Female-led musical theatre companies Burnt Lemon, The Good Enough Mums Club and Fat Rascal are the latest additions to the Birmingham Hippodrome’s Associates Programme.
Announcing the latest theatre-makers to join the initiative designed to support and develop work, Chris Sudworth, director of artistic programme at Birmingham Hippodrome said: “We are delighted to welcome these fantastic female-led companies into the Hippodrome Associates family. As one of the UK’s best known venues for musical theatre, we felt it was essential to support the development of new voices telling fresh and different stories in this most popular of styles. All three companies make playful and powerful musical theatre with a contemporary twist.
“It’s just the beginning of our plans in this area, supporting each company to develop their work into a larger scale, explore new areas of practice and develop touring networks to reach new, and wider audiences with work that represents the UK today.
“Each relationship is bespoke, created in response to the shared ambitions between the Hippodrome and the Associate. We can’t wait to see the journey each company takes.”
The multi-award-winning Burnt Lemon will be the first of the new associates to perform at the Birmingham Hippodrome this October with their critically-acclaimed Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit Tokyo Rose.
Commenting on the Associates Programme, Burnt Lemon’s co-artistic director Hannah Benson said: “We’re so grateful and excited to be joining the Hippodrome family as associate artists. We strive to tell untold stories that leave a long lasting and far reaching impact.
“The Hippodrome’s support and belief in us has been just incredible, working with the team has been critical to our growth and an amazing opportunity to hone our craft and lift the musical’s potential. We can’t wait to give back to audiences and artists in Birmingham when we bring Tokyo Rose to Patrick Studio stage this October.”
Established in 2013 The Good Enough Mums Club features work produced, directed, arranged and performed by mothers. The company will be bringing its concert show, An Evening With The Good Enough Mums Club to the Patrick Studio on 19 November ahead of premiering their full musical The Good Enough Mums Club at the Hippodrome in 2022.
The group’s Emily Beecher, Jade Samuels and Sarah Shead commented: “We are delighted that The Good Enough Mums Club are a Birmingham Hippodrome associate artist. It’s a great honour to be invited to be a part of a venue so steeped in theatrical history and right here in our back yard.
“We hope to meet lots of local mums, dads, grannies and, of course, babies for an evening of laughter, tears and music when our concert tour plays Birmingham later this year. We want to remind our audiences that you don’t have to be perfect, and sometimes being good enough is best.”
Fat Rascal will join the Associates Programme following the sold-out success of Unfortunate at the Patrick Studio in 2019. The company will be working with the Hippodrome team to further develop their hit show into a full-length musical that will premiere in late 2022.
Robyn Grant, artistic director of Fat Rascal, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to officially join the Hippodrome as associates. We enjoyed working with the incredible team and performing to roof raising audiences back in 2019 with Unfortunate. We can’t wait to return to Birmingham as we all bounce back by making fresh, exciting and absolutely joyous new musical theatre. We are ready and raring to offer some much needed laughter, and we know the wonderful people of Birmingham are more than up for it!”
Burnt Lemon Theatre, The Good Enough Mums Club and Fat Rascal join existing Hippodrome associates Aakash Odedra Company, Break Mission, Motionhouse, Open Theatre, Rosie Kay Dance Company, Sonia Sabri Company and ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company.
Burnt Lemon Theatre’s show Half Moon Shania won the Musical Theatre Review Best Musical Award at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the company’s production of Tokyo Rose was shortlisted for the same prize in 2019. Fat Rascal’s Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch received a five-star review from Musical Theatre Review at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019.
Angela Thomas
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