Blog / Off-West End
Check here for the latest musical news with links to all your #StageFaves performers, shows and theatres. Also look out for our regular #GetSocial features and contributions from our syndicate media partners including MyTheatreMates.com and the Musical Theatre Appreciation Society.
Play versions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL are a festive staple. This year, London theatregoers also have two opportunities to see Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens' Broadway musical version of Charles Dickens' classic story. London Musical Theatre Orchestra mounts a stellar concert presentation led by Robert Lindsay in the West End, while Wandsworth's LOST Theatre presents a full Off-West End production over the Christmas fortnight itself...
Play versions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL are a festive staple. This year, London theatregoers also have two opportunities to see Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens' Broadway musical version of Charles Dickens' classic story. London Musical Theatre Orchestra mounts a stellar concert presentation led by Robert Lindsay in the West End, while Wandsworth's LOST Theatre presents a full Off-West End production over the Christmas fortnight itself...
Newcomer Charlie Stemp is now officially a West End star after rave reviews for the London transfer of HALF A SIXPENCE this past week. And the show - reworked by Cameron Mackintosh, book writer Julian Fellowes, and Stiles and Drewe - is officially a mega hit, with booking now extended at the Noel Coward Theatre until April...
2016
Theatre Royal Stratford East's 2017 season will include the European premiere of The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Kirsten Childs' award-winning musical about a young black girl battling racism and sexism in the US...
BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO ... you know it! And so did Neil Sedaka. The musical of the same name, featuring other top easy-listening tunes by Sedaka, will get its London premiere in the new year....
2016
Jessica Russell was the lucky winner in our #KerryIsMyFave competition. Her killer prize? Not only tickets for two to MURDER BALLAD at Cadogan Hall, but a chance to meet star Kerry Ellis one-one-one for hugs, pics and video after the show... and a signed Kerry Ellis #StageFaves t-shirt, of course. Be sure to follow @StageFaves on Twitter and like us on Facebook, where we'll be announcing our next competition in the next few days....
2016
Our #FirstNightTakeover series continues with Perry O'Bree attending the West End opening (on 17 November 2016) of HALF A SIXPENCE, now transferred to the Noel Coward Theatre after winning rave reviews at Chichester Festival Theatre. See his blue-carpet and backstage selfies and videos with the creators and stars of the show...
Rock on and on and on. After reviews like it got this week, it's no surprise that Andrew Lloyd Webber has extended West End booking for SCHOOL OF ROCK at the New London theatre...
Another reason to visit Regent's Park next summer. Not only will artistic director Timothy Sheader's Evening Standard Award-winning revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar return; the Open Air is also mounting its bigger-ever dance musical, Broadway classic ON THE TOWN, directed and choreographed by hotter-than-hot Drew McOnie...
2016
We were live on Facebook and Twitter at the press launch today (17 November 2016) for 42nd STREET, which high-kicks into the West End's Theatre Royal Drury Lane in March. Watch all our videos of the launch itself plus break-out interviews with stars Sheena Easton, Tom Lister, Bruce Montague, Norman Bowman, Jasna Ivir and Christopher Howell, plus director Mark Bramble. And loadsa live-tweeting! With thanks to our friends at the Musical Theatre Appreciation Society and cameraman Lewis Snell...
Cheeky! ADAM & EVE... AND STEVE The American musical farce' which gives the Garden of Eden story a modern (three-way) twist, receives its London premiere at the King's Head Theatre in March, after success at this year's Edinburgh Festival...
Did Lizzie Borden wield the axe or not? It's an international four-strong cast of strong women for the UK premiere of rock musical LIZZIE, including Broadway Ciara Renee and the West End's Jodie Jacobs. Chop, chop...
What would the Village People make of Stephen Schwartz's WORKING? The genre-breaking 1978 Broadway musical - based on interviews with a cross-section of the American workforce and featuring songs from Grammy winner James Taylor and, more recently added, Lin-Manuel Miranda - gets its European premiere at Southwark Playhouse next June...
In its new POWER season of politically charged productions for spring 2017, the Donmar Warehouse will premiere a new musical based on the 2015 collapse of controversial charity KIDS COMPANY and its 'relationship with Whitehall'. Who's accountable when something goes wrong? Consider the evidence...
Can you write a 'light-hearted musical' about male suicide? Two recent Mountview graduates have done just that, and the show, supported by various mental health charities, will now have a limited season in the heart of the West End. Catch CATCH ME at Above the Arts Theatre next week...
Aussie stage star Hayden Tee will make his West End debut in LES MISERABLES, reprising his recent Broadway run as Javert, while current Brit Javert Jeremy Secomb takes a New York run at Sweeney Todd. And other #StageFaves joining the cast of the West End's longest-running musical include...
London audiences will get a sneak-peek at Broadway musical DISASTER! in a semi-staged, charity concert presentation this Sunday at the Charing Cross Theatre, where the stellar cast of #StageFaves includes Simon Lipkin, Oliver Tompsett, Sally Ann Triplett , Jodie Jacobs, Alice Fearn and Sandra Marvin...
2016
We tried to limit our choices to just ten but we just couldn't, even after we separated out the kids' excellent tweets from the show account into a second blog. Opening night of SCHOOL OF ROCK just looked like too much fun. So here are top twenty (ish) tweets that encapsulate the night - from the cast and others working on the show, from celebs, from other punters in the audience and from the Lord himself, Andrew Lloyd Webber. Are you in the band on Twitter?
2016
These kids rule the school. They know how to stick it to the man. They can rock on all night... And so, on opening night, the official SCHOOL OF ROCK social media accounts were handed over to young 'band members' including Isabelle and Jobe, who did a phenomenal job spotting the celebs on the red carpet. Watch what they got up and with who (including Andrew Lloyd Webber, Julian Fellowes, director Laurence Connor, Arlene Phillips, Jimmy Carr, Jodie Kidd and Myleene Klass in that dress)...
2016
The four-strong cast of #StageFaves for the return of satirical West End review JEST END are: Bronte Barbe, Daniel Buckley, Jemma Alexander and Adam Bailey. The show returns to the Off-West End Waterloo East Theatre this month..