Blog / From: My Theatre Mates
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.
Tomorrow, tomorrow... or, to be more exact, six weeks from now, Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood will reprise his cross-dressing performance as Miss Hannigan in the West End production of ANNIE, taking over from Miranda Hart. Can you spot the difference?!
Don't be too sad to wave goodbye to Ben Forster - THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA has a new Ben on the way, and he's not exactly new to the role of the masked man. Ben Lewis was acclaimed in the Australian premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber sequel Love Never Dies. Which other #StageFaves join him in the West End from 4 September?
We're sorry to see BEAUTIFUL bowing out of the West End this weekend. But the just-announced cast for the UK and Ireland tour, launching next month, looks gorgeous enough to travel for. It's led by Bronte Barbe as Carole King and tons more #StageFaves...
We say Cheers to that! Yes, Cheers and Frasier star Kelsey Grammer is coming over here. He'll make his London debut amongst a company of fab #StageFaves - including Jamie Muscato and Matt Seadon-Young - in the London premiere of Andrew Lippa's Broadway musical BIG FISH. An awful big catch for The Other Palace in its first year, wouldn't you say?
As part of her ongoing post-show Q&A series, Mates co-founder Terri Paddock will help open the fifth annual From Page to Stage season of new musicals with an opening night panel debate including festival founder and prolific producer Katy Lipson on Monday 14 August 2017. Got any...
Stop! In the name of your love for musicals. MOTOWN has extended its booking at the West End's Shaftesbury Theatre until January 2019 and 500,000 tickets for new dates have now been released. Do you know who's in the current cast?
Who's got one of the largest companies in London theatre this summer? That'll be Aria Entertainment's From Page to Stage festival of new musicals with 56 #StageFaves - and they haven't even announced casting yet for the three-week event's headline premiere of Burt Bacharach & Steven Sater's SOME LOVERS!
Let the fun begin! FUN HOME is coming to the UK with its five Tony Awards in tow. It'll premiere at the Young Vic next summer, helmed by its original American director Sam Gold but with a new UK cast. Which of your #StageFaves would you cast? Watch this video from the Broadway production for inspiration!
Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel have revisited their 2004 West End musical THE WOMAN IN WHITE; the new version will premiere later this year at London's Charing Cross Theatre, directed by Thom Southerland. Laura Pitt-Pulford is tipped to star in the role of Marian, created by Maria Friedman...
Producers are still looking for the stars to play Berger, Hud and Margaret Mead in HAIR's upcoming 50th anniversary season in London but initial cast is now announced - and demand is already so high, they've extended booking into the new year. (Yes, that IS a true hair extension.) Scroll down for a reminder to watch the show performance at West End Live last month too...
The full cast has been announced for this summer's return of the Open Air Theatre's Olivier Award-winning revival of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. In addition to the previously announced Declan Bennett, Tyrone Huntley and Peter Caulfield - all reprising their performances as Jesus, Judas, Pilate and Herod, respectively - who's back and who's new?
How do you measure success when it comes to one of Europe's largest free performing arts festivals? Check out these stats for West End Live, both in terms of what happened in Trafalgar Square, and how the event became a top trending topic across both Twitter and Facebook. We think the organisers definitely #GetSocial!
It is 65 years since Eva Perón died so what better way to celebrate her legacy than by welcoming Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita back into the West End for 12 weeks this summer. Leading the cast are #StageFaves Emma Hatton and the Italian Gian Marco Schiaretti.
Proving that there's life beyond Strictly, reigning Strictly Come Dancing champion Joanne Clifton has been announced as Alex Owens in a new production of Flashdance – The Musical, co-starring singer-songwriter Ben Adams, which will tour the UK in 2017 and 2018.
There may be Five Guys Named Moe but there's more than five #StageFaves in the newly-announced cast for the new production of Clarke Peters’ Olivier Award-winning and Tony-Award nominated musical. A trailer has also been released for the production will open on 14 September 2017, giving us a sneak peek of the new temporary theatre in Marble Arch, London where the show will run.
Whose #StageFaves diary would you like to get a peek into? Fortunately for them, their secrets are safe as it is Adrian Mole's diary that now has a cast full of brilliant #StageFaves attached to it, as the Menier Chocolate Factory have announced the full company for their brand new production of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 – The Musical which opens in Adrian’s 50th birthday year.
They told us to #keeptalkingaboutJamie and our wishes would come true... It’s not every press release that begins with a fairy tale, still less one that actually comes true. But thanks to Jamie Campbell, Firecracker Films, Michael Ball, Sheffield Theatres and Nica Burns, a new British musical by a new British theatre writing and directing team, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie opens at the Apollo Theatre on Wednesday 22 November 2017.
The mark of true #StageFaves is that not only are they great performers onstage, but that they are also great people offstage. So it is amazing to see how many performers have answered the call from Giles Terera and Danielle Tarento to join Songs and Solidarity on Sunday 25th June. Taking place at Trafalgar Studios 1 at 7.30pm, Songs and Solidarity is a West End fundraising gala evening of song, dance and comedy for the hundreds of families made homeless and the relatives of those who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire.
On June 11 2017, the biggest night of the year for American Theatre landed in New York at Radio City Musical Hall. Hosted by Kevin Spacey, The 71st Annual Tony Awards recognised the greatest achievements in Broadway over the past 12 months. It may not have been a victory-filled evening for our #StageFaves, but for many shows, especially DEAR EVAN HANSEN, it was a night dreams are made of...
Stephen Sondheim's FOLLIES makes its National Theatre debut in September, care of director Dominic Cooke. Who'll be joining Imelda Staunton, Philip Quast, Janie Dee and other previously announced principals in the 37-strong cast...