Jeremy Chapman became not just one of my most treasured reviewers, but a wonderful companion on nights out at the theatre and a dear friend.
Tag Archives | Pimlico Opera
Musical Theatre Review contributors pick their top shows of 2025
We have asked Musical Theatre Review’s brilliantly talented team of expert critics, based across the UK, to name one particular show that made the biggest impression on them during the last 12 months.
Made in Dagenham – Pimlico Opera – HMP Bronzefield
Made in Dagenham by Pimlico Opera and the prisoners of HMP Bronzefield at Bronzefield Prison, Ashford, Surrey. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ They stood up for their rights and we stood up for their amazing performances. I’d love to see it again.
Jodie Jacobs will lead the cast of Pimlico Opera’s prison production of Made in Dagenham
Award-winning Jodie Jacobs (Rock of Ages) is to lead the cast as strike leader Rita O’Grady in Pimlico Opera’s prison production of the musical Made in Dagenham which runs from 5-9 March 2025 at HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey.
Pimlico Opera’s next production at HMP Bronzefield will be Betty Blue Eyes
After 32 months off for good behaviour (and Covid), musical theatre goes back to jail next month with Pimlico Opera’s production of Betty Blue Eyes at HMP Bronzefield at Ashford, Surrey.
Pimlico Opera HMP Bronzefield Betty Blue Eyes
INTERVIEW: Actress Chlöe Hart on returning to the role of Tracy Turnblad – in a prison production – & what it meant to her
In February and March, just before Covid-19 locked down theatreland, CHLÖE HART went to prison to revisit the role of Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray that took her from the Guildford School of Acting directly to a West End lead role at the Shaftesbury in 2009. Here she tells Musical Theatre Review contributor Jeremy Chapman what […]
Hairspray The Musical – HMP Bronzefield, Surrey
Hairspray The Musical at HMP Bronzefield, Ashford, Surrey. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Once again Pimlico Opera has worked a near-miracle in training up the “residents” of Europe’s biggest all-women prison in five short weeks to sing, dance and act to undreamed-of heights. This is the fourth time Pimlico and HMP Bronzefield […]
Chloe Hart revisits the role of Tracy Turnblad in Pimlico Opera’s Hairspray at HMP Bronzefield
Chloe Hart revisits the role of Tracy Turnblad in March 2020, the part which put her on a West End stage even before she had graduated from the Guildford School of Acting in 2009. And she’s going to prison to do it. Hart stars with Christopher Howell in Hairspray when Pimlico Opera returns to HMP […]
Meet Me in St Louis is the next musical for Grange Park Opera
The rarely-performed Meet Me in St Louis is to be Grange Park Opera’s musical for their 2020 summer season. The title song apart, the show has such showstoppers as ‘The Trolley Song’, ‘Under the Bamboo Tree’, ‘Skip to My Lou’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’. Better known as an early (1944) Judy Garland […]
Sweet Charity – Pimlico Opera – HMP Bronzefield
Sweet Charity by Pimlico Opera and the inmates of HMP Bronzefield at Ashford, Surrey. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Put an Olivier-nominated actress alongside inmates of HMP Bronzefield, stir in a 12-piece orchestra, a stage in a prison and the expertise of Pimlico Opera and what you got was a terrific Sweet Charity. […]
Exclusive – Pimlico Opera to stage Les Mis at Surrey prison
After missing out 2016 while it and sister company Grange Park Opera were building their own Theatre in the Woods at West Horsley Place, and moving to Surrey following a protracted dispute with the owners of its Hampshire HQ for 17 years, Pimlico Opera is once again going to prison with a musical – and […]
Our House – Pimlico Opera – Isis Young Offenders Institution, Woolwich
Our House, performed by Pimlico Opera and inmates of Isis Young Offenders Institution at Woolwich, London, continues until 7 March. Star rating: 3 stars ★ ★ ★ It was quite a coup for Pimlico Opera persuading Madness lead singer Suggs McPherson to replay the role as Joe’s Dad in Our House, the group’s Olivier Award-winning Best New Musical […]
Exclusive!! Suggs to reprise Our House role in prison production
EXCLUSIVE!! Madness lead singer Suggs is to reprise a role he played in the West End show Our House… alongside hardened criminals in one of Her Majesty’s prisons. He is to play Joe’s Father in Pimlico Opera’s revival of the 2002 musical, based on the songs of 1980s pop group Madness, when it is revived at […]
Sister Act – HMP Bronzefield and Pimlico Opera
Sister Act is performed by the prisoners of HMP Bronzefield and Pimlico Opera at Bronzefield Prison in Ashford, Surrey, until 9 March. Forget The Book of Mormon and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory –the musical event of the year, and any year, is taking place in a prison gymnasium not far from Heathrow. People who had never […]
