UNCOOKED - The Weirdest Collaboration Ever?

I was watching New Girl the other day (more TV recommendations) and a certain guest star caught my attention. I'll get onto him in a minute.

But what I want to focus on first is the following collaboration. The collaborators are:
Andrew Lloyd Webber (ALW), composer of many musicals including, but not limited to, Cats; Phantom of the Opera; Jesus Christ Superstar; Starlight Express; Joseph and the Unnecessarily Long Title and many more.
Julian Fellowes, writer of Gosford Park, and the Titanic miniseries on ITV in 2012, but probably best known as the creator and writer of Downton Abbey.

Now, without looking it up, what do you think the two collaborated on? Answer below (Clue: it's a stage show based on an existing property)





















The Answer:
School of Rock: The Musical
No, really. I'm not saying it's bad; on the contrary, I've literally ONLY heard good things. And I've looked. Hard.
When lockdown is lifted, I recommend you check it out. Please bear in mind though, this is only based on what I've heard; this is not a personal testimony. However, it has been endorsed by Jack Black (the star of the movie it's based on), so that's pretty high praise.

In summary: see School of Rock: The Musical. It's an unlikely collaboration, but it's had good reviews, so check it out.
West End Trailer
US Tour Trailer
"You're in The Band" Clip
"Stick it to The Man" Clip (Mild bad language warning (s**t))
Book Tickets (UK Tour)
Touring has been suspended because lockdown, but the tour is currently scheduled to begin in Birmingham in February 2021

This brings us to Tony Cavalero, the aforementioned wedding venue booker from New Girl.

Bit of background first. I watch a lot of shows on All4 (at least I did until the app became incompatible with my tablet). This means that I see (saw) a lot of trailers for other shows on E4. This is how I found out about Speechless; Harley Quinn; The Good Place; Schooled; Duncanville and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. Bitesize reviews of all of these shows here.

This meant I saw this trailer (actual trailer that I saw not found). I thought it looked pretty good, and although there were obviously some differences, that was to be expected and it could still be good in its own way. TBH, the line that really sold me (not in the above video) was
"I don't think [Mr Finn]'s a real teacher. He asked me to borrow lunch money!"

In retrospect, all the warning signs were there, namely the laugh track. What's wrong with laugh tracks, I don't hear you ask because that's not how sound works. Or time.

There's nothing wrong with laugh tracks. When they're done right. What do I mean by that? Guess we're going to have to do some etymology diving.

Theatre Glossary

Breaking the Fourth Wall (v.) - Acknowledging the audience's existence and interacting with them.
Fourth Wall (n.) - The imaginary wall between the stage and the audience.

THE BELOW PARAGRAPH IS A SOMEWHAT PATRONISING MANSPLANATION OF THE FOURTH WALL. SKIP IF YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH THAT CONCEPT. IT DOES HAVE A RATHER AMUSING JOKE IN IT THOUGH.

Most conventional stage shows have three walls on stage at any given time (some shows are set in multiple locations. This is because most rooms have four walls, and the physical 'fourth wall' has been removed to make it easier for the audience to see the action. Fun fact: this was only the case after 1853 when Sir Jeremy Pleasure suggested the removal of the fourth wall and that's where we get the phrase 'for your viewing pleasure' from.

Many successful sitcoms take a similar approach, such as Friends; Cheers; Frasier and The Big Bang Theory. One easy way to check if a sitcom has a real audience is to watch a couple of episodes and see if there is one wall that is conspicuously never shown.

Sometimes part of the wall is shown in some scenes, but the majority of the time it does not appear. The TBBT set for Leonard/Sheldon's apartment has a window in the fourth wall, but that part of the wall is not shown on the rare occasions when part of the wall is shown, because the audience would be visible on the other side.

The reason some sitcoms use an audience is to get reactions so that home viewers know when to laugh, and feel better about it, because laughter is best as a communal activity. In some cases, such as The Goes Wrong Show, they use the audience to work out which jokes work and which ones don't, and write out or alter jokes that the audience don't laugh at.

On the School of Rock TV Show, there is obviously an audience because we can hear them laughing. Except, where are they? Watch these two clips and you'll see all four walls (I couldn't find a single clip that shows all four, but there are scenes where this happens). This means that there is nowhere an audience could be hiding.

Before you ask, yes, I am a 20-something adult male who voluntarily watched a Nickelodeon show. Feel free to judge me.