Benjamin Britten - Peace and Conflict

Director: Tony Britten

Year: 2011

Norman, the theatre manager has worked at the Pavilion Theatre at the end of the pier for forty years and is frustrated by the council’s plan to hand the place over to commercial management. They bring in Eddie Richards to ‘help’ with the winter programming. Eddie and Norman were teenage friends, but Norman doesn’t trust him. Sandra, Norman’s loyal assistant becomes increasingly concerned about Norman. <br /> <br /> Eddie comes up with comically bizarre programming plans, which Norman vetoes. But Eddie is convinced that an Alma Cogan tribute artist will be a hit with older audiences. Norman is appalled – he once had an embarrassingly unconsummated one night stand with Alma and it has blighted his life ever since. <br /> <br /> He also thinks that Eddie had an affair with Alma, but when Sandra assures him this didn’t happen, he supports his plan. During the hugely successful concert the lifeboat is called out and Norman volunteers. Sandra realises what her anxiety about this escapade indicates, so when Norman returns safely she is thrilled when he announces that he will retire and let Eddie run the theatre. She resigns as well to be a singer on a cruise liner – and Norman goes with her.

Director: Tony Britten

Year: 2011

In Love with Alma Cogan is an independant British feature film with music, set on and around Cromer Pier in North Norfolk.<br /> <br /> This gentle romantic comedy tells the story of Norman, the manager of the theatre on the pier at a once grand East Coast holiday resort. Norman has worked at the theatre all his life and despite the efforts of Sandra, his long-serving and suffering assistant, he will not accept that the local council, which owns the theatre, may be serious about putting it into the hands of commercial management.<br /> <br /> The council bring in Eddie Richards to ‘help’ with the winter programming. Eddie and Norman were teenage friends, but Norman doesn’t trust him and Sandra, Norman’s loyal assistant becomes increasingly concerned about Norman’s state of mind. <br /> <br /> As the plot unfolds, Norman realises that it may be time to move on and put behind him the ghost of the fifties and sixties singing star Alma Cogan, who he feels has overshadowed his life since he met her one night over forty years ago. He and Sandra leave the theatre, she to 'take flight' and fulfil her dream of being a professional singer and he to be with her.

Director: Tony Britten

Year: 2000

Writer - Director Tony Britten's version of Puccini's 'La Boheme' is a ground breaking new take on an opera classic. Utilising Actor/Singers and a funny but hard hitting script, the film seeks to achieve the sort of accessibility that MUSIC THEATRE LONDON is renown for in the theatre.<br /> <br /> Four young men, an artist, a playwright, a musician and a live in the 'Withnail' - like squalor of booze, dope and bad behaviour. Into this world enters the mysterious Mimi. She and the playwright, Rudolfo, fall in love and everything has to change. Rudolfo's immaturity is reflected in obsessive jealousy, and failure to notice Mimi's drug problem. The lovers part, and only when Mimi comes back to the squat to die, does Rudolfo comprehend the depths of his love, and the boys realise that growing up is violent and irrevocable.<br /> <br /> Shot on location in South East London, the combination of humour, pathos and the urban reality makes this a million miles away from the conventional opera film.