First casting has been announced for the eagerly awaited first UK non-replica production of Disney’s High School Musical, the run of which been extended for an extra week.
Tag Archives | Luke Bayer
DIVA: Live From Hell! – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
DIVA: Live From Hell! continues at the Underbelly, Cowgate – Belly Button until 25 August 2024. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ An hilarious evening of devilish humour and stagey affectation. Desmond Channing may be a devil in disguise but Bayer ensures that he’s a loveable one at that.
Diva: Live From Hell – King’s Head Theatre
Diva: Live From Hell continues at the King’s Head Theatre, London until 29 June 2024. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ This solo musical sees Luke Bayer give a mostly mesmeric, increasingly manic and gloriously self-obsessed performance.
BYMT 20th anniversary gala – first details
The British Youth Music Theatre’s (BYMT) has confirmed details of its 20th-anniversary gala event at London venue The Other Palace on 8 July. Hosted by BYMT alumnus and New Musical Theatre Award winner 2023, Lewis Cornay (SpongeBob SquarePants The Musical), the special event celebrating the last 20 years of the organisation will feature alumni including […]
Ushers: The Front of House Musical – The Other Palace
Ushers: The Front of House Musical continues at The Other Palace Theatre, London until 20 May. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Anyone who loves musicals will love this musical.
An Officer and a Gentleman The Musical – New Wimbledon Theatre and Touring
An Officer and a Gentleman The Musical was reviewed at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London where it runs until 6 April 2024. The UK and Ireland tour continues until 9 November. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★
An Officer and a Gentleman The Musical – Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham and Touring
An Officer and a Gentleman The Musical was reviewed at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham where it runs until 2 March 2024. The UK and Ireland tour continues until 9 November. Star rating: two stars ★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩ A worrying trend has crept into the world of musical theatre over the last couple of decades, that of […]
Head Over Heels – Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester
Head Over Heels continues at the Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester until 4 March 2023. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Here the passion of Rent meets the quirkiness of Pippin, and with such a great ensemble of triple-threat performers it makes the floor shake with its energy.
Cast for European premiere of Head Over Heels
Luke Bayer will return to Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre to head the cast of the European premiere of Head Over Heels later this month.
Diva: Live from Hell! – Turbine Theatre
Diva: Live from Hell! continues at the Turbine Theatre, London until 10 September 2022. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Battersea’s Turbine Theatre is about to see its first West End transfer when Rob Madge’s solo autobiographical show My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) which was developed there in 2021 opens at the […]
Millennials – A Pop Song Cycle – The Other Palace
Millennials – A Pop Song Cycle continues at The Other Palace Studio, London until 7 August 2022. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ The second home-produced Studio show at The Other Palace, Millennials, by Elliot Clay, is an impressively robust, energetic, full-on affair, which promises much at the outset, but sadly flags […]
Cast for Millennials at The Other Palace
Casting has been revealed for the premiere of 21st century pop musical Millennials at The Other Palace next month. Written and composed by award-nominated composer, lyricist and actor, Elliot Clay, Millennials will star Georgina ‘Yas Queen’ Onuorah (Cinderella, Gillian Lynne Theatre, Dick Whittington, National Theatre), Luke ‘Bae’ Bayer (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Apollo Theatre, Soho […]
Luke Bayer to star in one-person musical comedy DIVA: Live From Hell!
Luke Bayer will take on multiple roles when darkly comic US show DIVA: Live From Hell! receives its UK premiere at London’s Turbine Theatre this summer. Inspired by the classic movie All About Eve, the production will feature Bayer (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Apollo Theatre, Rent, Hope Mill Theatre) playing a full company of roles […]
The Other Palace rehomes Vault Festival shows and announces new musicals Love is only Love and Millennials
The Other Palace has announced that it has been able to support several shows that were due to perform in the cancelled Vault Festival, in The Other Palace Studio. Two musicals – Love is only Love written by Sam Harrison returns following its sold out debut at The Other Palace, and Millennials with music, book […]
Jodie Steele and Ross William Wild to star in Gatsby: The Musical
Jodie Steele and Ross William Wild will return to the central roles of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby for the festive run of Ruby in the Dust Theatre’s Gatsby: The Musical at the Southwark Playhouse. Steele (SIX The Musical, Heathers) and Wild (Million Dollar Quartet, American Idiot) will be joined by Luke Bayer (Everybody’s Talking […]
West End performers feature in cast for The Chamber Musical Sessions Concert
Aria Entertainment and Adam Lenson Productions have unveiled the cast of West End artists lined-up to showcase the work of the UK-based writing teams behind 15 new chamber musicals in The Chamber Musical Sessions Concert. Celebrating the first year of the Aria-ALP Chamber Project, the concert at the Garrick Theatre on 4 October 2021 will […]
Rent – Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester
Rent continues at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester until 19 September 2021. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Rent has always been a show about triumphing over adversity. From the tragedy that marked its early development – with creator Jonathan Larson passing away just before the show’s Off-Broadway premiere in 1996 – to its […]
I Could Use a Drink – Garrick Theatre
I Could Use a Drink played at the Garrick Theatre, London on 2 August 2021. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Drew Gasparini’s angst-ridden song cycle received its one-night-only live UK premiere at the West End’s Garrick Theatre, and it couldn’t have been more enthusiastically embraced by the young audience. Every musical theatre student […]
New cast members added to Hope Mill’s Rent – rehearsals begin
Hope Mill Theatre’s hit production of Jonathan Larson’s rock musical Rent has welcomed six new cast members as rehearsals begin for the production’s imminent return to live performances. Luke Bayer (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Apollo Theatre, Soho Cinders, Charing Cross Theatre) is joining the cast as Mark alongside Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Andrew Lloyd […]
CD Review: Fiver – Live Concert Recording
FIVER – LIVE CONCERT RECORDING (Available on Download) Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Five performers take on a number of roles to tell a stream of personal stories, all connected by the passing of one £5 note from character to character. Sounds a bit strange but it is a great concept and does […]
Roxanne Couch to replace Hiba Elchikhe in I Could Use A Drink premiere
Roxanne Couch will make her West End debut in the stage premiere of Drew Gasparini’s I Could Use A Drink at the Garrick Theatre on 2 August. The actress who appeared in The Addams Family UK tour will replace the previously announced Hiba Elchikhe following her return to the cast of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. […]
I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical – King’s Head Theatre / Plays On Film
I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical, streaming via King’s Head Theatre’s Plays On Film. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Although it might have one of the most convoluted titles in recent musical theatre history, I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical follows a fairly simple premise. Four performers […]
I Could Use a Drink – Stream.Theatre
I Could Use a Drink is available via Stream.Theatre until 16 May 2021. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Californian composer-lyricist Drew Gasparini’s 2013 concept album exploring the perilous climb out of adolescence into adulthood gets a glossy UK premiere courtesy of an online production starring an impressive line-up of youthful performers. […]
Cast and creatives announced for MTFestUK 2021
Paul Taylor-Mills has confirmed the line-up of award-winning and international performers and creatives assembled for next month’s MTFestUK 2021. Due to open at the Turbine Theatre in London from 17-29 May 2021 before embarking on a digital tour from 31 May until 4 July, the third edition of the annual celebration of new musical theatre […]
UK premiere of Drew Gasparini’s I Could Use A Drink musical will be streamed in May 2021
Drew Gasparini’s I Could Use A Drink, an eclectic mix of poignant, hilarious and progressive contemporary musical theatre, celebrating the chaos and beauty of youth, was created as a US studio album using Broadway’s freshest and most exciting new talents. Now for its UK premiere, producers Liam Gartland and Alex Conder have reimagined its cutting […]
Full cast announced for the online version of I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical
The full cast has been announced for the online version of I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical, the award-winning musical revue charting the highs and lows of life as a musical theatre performer. Stars of the sell-out 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe run, Charlotte O’Rourke (Mamma Mia!) and Charlotte Anne Steen (Bat Out of […]
Graduates at Cadogan Hall
Graduates at Cadogan Hall, available to stream until 28 March 2021. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Some people say that an actor must experience real-life hardship to deliver a convincingly three-dimensional performance on stage. If that were true, last year’s musical theatre graduates – who emerged from their education into a […]
Turbine’s production of Hair The Musical will play the London Palladium and Mayflower Southampton
Following a sell-out run as part of The Turbine on the Jetty season, Hair The Musical (In Concert), directed by Arlene Phillips, will now play two performances at the London Palladium on 13 June 2021, and two performances at Southampton Mayflower Theatre on 27 June. The performances were originally planned for earlier this year, but […]
Graduates at Cadogan Hall concerts – cast announced
The organisers of the upcoming Graduates at Cadogan Hall concert series have unveiled the list of 40 performing arts graduates chosen from 200 applicants to appear in the series of special fundraising concerts next month. Presented by the award-winning Grad Fest and hosted by West End stars including Courtney Bowman (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Six), […]
Southwark Playhouse announces encore screenings of new musicals Fiver, Before After and Stay Awake, Jake
The critically-acclaimed live-stream productions of new British musicals FIVER, Before After and Stay Awake, Jake have been made available for an extra two weeks in response to high public demand. First seen as part of a mini-season of musical livestreams from The Little Theatre space at Southwark Playhouse late last year, the encore streaming of […]
Roles We’ll Never Play – West End to be streamed to home audiences
A live recording of last month’s West End debut of the popular Roles We’ll Never Play concert series will be streamed to home audiences next weekend. Featuring a cast of over 25 the performance which was filmed live during the concert’s sold-out run at London’s Apollo Theatre in December will be streamed via stream.theatre at […]
Would-be musical theatre stars get a chance to shine in DIY festive show
Musical theatre fans are being given the chance to star alongside Simon Callow in a new DIY musical created for this year’s festive season. Produced by the British Youth Music Theatre, Saving Christmas is a solo Christmas musical designed to be performed by anyone of any age anywhere. Based on a concept by Steven Dexter, […]
Thirty West End voices unite for new The Show Must Go On charity single
Thirty West End performers have lent their voices to a new original song created to bring a little Christmas cheer with all profits going to Acting For Others, The Fleabag Support Fund and NHS Covid-19 Urgent Appeal through the Theatre Support Fund+. Written by director and performer Anna Hale, producer and director Joe McNeice and […]
Live-stream performances for concert version of Fiver
The original cast from last year’s first full production of new British musical FIVER will return to London’s Southwark Playhouse for three live-streamed performances of a concert version of the show. Directed by the show’s co-creators, singer/songwriter Alex James Ellison and musical director Tom Lees, the cast members who featured in the sold-out world premiere […]
West End debut for Roles We’ll Never Play series
The popular Roles We’ll Never Play concert series will make its West End debut at London’s Apollo Theatre in December. Following two successful years of sold-out concerts in the capital, Roles We’ll Never Play West End on 7 December 2020 will once again offer a host of West End favourites the chance to perform songs […]
Charlie Kristensen chats with the stars in new online series
Inspirational young anti-bullying campaigner Charlie Kristensen has launched a series of lockdown interviews with star guests on his YouTube channel. Supported by The Theatre Café, Musical Chairs with #CheerUpCharlie! features the Berkshire 10-year-old chatting with a range of interviewees from the UK and the US. The Musical Chairs line-up to date includes: Iain Armitage, Luke […]
Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Prize
Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Prize 2020 – a virtual concert streamed online via YouTube. While the annual Sondheim Student Performer of the Year contest fell victim to Covid-19, the Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Prize which has run alongside it since 2008 was happily saved with the bonus of top musical theatre […]
All-star line-up for Stiles and Drewe Prize online concert
A host of West End stars have been enlisted to perform the shortlist of 15 compositions in the running for the 2020 Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Prize in a virtual concert to be streamed online next Sunday (5 July 2020). With musical direction by Steve Ridley, the songs will be performed by: Allyson […]
Second single from new musical Millennials is released
Singer Lisa Olivant has recorded the second single from Elliot Clay’s new rock-festival flavoured musical Millennials. Following on from the recent release of the first song from the show ‘See You’ performed by Everybody’s Talking About Jamie star Luke Bayer, RnB artist Olivant’s performance of ‘21st Century Girl’ is now available on download. Produced, mixed, […]
Loserville team to reunite for Barn Theatre’s virtual Elliot Davis concert
Busted’s James Bourne will re-unite (virtually) with his Loserville co-writer Elliot Davis this weekend for the third concert in the Barn Theatre’s new online series showcasing the work of Britain’s musical theatre composers. Bourne will join an all-star line-up of West End favourites for the musical celebration of the work of the award-winning British composer […]
West End stars to feature in new masterclass series
Former EastEnder and Dancing on Ice champion turned stage star Sam Attwater has enlisted the help of fellow West End artists to launch a series of online masterclasses. Starting on 13 April 2020, the Westend Bootcamps Monday Masterclasses will feature an hour-long tutorial conducted by stage and screen performers followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. […]
Five Questions With: Emma Kingston
EMMA KINGSTON is joining Kim Criswell and Luke Bayer in the Game of Thrones-inspired Tyrell as part of the second MT Fest UK at London’s Turbine Theatre. Written by Alex Ratner and directed by Simon Greiff, the show will be performed on the evenings of Thursday 13, Friday 14 and Saturday 15 February with a matinee […]
Casts announced for MTFestUK at the Turbine Theatre
A number of West End stars have been lined up to appear in each of the new musicals chosen to feature in the programme for Paul Taylor-Mills’ MTFestUK at the Turbine Theatre next month. Running from 3-15 February 2020 at the newly opened venue on the banks of the Thames in Battersea, the second MTFestUK […]
Alice Fearn and Emma Hatton feature in Park Theatre fundraiser celebrating Stephen Schwartz
Two of West End Wicked’s Elphabas, Alice Fearn and Emma Hatton will share the stage later this month for a special gala fundraiser at the Park Theatre in North London celebrating the work of the hit show’s composer Stephen Schwartz. Presented by Aria Entertainment and Hope Mill Theatre in association with Park Theatre, The Spark […]
Waitress is the big winner at the West End Wilma Awards 2019
The West End Wilma Awards, now into their sixth year, are a rather more informal affair than some of theatreland’s more established ceremonies. Here, the theatregoing audience mingles freely with the stars whose work they have enjoyed and voted for in one of the awards’ ten categories. At this year’s ceremony, held at London’s Café […]
Soho Cinders – Charing Cross Theatre
Soho Cinders continues at the Charing Cross Theatre, London until 21 December 2019 Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ The genesis of Soho Cinders occurred in 2000 when the trio of composer George Stiles, lyricist Anthony Drewe and writer Elliot Davis decided that, following their great success with Honk! at the National […]
Luke Bayer and Millie O’Connell are cast in Soho Cinders at Charing Cross Theatre
West End stars Luke Bayer and Millie O’Connell will head the cast when George Stiles, Anthony Drewe and Elliot Davis’ re-imagining of the Cinderella story, Soho Cinders, returns to London later this month at the start of a nine-week season at Charing Cross Theatre. With music by Stiles, lyrics by Drewe (Mary Poppins, The Wind […]
Adrian Mole musical writers join the Floating Festivals Stages cruise line-up
The team behind the hit new British musical The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾: The Musical have joined the star-packed list of attractions due to climb aboard the second edition of Stages – The Musical Theatre Festival at Sea this autumn. Writers Pippa Cleary and Jake Brunger will offer passengers a glimpse behind […]
Fiver – Southwark Playhouse
Fiver continues at The Little at Southwark Playhouse, London until 20 July 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ If a five-pound note could tell you the story of its life, what would it say? Whose hands has it been in? Whose g-string has it been tucked into? Whose nose has it […]
Fiver at Southwark Playhouse – full cast announced & video released
Final casting has been announced for the first full production of new British musical FIVER which will receive its world premiere at the Southwark Playhouse this summer. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’s award-winning Luke Bayer, Aoife Clesham (Peter Pan international tour) and Alex James Ellison (The Secret Garden) will join the previously announced Daniel Buckley (Eugenius!) […]
