Blog / Theatre News
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.
Is there a pattern emerging? First Michael Ball returns to Les Misérables to play Javert, now Jason Donovan will return to the London Palladium in the new production of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to star as the Pharaoh, 28 years after he triumphed in the title role at the same theatre. No loincloth this time though!
2019
Bringing sun, songs and 90s nostalgia, Summer Street – The Hilarious Aussie Soap Opera Musical! is heading to the Brighton Fringe before transferring to Waterloo East Theatre this May. As four Aussie soap stars try to resurrect their careers, there are hilarious and unexpected consequences – and, of course, plenty of songs to tap your foot to.
2019
Date is confirmed for a recovered Louise Redknapp to re-join the West End cast of 9 To 5 The Musical
That 9 To 5 The Musical clock has been ticking and now Louise Redknapp is ready to return to the Savoy Theatre, playing the role of Violet Newstead from 25 March to 29 June 2019. After suffering a nasty injury shortly before the West End opening, Louise was forced to withdraw for a few weeks to recover. In her absence Caroline Sheen stepped in last minute to play the sassy office supervisor. So here’s an excuse to see the show again!
The dedicated fans of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie have nothing to worry about as the show’s producers have announced that the London run has been extended to Jan 2020. Not only that, but Layton Williams is enjoying playing Jamie New so much that he has pledged to lead the cast – & wear those heels! – right through that time and help celebrate the show’s second West End birthday in November 2019.
2019
Two years on from a workshop at Live at Zédel, Alex James Ellison and Tom Lees’ new British musical Fiver is having its world premiere at Southwark Playhouse in July 2019 and the cast so far – Daniel Buckley, Hiba Elchikhe and Kayleigh McKnight – has plenty of West End credentials. So if you have ever looked at a £5 note and wondered ‘Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?’, this is the show for you!
After much-anticipation actors Sheila Atim and Giles Terera announced the nominations for the Olivier Awards 2019 today and it wasn’t long before the celebrations began for two West End musicals in particular. The acclaimed gender-bending revival of Sondheim’s Company and powerful Canadian show Come From Away are recognised in nine categories each. The King and I and the Queens of Six The Musical are close behind with six and five nominations respectively. Who do you think will come out top on the night?
Sheridan Smith has busy winning acclaim for her television work, but the Olivier Award-winning actress’ performances onstage have always been popular too (not least in the musicals Legally Blonde and Funny Girl). This summer she returns to the West End to play The Narrator in the brand new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium. Now we just have to find out who her Joseph will be?
Who's who in the much-anticipated London debut of the Gershwins' and George S Kaufman's 1927 musical STRIKE UP THE BAND? Catch up on casting, sneak-peek rehearsal shots and our new competition for the show, running 6 to 31 March 2019 at Upstairs at the Gatehouse.
The matches have been made and the performers chosen to join Andy Nyman and Judy Kuhn in the West End transfer of Menier Chocolate Factory’s Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Trevor Nunn and playing at a reconfigured Playhouse Theatre from 21 March until 15 June 2019.
2019
Time to go get a slushie and watch Carrie Hope Fletcher & Jamie Muscato perform ‘Seventeen’, the second single released for digital download from the upcoming album Heathers the Musical – Original West End Cast Recording. The complete album is released on1 March 2019.
2019
On 12 May 2019 at London’s Eventim Apollo there will be two concerts of The Best of… Rock Musicals for the benefit of The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust and there are plenty of West End and international stars lining up to take part. They include Adam Pascal, Kerry Ellis, Judy Kuhn, Debbie Kurup, Rob Houchen, and that’s just a few. Are you trying out your air guitar in readiness?
2019
Fans of Six, the concert-style hit musical featuring the six wives of Henry VIII as a girl group, are to get the chance to be Queen for a night at the show’s first Sing Along show in the West End on 6 June 2019. Are you willing to lose your head?
First it was exciting that London audiences were going to finally get a chance to see a full staging of Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza, starring Renée Fleming and Dove Cameron, no less. Now the anticipation has intensified with the news that Rob Houchen, Celinde Schoenmaker, Liam Tamne, Malcolm Sinclair and Olivier-nominated international soprano Marie McLaughlin have also been cast in the production which runs for just 20 performances from 14 June to 5 July 2019.
Perhaps best known to UK theatre-goers for her roles in The Grinning Man and La Strada, French-Canadian actress Audrey Brisson has been cast as the iconic Amélie Poulain in the musical stage adaptation of Amélie The Musical, beginning a UK tour in April 2019 at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury. Are you feeling romantic?
They are big shoes to fill but we have the feeling that Nkeki Obi-Melekwe is going to make her mark in her West End debut as Tina in the record-breaking run of Tina – The Tina Turner Musical at the Aldwych Theatre. She joins the company on 15 April 2019, as does the new Ike Turner, Ashley Zhangazha. And as for original West End Tina Adrienne Warren, she is preparing to head off to NYC to lead the Broadway production in autumn 2019.
There’s something old and something new when it comes to the musicals lined up for Chichester Festival Theatre’s Festival 2019 and just look at the casting. There’s the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic Oklahoma! starring Josie Lawrence as Aunt Eller alongside Hyoie O’Grady and Amara Okereke (Les Misérables) as Curly and Laurey. Plus Tim Firth’s first original solo musical This Is My Family features the talents of James Nesbitt, Sheila Hancock and Clare Burt. Bring on the summer…
2019
It’s bitter sweet for producer Danielle Tarento as she brings the late Michel Legrand’s five-time Tony-nominated musical Amour – a musical fantasy about daring to dream and the power of self belief – to the Charing Cross Theatre from 2 May to 20 July 2019. She hopes the production will be ‘a fitting tribute to this extraordinary man’.
2019
Stargate star Suanne Braun, who was last seen in sci-fi musical Fanatical, is cruising back onto the London stage this month, appearing in Sailing Somewhere at Live at Zedel. The one-woman play with songs runs at the cabaret venue from 27 February to 2 March 2019.
It’s going to be a Shakespeare-style tale with a twist featuring Max Martin tunes and there are now a stream of West End stars lining up alongside Miriam-Teak Lee (in the title role) for new musical & Juliet, including Cassidy Janson, Oliver Tompsett, Arun Blair-Mangat Melanie La Barrie, Jordan Luke Gage and Tim Mahendran. But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks…?
2019
Playing at London’s The Other Palace from 11 to 23 February 2019, the Taster Menu series – as part of the inaugural MT Fest UK – will showcase eight new musicals via 45-minute semi-staged stagings. So which performers are bringing these new works to life? Read on…