The Musicians: Creating Alex's world

Alex. Arguably the most pivotal character in musicians. This blog post will be discussing Alex's world and how I have brought him to life. In our take on The Musicians Alex is a girl. However, for the sake of this blog post and my brain I will be referring to Alex as a he, like Patrick Marber originally wrote him to be. 

I think the first question I asked myself about Alex when I read the play is; how does he know so much English? I have given this question lots of thought and came to the conclusion that he has probably learned it through the music he listens to. This play is set in the earlly 2000's and pop culture was a lot different back then to what it was now. Yet, Alex is stuck in the 60's - 70's by the sounds of it! In my mind, Alex is poor and when he is not working he is watching old VHS tapes that maybe his dad has with The Beatles and The Who and all these different bands and rockstars from that era. This is the only form of entertainment he has besides his job is music. I'd imagine Alex to study these tapes relentlessly and dream of being like these rockstars, which leads me nicely on to my next section.

The Who

From the very start of the play, we establish that Alex is obsessed with The Who. He lives and breathes them. I completed some research of my own into The Who and these were my findings. 

The Who was and is one of the most influential rock bands in the world and they originated Rock Opera. The principal members of the band were; Pete Townshead (who Alex takes the most inspiration from in his performance of Pinball Wizard), Roger Daltery, John Entwistle and Keith Moon (who was later replaced with Kenney Jones).

The who changed the face of the music business. They rejected pretension and dealt with teenage travails. They were a band for those who didn't feel like they belonged. I think music is a lot more than just music. It is a comfort blanket for you through hardship, love, happiness, sorrow and every emotion you can think of. I also think this is a thought of Alex's who tries so hard to fit in with everyone and be everybody's friend. Rock music during the 70's united people all over the world. The Who's early records dealt with alienation, frustration and uncertainty and this was all portrayed through their music during the 1960's mod culture. There was savage and brutal power in each and every member of the band and it is visible through their live performances and their voice.

The Who are rock and roll in every sense. Concerts would usually climax with Townshead smashing his guitar off the ground, making the audience go wild. Whilst other groups were striving for peace and love in their songs, The Who would sing about unrequited lust. The Who turned their rage into a form of art.

Pinball Wizard

Pinball Wizard is a song written by Pete Townshead and is one of The Who's most famous songs. It was featured on their 1969 album 'Tommy'. The lyrics are written from the perspective of a Pinball Champion named 'Local Lad' in the Tommy libretto book, astounded by the skills of the opera's eponymous character. Townshead once called it 'the most clumsy piece of writing ever done' yet the song is still a hit to this day and played at every Who concert since it's debut. 

In 1975, Pinball Wizard was performed by Elton John in the film adaptation of 'Tommy' by Ken Russell. Pinball Wizard was based heavily on the teachings of Indian Spiritualist Meher Baba. Meher Baba's message was that the goal of life was to realise the absolute oneness of God, a presence from whom the universe emanates as an unconscious whim, materialised in conscious divinity. Baba lived the final 44 years of his life in silence to reflect his own teachings. The muteness of Tommy as a character reflects this.

This is what I found on the web;

When the film Tommy came out, Townshead re-wrote some of the lyrics to suit the plot of the play. The plot of the play is quite fascinating and really delves into the song of Pinball Wizard. It's the story of Tommy, who the album and films are based off. I will attach a photo of the plot below.

I have watched The Who perform Pinball Wizard countless amounts of times in order to prepare for the show and when I perform it as Alex. I will use elements of each performance I have watched in order to do Alex and the Pinball Wizard proud!

Workshops with Kane & My Russian 

Accent

The most helpful person when it came to developing the character of Alex was probably Kane. This is due to the fact that Kane has played Alex before in connections. 

The very first workshop we did with Kane was him telling us the challenges and excitements of playing the role of Alex. Kane said he struggled most with the Pinball Wizard performance and the trick is to just completely let go. This section of the script is what I will struggle with most due to my own embarrassment of singing and dancing in front of a crowd. I know that this is something I must tackle however and get over. I was very scared of doing this in my audition, but I feel as though the confidence will come to me when I have an audience full of people. We recently completed a workshop where Kane performed Pinball Wizard for Kate and I which made me feel a lot better as now I know that I shouldn't be afraid of making a fool of myself and I will look more daft if I don't completely go for it.

The next thing I had to tackle was the most important trait of Alex … his Russian accent. I have always had a natural gift of being able to do accents and throughout the day often burst into different ones. However, Russian is one I am less familiar with and have never really tackled before. Kane completed many different workshops with us to improve our Russian accents.

Kane said it was vital not to fall into the trap of stereotypical, angry Russian. Alex is a very bubbly character with lots of personality and is not sad or angry. His voice must be very happy at all times as he just wants to make friends with people. We were taught that the trick is to learn certain words and phrases in a Russian accent then apply it to your performance. Kelly gave us a cheat sheet of how to master a Russian accent. 

I also watched quite a lot of tiktok's about how to do a Russian accent. The way I learn is quite different to others, I can't sit and watch a YouTube video of someone teaching me how to do an accent as I think about it way too much and it doesn't end up sounding the best that it probably could. Instead, I just need to hear people talking completely naturally and pick up their way of speaking. I learn by listening to other people speak it. 

The other day in fact, I was at work in my local pub and I served someone who was in fact Russian. I was in awe of them immediately and rather than asking the woman for tips and tricks about impersonating her accent, I just listened carefully and picked up on words she said.

I do feel as though the more rehearsals I do, the better I am getting with the accent and I think the trick is to just practice, practice, practice!

My next struggle was moving onto the scene where Alex is on the phone to the airport, trying to find his father. I have got to sound as though I am speaking in Russian which has probably been the most difficult thing so far. I have tried this phone call in multiple different ways and it doesn't sound effective. I spoke to Kate about this scene and she told me the only way she thinks she's going to do it well is by learning the actual Russian, and it looks like I'm going to be doing the same.

This is the first performance in Russian I have to do. When I first dial the phone the first thing I'd imagine Alex saying;

"Hello! Is my father there please? I need to talk to him."

which translates to

"Privet! moi otetz tam, pojaluista, mne nuzno pogovorit s nim?"

I then imagine Alex saying;

"Hello Dad! How are you? I have a bit of a situation at the hall and I was wondering if you could talk to security about retrieving some bags."

which translates to

"privet, papa! kak vashi dela? u menia nebolshaya situation vie zale, yi mne bylo interest, nay mogley by vy pogovorit s ochranoy au poluchenii necotoric sumok."

I think that if I prolong this sentence and add some fake reactions in the middle of it, this will be enough to learn.

The next part of the text I need to translate is when I am introducing the orchestra at the beginning of act 2.  This is quite a large piece to translate but I know that if I just practice I will get there eventually.

"Good Evening, Moscow"

translates to

"Dobryy vecher, Moskva!"

"You might have heard a rumour"

translates to

"vy mogli slyshat' slukh"

"that tonight's concert was to be cancelled"

translates to

"chto segodnyashniy kontsert dolzhen byl byt' otmenen"

"This was due to the unfortunate loss of our instruments"

(this is when I need to ramble about the whole plot of the story and what happened with the instruments)

"The orchestra walked into the orchestra hall.

 Everyone was arguing. 

WE'RE SHIT AND WE KNOW WE ARE!

Rosie got a phone call.

AAAAAAAARGH

STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! 

Airport security found marijuana in the flute.

Sniffer dogs started barking.

Flute started crying.

Everyone was angry.

I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF!

Everyone walked away sad.

Then I had an idea.

Here we are!"

translates to

"Orkestr voshel v orkestrovyy zal. 

Vse sporili.

WE'RE SHIT AND WE KNOW WE ARE!

Rozi pozvonili.

AAAAAAAARGH

OSTANOVITE ETO! OSTANOVITE ETO! OSTANOVITE ETO!

Sluzhba bezopasnosti aeroporta obnaruzhila v fleyte marikhuanu.

Sobaki-ishcheyki nachali layat'.

Fleyta zaplakala.

Vse byli v yarosti.

YA UBIVAYU SEBYA!

Vse ushli grustnyye.

Togda u menya voznikla ideya.

My zdes'!"

"However, due to a last minute piece of inspiration..."

translates to

"odnaco, blagodarya posledney minute chast vdokhnoveniya

(pinball wizard)"

"We are able - I hope - to give you our version of the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony Number 4 in F Minor"

translates to

"my mozem - ya nadeyus - dat vam nashu versio vtorogo dvizheniya symphony chaykovsky No 4 vie F Minor"

"May we humbly request your indulgence … and your imagination"

translates to

"pust my smirenno prosit vashego sniskhozhdeniya ... yi vasheh voobrazheniye"

So that's that! I feel I have done a good job of preparing for the show and now I am excited to get on stage and portray my version of Alex. I love the character of Alex, I would even go as far as to say he is the best character I have ever played. I look forward to do him justice. Bring on the performance!