Lerner and Loewe’s haunting Camelot will return to the West End for the first time in decades this autumn when London Musical Theatre Orchestra presents a special concert version at the London Palladium.
The multi-award-winning story of King Arthur and his knights of the round table is one of three more productions announced for the LMTO’s 2018 season.
Following on from the previously announced performances of Martin Smith’s King at the Hackney Empire this summer, the LMTO will present Camelot at the Palladium in October followed by Howard Goodall’s Girlfriends at the Bishopsgate Institute in November and the return of the orchestra’s hit version of Alan Menken’s A Christmas Carol in December at the Lyceum Theatre.
Announcing the line-up, LMTO’s founder and conductor Freddie Tapner said: “It is a great privilege to be able to bring such a diverse range of stories to our audience across 2018, in what is our biggest and boldest season to date. What unites Camelot, Girlfriends and A Christmas Carol is the sensational music at the core of each show, which will be brought thrillingly to life by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra at each concert.”
Celebrating the centenary of Alan Jay Lerner’s birth, the LMTO’s version of Camelot on 6 October will feature a full orchestra and an as yet unnamed all-star cast performing a classic song list that includes ‘If Ever I Would Leave You’, ‘How to Handle a Woman’ and the title track.
Based on TH White’s novel The Once and Future King, Lerner and Lowe’s Camelot debuted on Broadway in 1961 with Richard Burton giving a Tony Award-winning performance as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as his Guenevere. Camelot first appeared in the West End in 1964 in a production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane that starred Laurence Harvey and Elizabeth Larner as Guenevere.
Playing a total of three shows at the Bishopsgate Institute on the 2 and 3 of November, the concert performance of Emmy, Brit and BAFTA winner Goodall’s Girlfriends will star Lucie Jones (Legally Blonde, Rent) and Lauren Samuels (Bend It Like Beckham, We Will Rock You).
A London Musical Theatre Orchestra co-production with Bishopsgate Institute and Goodall, the Second World War era story of new recruits to the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force at the famous RAF Bomber Command base will be performed in the beautiful surroundings of the Great Hall.
Commenting on the production, composer Goodall said: “My musical Girlfriends was first seen in May 1986. It was one of the few musicals to have been written at that time which set out to create the sound of mainly women’s voices, in a (hopefully) stirring polyphony of strong, independent parts and I am pleased to say it has since been revived many times in many different incarnations. It celebrates women who made huge sacrifices in the struggle against fascism in the Second World War and whose spirit and fortitude are still an inspiration to us today.”
The final production in the 2018 season will be a reprise run of the LMTO’s 2016 and 2017 seasonal sell-out production of A Christmas Carol which will return to the Lyceum on 11 and 18 December. The all-star cast for this year’s production will be announced at a later date.
Based on Dickens’ timeless tale of Scrooge and his ghostly visitors, the show features music written by Tony, Olivier and eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken, with lyrics by Tony Award winner Lynn Ahrens and a book by Drama Desk Award winner Mike Ockrent and Ahrens.
With patrons including Menken himself, Jason Robert Brown, Michael Feinstein, Julian Fellows, Stiles and Drewe, and Stephen Schwartz, the LMTO features some of London’s most accomplished professional musicians who all share an enthusiasm for musical theatre.
Previous LMTO successes include star-packed concert versions of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair, Jerry Herman’s Mack & Mabel and the concert staging of Honeymoon in Vegas with the show’s composer Jason Robert Brown as guest conductor.
Angela Thomas
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