Train website here.

Cornelius at 59e59 NYC is New York Times pick

Very happy that Cornelius directed by Sam Yates has opened at 59e59 Theater in New York to brilliant reviews, including a glowing article by Ben Brantley in the New York Times (read the article here). I’ve composed music and sound on the project that transfered from London’s Finborough Theatre after a sell out run last year. The production is showing in New York until the end of June 2013.

News April 2013…

A busy time here heading into Spring/Summer 2013. Privileged to be working with Michael Grandage during his first west end residency at the Noel Coward for The Cripple of Inishmaan, followed soon after by three stunning plays at Shakespeare’s Globe directed by the lovely Nick Bagnall, Henry VI parts I, II and III which will also tour this summer. Over in New York I’ll be opening Cornelius at 59e59 directed by Sam Yates, and for the Manchester International Festival I’m working alongside sound designer Peter Rice for The Masque of Anarchy directed by Sarah Frankcom.

Out of the theatre I’m also excited to soon be working on another feature film project (after the BAFTA success earlier this year for McCullin) as well as working on an album project of my own music. More details to come about those later in the year…