The new live cast recording of the West End production of Les Miserables – The Staged Concert will be on many a musical theatre fan’s Christmas wish list this year, so we thought a chat with the show’s Eponine, otherwise known as SHAN AKO, was in order. Recorded live at the Gielgud Theatre, ‘Les Misérables […]
Tag Archives | X Factor
Nicole Scherzinger to star in shows at London’s Boulevard Theatre
Pop star turned talent show judge Nicole Scherzinger will take time out from judging duties to play two special shows at London’s newly restored Boulevard Theatre this month. A judge on the newest X Factor shows (X Factor: Celebrity and X Factor: The Band) as well as The Masked Singer USA and Australia’s Got Talent, […]
Former X Factor star Holly Tandy to play Dorothy in Blackpool’s festive Wizard of Oz
The X Factor 2017 finalist Holly Tandy will make her stage debut in the Blackpool Opera House ‘s Christmas production of The Wizard of Oz. Tandy who was the youngest contestant in last year’s edition of the TV talent show will step into Dorothy’s ruby slippers alongside local radio star Radio Wave’s Scott Gallagher as the Cowardly […]
Diana Vickers cast in Dusty-inspired Son of a Preacher Man
X Factor singer turned stage star Diana Vickers will take on the central role in the touring production of the Dusty Springfield-inspired Son of a Preacher Man. With a book by Warner Brown and directed and choreographed by Strictly’s King of the pithy putdown, Craig Revel Horwood, the national tour is due to begin at Bromley’s […]
Lucie Jones wins chance to represent UK at Eurovision Song Contest
RENT star Lucie Jones has come out on top in the battle to represent the UK at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The Welsh singer, currently winning rave reviews for her performance in the 2oth anniversary production of Jonathan Larson’s innovative musical, won over the judges and the voting public with her performance of the ballad ‘Never […]
Joe McElderry to return to Joseph tour in 2017
Joe McElderry is to return to the title role in Bill Kenwright’s touring production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat early next year. The singer, whose first taste of fame came as an 18-year-old X Factor winner, made his first appearance in the UK’s longest-running touring musical earlier this year. He will don the […]
Little Shop of Horrors new UK tour – cast revealed
Full casting has been revealed for musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors, bringing everyone’s favourite carnivorous plant to theatres across the UK in a brand new tour for 2016, opening at Bournemouth Pavilion on 4 August 2016. There will be a press night at New Wimbledon Theatre on 23 August. The cast will feature Sam Lupton […]
Lloyd Webber anger at Scherzinger Broadway Cats no-show
Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed his anger at Nicole Scherzinger’s decision to ditch her chance of Broadway stardom in Cats in favour of returning to faltering TV talent show The X Factor. Lloyd Webber, who was credited with rejuvenating the former Pussycat Doll’s singing career when she was cast as Grizabella in the West End […]
Broadway actress Rachel Potter plays first London concert at Hippodrome
Broadway star and former US X Factor finalist Rachel Potter will play her first London concert date on 11 July. The New Orleans-born singer, who has starred on Broadway in Wicked and The Addams Family, will play the intimate 180-seat cabaret theatre Club 11 at London’s Hippodrome. The singer-songwriter who began her career as a […]
Matt Cardle begins UK concert tour in June
Former X Factor champion and West End theatre award winner Matt Cardle is to begin a UK concert tour in June. The multi-Platinum selling singer/songwriter who won rave reviews and the Best West End Debut award last year for his performance in the musical Memphis will go back to his roots on his 16-date Intimate […]
Interview – Sam Bailey – a passion for musical theatre leads to dream West End concert
SAM BAILEY, the 2013 winner of X Factor, is to perform a one-off concert of musical theatre songs, Sam Bailey – Live in the West End, at London’s Lyric Theatre on 12 October, with guest stars including Collabro, Michael Xavier and Scott Alan. She talked to Ollie Wilson about the show and her love of musical theatre. How did […]
Interview – Matt Cardle – from X Factor to Memphis the Musical
X Factor winner, multi-platinum selling recording artist and songwriter MATT CARDLE has joined Beverley Knight in the cast of David Bryan and Joe DiPietro’s Memphis the Musical. He took over the role of radio DJ Huey Calhoun from Killian Donnelly (opposite Knight as Felicia Farrell) on 6 July and will continue in the show until the end of its run […]
American Idiot – Arts Theatre
American Idiot continues at the Arts Theatre, London until 27 September. Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ As a fan of neither Green Day nor most rock/pop musicals, I’m maybe not the best person to review this 90-minute sung-through show, which is based on the US band’s 2004 concept album of the same […]
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Bridlington Spa and Touring
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat continues at Bridlington Spa until 21 March and then tours until 6 June 2015. If the number of people claiming to have been at Woodstock had actually been there, the toilets would have emptied into the Hudson. So it is with the 1970s Leicester production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. […]
Interview – Lloyd Daniels on tour in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
LLOYD DANIELS is making his musical theatre debut playing the title role in the current UK tour of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The youngest contestant in 2009’s X Factor, Lloyd got to the final five out of 250,000 entrants and performed in front of ten million TV viewers. He then went on to perform as part […]
Godspell in Concert – Jade Ewen and Andy Abraham head cast
Jade Ewen, Andy Abraham and Leanne Jarvis will lead the cast of Godspell in Concert, the legendary rock musical from Stephen Schwartz, when it returns to the UK’s stages and opens at Hackney’s Empire Theatre on 4 April ahead of a 28-venue national tour. Actor Tom Senior will be introduced in the role of Jesus. Jade Ewen makes up one third of the multi-million […]
X Factor’s Marcus Collins joins Lloyd Daniels on Joseph tour
There’s double the X Factor this February as Marcus Collins joins fellow contestant Lloyd Daniels for the 2015 tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Collins will step into the role of Narrator alongside Lloyd’s Joseph from 4 February. Collins, who was mentored by Take That star Gary Barlow, finished as runner-up on The X Factor 2011, pipped to the post by […]
The Bodyguard’s Alexandra Burke reveals passion for acting in new video
Singer Alexandra Burke has revealed her passion for acting in a new video for the 1000 Londoners project, throwing the spotlight on ‘1000 stories, 1 city’. In June this year, singer Burke took on her first stage role in the hit musical The Bodyguard, following in the footsteps of her idol Whitney Houston. Burke rose to fame after […]
X Factor’s Lloyd Daniels joins Danielle Hope in Joseph tour
X Factor finalist Lloyd Daniels will make his musical theatre debut in the title role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The youngest contestant in 2009’s competition, Daniels got to the final five out of 250,000 entrants and performed in front of ten million TV viewers. Since then he has performed on a 56-date X Factor tour […]
Cool Rider – Mark Benton stars in Grease sequel
Mark Benton will star as Mr Stuart and Niki Evans as Ms Mason, as full casting is announced for Cool Rider, the cult musical sequel which will return to the West End via the Duchess Theatre (15–19 April), following the successful one-night-only concert at the Lyric Theatre. Benton was most recently seen competing on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. […]
I Can’t Sing – the X Factor musical – a sneak peek
Any opening of a West End musical is a much-anticipated event, but the buzz around Harry Hill and Steve Brown’s new X Factor musical I Can’t Sing! at the London Palladium has reached a new level, not least because of reported technical problems during previews. However, while the audience attending an evening performance on 17 […]
Godspell returns to West End for charity gala
The acclaimed Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz’s musical Godspell is to be staged in the West End for the first time since it premiered there 42 years ago. And the one-off charity gala concert performance at the Lyric Theatre (Monday 19 May), in aid of Make-A-Wish Foundation UK, will be introduced on stage by David Essex, whose casting […]
I Can’t Sing! – casting confirmed
Ahead of the broadcast of the Royal Variety Performance – in which cast members of I Can’t Sing! performed – full casting has been confirmed. The X Factor musical previews at the London Palladium from 27 February 2014 (press night is 26 March). As previously announced, Olivier Award-winner Nigel Harman will play X Factor judge Simon, and Cynthia Erivo […]
Hairspray the tour
Hairspray, a touring production, reviewed at the Hippodrome, Birmingham (21 May-1 June). If Hairspray has become one of the UK’s biggest hit musicals of the past three years, it’s because it deserves all the accolades showered upon it. It has everything. The story and lyrics, devised by a prodigiously talented team of four (librettists Mark O’Donnell […]
