For anyone interested : Jo Clifton is playing the part of Marilyn Monroe in "Norma Jean The Musical" at the Lost Theatre, West London, from 30th May to 18th June.

Well done, Joanne!

Congrats Joanne, really pleased for her she'll be fabulous as Marilyn

she certainly looks the part

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i5...psmjclrzax.jpg

I saw someone being taught to talk like Marilyn once - in a film. The secret was to breathe out before talking.

interesting

I wonder how many people have tried that after reading this post?

I did!

Raises hand

Marilyn stuttered and was taught breathing exercises to help with that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfBJ8HrMZUI

This (copied from Reddit) explains it a bit.

At my university, the Speech and Hearing Clinic offers free services to students, and I was a client there for 3 semesters (clinicians were graduate students studying speech pathology).
I can confidently say that making my voice "breathy", or what we called airflow management, is hands down the most effective tool. Stuttering, in essence, is the stopping and starting of your voice, and when your speech is "blocked" you have to start it again immediately, sometimes over and over, resulting in a "s-s-s-s-sound" like that. Part of the therapy was to make it easier to restart or make it easier to get through certain sounds. But if you think about trying to never stop your voice, to keep the momentum of your voice going (imagine a football running back hitting defenders and pushing through, it's easier with more momentum than starting from a stand still each time). So by keeping your breath going, even when no sound is coming out, it's easier to keep your momentum, therefore less stuttering. It's not that i'm always exhaling or anything, but especially before some words i'll start an exhale (not audible with some practice), which helps immensely and greatly reduces the chance of stuttering. It's very, very cool to see a celebrity, especially one that was active 60 years ago, using the same techniques that I use now that have greatly helped me.

TL;DR - The breathy voice is a technique now taught in therapy, which has helped me immensely in my life.

Press night tonight, hope it goes well for Joanne

Nice tweets from Karen about her sister in law Ochre Looks like Joanne had support from Karen and Kevin last night.

Awww lovely, did you see Kevin's tweet to Joanne Ha ha love their competitive sibling relationship but obviously very close and supportive of each other.

I did Ochre, made me laugh! Zoe was there as well in addition to Janette and Aliaz so she had a lot of support from her Strictly friends. I did warm to her during the last series, she had calmed down significantly.

Georgia and Giovanni there too as well as a few of the make-up people from Strictly

I read a tweet that said Harry Judd and Scott Mills were there too though I haven't seen any pics.

The Upcoming Review

'Mirroring the gestures and vocals of Marilyn Monroe, Clifton bears a striking resemblance to the star and, with all the grace that a dancer could bring to the role, she claims a strong on-stage presence.'

There are a couple of great pics with Jo and the other Strictly people here :

https://twitter.com/joanneclifton


Just scroll down slightly !

Giovanni sent her a nice tweet "Good luck Marilyn😝@joanneclifton you will be fantastic as always!! Proud of you!! See you tomorrow #bestdancepartner"

Lovely that she had so much support on press night. Speaking of Joanne and Giovanni as dance partners, the pro number they did while Seal was performing was a favourite of mine last series.

Extract from The Stage.

'Given top billing, the Strictly Come Dancing star proves to be one of the highlights, delivering a finely tuned physical impersonation of the 1950s icon. Her body never still, Clifton not only demonstrates some intuitive comic timing but also captures the artifice of Monroe's screen persona.'

Just read The Upcoming Review that Ochre posted and the review plus the accompanying photo of Joanne make me so intrigued. She looks so much like Marilyn but I would never have considered her someone like MM at all. Well done to Jo and it's nice to read about the support she's received from the 'Strictly family'. Good on her to branch out.

Speaking of her as a theatre actress, in many of her routines with Paulo she's dramatic and acts the parts as much as dances. In fact they seemed to include songs that have speech as part of the number.

I've watched a few of her routines with Paulo, they were absolutely incredible! Much as I was impressed with how Joanne got on with the roles she was given last series, really Strictly somewhat wasted her talent. Apart from the Christmas special where, with Harry, we got to see something of what Joanne as a World Champion and excellent teacher can do with a talented celeb.

I think Joanne always stands out in the pro routines, not only in terms of technique but also she does have a captivating presence on the dance floor. She acts the part as she dances as you say Maggie.