Broadway actor and writer Andy Mientus will make his UK theatre debut alongside a number of West End stars in the European premiere of new LGBTQ+ musical The View UpStairs.
Mientus (Les Misérables, Wicked, Broadway) will appear alongside John Partridge (A Chorus Line, CATS, West End), Declan Bennett (Jesus Christ Superstar, Regent‘s Park Open Air Theatre, Once, Phoenix Theatre), Victoria Hamilton-Barritt (The Wild Party, The Other Palace, Miss Littlewood, RSC), and recent The Voice semi-finalist Cedric Neal (Motown The Musical, Shaftesbury Theatre, Chess, London Coliseum).
The cast will also include: Carly Mercedes Dyer, Gary Lee, Joseph Prouse and Derek Hagen. Casting for the central role of Wes will be announced at a later date.
Presented by West End and Broadway producers Jack Maple and Brian Zeilinger (for their new production company Take Two Theatricals) and Tony Award-winning producer Ken Fakler, the show which premiered in Australia in 2018 will play the Soho Theatre for a limited season from 18 July until 31 August 2019.
Written by award-winning composer Max Vernon, the musical begins in the present day but focuses on a horrifying 1973 arson attack on a gay bar in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter which resulted in the death of 32 people.
Commenting on his show’s arrival in London, Vernon said: “As a devotee and lover of British theatre, art, music and culture (from Caryl Churchill and Joe Orton to Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, Roxy Music, T. Rex and Siouxsie and The Banshees), it has been a lifelong dream of mine to bring an original musical to London.
“For that show to be The View UpStairs – which is high fashion, rock‘n’roll, queer, subversive, and speaks to an important forgotten history in the LGBTQ+ community – that is an enormous opportunity. I’m obsessed with the director and producing team’s vision for how to mount this work. We are ready to turn it the f*q out and create something iconic and unheard of at the Soho Theatre.”
The London production will be directed by Jonathan O’Boyle with choreography by Fabian Aloise, set and costume design by Lee Newby, lighting design by Nic Farman, sound design by Adam Fisher and casting by Will Burton CDG.
O’Boyle said: “I’m thrilled to be working with Max Vernon on his brilliant new musical The View UpStairs for its European premiere at Soho Theatre this summer. The View UpStairs is a beautiful, uplifting musical that celebrates the lives of these forgotten people.
“Max is a brilliant new voice in modern musical theatre, and this show, inspired by true events, takes us on a radical, rollercoaster ride through the extraordinary lives of these special human beings.”
Paying tribute to the victims and survivors of the deadly attack described as the worst attack on the LGBTQ+ community until the 2016 shooting at The Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the critically-acclaimed The View UpStairs premiered off-Broadway in 2017.
The musical is produced in London by Jack Maple and Brian Zeilinger for Take Two Theatricals and Ken Fakler, with Creative House Productions and associate producers Ben Lockwood and Sue Marks.
Angela Thomas
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