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54 Articles

What does it mean to be a reviewer today?

The responsibilities of a reviewer should never be taken lightly. Reviewers may not be paramedics or surgeons – what they write (hopefully) won’t make the difference between life and death – but even if one person reads their review of a show and decides to part with hard-earned cash to go and see it, that matters. Ultimately, while passion, creativity, dedication – and, above all, talent – remain the bedrock of our industry, they don’t count for much if theatres lie empty. With the cost of producing shows on the rise, it’s paramount that companies recoup their costs – and yet, increasing pressures on how we spend our money often mean that cultural activities fall by the wayside. A compelling, brilliantly written, considered review can make the difference between, say,…

What does it mean to be a reviewer today?

INTRODUCING THIS ISSUE’S FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS…

Cindy Marcolina was born in Italy in 1992. After earning a degree in entertainment studies with a focus on criticism, she moved to London in 2016. She is a freelance critic and writer with an interest in original projects and reimagined classics as well as fringe theatre and music, and is a member of the drama section of the Critics’ Circle. See Cindy’s reviews of Mean Girls and Your Lie in April on pages 54 and 62. Mickey-Jo Boucher is a theatre critic and commentator best known for creating video reviews and vlogs on YouTube as MickeyJoTheatre. He can also be seen as the host of his own live chat show at the Phoenix Arts Club in the West End and loves sharing the joy of seeing theatre around the…

INTRODUCING THIS ISSUE’S FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS…

Merrily scores big at Tony Awards The 77th annual Tony Awards returned to Lincoln Center on Sunday 16 June to celebrate the rich cultural tapestry that is New York theatre. It has been an encouraging year both for classic musicals – Cabaret and Merrily We Roll Along have made popular returns – as well as new musicals telling stories we had yet to see on the Broadway stage. Maria Friedman’s revival of Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along (based on her original revival production at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London back in 2012) collected four Tony Awards. As well as Best Revival of a Musical, Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe each received their first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor and Best Performance by…

IDINA MENZEL RETURNS TO BROADWAY

Wicked legend Idina Menzel is set to return to Broadway after more than a decade to star in original musical Redwood. (She last appeared on Broadway in If/Then back in 2014.) Redwood, which was initially devised by Menzel alongside writer/director Tina Landau, who also provides lyrics to Kate Diaz’s score, tells the story of a businesswoman who, despite her successful career, finds herself heartbroken and decides to drive to a remote redwood forest on a journey of self-discovery. After a run at La Jolla Playhouse, California, earlier this year, Redwood is due to open on Broadway in 2025 at a venue yet to be announced.…

IDINA MENZEL RETURNS TO BROADWAY

We pay tribute to Richard Sherman

The composer-lyricist Richard Morton Sherman (left) has died, aged 95. With his sibling Robert, the Sherman Brothers defined the sound of Disney’s Golden Age. In 1958, Walt Disney hired Richard and his brother Robert to work full-time as songwriters at Walt Disney Studios. They wrote ‘It’s a Small World’ for the New York World’s Fair In 1964, which was then incorporated into the now-iconic Disneyland ride of the same name. It’s been suggested that the song has been played over 50 million times worldwide. The following year, the Sherman Brothers took home two Academy Awards for their work on Mary Poppins, featuring ‘Feed the Birds’, ‘Step in Time’, and the longest made-up word in showbusiness, ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’. When the movie was adapted for the stage, composer George Stiles (pictured above with…

We pay tribute to Richard Sherman

PATTI’S BACK: NEW ALBUM AND LONDON CONCERT

Garlanded Broadway diva Patti LuPone will grace the London Coliseum with her solo show Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes on 16 February 2025. In this concert, LuPone will perform material from her new album of the same name, due to be released on 30 August 2024. The eclectic and personal selection of songs charts her personal journey, from the burgeoning rock ’n’ roll movement that formed the backdrop to her 1950s childhood, her coming of age in the turbulent 1960s, and the many memorable Musical Theatre numbers that have defined her life and career. The concert is conceived and directed by Scott Wittman, with music direction and arrangements by Joseph Thalken, and written by Jeffrey Richman. The London Coliseum event is the only European date for this show, which…

PATTI’S BACK: NEW ALBUM AND LONDON CONCERT

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 to soar

Tim Sheader’s first season as artistic director of London’s Donmar Warehouse has been announced, including the UK premiere of Dave Malloy’s philosophical musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. The production runs between 7 December 2024 and 8 February 2025. Based on a scandal-filled extract from Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace, the piece focuses on two Russian aristocrats – the romantic Natasha Rostova and depressed Pierre Bezukhov, both of whom are searching for meaning against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. The 2016 Broadway production was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won two. The score blends classical and Russian folk music and with indie-pop electro influences. Malloy is known for his challenging and experimental work featuring a metaphysical bent. Preludes, set in the mind of…

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 to soar

EDINBURGH FRINGE SET TO SIZZLE!

We’re almost ready to kick off this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe! Two offerings that look like a lot of fun are Come Dine with Me: The Musical, inspired by the home dining show with its famously snarky voiceover, and Silence! The Musical, a parody of cannibal classic The Silence of the Lambs. Both can also be seen at London’s Turbine Theatre in September. SIX fans are likely to be intrigued by Mary, Queen of Rock. It’s 1561 and the Scottish Reformation has imposed a ban on rock music. It’s up to Mary to get the country rocking again. Will she lose her head for her efforts? For more revisionist royal history, also try House of Cleopatra, a party-filled immersive extravaganza hosted by one of the most glamorous monarchs of all time.…

JANIS JOPLIN SHOW AT PEACOCK THEATRE

All fans of the pioneering rock singer-songwriter Janis Joplin should head to London’s Peacock Theatre from 21 August to 28 September for A Night with Janis Joplin. This biographical show pays homage to Joplin’s extraordinary talent and her musical influences. Mary Bridget Davies reprises her Tony-nominated turn as Joplin, with Sharon Sexton playing the lead at matinees. The show played for 140 performances on Broadway in 2013 and has toured the US extensively. It is written and directed by Randy Johnson. For tickets, visit sadlerswells.com…

Interval Chatter

SIX is partnering with London’s National Portrait Gallery this summer for a series of interactive events linked to a new exhibition, Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens Gina Beck is joining Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre from 2 September. She will play Sarah Brown, taking over from Celinde Schoenmaker Purple Rain, the world-premiere stage adaptation of Prince’s legendary film and album, will have its official opening at the State Theatre, Minneapolis on 10 April 2025 BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical will open on Broadway in April 2025, directed by Jerry Mitchell Choral experts Charles MacDougall and Jenny Trattles have joined ABRSM to deliver its Voices programme to teachers Heathers: The Musical is available to stream on Marquee TV. The recording of the smash-hit West End stage…

Interval Chatter

Countdown to…

Opening Night Lara Pulver is excited to return to the stage in Fiddler on the Roof at Regent’s Park in July Is this your first encounter with Fiddler on the Roof? Yes, I didn’t really know it that well at all so I’m coming to it very much anew. And my first impression was that, musically, it’s utterly beautiful. I only started reading Tevye the Dairyman [the source material, by Sholem Aleichem] a few months ago and the stories are so beautiful and reflective of family life whoever or wherever you are. What sort of preparation did you do? For me I was straight in the room with Mark Aspinall, our musical supervisor, to get singing again and regain that stamina to sing eight shows a week because I haven’t…

Bring Back That Show!

In 1958, Elvis Presley made headlines after being drafted into the army and subsequently stationed in West Germany for two years. What a perfect basis for a musical! Well, that’s what composer Charles Strouse, who would later go on to compose Annie, and lyricist Lee Adams both thought. Bye Bye Birdie is an all-American send-up of the 1950s, featuring rock stars and adoring teenage fans. But despite its innocent exterior, it does not shy away from themes of racism – especially during the civil rights movement. After an announcement that rock ‘n’ roll heartthrob Conrad Birdie is to be drafted into the army, his agent Albert Peterson – along with Albert’s secretary-turned-girlfriend Rosie Alvarez – concoct a final publicity stunt to save the agent’s struggling music business: Conrad will bid…

Bring Back That Show!

Venue Focus Criterion Theatre

Where? Piccadilly Circus, central London. Origins Commissioned as part of a luxurious leisure complex, the Criterion Theatre opened on 21 March 1874 with a double bill that included Topsyturveydom by WS Gilbert and Alfred Cellier. Architecture The Criterion Theatre and Restaurant were designed by Thomas Verity, who constructed several West End theatres, of which only the Criterion and the Comedy (now the Harold Pinter) survive. Verity also designed The Pavilion with its famous Long Room at Lord’s Cricket Grounds. The façade, built with Portland stone, is constructed in the French Renaissance style. The enchanting interior, described by Stephen Fry as ‘the Piccadilly Jewel Box’, features floral stained glass, intricate tiling and lavish ceiling paintings. Capacity 590. Restaurant In Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet, Dr…

Venue Focus Criterion Theatre

From the Green Room

While the debate raged at this year’s Oliviers as to why there was no Best Score category for musicals (why indeed!), we should remember that it wasn’t until 1997 that there was a Tony Award for Best Orchestrations. Some might say (though I can’t imagine who) that nobody ever came out of a Broadway show humming the orchestrations – but let’s be clear, they probably wouldn’t come out humming the tunes without them. They are the means by which the tunes are illuminated and elevated; they are the colour and cast of a show. Take the title song of The Sound of Music. Harmonise that traditionally and it’s decidedly ordinary. Land on a mystical chord at the close of the first line, ‘The hills are alive with the sound of…

From the Green Room

Elaine’s Page A Chorus Line

‘Thank you’… Meaning thanks but no thanks. Those words really pack a punch, and we’ve all heard them after a job interview. In my view, they hit performers especially hard because we pour every little bit of ourselves into getting the job. ‘Thank you’ came out of the dark many times when I was starting out. So, the 1975 musical masterpiece A Chorus Line speaks to us all. Who hasn’t experienced that nervous, vulnerable feeling as we dare to place our foot on the ladder? It’s set on an empty Broadway stage, where 17 performers are put through their paces in the final audition for a new musical. Only eight will make the cut as they reveal their hopes, dreams and secrets along the way. No show has depicted ‘the…

Elaine’s Page A Chorus Line

Lez Brotherston, set and costume designer

Working from home If I’m in the early design process of putting the show together, I’ll be working at home in my studio. I’ll usually get up early – around 5am – and walk the dog, then come back and prepare for any assistants who are coming in to work on model-making or technical drawings later in the day. If I can get a couple of hours’ work in before anyone turns up at 10, it means I’ve got something to give them. Otherwise, I’ll usually be making 1:25 models or doing costume drawings throughout the day. Often, production managers will come in to have a look at how the designs are coming along. For Oliver! [now playing in Chichester], Cameron Mackintosh and Matthew Bourne would come round to see…

Lez Brotherston, set and costume designer

Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year 2024

It’s been sung for over 30 years by numerous singers, but the perfectly scanned lyric is still pertinent: ‘And they pack their lyrics ‘til they’re so damn dense/You could put ‘em in your yard and you could use ‘em for a fence/And they honestly believe that they have captured the sense of Sondheim.’ Actually, while competing for the £1,000 prize at the 16th annual Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year – aka SSSSPOTY – no one sang Alan Chapman’s ‘Everybody Wants to Be Sondheim’ for the simple reason that it wasn’t eligible. In addition to singing a Sondheim song, this competition asks UK student performers to sing, at the late composer/lyricist’s request, a song from the next generation of Musical Theatre writers – now drawn from the 400-strong…

Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year 2024

Backstage with…

You first performed the show at Leicester Curve in 2021… For most of us, it was our first time performing since lockdown. It was very strange but amazing to be doing a show about performers and the importance of theatre. It came at a time of so many cuts in the arts and no one knew what was going to happen following the pandemic. We were all so proud of the show and those of us returning are so excited it’s having a further life. It’s a new staging, not a replica of Michael Bennett’s original… I knew the music well as my dad had the record and I saw the show in 2013 at the Palladium. The director Nikolai Foster is very faithful to the original but wants us…

Backstage with…

BY DEFINITION…

Originally popular in ancient Greece, the amphitheatre (literally translated as ‘viewing on all sides’) housed plays, poetry readings – and sporting events. In fact, it remains the most common design for sports stadiums but it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that it began to regain popularity as a theatrical space. Usually staged with minimal set so as not to disrupt sightlines, and with no traditional fourth wall, ‘in the round’ shows create a distinct sense of immersion.…

Behind The Song Lionel Bart’s ‘It’s a Fine Life’ from Oliver!

Nancy. It’s all about Nancy. In the book she is one of many characters – Dickens loved a big cast – but in the show she is the beating heart, the one who allows the musical to flourish, for hope to appear and for make-up to cover the nasties that might be lurking behind. She is at once an allegory for showbusiness, a symbol of light in a dark world. When she later cracks out ‘Oom-Pah-Pah’, her many petticoats reminiscent of the dancers from the Folies Bergère, she is the galvanising force that spins the mostly tragic story into something almost celebratory, fun, even joyous perhaps! There’s that exclamation mark. I borrowed it from the title. Which they borrowed from Oklahoma!. Hammerstein couldn’t remember who added the exclamation mark to…

Behind The Song Lionel Bart’s ‘It’s a Fine Life’ from Oliver!

Broadway Bulletin

What’s happened to the bona fide Broadway musical blockbuster? With this year’s Tony Awards fresh in our minds, that question draws into focus for one particular reason: none of this year’s nominees look like a long-running show waiting to happen. That, in turn, has implications for an industry that thrives on a handful, or more, of stalwart titles to stay the course while other, more niche entries come and go. Does the lack of a monster hit matter, one might ask? In olden days, it wasn’t expected for shows to run more than a few seasons. The original Oklahoma! saw out almost five years on Broadway, which was pretty much unheard of for a 1940s musical, while My Fair Lady racked up six-and-a-half years before closing in 1962. That length…

Broadway Bulletin

Keeping Score Lady in the Dark

One of Sondheim’s three principles in his book Finishing the Hat is ‘Content Dictates Form’, and nowhere is this more clearly, if outlandishly, exemplified than in Moss Hart, Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin’s 1941 Broadway musical Lady in the Dark. Originally conceiving the project as a straight play about psychoanalysis, Hart realised that the dream sequences necessary for his heroine to explore her subconscious would be best presented in music. (Interestingly, this is four years before Hitchcock employed Dalí to create the dream sequence for his movie Spellbound). Meanwhile, composer Kurt Weill, newly relocated in New York after fleeing Nazi Germany, was looking for projects that broke the musical comedy mould, and lyricist Ira Gershwin, who had resisted all offers of work since his brother George’s death in 1937, also…

Keeping Score Lady in the Dark

Wild Rose world premiere, plus Muriel’s Wedding comes to UK

Two new musicals based on films are due to premiere in 2025: Wild Rose at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre (6 March to 5 April) and Muriel’s Wedding at Leicester Curve (10 April to 10 May). Wild Rose is based on the 2018 film starring Jessie Buckley as Rose-Lynn, a Glaswegian country music-obsessed single mother recently released from prison. The musical has been adapted by Nicole Taylor, who wrote the original screenplay, and will be directed by John Tiffany (Once). The score includes music from country music icons, including Dolly Parton and Carrie Underwood. Muriel’s Wedding, based on the Australian 1994 comedy-drama, features another struggling heroine. ABBA songs combine with original music and lyrics by husband-and-wife team Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall. The book is by PJ Hogan, who wrote the…

Wild Rose world premiere, plus Muriel’s Wedding comes to UK

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP AUDRA ON BROADWAY

She’ll be swell! She’ll be great! Audra McDonald has been announced as the latest diva to play the mammoth role of the ferociously ambitious stage mother Mama Rose in Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’s revered musical Gypsy on Broadway. The production will begin previews on 21 November. The six-time Tony winner and Juilliard-trained soprano takes on the role originated by brassy belter Ethel Merman. McDonald won her first Tony for playing Carrie in Carousel in 1994 and the sixth for her performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill in 2014. Her turn as Rose may well add another trophy to her extensive collection. The production is helmed by five-time Tony winner George C Wolfe, who previously directed McDonald in the revisionist vaudeville musical…

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP AUDRA ON BROADWAY

Whip-Crack-Away, tours galore!

The huge variety of productions touring to regional venues continues to increase, with plenty of big stars attached. The Rocky Horror Show has already extended its UK tour. Beginning in Bromley on 19 August, the cult classic tours the country, including a two-week run at the West End’s Dominion Theatre in September. Jason Donovan will play ’sweet transvestite’ Frank-N-Furter, sharing the role with Stephen Webb. The world tour of Les Misérables: The Arena Spectacular, featuring more than 65 musicians and onstage performers, boasts an all-star cast including Alfie Boe, Killian Donnelly, Michael Ball, Bradley Jaden, Jac Yarrow and Bonnie Langford (Yarrow and Langford also appear in the West End production until 10 August, prior to the tour). The arena production, to coincide with the revolutionary musical’s 40th anniversary, opens on…

Whip-Crack-Away, tours galore!

Hello, I’m Dolly

A new musical based on the life and career of Dolly Parton is coming to Broadway in 2026. The pop icon, who is billed as composer, lyricist and co-book writer, is joined by director Bartlett Sher, whose production of Kiss Me, Kate is currently playing at the Barbican Theatre. Hello, I’m Dolly follows in the footsteps of other pop star bio-musicals, including The Cher Show, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical and MJ the Musical. In the meantime, another Parton musical, Here You Come Again, is touring the UK prior to the West End. For more information, visit hereyoucomeagain.co.uk…

Hello, I’m Dolly

Musical icons in concert

The ’Golden Age’ of Musical Theatre concert productions is showing no signs of ending. Broadway legend (and former cover star) Bernadette Peters returns to the UK on 12 August for a career-spanning concert at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Leading man Julian Ovenden takes to Cadogan Hall on 14 October to celebrate the hits of his illustrious career, accompanied by Grey Gardens composer Scott Frankel. Starring Jenna Russell and Fra Fee, a new staging of Sondheim on Sondheim plays at Alexandra Palace Theatre on 20-21 October. The revue features 19 Sondheim shows. The original London cast of Avenue Q is at the Sondheim Theatre on 10 November, celebrating 18 years since the West End premiere. Starring Jon Robyns, Julie Atherton, Simon Lipkin and Giles Terera, it’ll be a raucous experience! And…

Rising Star Jess Folley

Who’s that girl? To date, Jess Folley is perhaps best-known for her appearances on the television talent shows The Voice Kids UK (2017) and The X Factor: The Band (2019). In the stage version of the 2010 film Burlesque, she plays the lead role of Ali Rose (portrayed by Christina Aguilera in the film) and has contributed several songs to the score. Pretty impressive for a Musical Theatre debut! Not to mention, she’s still only 21. Baby Elphaba Growing up in a small village in Essex, Folley was ‘a real theatre kid’ who started attending a local dance school at the age of three. Musical Theatre was her ‘first love’ and Wicked was a firm favourite. Folley recalls: ‘My dance school once held a talent show and my mum painted…

Rising Star Jess Folley

Elaine Paige launches arts university scholarship

Our very own Elaine Paige has announced a partnership with the Institute for Contemporary Theatre Brighton. The Musicals magazine columnist – who this issue writes about her personal connection with A Chorus Line on page 13 – has shown her commitment to fostering emerging talent in the performing arts with the launch of The Elaine Paige Future Talent Scholarship. The first recipient will benefit from support for undergraduate degree study across performing arts courses at ICTheatre Brighton from September this year. Part of BIMM University (formerly the Brighton Institute of Modern Music), ICTheatre provides expert tuition to dancers, singers, actors, directors, choreographers and producers. Its training reflects BIMM University’s ethos to provide degree courses in music, film, performing arts and creative technology to thousands of students at campuses across the…

Elaine Paige launches arts university scholarship

Two Greek myth musicals to premiere in London

As if the current West End production of Hadestown wasn’t enough, two more musicals inspired by Greek myths and legends are preparing for battle – The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, and Hercules. Both are making their London/West End premieres. Based on Rick Riordan’s 2005 book series, already adapted for film and TV, The Lightning Thief arrives at The Other Palace this November. The rock musical premiered Off Broadway in 2014 and enjoyed two US tours and another Off-Broadway run before playing on Broadway in 2019. With a book by Joe Tracz (Be More Chill) and music/lyrics by Rob Rokiki (whose Monstersongs novel/musical is being developed as a VR game), the musical follows NewYork city teenager Percy Jackson as he learns that he’s the half-blood son of the Greek…

Two Greek myth musicals to premiere in London

ANNOUNCING OUR NEW LETTERS PAGE AND PRIZE

Have you seen a show recently that you particularly enjoyed? Or listened to an original cast recording that you’d like to recommend to others? If so, we’d love to hear from you! As Musicals magazine goes monthly from our next issue (October, on sale from 27 September), we’re delighted to announce the arrival of a regular Letters Page. We know how much of a community Musical Theatre already is, and we’d love to play our part in that by creating our own forum for Musicals subscribers, readers and followers. What’s more, we’ll be choosing a Star Letter each issue and sending its writer a fantastic Ruark Bluetooth radio in a finish of either Espresso or Light Cream. So do please reach out with your stagey news and updates – no…

ANNOUNCING OUR NEW LETTERS PAGE AND PRIZE

WELCOMING OCTOBER COVER STAR TOM FRANCIS

Things are shaping up rather nicely for our October issue! To mark our inaugural monthly (rather than bi-monthly) publication, we are delighted to have the phenomenal Tom Francis on the cover. Francis seemingly came out of nowhere to star as Joe Gillis in Jamie Lloyd’s mould-breaking Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy Theatre, London, opposite global superstar Nicole Scherzinger. He went on to clinch Best Actor in a Musical at this year’s Olivier Awards, recreating his audacious al fresco ‘Sunset Boulevard’ title song for Royal Albert Hall attendees and TV and online viewers. Matt Wolf meets him, ahead of Sunset’s opening on Broadway, to talk about his meteoric rise in the world of Musical Theatre. Elsewhere, Tim Bano speaks to those involved in the new Dear Evan Hansen tour, including the…

WELCOMING OCTOBER COVER STAR TOM FRANCIS

Friendship Rules

‘You can’t see, but from my belly button down, it’s a giant dress!,’ Toby Marlow laughs, pointing below their desk as I meet them and Lucy Moss on a Zoom call. The always-well-attired creators of the behemoth that is SIX The Musical are relaxed and chatty, excitedly discussing their new musical, Why Am I So Single?, set to open at London’s Garrick Theatre in August. Marlow, 29, and Moss, 30, met at the University of Cambridge where they created their incredibly successful show, giving Henry VIII’s six wives a chance to tell their own stories through the medium of a pop concert. SIX debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and the rest, as they say, is history (or should that be ‘herstory’?). Moss tells me that usually it’s the…

Friendship Rules

Queen of the West End

“I remember looking out at the crowd and thinking: this moment is epic – if I never do anything again, this will be enough” Had Kerry Ellis not taken singing lessons for a few months when she was 11, her career might have been very different. At the time, she was convinced she wanted to be a dancer, although she would sing everything from Elaine Paige to Meat Loaf in her bedroom. ‘My parents would drive me 40 minutes each way to this teacher every few weeks or so,’ she says. ‘I didn’t have many lessons, it was just a dabble at the time. And I didn’t really like it to begin with, because my teacher was an opera singer. She would force me into a soprano range, which was…

Queen of the West End

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The rise of the SUPERFAN

Every show has its fans. I learned this for myself a few years ago at the annual performance event West End Live, when I watched a small group of teenagers tearfully singing along with the performance of one of that year’s participating shows. Perhaps you’re picturing the devoted fans of a show with a large teenage fan base like Wicked? Or SIX? Or perhaps Heathers? In fact, it was the stage version of Only Fools and Horses, based on the sitcom that ended about two decades earlier. The classic musical comedy Guys & Dolls is currently running at the Bridge Theatre (it recently celebrated its 500th performance) in a semi-immersive staging that sees the almost 75-year-old musical infused with a contemporary sensibility. Even though I knew it to be one…

The rise of the SUPERFAN

Cy Coleman music Michael Stewart lyrics Mark Bramble book Watermill Theatre, Newbury 2 July – 8 September 2024 REVIEWED ON 9 JULY 2024 UK LIVE SHOWS The brassy, fanciful Broadway musical Barnum, based on the life of master circus impresario and showman Phineas Taylor Barnum, is still associated in the minds of theatregoers of a certain age with the beloved performances of Michael Crawford and Jim Dale who originated the title role in London and New York respectively. The poorly received 2017 Menier Chocolate Factory revival suggested that the show itself might not be sturdy enough to work without a barnstorming central turn. Jonathan O’Boyle’s new version for the Watermill turns it into a Technicolor, caffeinated actor-musician ensemble piece, led by a charismatic PT Barnum (West End veteran Matt Rawle)…

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann et al music, lyrics Douglas McGrath book Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Perthshire, Scotland 27 June – 28 September 2024 REVIEWED ON JUNE 12 2024 From The Drifters singing ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’, to The Shirelles performing ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow?’ and her own ‘I Feel the Earth Move’, the music of Carole King is like a soundtrack to the 1960s and ’70s. One of the most successful female songwriters (and, later, singer-songwriters) in the history of popular music, the American artist’s oeuvre all but demanded to become the subject of a jukebox stage musical. It is surprising, perhaps, that it took until 2013 – when Douglas McGrath’s show premiered in San Francisco – for such a show to become a reality. Telling…

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Jack Godfrey music, lyrics Martha Geelan book The Other Palace, London 31 May – 14 July 2024 REVIEWED ON 12 JUNE 2024 Part of a huge wave of new British musicals currently sweeping London, Jack Godfrey and Martha Geelan’s Babies has already gained quite a cult following since it won British Youth Music Theatre’s New Music Theatre Award in 2021. Now playing at The Other Palace, it is easy to see why. On paper, the premise is an odd one: nine Year 11 students are tasked with looking after fake babies for five days as part of a sex education assessment. However, any doubts about the plot quickly dissipate in a show jam-packed with incredibly catchy tunes, endearing characters, pathos and humour. The story takes us through the group’s initial scepticism…

Marvin Hamlisch music Edward Kleban lyrics James Kirkwood Jr, Nicholas Dante book Leicester Curve 29 June – 13 July 2024, then touring until 5 October 2024 REVIEWED ON 8 JULY 2024 Chorus members are often the unsung heroes of Musical Theatre, but they get their moment to shine in the seminal 1975 show A Chorus Line, which takes us inside the audition room for a Broadway musical. Originally conceived by director Michael Bennett, the show was inspired by taped interviews with dancers who agreed to sell Bennett their life stories for a single dollar. Their tales became a groundbreaking piece of ensemble theatre that won nine Tony Awards, not to mention the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and ran for 15 years on Broadway. Nikolai Foster’s revival was first seen at Leicester…

Closer to Heaven

Pet Shop Boys music, lyrics Jonathan Harvey book Turbine Theatre, London 31 May – 27 July 2024 REVIEWED ON 4 JUNE 2024 When it opened in 2001 in London’s Arts Theatre, neither critics nor audiences were particularly receptive to Closer to Heaven. On paper, it seemed like the writers’ credits would produce greatness. Book writer Jonathan Harvey (Beautiful Thing, Gimme Gimme Gimme) had a successful career writing for stage and television, while musical duties were being taken care of by iconic band Pet Shop Boys. However, their collaboration did not produce their best work. Pet Shop Boys eschewed the eternally popular jukebox musical format in favour of new material, much of which struggles in comparison to their better-known compositions. Harvey’s book, set in a gay nightclub, ricochets between multiple plots:…

Closer to Heaven

Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder!

Matthew Floyd Jones music, lyrics Jon Brittain lyrics, book Ambassadors Theatre, London 25 May – 14 September 2024 REVIEWED ON 12 JUNE 2024 This sassy, cartoonish new musical arrives in London having enjoyed sell-out success at the Edinburgh Festival and on tour. Encountering it in the West End for the first time, my overriding feeling is that I wish I had seen one of those earlier iterations. What might have been quirky and charming up close in an unconventional space feels simultaneously bloated and undernourished even in a house as intimate as the Ambassadors Theatre. Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder! marries a thudding pop score to the tall tale of a pair of young women from Hull whose podcast about their fascination with real-life homicides embroils them in an…

Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder!

Cole Porter music, lyrics Sam Spewack, Bella Spewack book Barbican Theatre, London 4 June – 14 September 2024 REVIEWED ON 18 JUNE 2024 Garlanded American director Bartlett Sher is known for stagings of Golden Age musicals that are handsomely mounted and, arguably, a touch staid. The UK transfers of his productions of My Fair Lady and The King and I recently played in the West End and on tour; both were lavish and faithful, featuring little to irk audience members who dislike revisionism. Cole Porter’s 1948 hit Kiss Me, Kate (the first-ever Best Musical Tony winner) wittily blends Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew with Noël Coward’s Private Lives and features a score filled with zingers (‘Raising an heir could never compare/With raising a bit of hell’, muses a newly wedded…

Jeff Richmond music Nell Benjamin lyrics Tina Fey book Savoy Theatre, London 5 June 2024 – 16 February 2025 REVIEWED ON 27 JUNE 2024 Every day is Wednesday at the Savoy Theatre. Countless quotes, Halloween costumes and specific references later, Tina Fey’s 2004 girlish movie extravaganza became a musical in 2017 with music by Jeff Richmond, lyrics by Nell Benjamin, and a book by Fey herself. A second film (this time based on the musical) hit the screens earlier this year, followed by a public outcry that bemoaned the lack of transparency when promoting its genre. Everyone seemed to be personally victimised by Regina George again. Based on a self-help book from the Noughties, Mean Girls follows a group of girls navigating social cliques and bullying. It all kicks off…

Frederick Loewe music Alan Jay Lerner lyrics, book Leeds Playhouse 31 May – 29 June 2024 REVIEWED ON 7 JUNE 2024 This being an era when more and more theatres are staging co-productions around the country, it also makes sense for two organisations in the same city to pair up too. Take a joint bow, Leeds Playhouse and Opera North – now on their third collaboration, after Into the Woods and A Little Night Music. The collaboration brings both weaknesses and strengths to My Fair Lady. James Brining’s direction feels rather static – it’s curious that Katie Bird’s Eliza Doolittle spends a portion of ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ politely seated, for instance – and the twee, tentative movement sequences presumably reflect the fact this is largely a cast…

Passing Strange

Stew, Heidi Rodewald music Stew lyrics, book (in collaboration with Annie Dorsen) Young Vic Theatre, London 14 May – 6 July 2024 REVIEWED ON 21 MAY 2024 Sixteen years after it became an unexpected Broadway phenomenon, Passing Strange has crossed the Atlantic in a production that is even more electric than the New York original first seen at the Public Theater downtown – the one-time home of Hamilton, not to mention A Chorus Line, which reaches London afresh in July. How appropriate, therefore, that its current iteration should boast Hamilton’s Olivier Award-winning Aaron Burr, Giles Terera, in a career-best performance as an itinerant music-maker who makes his way from America to Europe, transforming himself, and his audience, in the process. If anything, the funky, ever-chilled Young Vic seems a more…

Passing Strange

Starlight Express

Andrew Lloyd Webber music Richard Stilgoe lyrics Arlene Phillips creative dramaturg Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, London 8 June 2024 – 8 June 2025 REVIEWED ON 27 JUNE 2024 Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe’s 1984 groundbreaking and bonkers musical Starlight Express, described by naysayers at the time as ‘squeals on wheels’, may be a polarising show but it is one that has been welcomed back to London with great anticipation and excitement. For some of those who saw the original, it’s a chance to relive an experience that introduced them to the magic of theatre for the very first time, and the producers of this immersive, high-tech, train-racing, rollerskating, theme park ride of a production are hoping it will have the same impact on newcomers decades later. Plot-wise, the pickings…

Starlight Express

Your Lie in April

Frank Wildhorn music Carly Robyn Green, Tracy Miller lyrics Riko Sakaguchi original book Rinne B Groff English-language book Harold Pinter Theatre, London 28 June – 21 September 2024 REVIEWED ON 5 JULY 2024 Frank Wildhorn has had a tremendous couple of years. His adaptation of the popular manga Death Note enjoyed two concert runs in the West End last year before he introduced Your Lie in April, another work by Japanese writers. The story follows young Kōsei as he grieves for his late mum. A piano prodigy who has lost all ability to play after her death, he is shackled by depression. Everything changes when he meets Kaori, a violin wunderkind who’s unfazed by Kōsei’s amusia and hassles him to be her accompanist at a competition. This return to the…

Your Lie in April

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Andrew Lloyd Webber music, based on the poetry of TS Eliot Perelman Performing Arts Center, Off Broadway 13 June – 11 August 2024 REVIEWED ON 21 JUNE 2024 US LIVE SHOWS If there’s any bygone hit musical that’s ripe for reinvention, it’s Andrew Lloyd Webber’s bombastic furball Cats – a show with mostly interchangeable characters crooning lite-rockish tunes with lyrics drawn from TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, his leastremarkable poetry. (To call it mere doggerel would probably prompt cat fanciers to release their claws.) The new immersive production at New York’s year-old Perelman Performing Arts Center, a black box space housed in a jewel box-like translucent marble shell overlooking the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center, draws on an entirely new framework that breathes fresh energy,…

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Michael Weiner, Zoe Sarnak music, lyrics Danny Strong book Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California 5 May – 23 June 2024 REVIEWED ON 15 MAY 2024 The father of modern science might not make the most obvious subject for a rock musical, but that’s exactly the treatment he’s getting in the often thrilling if not yet fully realised world premiere of Galileo at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Although its events take place roughly 400 years ago, the rock approach serves a purpose in giving the story an immediacy that underscores the contemporary relevance of Galileo’s battles with authority. As one character asserts, ‘Power decides truth, not the other way around.’ Sound familiar? Galileo largely centres on his championing of the Copernican theory of heliocentrism which was considered heresy by the Catholic Church. The revelation…

Recording reviews

Anything Goes ORIGINAL 1969 LONDON CAST RECORDING Cole Porter music, lyrics “Ralston’s sax-heavy orchestrations have a jazz-age pizzazz” Cast Marian Montgomery, James Kenney, Valerie Verdon, Janet Mahoney et al Orchestrations Alfred Ralston Producers Ray Horricks, John Yap Musical direction Alfred Ralston JAY Records DIGIMIX RELEASED 31 MAY 2024 Cameron Mackintosh’s first West End production, Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, opened on 18 November 1969 and closed within the month. He subsequently described it as ‘a disaster’ and the critics seem to have concurred. Swinging London had little time for prewar nostalgia, and the consensus seems to have been that Porter’s songs couldn’t rescue what was described (in The People) as ‘the rust and cobwebs of this hit of the ’30s’. Critic John Trewin did at least concede that ‘this is inevitably…

Recording reviews

UK London: West End Off West End ABBA Voyage ABBA ARENA Booking until 5 Jan 2025 abbavoyage.com Alex Newell CADOGAN HALL 1 Sep 2024 (2:30pm & 7:30pm) cadoganhall.com Back to the Future: The Musical ADELPHI THEATRE Booking until 22 Dec 2024 backtothefuturemusical.com The Baker’s Wife MENIER CHOCOLATE FACTORY Until 14 Sep 2024 menierchocolatefactory.com Bernadette Peters THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY LANE 12 Aug 2024 lwtheatres.co.uk Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour HAROLD PINTER THEATRE Until 7 Sep 2024 atgtickets.com The Book of Mormon PRINCE OF WALES THEATRE Booking until 4 Nov 2024 thebookofmormonmusical.com Cabaret PLAYHOUSE THEATRE (KIT KAT CLUB) Booking until 31 May 2025 kitkat.club The Choir of Man ARTS THEATRE Booking until 29 Sep 2024 choirofman.com A Chorus Line SADLER’S WELLS 31 Jul-25 Aug 2024 achoruslinetour.com Come Dine With Me: The Musical 2-29…

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When I was growing up, there were no videos and certainly no internet. My mum thought it was very important that I saw the classics when they were on television, especially the MGM musicals. I started dancing at two and wanted to be a ballerina but then I decided to train in Musical Theatre at ArtsEd. While I was there, I competed in the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest and had another go two years later. Back then, you had to do 42 weeks in repertory theatre to qualify for an Equity card that allowed you to perform in the West End and be on TV. Nowadays, there’s an emphasis on doing your own thing, which is fine, but we were expected to watch and listen to the older generation very…

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