DIAL M FOR MARTINI
A musical written by Ian MacKenzie Thurley.
The play is based in the 1950's and uses strong Doris Day and Hitchcock-esque references.
The project is to create a slick 1950's branding for the musical.
The writer and actors are in place but are looking for a producer to produce the musical.
The website, posters, merchandize, photographs (of sets, costumes) are to entice producers and in turn audiences.
About the Show:
Dial M for Martini – A Cabaret Musical
It’s the 1950’s, a pretty American housewife makes breakfast for her handsome husband in their cosy house for two…a picture perfect ideal. With a smile on her face and twinkle in her eye she sends him off to work and goes about her day tending to the household.
She is charming, delightful and always opening the door to an array of characters, with visits from the friendly postman, a helpful door-to-door sales man, her chatty neighbour and a dotty English doctor. She loves nothing more than to entertain company at home…for whom else is she going to kill?
But will her last visitor of the day, an inquisitive police inspector, be her undoing? It’s never easy for a girl to manage her day and make sure that her husband comes home to dinner on the table, warm slippers by the fire and a cold martini in his hand, especially when you have to get bloodstains out of the carpet!
Dial M for Martini plays in the shadows of Hitchcock and revels in the darkness of Patricia Highsmith. A cast of 7 characters are brought to life by two stunning performers, Kelly Fox and Jeremy Finch.
The show is dotted with ‘live TV commercials’ and swings along with music from the lush soundtrack of the 1950’s, including the classic songs How do ya like you’re your eggs? Perhaps, Fever, I’m Gonna’ Live ‘till I die, Que Sera, Sera, Somethin’ Stupid and Lady is a Tramp as well as brand new songs inspired by the era. Dial M for Martini is a show you will be dying to see.
Dial M for Martini Characters
She A ‘typical’ housewife of the 1950’s.
He Her Husband
The Friendly Postman
A Helpful Salesman
Dotty Doctor
Her Chatty Neighbour
An Inquisitive Police Inspector
INSTANT IMAGE IDEAS:
REFERENCES:
04/08
THE FONT
Font design: A font created for the production inspired by martini glasses.
The attempt was to create a font that not only aesthetically tied in with the essence of the production Dial M for Martini, but also one that maintained a distinguishing 1950’s characteristic. Simplicity, legibility, relatively taller x- heights, boldness and corniness seemed to be the theme of the decade. The endeavour was to capture this very essence of the era.
Martini- the final font
A 50's style font inspired by the angles of a Martini glass.
The concept and height of the font endeavours to emulate font characteristics of the 50's.
05/08
THE SHOOT
The brief:
The entire production is inspired and referenced from the post war 1950’s in America.
In tandem with the 1950’s essence, the brief for the shoot was to create a 1950’s milieu of the ‘perfect’ 1950’s housewife along with her loving husband. It was integral to capture the ostensibly perfect housewife’s malevolent side and her doting husbands sheer ignorance.
The modus operandi:
Her dress, shoes, hair, makeup and his, suit, coat, hat and bag were referenced and researched from various sources of 1950’s imagery and bought in Vintage and thrift stores in and around London.
The gadgets- the radio, brownie and telephone were borrowed or bought from vintage stores in London and India.
The photography technique was to endeavour to make photos that were nearly overexposed in order to capture the true 1950’s photographic panache, to later by sliced by angular strokes and pasted on various backgrounds.
05/08
THE STYLE : INITIAL GRAPHIC RESOLUTION
Grainy black and white photographs cut out using angular cut and paste technique onto various backgrounds. Parts of photographs coloured in giving the semblance of paint on photographs in the true essence of the 1950’s.
SHOW MERCHANDISE:
