Le monde des musicals

'Our House' is a brand new musical featuring the greatest hits of 80's pop band, MADNESS! As well as featuring two all new songs written by Madness, the show is full of the band's greatest musical numbers, including 'Baggy Trousers', 'It Must Be Love', 'Driving In My Car',''House Of Fun' and 'Night Boat to Cairo'. Billed as a London love story, 'Our House' centres on two teenagers living in North London to the backdrop of Madness' hit songs.
It is the story of Joe and his girlfriend Sarah who live in modern-day London, and follows two different courses his life could have taken following a petty crime.

Our House is the story of Joe Casey who, on the night of his sixteenth birthday, takes Sarah, the girl of his dreams, out on their first date. In an effort to impress her with bravado, he breaks into a building site overlooking his home on Casey Street, which is owned by Mister Pressman, a high-end property developer. The police turn up, at which point Joe’s life splits into two: the Good Joe, who stays to help, and Bad Joe, who flees.

Good Joe, having stayed to help Sarah, is sent to a ‘correctional facility’ for two years. On his release, finding that his past prevents him from getting a good job, he struggles to make ends meet. Despite managing to buy himself a second-hand car, he convinces himself that he is an embarrassment to all who care about him – especially Sarah, whose new college lifestyle reading law is complicated by Callum, a fellow student. In an effort to keep up with this guy, Good Joe is beguiled by his ‘mate’ Reecey into helping stage a break-in for some easy money – is caught and this time sent down.

Meanwhile, Bad Joe has lost Sarah, but is making a success of a burgeoning career, using his breaking and entering skills to install security systems which he then instructs a lowlife ‘mate’ called Reecey how to breach. His efforts soon earn him enough money to start his own business in property development, where he attracts the attention of Mister Pressman. Now a successful businessman, he is able to swan back into Sarah’s life, literally sweeping her off her feet at her college dance.

Three years later, at 21, Bad Joe and Sarah get married in Vegas, while Good Joe is leaving prison, forced to sleep rough in the second-hand car he bought all those years ago. At this point, Good Joe and Bad Joe’s worlds start to collide. Mister Pressman has decided to ‘redevelop’ Camden by demolishing Casey Street – except Joe’s mum Kath refuses to leave. This house is special, she says, given to her family in perpetuity because their ancestors helped build Casey Street.

Good Joe vows to save the house. He calls on Sarah, now a trainee lawyer engaged to Callum, to help prove that Kath does own the deeds to 25 Casey Street. Bad Joe, meanwhile, is called on by Mister Pressman to help destroy the house in a strong arm final straw tactic to get the occupant to move out. Bad Joe does this by arranging – with Reecey’s help - for the house to be burned down while she is out celebrating her birthday. Except tragically all Kath wants to do is wait in the house for her son to come visit her on that special day. In the Good Joe story, the errant son returns, holding the property deeds, to find the house burning down but his mum safe; in the Bad Joe story the ‘successful’ son returns too late, to realise his mum was in there, waiting for him.

From the ashes of the house fire Good Joe is reborn, reunited with Sarah, who he marries, and also with his mum. Mister Pressman and Reecey are sent down for arson. Bad Joe, having lost Sarah and his mum, is sent down as an accomplice to manslaughter. And in the final beat of the show we wind back time to where we started, the moment of decision on Joe’s sixteenth birthday: when asked what he wants to do, somehow he knows now the right decision to make. He simply says ‘Let’s go dancing!’

1 Our House peut-être considéré comme un juke-box musical autour de la musique de Madness

London
Our House was first staged at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End from 28 October 2002 to 16 August 2003. Michael Jibson made his professional debut as Joe Casey and was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Direction was by Matthew Warchus with choreography by Peter Darling, and featured Julia Gay as Sarah. Members of the band Madness played roles in the executive production of the show, and Madness frontman Suggs performed in the production for a while as Joe's father. The musical won the 2003 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical. However, it received mixed reviews and closed after less than 10 months.

UK tour
A UK revival started at Birmingham Repertory Theatre and continued on a UK tour in 2008, with Chris Carswell playing the lead role of Joe Casey. In 2008/2009 it played cities from Stoke in July 2008 to Crawley in March 2009.
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".

UK Gala Performance
Our House returned to London's West End on 11th November 2012 for a one off Gala performance at Savoy Theatre. The performance was directed by the shows original director Matthew Warchus in aid of Help for Heroes. Suggs played the role of Joe's Dad in the production. www.ourhouseinconcert.com

International productions
A new production of the show toured Japan in July 2006, starting in Tokyo.
The show was performed in Ramat Gan, Israel, by the Beit Zvi Company in May 2010.

"Los Palmas 7" / "House of Fun"
"Our House"
"Simple Equation"
"My Girl"
"Baggy Trousers"
"Prospects"
"Embarrassment"
"Driving In My Car"
"Shut Up"
"Tomorrow's Just Another Day" / "The Sun and the Rain"
"Night Boat to Cairo"
"Wings Of a Dove"
"One Better Day"
"Margate"
"Rise and Fall"
"NW5 (Or Sarah's Song)"
"It Must Be Love"
"The Sun and the Rain"
Finale

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Our House

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Our House