Casting has been confirmed for the three staged concert performances of new British musical Babies – A New (Born) British Musical at the Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue next month.
Presented by Crossroads Live and theatre development company Indigo Productions, the rock-flavoured story of the chaos that ensues when a Year 11 class of youngsters are given simulator-babies to care for will play the West End venue on 10, 11 and 12 November.
Marking director Martha Geelan’s debut as a musical book writer, Babies – A New (Born) British Musical features music and lyrics by Jack Godfrey (42 Balloons, This is a Love Story).
The cast includes a number of actors who previously appeared in the development workshops – Chloe Bell (Shrek UK tour), Lauren Conroy (The Sound of Music, Chichester Festival Theatre), Shakira Riddell-Morales (Les Misérables, West End) and Arts Educational School graduate Morgan Philips who will make his West End debut in the production. They will be joined by Jaina Brock-Patel (Six, UK tour), recent Royal Academy of Music graduate Lucy Carter, Jacob Dachtler (Mamma Mia! The Party, O2), Ashley Goh (Dorian: A New Musical, The Other Palace) and Christian Maynard (& Juliet, Shaftesbury Theatre).
Announcing the concert performances, the producer for Crossroads Live and Indigo Productions, James Lane said: “The mission with Babies has been to create a relatable window into the whirlwind experience of being a teenager in today’s world and to deliver a realistic depiction of school life and coming-of-age.
“We hope that everyone, in some way, can see both themselves and fragments of their own experiences in one, or maybe even a few, of the brilliant characters Martha and Jack have so wonderfully brought to life. This musical has had such a unique journey thus far – it will be a proud moment to welcome audiences to see it in concert on a West End stage.”
After winning the British Youth Music Theatre’s New Music Theatre Award 2021, Geelan and Godfrey were commissioned to fully develop the musical with the introduction of a wider creative team including Joe Beighton (Six The Musical). The show was first seen at the New Wolseley Theatre in Ipswich performed by 30 talented emerging performers from the BYMT programme as part of the British Youth Music Theatre’s 2021 season. Indigo Productions and Crossroads Live then joined the project as commercial producers, with the production still proudly partnered with BYMT and supporting the charity’s work.
Development workshops were held in 2022 and earlier this year ahead of an appearance at West End Live. Four tracks (‘Baby Baby Baby’, ‘Someone Else’, ‘Without Saying Goodbye’ and ‘Hot Dad’) featuring West End artists were released last year and have been played over 75,000 times to date.
Angela Thomas
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