The Scottish singer-songwriter could have a Brit and Ivor Novello to her identify – received the 12 months after she outsold each different feminine artist within the UK – however she’s not taking any prisoners.
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KT Tunstall performing in 2023. Pic: AP Photos
“You have an idea of what you should be as an artist, I think it’s really, really important to kill that.”
She goes on: “The whole point of being an artist is that you never know what you’re going to be, and you should never assume that you know.
“I believe there’s one thing far more divine within the sort of development of your self as an artist that it is not your home to know what is going on to be.”
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Emma Flynn performs Cher. Pic: Pamela Raith Pictures
Sharing a non-public thought, she admits: “I don’t think I’ve ever said it out loud, but I have always thought to myself, ‘What if the things that you have done are not the thing that you’re most known for? That there’s something coming’?”
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Emma Flynn performs Cher. Pic: Pamela Raith Pictures
Turning 50 subsequent 12 months, Tunstall’s embraced change head on, serving to rework 1995 movie Clueless for the stage, alongside its creator Amy Heckerling.
Working in Hollywood for 4 many years and counting, Heckerling, who additionally directed Quick Occasions At Ridgemont Excessive and Look Who’s Speaking, says “I always felt like the movie, while we were making it, kind of wanted to sing.”
‘It was actually time to do one thing new’
It was a “wild ride” that Tunstall, who says she was “desperate to learn something new,” was eager to be a part of.
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The Clueless The Musical forged. Pic: Pamela Raith Pictures
Busking as a pupil earlier than becoming a member of bands in her early 20s, Tunstall says: “I’ve been I’ve been doing gigs and touring for a long time, and it was really time to do something new and, and this is just a dream project to do it with.”
With the movie’s unique soundtrack that includes hits from Radiohead, Coolio, the Lightning Seeds, Supergrass and the Beastie Boys, Tunstall says it was thrilling to create songs for the “explosion of genre” that was the Nineties – a time when Nirvana and NSYNC jostled alongside one another within the charts, and the Spice Women burst onto the worldwide scene.
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KT Tunstall has written the music for Clueless The Musical, the 90s movie that made Alicia Silverstone a star. Pic: Paramount Photos/PA
Tunstall’s method? “Come up with a mega-mix feel, that it’s the cassette tape playing in Cher’s Jeep” after which merge it with the MTV music video visuals catching fireplace on the time.
‘Benefit from the nostalgia and loosen up within the theatre’
Emma Flynn, who performs Cher Horowitz within the present, says it is the function of a lifetime having been a fan of the film “since I was in the foetal position” and “pretty much off book” from day one.
Flynn says the present provides audiences an escape from among the stresses of modern-day life.
“Watching people before social media and cell phones, just going to the Valley party and actually having to communicate. I think people enjoy that nostalgia. And I think it allows people to relax in the theatre too.”
And Clueless is not the one traditional film getting a musical makeover.
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Georgie Buckland as Andy (L) and Amy Di Bartol as Emily (R) in The Satan Wears Prada The Musical. Pic: Matt Crockett
The Satan Wears Prada The Musical brings style to the West Finish, with music by Sir Elton John.
Whereas the Imply Women Broadway run was so successful, it bought turned again into its personal film final 12 months, taking on $100m on the world field workplace. The musical’s now within the West Finish, turning into the fastest-selling present within the Dominion Theatre’s historical past.
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Imply Women The Musical forged. Pic: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
So, what is the enchantment?
The reveals have already got a ready-made viewers of followers, created by the unique movie.
They’re acquainted however totally different – constructing on the unique narrative, taking well-loved characters and oft-repeated catchphrases – and utilizing music and dance to broaden on the flicks’ best-known scenes – to the delight of the viewers.
In the meantime, the success of streaming during the last twenty years means older movies are straightforward to seek out and re-watch for a brand new technology of followers.
There’s the nostalgia issue too – wanting again to a film you really liked as a baby or teen means it is already received a particular place in your coronary heart, and also you’re more likely to welcome it in for a second time.
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Charlie Burn (R) performs Cady Heron. Pic: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
‘The 90s are on fireplace in standard tradition’
And the reveals will not be simply attracting acquainted audiences, however recent ones as properly says actress Charlie Burn, who performs Cady Heron in Imply Women The Musical.
Whereas she says there are specific “anticipatory parts of the show where people know there are iconic lines coming up,” she says there are additionally “parents with their kids at the stage door, that say, ‘I never knew the musical, I never knew the movie, and I loved it’.”
As for Clueless, Tunstall says it is a piece of luck that after years of labor the musical has come to fruition “when the ’90s are on fire again in popular culture”, including “a whole new generation of kids are really appreciating the culture of the ’90s, and it just feels really perfect.”
Cher’s futuristic outfit generator could by no means have grow to be a daily-dressing actuality, and a Burn Ebook at the back of the closet would now be shared by way of an array of social media putdowns.
However the hefty dollop of nostalgia delivered by such reveals is a music and dance welcomed by many throughout universally difficult instances.