Bernard J. Taylor

Bernard J. Taylor is the writer and composer of six stage musicals that have been produced around the world and translated into German, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish and Italian. He is also the writer of 14 novels.

Taylor was born and educated in Cape Town, South Africa. His forebears included John Taylor, the first British missionary to southern Africa. He left South Africa for England in 1969 and remained in England until 1998, after which he spent a year in Australia before settling in the United States of America. [cite book
last = Taylor
first = Bernard J.
coauthors =
title = Feasting with Panthers
publisher = Mystery and Suspense Press
date = 2004
pages = 288
month = January
isbn = 0595312942 ]

Music and musicals

Taylor has composed numerous musicals. [cite book
last = Larkin
first = Colin
coauthors = John Martland
title = The Virgin Encyclopedia of Stage and Film Musicals
publisher = London: Virgin in association with Muze UK Ltd
date = 1999
pages =
month =
isbn = 0753503751 ]

Neighbors And Lovers

Taylor's first musical show was "Neighbors And Lovers" (1987), self-produced at the Oast Theatre, Tonbridge, England. However, Taylor decided to abandon it in favour of creating a musical based on a universally known story.

Wuthering Heights

Taylor selected Emily Brontë's classic Wuthering Heights, composing the music. A concept album was released in 1991 with a cast of West End musical stars including a former "Phantom Of The Opera" Dave Willetts, as Heathcliff, Lesley Garrett (Cathy Earnshaw), Bonnie Langford (Isabella Linton), Clive Carter (Hindley Earnshaw), Sharon Campbell (Ellen "Nellie" Dean) and James Staddon (Edgar Linton). It had its world premier at the Madison Theatre, Illinois, in 1993 and has since been performed in the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Romania.

uccess!

Meanwhile, Taylor turned his attention to something entirely different. "Success!" was a backstage musical, loosely based on Faust, and set in New York. Peppered with parody and pastiche, with additional lyrics by Vivian Wadham, its typical, and often cynical, view of the ups and downs of show business was accompanied by a jazzy and sometimes tender score, with Claire Moore, Lon Satton, Kathryn Evans, Jessica Martin and Maurice Clarke forming the CD cast.

Pride And Prejudice

By the time "Success!" made its debut at the Civic Theatre, Rotherham, in September 1995, Taylor had returned to the classics, in the form of Jane Austen's "Pride And Prejudice". With Claire Moore as Elizabeth Bennett and Peter Karrie in the role of Darcy, the concept album also featured Gay Soper, Janet Mooney, James Staddon and Christopher Biggins as Mr. Collins. Stand-out tracks, according to the Virgin Encyclopedia of "Film and Stage Music" "(VEFSM)", were considered to be "Through The Eyes Of A Child" "Good Breeding" and "Thank God They're Married". Pride And Prejudice was introduced to US audiences, complete with five new songs, by the Public Theatre Company of Peoria, Illinois, in January 1995. Taylor's musical interpretation of the Austen novel was considered to be closer to its source than the 1959 Broadway version (see "VEFSM"), First Impressions (Austen's original title for the book), which starred Hermione Gingold. By 2008 there had been more than 20 productions of the show worldwide in the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

Nosferatu the Vampire

This production, (with additional lyrics by Eric Vickers), included numbers such as "Wild Talk Of Vampires", "And Sheep Shall Not Safely Graze", "Worms Feed On My Brains" "Ship Of The Dead" "Blasphemy" and "Somewhere At The Edges Of Creation". Once again, the album cast was led by Claire Moore (singer) (as Mina) and Peter Karrie (as Nosferatu), supported by Mario Frangoulis, former pop star Mark Wynter, Barry James, Annalene Beechey and Simon Burke. The world premiere was staged at the Madison Theatre, Peoria, Illinois, in September 1995, and the show had its first European performances a month later in Eastbourne. The work has been translated into German, Spanish and Hungarian.

Much Ado

Having achieved considerable success with his adaptations on Brontë and Austen, Taylor looked to William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, abbreviated to Much Ado (additional lyrics: Vickers). The CD cast included Paul McGann (Benedick), Claire Moore (Beatrice), Simon Burke (Claudio), Janet Mooney (Hero), Barry James (Leonato), David Pendelbury (Dogberry) and Peter Karrie (Don John). Songs included "If I Could Write A Sonnet", "I'll Never Love Again", "The Sweetest Kiss", "Now I Hear Symphonies" and "This Strange Affliction Called Love" as well as the humorous "The Officers Of The Watch" and "Never Satisfied". It had its world premiere at Stratford on Avon, birthplace of Shakespeare, in 1996, and had its Continental European premiere in Budapest, Hungary, in 2006.

Millennium Suite

As the 90s drew to a close, Taylor, in collaboration with orchestrator Gareth Price, attempted "to portray some of the key developments in the advance of civilization over the past 1,000 years" via his "Millennium Suite". Performed on CD by the Polish State Philharmonic Orchestra of Latowice, conducted by Jerzy Swoboda, the suite consisted of "The Birth Of Chivalry" "The Age Of Oppression" "The Enlightenment" "The Road To Democracy" and "The Triumph of Democracy".

Passion's Progress

Encouraged by his latest reviews, Taylor composed another symphonic work, "Passion's Progress", a suite of ten pieces tracing the development of a romantic relationship.

After featuring on the majority of Taylor's concept albums, Claire Moore, who has starred in the West End in shows such as Aspects Of Love and The Phantom Of The Opera, released the solo CDs, "Songs From The Musicals Of Bernard J. Taylor" and "Child Of The Earth".

Liberty: The Siege of the Alamo

The end of the decade saw the creation of "Liberty: The Siege of the Alamo", which had its world premiere at the Josephine Theater in San Antonio in 2000.

Novels

Since 1997, Bernard J. Taylor has been writing Terrell Newman mysteries, a series of self-published suspense novels set in San Antonio, Texas. There are 12 books in this series. [http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/T_Authors/Taylor_Bernard-J.html] In addition he has written another mystery novel, "Running in the Dark", and the autobiographical "Feasting with Panthers".

External links

* [http://www.bernardjtaylor.com/ Bernard J. Taylor's website]

References

* [http://nodanw.com/shows_p/pride_and_prejudice.htm Guide to Musical Theatre]
* [http://bronteana.wordpress.com/2006/01/ Bronte Study Archives]
* [http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/ website devoted to mystery writers]
* [http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsT/3PlaywrightsTdata.htm Guide to modern playwrights]
* [http://www.albemarle-london.com/NewsSearchHeader.php?DateAdded=0199 London Theatre Guide]
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The-novels-of-Bernard_J_Taylor/?yguid=142477591 Yahoo group with over 1100 members devoted to the novels of Bernard J. Taylor]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0440112/bio IMDB (International Movie Data Base)]
* [http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsT/taylor-bernard-j.html (Doollee Playwrights Database)]