Award-winning actor Tyrone Huntley will star opposite Broadway actor and writer Andy Mientus in the European premiere of new LGBTQ+ musical The View UpStairs.
Fresh from his critically-acclaimed directorial debut with Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester and the Southwark Playhouse, Huntley (Jesus Christ Superstar, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Memphis, Shaftesbury Theatre) will play Wes alongside Mientus (Spring Awakening, Les Misérables and Wicked, Broadway) who will make his UK theatre debut as Patrick.
As previously announced, the production will also feature West End stars John Partridge (A Chorus Line, CATS, West End), Declan Bennett (Jesus Christ Superstar, Regents Park Open Air Theatre, Once, Phoenix Theatre), Victoria Hamilton-Barritt (The Wild Party, The Other Palace, Miss Littlewood, RSC), and recent The Voice UK semi-finalist Cedric Neal (Motown The Musical, Shaftesbury Theatre, Chess, London Coliseum).
Presented by West End and Broadway producers Jack Maple and Brian Zeilinger (for their new production company Take Two Theatricals) and Tony Award-winning producer Ken Fakler, The View Upstairs will play the Soho Theatre for a limited season from 18 July until 31 August 2019.
A special gala night in aid of national LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity AKT will take place on 24 July with all proceeds from ticket sales going to the AKT to help provide safe homes and better futures for people aged 16-25.
Written by award-winning composer Max Vernon, the musical begins in the present day but focuses on the horrifying 1973 arson attack on a gay bar in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter which resulted in the death of 32 people.
Commenting on his show’s arrival in London, Vernon said: “As a devotee and lover of British theatre, art, music and culture (from Caryl Churchill and Joe Orton to Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, Roxy Music, T. Rex and Siouxsie and The Banshees), it has been a lifelong dream of mine to bring an original musical to London.
“For that show to be The View UpStairs – which is high fashion, rock‘n’roll, queer, subversive, and speaks to an important forgotten history in the LGBTQ+ community – that is an enormous opportunity. I’m obsessed with the director and producing team’s vision for how to mount this work. We are ready to turn it the f*q out and create something iconic and unheard of at the Soho Theatre.”
The London production will be directed by Jonathan O’Boyle (Pippin, Hair) with choreography by Fabian Aloise (The Rink, Madagascar The Musical), set and costume design by Lee Newby, lighting design by Nic Farman, sound design by Adam Fisher and casting by Will Burton CDG.
O’Boyle said: “I’m thrilled to be working with Max Vernon on his brilliant new musical The View UpStairs for its European premiere at Soho Theatre this summer. The View UpStairs is a beautiful, uplifting musical that celebrates the lives of these forgotten people.
“Max is a brilliant new voice in modern musical theatre, and this show, inspired by true events, takes us on a radical, rollercoaster ride through the extraordinary lives of these special human beings.”
Paying tribute to the victims and survivors of the deadly attack described as the worst attack on the LGBTQ+ community until the 2016 shooting at The Pulse nightclub in Orlando, The View UpStairs premiered Off-Broadway in 2017.
Angela Thomas
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