 'Amazing
Grace' returns to Swansea for November 2011.
Update:
November 2011
We're delighted to
announce that this November sees the World Amateur Premier of Amazing
Grace.The Abbey Players will be performing the hit Mal Pope musical from
the 15th -19th November at the Swansea Grand Theatre. More information
on the production can be found HERE.
For more information on Abbey
Players click here.
Amazing Grace opened at the Swansea Grand Theatre on 21st March 2005 before
moving to the Sherman Theatre Cardiff as part of the International Festival
of Musical Theatre and then to Theatr Clwyd in Mold.
Amazing Grace
returned to the stage by popular demand in the Autumn of 2006. Following
the incredible success of the Autumn 2006 tour, plans are underway to
secure the long term future of the musical. We will bring you any information
we have as soon as we get it.
Why
Me?
Some of the songs
from the show not available on the CD ‘Why Me’, including a version of
‘You Never Threw a Party for Me', were released on a new Mal Pope album
in the Autumn 2005. Mal is currently working on a follow up musical called
‘Contender’, the inspiring story of the life of boxer, Tommy Farr. This
has its own mini-site at www.contenderthemusical.com
. Contender will
appear on the stage in Spring 2007.
Listen Online...
There are links from
the site for you to listen to music from the
show and also where you can buy
the album 'Why Me' which features 14 songs from the musical.
Amazing
Grace - The Gallery
You can now view photos
from the musical. The pictures cover the entire performance and give an
interesting visual insight into the story. There are over 100 images in
the gallery. Click
here to view.
You
can also read about the developments of the production and Mal Pope's
own reflections on its progress in his diary.
 About
Amazing Grace
In 2003 Mal
Pope started thinking about the centenary of the 1904 Welsh Revival and
the more he read around the subject the more he became convinced that
the story could be the basis of a concept album and also a piece of musical
theatre for the stage.
The central character
is a 26 year old ex miner called Evan Roberts who claimed to have spoken
face to face with the Almighty in his little bedroom in Loughor, just
on the outskirts of Swansea. He also told people he had seen a cheque
being handed over which bore the sum of 100,000 souls. Many dismissed
these as the ramblings of a troubled mind but within 18 months the Western
Mail had calculated that more than 100,000 souls had indeed been added
to the church. The strain proved too much for Evan and he sadly left Wales
and the Revival to become a recluse.
The story of the Revival
is told through the eyes of journalist and peace campaigner W T Stead
who visited Wales during the height of the Revival to interview Evan Roberts.
It starts on the 14th April 1912 in the smoking room of the Titanic, the
last place Stead was seen alive!
"How
came this strange uplift of the earnestness a whole community? Who can
say? The wind bloweth where it listeth. Some tell You one thing, some
another. All agree that it began some few months ago in Cardiganshire,
eddied hither and thither spreading like fire from valley to valley, until
as one observer said to me, “Wherever it came from, or however it
began, all South Wales today is in a flame.”
WT Stead; The “Daily
Chronicle” on December 13th, 1904, gives a trained observer’s
view of the Welsh Revival.
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Gallery
Request regular email
updates on news and performance dates.
Listen to tracks from the musical, performed
by Mal Pope.
January 05 Newsletter
with Cast updates.
Huw
Edwards The Musical.
Much
Loved BBC Anchor Man cast in Amazing Grace.
Read
More..
Amazing
Grace featured on Songs of Praise
The musical was featured on
Songs of Praise on Sunday 7 Nov. Mal sang the title track from the
album 'Why Me' and talked about how he came to write the musical.
'
Why Me', the new album
from Mal Pope featuring the songs from the musical. This CD is now available
online at www.mphrecords.co.uk
Welsh
Revival Links
Welsh
Revival Site
1904-revival
(Site about a
film made on the Revival)
For info on W
T Stead
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