AS YOU may or may not know, former Ormiston Park teacher, Benny Harris is now plying his trade in Hollywood. Benny blogs for YourThurrock to tell us how life is going over in Tinseltown.
“Well its been a while since I last wrote a blog. Things got a little busy for me from October last year and I’ve just had the chance to slow down a little. During November and December I appeared as BUTTONS in a pantomime in Hollywood for the Lythgoe Family. It was an amazing experience and the Americans really responded to it. Bonnie Lythgoe directed and Kris Lythgoe wrote and produced it. The show was the full on British experience with all of the costumes and set designs being imported from London.
The cast included Freddie Stroma another Englishmen from the Harry Potter movies, Gerry Mathers from the famous US show LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, Jennifer Leigh Warren an amazing Broadway star and vocalist, James May as Dandini and the hilarious ugly sisters played by Eddie Driscoll and Mark Edgar Stevens. Cinderella was a young girl named Veronica Dunne. Her father was in the comedy classic The Blues Brothers. I think she really go a long way and is a rising star.
Freddie and I were at first a little unsure of how an American audience would react to a pantomime. Firstly a lot Americans actually thought it was ‘mime’, a performance without word. You know like Marcel Marceau, LOL. But that was thankfully put to rest when the Lythgoes started promoting the show on TV and radio. Also we didnt know if Americas would be used to the element of actors breaking the fourth wall and joining in. Children are told to be quiet in shows (not unlike back home) so this would come as a big shock to them.
Opening night was great. The show was packed and many stars and celebrities came to see the performance. At the end of the show I would bring up children onto the stage to help me sing a song. I was unaware that I actually brought up Mel B and Eddie Murphys child to sing with me. But I found out after the show when Mel B came up to me to thank me and her little girl asked me if I could do magic, ha ha.
We did 42 shows in a short space of time and plenty of matinees during the day. The first school that attending really hit it home to me that children are pretty much the same no matter where you go! For the first few moments you could see the children were a little reserved. The teachers didnt really know too much about pantomimes and encouraged them to sit quietly. But as Buttons I couldnt have that. So after some decent encouragement the kids got into it. After about 10minutes they got so noisy that it extended the show by around 25 minutes with their cheering and booing the ugly sister, HA HA!
So Ive settled down again and Im back to normal after that crazy run. Its a new year and I hope something else will come in which is equally as fun. Pilot season is about to start where all of the new US shows get made. Hopefully, I can be lucky enough to get on one…? In the meantime Ill be down my local British pub in Santa Monica watching the football, coaching my football team as my evening job and performing in my comedy troupe in Hollywood as I embark on another crazy year in Hollywood hoping to catch a break.
Happy 2011!
