Broadway Records is set to release
digitally today, December 19, the world premiere recording of Ballet Shoes. The National Theatre production features music by Azaf Zohar and orchestrations by Gavin Sutherland. Directed by Katy Rudd, the family favorite hit has returned to the Olivier Theatre for special winter performances running now through February 21.
In a crumbling house full of dinosaur bones and fossils, three adopted sisters – Pauline, Petrova and Posy – are learning who they are and what they want to be.
Under the watchful eyes and guidance of their guardian Sylvia, Nana, and some unlikely lodgers, they fight to pursue their individual passions. But in a world that wasn’t built for women with big ambitions, can they forge a future, keep their family together, and even learn a dance or two along the way?
Katy Rudd (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) returns to the National Theatre to direct this ★★★★★ ‘perfect joy’ (The i), as Noel Streatfeild’s beloved novel is brought to the stage in this new version by Kendall Feaver (The Almighty Sometimes).
Asaf shares his insights into the creation of the score:
“The first page of Kendall Feaver’s miraculous adaptation of Ballet Shoes reads: ‘Setting. 1930s London, but a vibrant fairy-tale version of it.’ This seemingly simple line was my daily headache and north star while writing this score – how do you create a musical landscape that is period accurate without straying into cliche, and how do you evoke setting while making this world feel unique?
The answer for me was found in the generational divide. The older characters are represented by music that would have been very familiar to people at the time – late 19th century orchestral music, jazz from the 20s and 30s, and Russian ballet. But the three young sisters at the heart of the story are represented by music altogether different – leaner, more direct and rougher around the edges; it owes more to contemporary UK jazz acts like Ezra Collective, embodying the hopes of the next generation of artists, and allowing us to imagine the work the sisters will make in the future.
Creating work this complex can never be achieved by one person alone. I am deeply grateful to orchestrator and conductor Gavin Sutherland for his inimitable contribution; and to Marc Tritschler and Terry Eldridge at the NT, who together have managed to create a working environment where the only limitation imposed is one’s own imagination.”
Stream the album: https://orcd.co/balletshoes
More information, production stills and cast info: Ballet Shoes Info
Watch the production on National Theatre at Home: https://www.ntathome.com/ballet-shoes
Album Track List:
- Prologue – GUM’s Adventures
- I’ll Get It
- Miss Theo Dane
- The Academy
- Ballet Class – Pliés at the Barre
- Training Sequence
- Ballet Class – Pirouettes
- Petrova Learns to Drive
- Ballet Class – Ronds de Jambe at the Barre
- Dream Ballet, Pt. I
- Ballet Class – Adage in the Centre
- Alice in Wonderland
- Letter from GUM
- We Three Fossils
- Ballet Class – Battements tendus
- A (Futuristic) Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Petrova Flying
- Ballet Class – Adage at the Barre
- Film Studio
- Ballet Class – Battements en cloche at the Barre
- Posy & Fidolia say Goodbye
- Dream Ballet, Pt. II
- To My Posy
- Samba-Saurus
- Juliette Manoff
- Posy Solo
- We Three Fossils (Reprise)
- The End
ABOUT ASAF ZOHAR
Asaf studied composition at the Royal College of Music. Previous theatre credits include Ballet Shoes (National Theatre, nominated for Olivier Award – Outstanding Musical Contribution), The Estate (National Theatre), Measure for Measure (RSC), My Mother’s Funeral: The Show (Paines Plough, UK & US tour), Some Demon (Papatango Theatre Company / Arcola), Macbeth (Touring – Liverpool, Edinburgh, London, Washington), God of Carnage (Lyric Hammersmith), Disruption (Park Theatre), The Shape of Things (Park Theatre), The Bleeding Tree (Southwark Playhouse), Nanny (Bristol Old Vic), Farewell Mister Haffman (Park Theatre) Captain Amazing (Southwark Playhouse), Waiting for Anya (The Barn), Here (Papatango Theatre Company / Southwark Playhouse), Bright Half Life (King’s Head Theatre), The Bit-Players (Southwark Playhouse), Dennis of Penge (Guildhall School of Music and Drama), SORRY, YOU’RE NOT A WINNER (Paines Plough / Bristol Old Vic / Theatre Royal Plymouth), Wild Country (Camden People’s Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Southwark Playhouse), SESSIONS (Paines Plough / Soho Theatre), The Silence and the Noise (Papatango Theatre Company), Peter Pan Reimagined (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), WHITEWASH(Soho Theatre), Dennis of Penge (Albany Deptford / Ovalhouse), Peter Pan and the Battle for Neverland (Ruined Theatre), The Goose Who Flew (Half Moon Theatre) and The Shadowpunk Revolutions (Edinburgh Fringe).
Previous TV credits include: Reggie Yates: Extreme Russia, Race Riots USA, Reggie Yates: Extreme UK, Dispatches: Taliban Child Fighters, Reggie Yates: Extreme South Africa, in addition to in-house work for Virgin Media and various media companies. Previous film work was shown at Cannes, BAFTA, Edinburgh and Encounters festivals.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL THEATRE
The National Theatre makes theatre that entertains and inspires using its creativity, expertise and unique reach. The National Theatre shares unforgettable stories with millions of audience members across the UK and around the world – on its own stages, on tour, in schools, on cinema screens and streaming at home.
World-leading artists make their best work at the National Theatre with the widest possible audience and impact. The National Theatre invests in talent and innovation on stage and off, taking seriously its role as the nation’s theatre. Of the new productions developed each year with a wide range of theatre companies, a third of that research and development resource is dedicated to shows staged at theatres outside London.
Through touring our work to local theatres and schools and nationwide education and community programmes, we are active in every local authority in the UK. A registered charity with deeply embedded social purpose, the National Theatre works with hundreds of schools and communities across the UK to fire imagination and inspire creativity, and to develop skills and pathways for careers in theatre.
For more information, please visit nationaltheatre.org.uk
