Second UK solo concert tour for Carrie Hope Fletcher
Following her successful first solo concert tour An Open Book, award-winning West End star and author Carrie Hope Fletcher will embark on a second tour in September 2024.
Presented by Lambert Jackson, Cuffe & Taylor and Live Nation, the Carrie Hope Fletcher – Love Letters tour will launch at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford on 27 and 28 September 2024.
The intimate concert which will explore the theme of love in all its forms will visit Canterbury, London, Truro, Ipswich, Bath, Cardiff, York, Glasgow, Salford, Gateshead, Birmingham and Edinburgh.
Hope Fletcher’s debut solo tour earlier this year which celebrated her career to date included a sold-out performance at the London Palladium.
An actress, author and vlogger, Hope Fletcher’s stage career credits include playing Wednesday Addams in the UK tour of The Addams Family, Eponine in Les Misérables in the West End, Veronica Sawyer in Heathers and taking on the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella.
MTFestUK2024 – dates confirmed
The Other Palace and Turbine Theatre have confirmed the dates for next year’s MTFestUK which will once again showcase eight new musicals in The Other Palace Studio and at the Turbine Theatre.
Running from 30 January until 11 February 2024, the event will feature eight new productions selected from the open submission process, with their creative teams given an opportunity to workshop and present their work in ‘sharing’ sessions to audiences. Each piece will be cast and rehearsed, ahead of four sharing performances in workshop format, open to audiences.
Paul Taylor Mills, artistic director at The Other Palace and The Turbine Theatre, added: “I’m thrilled to be presenting our 5th MTFestUK across The Other Palace and The Turbine Theatre. Both venues have been birth places for 100s of shows that have gone on to be seen around the world.
“Safe spaces where new work can be trialed and teased has never been more important and it really is a privilege to help shepherd some incredible work. MTFestUK is one of the primary ways in which we’re able to engage with artists.”
Launched by Taylor Mills in late 2018 as a showcase for new work by both emerging and established writers, the inaugural season of MTFestUK was staged at The Other Palace in 2019 where Taylor Mills was then ensconced as artistic director.
Cadogan Hall concert dates for Broadway’s Lena Hall and West End’s Jamie Muscato
Broadway star Lena Hall will bring her latest one woman show Little Career of Horrors to London’s Cadogan Hall in 2024.
Following her recent appearance in the UK Theatre Award-winning world premiere of In Dreams at the Leeds Playhouse, Hall will return to the UK with the new show co-written and directed by her long-time collaborator and ex-boyfriend Stephen Amato on 27 May 2024.
A Tony Award winner for her performance Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hall originated the role of Nicola in Kinky Boots on Broadway and played Audrey in the hit Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. Hall’s solo musical revues, including Sin & Salvation, Art of the Audition and The Villa Satori: Growing up Haight Ashbury, all played to sold-out shows and received rave reviews. Hall’s Cadogan Hall concert will be presented by Fourth Wall Live.
West End star Jamie Muscato will take centre stage for two solo concert performances at London’s Cadogan Hall next summer. Recently seen as Christian in Moulin Rouge! at the Piccadilly Theatre, the musical theatre rising star whose credits also include originating the role of JD in Heathers at The Other Palace and Theatre Royal Haymarket, will play a matinee and evening performance at the prestigious venue on 21 July 2024.
Jamie Muscato Live At Cadogan Hall will be presented by Fourth Wall Live with Westway Music.
UK premiere for Australian hit Fangirls at Lyric Hammersmith
The UK premiere of the multi-award-winning Australian pop musical Fangirls will feature in the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre’s spring/summer 2024 season.
Written and composed by Australian playwright Yve Blake and directed by Paige Rattray, the co-production with Sonia Friedman Productions will make its debut at the West London venue from 13 July until 24 August 2024.
The creative team for the London production also includes production designer David Fleischer, choreographer Ebony Williams, video designer Ash J Woodward, lighting designer Jessica Hung Han Yun, sound designer Tony Gayle, vocal arranger and orchestrator Zara Stanton, music producer David Muratore, associate choreographer Alex Sarmiento and associate musical director Laurence Stannard.
Inspired by interviews with teenage pop fans, the story of 14-year-old Edna’s quest to meet her favourite boyband singer premiered at Queensland Theatre in Brisbane, Australia in 2019. The musical comedy’s UK premiere follows on from multiple sold-out runs across Australia including a season at the Sydney Opera House.
Commenting on the production, the Lyric Hammersmith’s artistic director and CEO Rachel O’Riordan said: “Fangirls will be a riotous night at the theatre and we couldn’t be more thrilled to co-produce the UK premiere with Sonia Friedman Productions. Our beautiful auditorium will transcend into one of the best pop concerts you’ve ever been to. The Lyric was built for musicals like Fangirls which is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime euphoric experience across West London and beyond.”
Co-producer Sonia Friedman added: “I have had the privilege of collaborating with the extraordinarily gifted Yve Blake since I first heard about the incredible success of Fangirls in Australia. It has been an inspirational, wonderfully energising journey thus far, and I am delighted to be working with the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre to bring this new production to London. Helmed once again by the brilliant Paige Rattray, this funny and life-affirming pop musical is an ode to love.”
Alongside the premiere of Fangirls, the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre will also be launching the Fangirls Fanclub to give a limited number of members a special VIP experience. This one-off membership will unlock exclusive benefits including tickets to the Fanclub Convention performance and party on 24 July 2024, tickets to an ‘Inside the Rehearsal Room’ party, a goody bag with signed merchandise and Fangirls Fanzine for sneak peeks.
Wonderville world premiere run for The Finellis Musical
London’s Wonderville will play host to the world premiere of The Finellis Musical next summer.
Presented by Marjan Content Productions and Murphy’s Law Productions, the musical which is based on the award-winning comedy The Finellis Movie will debut at the Shaftesbury Avenue venue from 3-16 June 2024.
Described as a cross between Mrs Doubtfire and Goodfellas, the musical has a book and lyrics by Mark Janicello and music by Ulf Weidmann.
The Wonderville run follows a successful one-act presentation at the Phoenix Arts Club in London in May this year.
Winner of 22 awards in 12 countries, The Finellis Movie is the creation of American actor, singer, writer and producer Janicello. Originally intended to be a TV series, the comic tale of an American singer who spends 15 years in a Berlin prison in order to protect his family from the mafia was released as a 90-minute film in early 2022.
Leeds debut for musical version of Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile
A new musical version of Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile is one of three new theatre productions being developed by the in-house theatre divisions of the Roald Dahl Story Company.
Co-produced with Leeds Playhouse and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, The Enormous Crocodile is debuting in the Courtyard Theatre at the Leeds Playhouse until 6 January 2024 before heading for Regent’s Park next summer.
Dahl’s much-loved tale of a very hungry crocodile is being brought to life on stage in a musical which features a ‘playful, eclectic’ score by composer Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab (who performs under the band name Sinkane) and a ‘rib-tickling book and lyrics’ by Suhayla El-Bushra (Arabian Nights, Royal Lyceum Edinburgh; The Long Song, Chichester Festival Theatre and Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge), with additional music and lyrics from Tom Brady (The Butterfly Lion, Chichester Festival Theatre; musical supervisor and arranger for Guys & Dolls, Bridge Theatre).
The musical is directed by Emily Lim (Brainstorm, Company Three/National Theatre, Pericles, National Theatre) alongside one of the UK’s leading puppetry directors and designers, Toby Olié (Pinocchio, National Theatre, 101 Dalmatians, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) who co-directs the family-friendly production which will feature a menagerie of mischievous puppets, set and costume design by Fly Davis (I Want My Hat Back, National Theatre; The Ocean at the End of the Lane, National Theatre/West End).
Alongside The Enormous Crocodile, the Roald Dahl Story Company is presenting a new theatrical reading of Dahl’s The Magic Finger. Created in a co-production with Unicorn Theatre, the UK’s leading theatre for young audiences, this imaginative reading of Roald Dahl’s mischievous story will be directed by Milli Bhatia (Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, Royal Court) and designed by Shankho Chaudhuri (Alice in Wonderland, Brixton House). The Magic Finger will be released online for free to schools and families across the UK and beyond from spring 2024.
The theatre division is also developing a large-scale circus production that will bring together beloved characters from the most popular Roald Dahl stories. The high-powered creative team for the production includes Olivier Award-winning director Polly Findlay, masters of circus spectacle, Cirque Bijou and Stephen Long and Iain Sharkey – the minds behind many of Derren Brown’s TV and stage illusions.
Further details will be announced at a later date.
The three new productions follow on from the previously announced new musical version of Dahl’s classic The Witches at the National Theatre. A co-production with the National Theatre, the production continues at the Olivier Theatre until 6 January 2024. The production features a book and lyrics by Olivier Award-winner Lucy Kirkwood (Mosquitoes) and music and lyrics by Tony Award-nominee Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812).
The cast is headed by Katherine Kingsley (Piaf, Donmar Warehouse, Singin’ in the Rain, Chichester Festival Theatre) as the Grand High Witch and Daniel Rigby (Eric and Ernie, BBC2, Breaking the Code, Manchester Royal Exchange) as Mr Stringer. They will be joined by Julie Armstrong, Chrissie Bhima, Zoe Birkett, Daniele Coombe, Molly-May Gardiner, Tiffany Graves, Tania Mathurin, Jacob Maynard, Laura Medforth and Ben Redfern.
Angela Thomas
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