• Home
  • Labyrinth – One classic film, fifty-five sonnets
  • About Anne
  • Buy my book!
  • Contact

Anne Corrigan

~ Poet and Labyrinth Lover

Anne Corrigan

Tag Archives: David Bowie

Labyrinth in London

13 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by annecorrigan in David Bowie, Labyrinth in popular culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bowie mural Brixton, David Bowie, Duffy, Jareth, Labyrinth, Prince Charles Cinema, Proud Gallery

Up to London for Labyrinth Masquerade Ball – a screening with audience participation, singalong, and fancy dress!

As the screening is due to start quite late, I’ve booked into a hotel. I check in and leave my luggage, then go out for some more Bowie-related activity.

First stop is Brixton, to visit the Bowie mural. This time last year I was spending a lot of time here – some of it writing the Labyrinth sonnets that would become my book. Things have changed a little since then. The mural is now protected by a thick acrylic sheet, and there are signs asking people not to write on it. The department store next door, Morleys, has repainted its window frames white (though writing is starting to creep back over them again). There are new posters for Iman’s line of cosmetics, and already the faces of the models have that distinctive zigzag drawn on them.

And there are flowers, of course – always flowers. I light a candle and sit for a while, but it’s too cold and damp to stay long.

So I head off to my next stop – the Proud Gallery, in Chelsea for the Bowie by Duffy exhibition.

The late Brian Duffy took some iconic photos of Bowie, including those for the Aladdin Sane and Lodger covers. It’s interesting to see images you’ve been familiar with for years on an album sleeve – like the clown from Scary Monsters – suddenly larger and on a wall – makes you look at them with fresh eyes. There was also a Bowie photo I’d never seen before – one of him with a cute little black Scottie dog.

I get talking with the guy on the desk, who’s a Bowie fan. He shows me some smaller versions of the prints for sale – I’m quite tempted, but reluctantly decide to be sensible. The exhibition’s running till 19th February.

Time to go back to the hotel and change into my costume, then walk to the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. This is London, so no-one bats an eyelid at someone in a ball gown – though I do hear one woman say “This is why I love Soho.”

shrine-028

The Labyrinth Masquerade Ball is always sold-out – so you have to start queuing an hour before the doors open if you want a seat at the front. I take my place in line, next to a couple of girls who’ve come all the way down from Scotland to watch the film. It’s cold outside, so we’re all glad when the queue starts to move.

As we go into the auditorium, we’re each given a little paper bag with some goodies – a fizzy peach to bite, a miniature bottle of bubble mixture, and a party popper. The screening is hosted by a Jareth lookalike – but with a beard – and a hilariously overstuffed crotch!

shrine-075

He talks us through the responses you’re supposed to yell when different characters come on screen, then invites those in costume up onstage for the costume contest. There are some good costumes. Lots of Jareths and Sarahs, a grown-up Toby, a Didymus, and even a couple of worms.

Then it’s time for the film itself. Seeing it on the big screen is always a treat – and it’s not often I get to watch it with 300 people who love it almost as much as I do. Jareth (of course) gets a round of applause when he appears. The worm gets a chorus of “Ahhhh, cuuute!” We sing along with the songs, bite our peaches when Sarah does, blow bubbles during the ballroom scene, and pop our party poppers at the climax.

But all too soon, it’s over. There’s a rush for the tiny toilets, where people are trying to change out of costume before they head home. I just have to stroll around the corner. I pass a drag queen outside a bar and we mouth “You look fabulous!” at each other.

At the hotel, I’m not quite ready to sleep, so I decide to nip into the bar for a night-cap. It’s only when I get the bill that I notice the name of the bar – Henson’s. How appropriate!

Lazarus – the musical

07 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by annecorrigan in David Bowie

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David Bowie, Lazarus the musical review

lazarus-280

I wanted to love this, I really did…

Remember when Princess Diana died, and Elton John hastily rewrote the lyrics of Candle in the Wind to make it about her?

That’s what this feels like. Another jukebox musical slapped together from hits.

It was written with Irish playwright Enda Walsh – I did see his play Ballyturk, so I should have known what I was letting myself in for…

The fact that Bowie himself was involved makes it even more baffling. Apparently he gave Enda Walsh a few pages of notes, and a list of 69 songs to choose from – one can only wonder which other songs were on that list. Obviously Bowie wrote a vast amount of songs – too many to know where to start! – but most of the ones that made it into the show seemed like odd choices. So many of his songs were concerned with alienation, or insanity, or the nature of reality – surely it should have been possible to pull together something more coherent than this?

If you’re writing a musical about an alien stranded in America, then why not Starman, or Hello Spaceboy, or Loving The Alien? Why not I’m Afraid Of Americans, or Young Americans? Or anything from Outside?

I really hate it when these musicals clumsily change words to try to make the songs fit the characters.

(And in This Is Not America, idea is supposed to be sung as i-de-a, rather than i-dea, as a rhyme for America.)

I saw it at the Kings Cross Theatre, London. I didn’t realise it when I booked, but the show was taking place in a temporary theatre, that was really badly raked, so I spent a lot of time moving my head from side to side trying to see around the person in front of me – which probably didn’t help matters.

Spoilers ahead…

Thomas Newton, an alien stranded on Earth, sits in an apartment living on gin and Twinkies and wishing he could die. A nameless girl who may not exist wants to help him get home. His assistant Elly becomes obsessed with Mary-Lou (the woman who left him). There’s a sinister figure called Valentine. Plus there are other people and events which may or may not be in Newton’s imagination.

I did like the design of the stage. A room with two big windows (through which you could see the band) separated by a big television screen, from behind which actors could emerge. The screen had images of television Newton was watching (or possibly imagining) and other projections.

I liked the use of projections on the walls – wings at one point for Valentine, and a sequence showing Newton leaping about the room while the actor on stage was sitting still – I wish there had been more of that. And I liked the scene with the balloons.
But the colour was so drab. Beige clothes on a beige set – not very Bowie

Michael C Hall, as the alien Newton, did sing better than I was expecting, but I felt he was physically wrong for the part. Obviously you couldn’t ask any actor to become as skinny as Bowie was in the 70s, but this guy is too muscular to mistake for an ethereal alien. They could at least have given him the same hair colour as Newton in the film.

I thought Michael Esper, who played Valentine, was good – in fact, I think I would have liked to see him play Newton. And the band was very good.

But there were two scenes with flashing lights so strong I had to shut my eyes, and felt like I was going to be sick. So I don’t know what happened then – though I think someone was murdered – or possibly not… I’m also not sure what was going on when there seemed to be a load of milk on the stage – the bad rake didn’t help there.

I didn’t really care about any of the characters – unlike in the film, where you feel so sorry for Newton it’s almost difficult to watch.

And it was humourless – I mean, I wasn’t expecting a comedy, but the audience only laughed once in the whole performance I was at.

It’s hard to know what’s really happening (another song they could have used!) for a lot of the time – possibly it might make more sense if you were on drugs.

Seriously – if you’re the only alien on Earth, do you want a woman looking after you who’s clearly mentally unstable and incapable of holding down a job?
And is it really believable that her husband would become so suspicious that she was sleeping with her boss after just a couple of days?

Why does Newton think he can’t die? There’s nothing in the book or film that suggests he’s immortal.

Why does Valentine try so hard to get close to Newton?
If he is actually killing people, why doesn’t he try to kill Newton?

How does Elly know Mary-Lou used to call Newton Tommy? Can she hear his hallucinations?

Why is the musical called Lazarus? It’s not about a man who comes back from the dead. Why not call it Icarus, about a man trying to escape – Icarus being a motif in The Man Who Fell To Earth, both the book and the film?

I’m not sure who it’s aimed at. Those who haven’t read the book or seen the film won’t know what’s going on. Those who have can hardly be comparing it favourably.

There was a record player on stage, with some Bowie albums – meant as a tribute perhaps, but every time it caught my eye it just reminded me how un-Bowie the whole experience was.

I thought I might feel emotional watching this, even upset – not annoyed! There were some poignant lines, given what we now know – but by about twenty minutes in I realised it was going to be an endurance test. The show didn’t have an interval, and honestly, if it had, I probably would have left.

One final annoyance – the programme refers to Bowie’s film career. The Last Temptation of Christ, where he was on screen for about three minutes, is mentioned – but not Labyrinth, the film that for over a generation has been many people’s first introduction to Bowie. Grrrr…

Post-Bowie World, Year Two

10 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by annecorrigan in David Bowie

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David Bowie, Goblin King, Jareth, JJ Adams

It’s been one long, Bowie-less year.

But this helped. I nearly tripped over in the street when I first caught sight of it in a gallery window.

pics-for-blog-017

‘Goblin King’ by JJ Adams – isn’t it lovely?

Ordinarily I’ve tried to keep my Labyrinth addiction and my Bowie admiration separate (as much as one can) but I found this combination of the two strangely soothing – and cheaper than going to the Bowie mural in London every time I felt sad!

I’m not so sad now – though I still don’t know if I’ll ever be able to face playing Blackstar again…

Hal-Con 2016 – Day 3 Sunday

24 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by annecorrigan in David Bowie, Jim Henson

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David Bowie, Gates McFadden, Goblin King, Hal-Con, Jim Henson, Labyrinth, Muppets, Nova Scotia

Once again I’m wearing costume – but I get to the hotel lobby, and realise it’s raining outside! Back to my room to swap my wig and mask for a big woolly hat, and to tie my skirt up around my knees, to evade the worst of the rain. Ballroom gowns – great in a ballroom, but outdoors in Nova Scotia in November? Terribly draughty…

If people ask about my costume, I shamelessly plug my book. One woman screams (actually screams!) at the sight of it. There certainly seems to be a lot of Labyrinth love in Nova Scotia. There are signs on the walls of the convention centre saying “Unattended children will be given to the Goblin King”. I also spot this Jareth tattoo.

hali-2016-022

I queue for an hour to get a good seat for the Gates McFadden Q&A. This does mean missing the panel on shark movies (and I can never resist a bad shark movie) – but I’m with friends, so the time goes quickly – and it’s worth the wait.

Gates is a really interesting speaker. She’s probably best known for her work on Star Trek – The Next Generation, and she spoke about that a lot (including playing practical jokes on set, and failing to recognise Michael Dorn without his Worf make-up) but about half the questions were about Labyrinth. It’s clearly an experience she remembers fondly. “Someone had to teach David Bowie how to waltz” she sighs – like, it’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it!

She was also full of praise for Jim Henson, who she first worked with on The Muppets Take Manhattan – she talked about being on the set alone (or so she thought) with Kermit – who then started talking to her!

Gates later worked with Henson on Dreamchild, a film where the grown-up Alice remembers her friendship with Lewis Carroll, which features some of the characters from Alice in Wonderland done by the Henson Creature Shop. It’s recently been re-released on DVD after being unavailable for years, and it’s well worth a look. Such a pity Henson never did complete adaptations of the books – they would have been so much better than those Tim Burton CGI monstrosities.

As we file out, the music that’s playing is The Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie, and I find myself feeling unexpectedly emotional. After the costume contest, as the con draws to a close, I wander down to the Grand Parade, and blow bubbles into the darkening sky. It’s going to feel weird taking the costume off…

My first book is published!

28 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by annecorrigan in David Bowie, Inspired by Labyrinth, Jim Henson

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David Bowie, Jareth, Labyrinth

My book is back from the printer – and William the Worm approves!

bookworm

Labyrinth – One classic film, fifty-five sonnets retells the story of the cult film in verse. It’s been a labour of love and I’m thrilled to see it in print – and looking so pretty.

book-front
book-back

 

Available now from Troubador.

 

Who remind me of the babe…

17 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by annecorrigan in Labyrinth in popular culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David Bowie, Doctor Who, Labyrinth, Titan Comics

I’ve loved Labyrinth for thirty years – but I’ve loved Doctor Who for even longer. So I was delighted to find the two combined in Titan Comics’ Doctor Who Eleventh Doctor (issue 11 May 2015, written by Al Ewing) where a character called the Talent Scout takes on a familiar form:

pics-for-blog-015

The story-line also features a character called Jones – an alien chameleon rock star…

And Bowie fans may appreciate the cover of the latest Titan Comics’ Doctor Who Twelfth Doctor (issue 9 August 2016):

twelve-2-9

Chesil Theatre 10 x 10 New Writing Festival – a homage to David Bowie.

10 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by annecorrigan in David Bowie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Chesil Theatre 10 x 10 New Writing Festival, David Bowie, Doctor Who, Labyrinth, Winchester

I’m just back from Winchester, and the Chesil Theatre 10 x 10 New Writing Festival. Each year they put on ten new one-act plays on a specific theme, and this year the theme was David Bowie.

chesil-theatre

The building was originally a 12th century church (it’s the oldest building in Britain that’s in use as a theatre) and stone arches are still visible at the side of the intimate auditorium – so it seemed like the perfect place to leave some leaflets plugging my book.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect going in, and did feel a bit choked-up when the image of the Brixton Bowie mural was projected onto the stage. Thankfully most of the plays were very good, and some, such as Strangers When We Meet, were quite moving – although some of the plays were more Bowie-related than others (The Golden Years, though very funny, had nothing to do with Bowie at all apart from the title).

David Who? was probably my favourite. Two rather dense Doctor Who fans try to decide if regeneration is the same as reincarnation, and wonder whether Bowie will come back – as a piece of lino! Don’t ask – very silly, very funny – though I think I was the only person in the audience who got the Caves of Androzani reference. One of the characters was wearing a Labyrinth T-shirt (the only nod to the movie all evening – one of the other plays had a character billed as Jareth, but he didn’t look/act like him in any way).

I also enjoyed Try To Get It On Like Once Before – inspired by the song Drive-in Saturday, it’s about a man and woman from the future taking part in an experiment, trying to figure out how to people used to have sex – by watching 21st century porn. Christina Pye and Felix Price were absolutely hilarious in this. Their reactions to watching the (unseen) porn were priceless, and I know that from now on I’m going to smile whenever I hear that song.

Modern Love was another play that didn’t really feature Bowie (just a quick quote or two) but it deserves special mention just for Holly Truslove, as Tallulah – a young woman who finds her one night stand’s mobile phone and starts ringing his contacts to tell them what she thinks of him. She was alone on stage for virtually the whole thing, and managed to make all those conversations totally convincing – a brilliant comic performance.

What is that plastic thing?

01 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by annecorrigan in Labyrinth official merchandise

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David Bowie, Funko Pop vinyl Labyrinth figures, Jareth, Labyrinth

I pre-ordered some Funko Pop vinyl Labyrinth figures from Amazon back in August, but they still haven’t managed to fulfill the order – it seems, like so many others, they’ve under-estimated the appeal of Labyrinth.

Anyway, today I went into Dark Side Comics in Chelmsford. It’s their third birthday, so the place was packed with people in costume – but what caught my eye? Yes, near the top of a towering stack of Pop figures was Jareth, in all his plastic glory! I took the Goblin King home with me (thirty years I’ve wanted to do that LOL).

Here he is – so cute!

funko-pop-jareth

But the best part is the box. I giggled at the warning that said:

“Not intended for children. Unsuitable for anyone under the age of 14.”

Then I read this:

“Warning! Choking hazard. May contain small parts.”

LMAO

Labyrinth Location

26 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by annecorrigan in Labyrinth Location

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth, Sarah's bridge, West Wycombe Park

I’m off to visit West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire. Why? Because that’s where they filmed the opening sequence of Labyrinth. Fellow Labyrinth fans will know that’s the scene where Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) runs across a little flint bridge beside a lake, and starts reading lines from her book, The Labyrinth – watched by an owl/Goblin King (David Bowie).

I first spotted the lake in the background of a scene in another movie (The Importance of Being Earnest) which had the location listed in the end credits. The house appears in a lot of period drama, from Downton Abbey to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I’ve been meaning to visit for ages, but the house is only open June to August – and then only Thursday to Sunday – but only between 2 – 6 in the afternoon.

And as I rely on public transport – let’s see, bus-train-tube-tube-tube-train-bus-bus. It’s not quite “Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered” – but I think it’s going to take a few hours.

For once I make all my connections, and arrive at the park before the gates are even open. I ask the National Trust lady at the entrance if she knows where the little flint bridge is. She doesn’t even know that Labyrinth was filmed here – and the house is set in 42 acres of grounds, with several bridges. Luckily it’s perfect weather for wandering

I turn left down Broad Walk, past Britannia Pillar, then turn right when I reach the lake and carry on until I come to a stream. I see an owl’s feather on the grass – a sign I’m heading the right way?

There it is!

west-wycombe-park-026

west-wycombe-park-020

Thirty years later, some things have changed. Ivy and bindweed are taking over one end of the bridge, and as it’s high summer there’s a lot of pondweed growing in the stream – but it’s unmistakably the same place. I resist the urge to run across it, spouting lines from the film – but I do take a lot of photos.

west-wycombe-park-021

Labyrinth bridge 01

There’s no obelisk for an owl to perch on, no bench for Sarah’s dog (they were just set dressing). The clock tower isn’t there either – that must have been shot in America, as was the sequence immediately after the scene by the bridge. But there is a family of swans on the lake. I wonder if they’re descendants of the swans you can spot in Labyrinth, and I start to imagine an elderly swan grandfather boasting to bored baby cygnets about the time he once starred in a film with Jennifer Connelly.

The lake itself is said by some to have been designed like a swan – lake as body, river as neck, two streams for legs. Was it deliberately included in the film as a reference to the ballet Swan Lake, which also features a villain (Rothbart) who’s an owl – with ballet dancer’s tights? Probably just coincidence. When you’ve watched a film as often as I’ve watched Labyrinth, it does get inside your head.

And that’s why I’m here. To mark the film’s thirtieth anniversary, I’ve written a sequence of sonnets (fifty-five of them!) telling the story of Labyrinth in verse. I sit down on the grass under a tree and, like Sarah, begin to read aloud from my little leather book…

It takes me an hour. This has been a poignant year for Labyrinth fans, but reading these poems, in this location – I feel quite ridiculously happy.

By now the park is starting to get busy. I’m glad I arrived early enough to read my poems aloud without a baffled audience.  More people are here now, and another girl is posing for a photo on the bridge – and a guy is taking pictures of his special edition Labyrinth DVD!

If I miss my bus there won’t be another one for two hours, and although West Wycombe village is pretty, I don’t want to be stuck there on a Sunday afternoon – between the pubs and the traditional sweet shop, I would eat far too much (I can recommend the crème brûlée fudge). But I don’t want to leave…

And then a bird swoops across the lake. It’s not an owl (that would be too perfect) but a red kite – one of Britain’s most beautiful birds of prey. It makes a couple of lazy turns over the lake, then soars off above the trees.

Today’s not going to get any better than this. Time to head home.

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016

Categories

  • Brian Froud
  • David Bowie
  • Inspired by Labyrinth
  • Jim Henson
  • Labyrinth in popular culture
  • Labyrinth Location
  • Labyrinth official merchandise

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Anne Corrigan
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Anne Corrigan
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...