We like a bit of history here on #StageFaves and musicals help us to learn. For the eighteenth century we've got Hamilton, teaching us about the nineteenth century is Les Misérables, and now to help us through the twentieth century is brand-new musical THE END OF HISTORY. Written by the creative team behind Blair on Broadway (“An unmissable evening in the theatre – Sir Derek Jacobi), the show opens for a three-week run at the Tristan Bates Theatre on 14 November.
THE END OF HISTORY is about a group of teenagers attempting to get to grips with puberty – and the events of the 20th century. From the Treaty of Versailles to the fall of the Berlin Wall, via Munich and mocks, Cuba and crushes, is their future any more certain than the past? And might the ‘end’ of history be the beginning of something else? From 1920s’ French jazz to 1980s’ rock, via swing, bebop, rap and rock n’ roll, THE END OF HISTORY is a musical for the 21st century which will appeal to anyone interested in the 20th century.
The book and lyrics for THE END OF HISTORY were written by Iain Hollingshead, a novelist and former feature writer for The Daily Telegraph. (“Hollingshead’s book and lyrics are satirically spot on: he sashays past the Alastair Campbell-crafted highs of Blair’s ascent to power with joyous ease” – Metro on Blair on Broadway).Hollingshead’s first novel, Twenty Something, won the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award, 2006. There is, however, no sex – bad or otherwise – here.
The music, which ranges from swing pieces such as “Peace for our time” to the 1980s’ rock of “Tear down this wall”, was written by Timothy Muller (Praise for Blair on Broadway: “Muller’s eclectic tunes, from rap to ballad, are catchy and appealing” – The Stage. “A lively score that offers a pastiche of musical styles, from tango to burlesque, and from Jerry Herman to Stephen Sondheim” – Daily Telegraph). A former journalist at the BBC World Service, Timothy trained at the Trinity College of Music and won the BBC Big Band of the Year competition with a jazz orchestra he directed and conducted.
The young and versatile cast includes Joseph Aldous, Alexandria Anfield, Sylvie Briggs, Charlie Burt, Joshua Lewindon, Daniel Orpwood, Eleanor Shaw, and Anya Williams.
THE END OF HISTORY is directed by Jessica Dawes, whose production of Company was once declared the best ever by the Stephen Sondheim Society
