After success with their young amateurs’ productions including The Secret Garden and 13 at the West End’s Ambassadors Theatre, the British Theatre Academy (BTA) has announced its summer 2018 season, which will include a major London run of BRING IT ON THE MUSICAL as well as stagings of Spring Awakening and, not to be outdone with today’s big-budget West End announcement, Chicago.
After two years in summer residence at the Ambassadors Theatre, the BTA are completely taking over Southwark Playhouse for the summer with two productions, and others at The Stockwell Playhouse and the world famous open-air Minack Theatre in Cornwall.
Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical BRING IT ON THE MUSICAL, a universal coming-of-age story that mixes competitive cheerleading, high school politics and teenage romance, will run in The Large at Southwark Playhouse from 2 August and 1 September 2018, with a press night on 7 August, directed and choreographed by Ewan Jones.
Based on the 2000 film about a champion high school cheerleading squad, BRING IT ON is a universal coming-of-age story that mixes competitive cheerleading, high school politics and teenage romance. The Tony Award-nominated musical, premiered on Broadway in 2012, has a book by Jeff Whitty, music by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda and lyrics by Miranda and Amanda Green.
BRING IT ON runs at Southwark simultaneously with the BTA’s production of the play Goodnight Mr Tom, adapted from the children’s novel, and running 25 July to 25 August 2018 in The Small studio.
Elsewhere, the BTA’s production of eight-time Tony Award-winning and four-time Olivier Award-winning rock musical SPRING AWAKENING at London’s Stockwell Playhouse from 14 to 19 August 2018, directed by Dean Johnson; and their staging of Kander and Ebb’s Prohibition-set CHICAGO runs at the Minack Theatre, a breathtaking open-air auditorium at Porthcurno near Land’s End in Cornwall, from 24 to 28 September to close the 2018 season.
The British Theatre Academy was set up to give talented young people the opportunity to perform in top venues nationwide for free. Over the past three years, the company earned rave reviews for productions of Annie Jr, The Secret Garden, The Adventures of Pinocchio and 13 - The Musical in the West End. In May, the BTA staged a concert performance of Broadway musical The Color Purple, starring Marisha Wallace (Effie in Dreamgirls) alongside members of the BTA.
The British Theatre Academy is a unique performing arts programme that has inspired and nurtured the talent of thousands of young performers over the past 30 years. The belief is that children should be trained as professionals by professionals.
Producer Matthew Chandler of the British Theatre Academy said:
“It is has been an incredible year for the BTA, and to date, all our productions and concerts have given 1,500 children the chance to perform on the West End stage. For our last summer season, more than 2,000 young people auditioned for The Adventures of Pinocchio and over 1,000 teenagers for 13 The Musical, and we had three teams performing 13 The Musical. The summer season is a fantastic opportunity for all the youngsters involved. The search for talented young people under 25 will begin in January when auditions will be held.”
