Our House (musical)
Our House is a musical with music and lyrics by Madness and one song "It Must Be Love" written by Labi Siffre and a book by playwright Tim Firth. Premiering at The Cambridge Theatre in 2002, Our House was the winner of the 2003 Olivier award for Best New Musical and has since gone on to tour both nationally and internationally to great acclaim. Through the music of Madness, writer Tim Firth explores the themes of love, family values, growing up, responsibility and dealing with losing the people that shape us.
For other uses, see Our House.Our House
2002 West End
2006 Japanese tour
2008 UK Tour
2011 UK Tour
2012 UK Gala Performance
2013 New UK Tour
2017 UK Tour
Background[edit]
Our House has many obvious influences including Willy Russell's Blood Brothers and the 1998 romantic comedy film Sliding Doors. Some critics have even called the show the British answer to Rent, the Jonathan Larson rock opera which follows the lives of a group of 20-something year-olds living in New York. For many years prior to the creation of Our House, Madness had been considering ways that they could turn their songs into a musical. Following the phenomenal success of Mamma Mia!, featuring the music of ABBA, a new interest in so-called 'jukebox musicals' began to develop.
During initial publicity for the show in 2002, The band's lead-singer, Suggs admitted in an interview for the BBC that he was not particularly a fan of musical theatre, saying; "I can't say I'm a huge fan of musicals. I like music, and I like acting. I like Oliver!, I went to see that when I was a kid and West Side Story and maybe a few little bits and pieces over the years, but no, not a huge fan of musicals, no."[1] Tim Firth was approached by producers to write the script for the show, accepting the offer as he was a fan of Madness. Speaking to What's on Stage in 2002, Firth commented; "I'd always thought there was an irony that everyone remembered Madness as the nutty boys, but that was generated largely by the videos. The songs were actually just witty. And moving. And about something. And felt like they were part of a musical already. I still don't think I wrote the book of Our House. I found it.".[2]
Production history[edit]
World premiere: West End (2002-03)[edit]
Our House was first staged at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End from 28 October 2002 to 16 August 2003.[3][4][5] Michael Jibson made his professional debut as Joe Casey and was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.[6][7] Direction was by Matthew Warchus with choreography by Peter Darling. For a time, the production team struggled to find a performer suitable to play Joe's love interest, Sarah. The problem was solved when Michael Jibson suggested Julia Gay, his classmate at Guildford School of Acting. Madness' lead-singer Suggs was cast for a short period in the role of Joe's Dad, a role which was also played by prolific stage actor Ian Reddington.
The production won the 2003 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical.[7] However, due to poor ticket sales it closed after less than 10 months.
UK tour (2008-09)[edit]
A UK tour began at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in June 2008 with Chris Carswell playing the lead role of Joe Casey and Steve Brookstein as Joe's Dad.[8][9] The tour continued ending in Crawley in March 2009.[10]
The touring production changed aspects of the show in reaction to criticism of show's début in the West End. House of Fun was replaced with "Los Palmas 7" as the opening of the show. "Sarah's Song" was also replaced with the new Madness hit "NW5".
10th Anniversary Concert (2012)[edit]
Our House returned to London's West End on 11 November 2012 for a one off Gala performance at the Savoy Theatre, celebrating the show's 10th anniversary. The performance was directed by Warchus in aid of Help for Heroes. Suggs played the role of Joe's Dad.