Musicals You Must Listen To: More With Every Line

 Kirk Webeck talks about his latest musical discovery, and sends a huge shout out to the Australian cast of Hairspray! 

 Over the last few weeks I have gone into a music frenzy: buying anything and everything I could. It has been ages since I last actively went looking for material and I must admit at first I was very disappointed in my purchases.  I bought the Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll and Hyde, Civil War) musical Wonderland and can I say (in my opinion) it was possibly one of the worst musicals I have actually invested money into. I really didn’t like it at all. A musical full of all different styles of music with lyrics that are at time barely understandable (thank god they are printed within the case) – it was just a horrible experience.  My second purchase I was also disappointed with (not that I should have expected anything less). I shamefully purchased Spiderman: Turn Out The Dark, despite being told by several people not to bother. Staring at my new loot of over 20 new shows, after listening to these two musicals, I was thinking “wow I hope they aren’t all like this!”
Spiderman really is just noise: I will go as far as saying I actually HATED this show. (Without using the term “rape of the ear canals”, I just thought it absolutely horrible!) Thankfully along came a third album this album and composer I have actually fallen in love with! The composer’s name is Tim Prottey-Jones and his music is amazing, and thankfully I really did enjoy this album. Based in the U.K. this fairly new composer writes for musical theatre but is as yet to complete what he would call his first ‘musical’. Instead, he has written a collection of material which fits the ‘musical’ style. The music on the particular album I bought is a collection of songs from two musicals he is currently developing with librettist/lyricist Robert Gould. These new musicals entitled After the Turn and Once Bitten. Upon first listen, one wouldn’t necessarily class Tim’s music as your classic musical theatre style, as its blended with a very much pop/rock edge. I think it will be very interesting to see what comes next for this composer. This particular album is Tim’s first foray in to music albums, and it has been thrown together without much thought to the actual line up of album. This being said, ndividually the songs alone are great and they do speak for themselves. 
This album, More With Every Line features some great voices, all of which have featured prominently in musical theatre both on the West End and Broadway. The artists involved in the recording include Daniel Boys from the London Cast of Avenue Q (probably better known for his appearances in UK reality TV show Any Dream Will Do the search for the West End’s next Joseph), Colleen Ballinger better known perhaps has Miranda Sings, Tituss Burgess and a host of other well known performers Including Tim himself. If you want to know more about Tim you can find him on Facebook. Unfortunately, at this stage there is no website for this new composer who definitely deserves more support. Given the right chance, and our support this young composer really could go places. More With Every Line – Tim Prottey-Jones  is available on iTunes and has a great selection of songs on there for both male and female voices. Click on the links below to view/listen/purchase the songs or albumen.  Male Song Ideas: My heart beats in my song (feat. Daniel Boys) – More With Every Line Rescue Remedy (feat. Drew Sarich) – More With Every Line  Female Song Ideas:  I know who you are (feat. Colleen Ballinger) – More With Every LineStrong without you (feat. Samantha Barks) – More With Every Line As I said when you first listen to this album it won’t immediately scream Musical Theatre to you but it will be interesting to hear all of this music once it is in the context of a full work rather than a collection.  Tim has recently released his second album entitled Surrounded by the Sounds which is not yet available on IiTunes but it is available for purchase from Dress Circle. You can also find more of Tim’s music on YouTube. Finally before I finish this article, I want to send a huge shout out to the Aussie cast of Hairspray!  Wow!  I finally got a chance to see the show the other night and I was seriously amazed! I have seen the Broadway production of Hairspray and the London production of the show and seriously they don’t even come close to the Aussie cast in any way at all! The production here in Australia is absolutely OUTSTANDING! I really have nothing but wonderful things to say about this show. The design is so ridiculously clever and the cast are by far the most talented and energetic cast I have ever seen. A huge WELL DONE! I’m so proud to be part of such an amazingly talented and vibrant industry here in Oz!