Blog / West End Live

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.

15 Nov
2016

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...

15 Nov
2016

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...

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?

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)...

14 Nov
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..

14 Nov
2016

What a night for Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. He snapped pics with Joan Collins and Elizabeth Hurley and got to celebrate three times over for a clean sweep of musical gongs for revivals of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and SUNSET BOULEVARD. See pics of all the stars plus Amber Riley, giving it some on behalf of Dreamgirls...

13 Nov
2016

Glenn Close, Tyrone Huntley and Jesus Christ Superstars were the musical winners at the 2016 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, announced tonight at the Old Vic Theatre, where guests also got a sneak-peek of Amber Riley's forthcoming Dreamgirls performance. Watch video highlights...

Slightly belated - as 8 November 2016 will go down in the history books for other reasons thanks to Donald Trump - we've rounded up our favourite fan and #StageFaves tweets from Tuesday's opening of LAZARUS. The late David Bowie's musical, with a book by Enda Walsh and direction by Ivo van Hove, got its London premiere this week at King's Cross Theatre after its debut earlier this year in New York. We think these ten #LazarusMusical tweets from the last few days really capture how special an occasion it was...

11 Nov
2016

Say a Little Prayer for Gabriel Vick, Daisy Maywood and Paul Robinson - or have their prayers already been answered? They get their hands on that and other classic songs from Burt Bacharach's catalogue as they lead the cast of PROMISES, PROMISES. The first London production in 20 years of the Broadway musical Bacharach wrote with Hal David and Neil Simon, based on the Billy Wilder film The Apartment, comes to Southwark Playhouse in the new year...

09 Nov
2016

Final casting has now been announced for NEW SONGS 4 NEW SHOWS, which runs for one night only at the West End’s Lyric Theatre on Monday 28 November. Olivier Award winner Sally Dexter and Clive Carter, both Wicked West End alumni, and rising star Katie Bernstein (Allegro, Mrs Henderson Presents, Urinetown) join the previously announced members of the line-up below...

08 Nov
2016

Yippee! Another Stiles & Drewe musical confirmed for the West End. Following this month's transfer of Half a Sixpence (which also has a book by Julian Fellowes), THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS opens next June at the London Palladium, where Rufus Hound will reprise his performance as Toad, with further West End casting to be announced...

07 Nov
2016

Five lucky winners got to see the 25th anniversary revival of MOBY DICK! in our #StageFaves competition. And one of them was extra lucky: Denise Dixen also got to meet her #StageFave and star of the show Anton Stephans. Here's what happened when they met...

04 Nov
2016

Was Mrs Henderson Presents underrated? YES. Is Kinky Boots and its luscious Lola, Matt Henry, still strutting strong? YES. Do #StageFaves Kerry Ellis, Mazz Murray, Claire Machin and Natasha J Barnes deserve gongs a-go-go? YES, YES, YES, YES. We are in broad agreement with the talent celebrated at this year's West End Wilma Awards, announced today...

04 Nov
2016

Was Mrs Henderson Presents underrated? YES. Is Kinky Boots and its luscious Lola, Matt Henry, still strutting strong? YES. Do #StageFaves Kerry Ellis, Mazz Murray, Claire Machin and Natasha J Barnes deserve gongs a-go-go? YES, YES, YES, YES. We are in broad agreement with the talent celebrated at this year's West End Wilma Awards, announced today...

04 Nov
2016

We've only had to wait 20 years for the Broadway transfer of Cy Coleman's Tony Award-winning masterpiece THE LIFE, but boy are we getting it good: with its legendary original director Michael Blakemore at the helm and two legendary #StageFaves, Sharon D Clarke and Cornell S John, leading the cast. Another Off-West End coup for Southwark Playhouse, where it premieres in March...

04 Nov
2016

Taking the Morning Train to the West End! Grammy winner Sheena Easton makes her West End debut at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the new year with 42ND STREET, in a cast that will also include Emmerdale's Tom Lister and #StageFaves Clare Halse, Jasna Ivir and Norman Bowman...

31 Oct
2016

Following Rent's revival at the St James Theatre this year, next year we'll get a second dose of Jonathan Larson with Aria Entertainment's revival of his early autobiographical piece, first staged after his death, TICK TICK BOOM!, which runs at the Park Theatre in May...

28 Oct
2016

Casting has been announced today - via the Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye - for next year's BAT OUT OF HELL, the premiere stage adaptation of Meat Loaf's trilogy of rock albums. American Andrew Polec and Belfast-born Christina Bennington will star as teen lovers Strat and Raven, joined by other familiar #StageFaves...

26 Oct
2016

We're feeling more festive at the very thought of it! Just in time for the holidays, American musical ANOTHER NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS gets its UK premiere at the Bridge House Theatre in Penge, south London - with a quartet of West End #StageFaves taking part: George Maguire, Rachael Wooding, Rachel Tucker and Oliver Tompsett...

24 Oct
2016

Les Dennis returns to musical theatre this Christmas with the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of SHE LOVES ME, alongside #StageFaves stalwarts including Alastair Brookshaw, Katherine Kingsley, Mark Umbers and Dominic Tighe as well as leading lady Scarlett Strallen...