Gin Wigmore, as Juliet, will sing the songs of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet at the Civic Theatre, Auckland on December 7 and 8. Photo / Alex Burton, NZ Herald
Gin Wigmore, as Juliet, will sing the songs of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet at the Civic Theatre, Auckland on December 7 and 8. Photo / Alex Burton, NZ Herald
This story was originally published on November 29. The shows it refers to take place tonight (Saturday, December 7) and tomorrow.
It's 1996 and a 10-year-old Gin Wigmore is getting her first glimpse of the all-consuming passion of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Baz Luhrmann's innovative retelling of the classic enraptured the world, including young Wigmore, who would go on to plaster the film's star, Leonardo DiCaprio, all over her walls.
"Iwas so in love with Leonardo DiCaprio," she says now. "He was the only dude I had posters of on my wall. When Romeo + Juliet came out with him in that Hawaiian shirt that was undone, like, all the time - oh my God. I didn't even know Claire Danes was in the movie really, it was just Leo. I saw Titanic four times because I legit thought I would marry that man."
But it wasn't just Leo that grabbed her attention. It was also Wigmore's introduction to Shakespearean love, something that "made me so enamoured with the thoughts and ideas of passion, desire and love at all costs".
More even than that, once reality bit and the Leo obsession faded, what kept her - and much of the world - entranced was a soundtrack featuring Radiohead, Garbage and The Cardigans.
"The way this film was so deeply wrapped up in an eclectic array of well-styled music … made this love story feel possible and therefore that much more heartbreaking and powerful," she says.
Whether that soundtrack influenced her journey to become the award-winning musician we know now is hard to say, but it's certainly playing a part in the latest phase of her career.
Next week, Wigmore will return to New Zealand - she lives in Palm Springs, California - to play the songs of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet live in concert.
She'll be backed by a full choir, 30-piece orchestra and a rock band featuring Shihad's Jon Toogood, Pluto's Milan Borich and Elemeno P's Dave Gibson.
Gin Wigmore performing in 2015. Photo / Nick Reed
The soundtrack was created by superstar producer Nellee Hooper (Massive Attack, Madonna, U2) with composers Craig Armstrong and Marius de Vries and went multi-platinum. A second volume also sold well, hitting gold.
"You kind of know the set list already, right? So you can, as an audience member, be like, 'Oh cool, I'm gonna enjoy the show because I like these songs' or 'I hate all these songs I'm definitely not going,'" Wigmore says.
It's not only a great chance to revisit her teen years, but an opportunity to further hone her craft, which has recently seen her "sinking her toes" into writing music for film and television.
"It's such an art form to be able to do it right and to match that feeling with a visual, so from my perspective there's so much respect when people get it right," she says.
"The music [of Romeo + Juliet] was cool because it was a very old Shakespearean title, but it was transformed into this magical, modern-day adventure and love affair because of the music, which I thought was so powerful.
"When you see that happen in films, you see how much weight the music is carrying. Obviously, being a musician, I'm a huge fan of how that ties in and I think even at that young age, I was like, 'Wow, this really stands out.'"
Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet. Photo / Getty Images
Some artists lament the art form of a film soundtrack not being quite what it used to be.
Justin Warfield, whose band One Inch Punch featured on the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, once told the Guardian: "It's fair to say that in 20 years no one will be walking up the aisle to Rick Ross and Skrillex's Purple Lamborghini from the Suicide Squad OST. Now soundtracks are more of a marketing concept … like, 'If I get this band or this collaboration, it'll totally move the needle for getting butts in seats to see the movie. We can cross-market it.'"
Wigmore disagrees, citing everything from Edgar Wright's Baby Driver to Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.
"Obviously there are exceptions all the time where it's like, 'Yeah, okay that was placed because it's flavour of the month or whatever,'" she concedes.
"It's a business, we can't delude ourselves. But Tarantino does a beautiful job of awesome script-writing, directing, choice of character and casting, all coupled with amazing music like Django.
"That was wicked … putting loads of hip-hop in a film that was telling a really heavy story. It is brilliant; without that key ingredient, it can be too much for someone to stomach. It really dictates for the audience how to feel and music can be so powerful in doing that. You're setting a tone, you're setting a mood."
The key, she says, is when directors understand how important the music is - people like Baz Luhrmann, who, she posits, "must be a huge music dude".
"That's where you see the difference- when a director who has a love of music makes a film it changes the game."
Five of the best soundtracks of all time
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER – 1977
The first of three films on this list featuring John Travolta, this remains the best-selling soundtrack of all time. To this day, the Bee Gees' Night Fever, You Should Be Dancing, and Stayin' Alive can still be heard on dancefloors around the world.
GREASE – 1978
Another of the biggest-selling soundtracks of all time and a classic singalong record, Grease capitalised on 1950s nostalgia with stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John combining for seven songs including Summer Nights and You're The One That I Want.
DIRTY DANCING - 1987
A multi-platinum worldwide number one smash, Dirty Dancing introduced '80s kids to their parents' favourite songs from the '60s, while riding high on Eric Carmen's Hungry Eyes and, of course, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes' (I've Had) the Time of My Life.
PULP FICTION – 1994
From the surf guitar licks of Dick Dale's Misirlou, through to Urge Overkill's You'll Be a Woman Soon, and John Travolta and Uma Thurman's iconic dance to Chuck Berry's You Never Can Tell, Pulp Fiction is chock full of classic tunes.
24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE – 2002
From the late 70s sounds of the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Buzzcocks through to the post-punk and rave era-defining songs of Factory Records bands Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays, the 24 Hour Party People soundtrack traverses two key periods of British youth culture.
