Archives: Shows

Kieran Hodgson leads a cast of comics in a satirical send-up of the life and times of Prince Andrew, set to a musical score. Written by and starring Hodgson as the Prince himself, with original music co-written by Freddie Tapner, the story centres on the key events, relationships, and controversies of Andrew’s life, including a reimagining of the former-HRH’s bombshell interview with Emily Maitlis in which the man behind the headlines faces the music.

A Hat Trick Production

Producer: Adam Reeve, Executive Producers: Stu Mather & Jimmy Mulville

Commissioned for Channel 4 by commissioning editor, Cimran Shah, and Head of Entertainment and Events, Phil Harris

Scala Radio proudly presents the inaugural Scala Radio Christmas Live at 3pm on 27^th November 2022 at The London Palladium. The stage is set, and the show will dazzle with the best of the West End alongside all your classical Christmas favourites, accompanied by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra conducted by Freddie Tapner.

Scala Radio and TV presenter Penny Smith will be your host for the afternoon and has announced the first artists to be part of this festive event on her Scala Radio Drive Show.

Joining us on the Scala Radio Christmas Live stage will be Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, Anne Dudley, Luke Evans, MILOŠ, John Owen-Jones, Esther Abrami and The Ayoub Sisters.

Get ready to experience the biggest West End and Broadway stars across two spectacular stages, a dazzling silent disco, bustling theatre village and backstage hub, awesome community bandstand, a fantastical funfair and delicious food and drink…Gaiety Musical Theatre Festival is back! 

Fresh from her toe-tapping turn in Anything Goes, Kerry Ellis (We Will Rock You; Wicked) will be joined by fellow headliners and Britain’s Got Talent winners Collabro, in one of their last ever performances; stage and TV star Lee Mead (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Wicked; Legally Blonde: The Musical); Olivier Award-winning singer and actress Cassidy Janson (& Juliet; Beautiful: The Carol King Musical; Avenue Q); and Over the Rainbow contestants and musical stars Lauren Samuels (Bend It Like Beckham; Grease; We Will Rock You) and Sophie Evans (Wicked; The Wizard of Oz; Lord of the Dance).

The star-studded line up will perform your favourite musical theatre songs on the Main Stage, all accompanied by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra.

With music by ABBA legends Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and lyrics by the incomparable Sir Tim Rice, the iconic musical Chess returns to the West End for the first time since a limited run at the London Coliseum in 2018.

At the height of the Cold War, two chess masters meet in Bangkok to battle for the world championship, but their greatest contest is for the love of one woman. Telling a story of love and political intrigue, and set against the background of the Cold War in the late 1970s/early 1980s, Chess features an incredible score including classics such as “I Know Him So Well” and “One Night in Bangkok”.

Starring Samantha Barks (Frozen, Les Misérables) as Florence and Hadley Fraser (City of Angels, Phantom Of The Opera) as Anatoly, and with the 50-piece London Musical Theatre Orchestra accompanying, this concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane is not to be missed.

Returning to the West End for the first time since 2019, Kinky Boots is the exhilarating true story about a struggling shoe factory that will lift you higher than any platform boots!

Winner of six TONY awards and the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2016, Kinky Boots features a joyous score by Cyndi Lauper and a hilarious, uplifting book by Harvey Fierstein.

Charlie Price has reluctantly inherited his father’s shoe factory, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. Trying to live up to his father’s legacy and save his family business, Charlie finds inspiration in the form of the fabulous entertainer Lola, and together they work out what is best for both of them.

This summer, Kinky Boots – The Musical In Concert will be coming to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. With Cedric Neal (Back To The Future, Motown), Matt Jay Willis (Waitress, Wicked), and Courtney Bowman (Six, Legally Blonde) bringing the music alive with the London Musical Theatre Orchestra, this concert is sure to lift the spirits and have you dancing in the aisles.

Treason is the explosive new musical about the gunpowder plot, set to completely blow you away, featuring stunning music by Ricky Allan and book and lyrics by Ricky Allan and Kieran Lynn.

With songs ‘Take Things Into Our Own Hands’, ‘The Cold Hard Ground’ and ‘The Day Elizabeth Died’ having already taken Spotify by storm, and the streamed lockdown concert described as “an exceptional musical in the making”, this is a premiere not to be missed.

Carrie Hope Fletcher (Cinderella, Heathers), Bradley Jaden (Les Misérables, Wicked) and Simon-Anthony Rhoden (Hamilton, Kinky Boots) are amongst the incredible cast performing in Treason the Musical in Concert on the 22nd and 23rd August at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Celebrate an evening with Emmy, Grammy, and six-time Tony Award winner, Audra McDonald, at the world-famous London Palladium. Alongside Andy Einhorn and the London Musical Theatre Orchestra, Audra will take you through the Great American Songbook and Broadway’s greatest hits.

LMTO subscribers can book pre-sale tickets on Wednesday 15 December at 10am. Tickets go on general sale on Friday 17 December.

 

About Audra McDonald

The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, Audra McDonald has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and received a National Medal of Arts—America’s highest honour for achievement in the field—from President Barack Obama. In addition to her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill—the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London’s West End—she has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden, Marie Christine (Tony nomination), Henry IV, 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination), Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination).

A Juilliard-trained soprano, Audra’s opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera, where the resulting recording earned her two Grammy Awards. On television, she was seen by millions as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! and played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice. She won an Emmy Award for her role as host of PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center and has received nominations for Wit, A Raisin in the Sun and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. She can now be seen in The Good Fight on Paramount+ as well as in Spectrum’s pandemic-themed drama, The Bite. On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, Rampart, Ricki and the Flash, Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, the movie-musical Hello Again, and MGM’s Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect. McDonald has issued five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as Sing Happy with the New York Philharmonic on Decca Gold. She also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world with leading international orchestras.

Audra McDonald live at the London Palladium is produced by Darren Bell, Dan Looney, Adam Paulden and Jason Haigh-Ellery for Fourth Wall Live.

LMTO is thrilled to be returning to the Royal Albert Hall this summer for Alpha’s The Best of the West End, taking place on Wednesday 21 July at 7:30pm. 

Featuring songs from West Side Story, Wicked, Les Misérables, Chicago, Hairspray and more, the night promises to be a true celebration of musical theatre in one of the UK’s most iconic venues.

Presented by Olivier Award-winner Ruthie Henshall, the concert will feature the 40-piece London Musical Theatre Orchestra, playing some of the world’s greatest musical hits. We will be joined on stage by a spectacular cast of West End stars, including John Owen-Jones, Kerry Ellis, Mica Paris, Anna-Jane Casey, Matt Henry MBE, Sophie Evans, Ben Forster, Mazz Murray, Gina Murray, Layton Williams, Lauren Samuels, Friederike Krum and Matthew Croke. The choir will feature students from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and MX Masterclass.

The creative team includes Creative Director Ben Forster (Phantom of the Opera, Elf, Jesus Christ Superstar), legendary West End Choreographer Stephen Mear CBE (Mary Poppins, Hello Dolly!, Gypsy – each of which earned him an Olivier Award nomination), award-winning Lighting Designer Tim Lutkin (Back to the Future, Fiddler on the Roof, Chimerica) and Musical Director Dr Stuart Morley (Wicked, We Will Rock You, Elf).

A minimum of £5 per ticket will be donated by Alpha Club to Acting for Others, an organisation made up of 14 charities that offer financial and emotional support to theatre workers in need.

A new, staged musical concert of Alan Menken, Lyn Ahrens and Mike Ockrent’s A Christmas Carol will run from 7 December to 2 January at the Dominion Theatre, starring Brian Conley as Scrooge. 

It’s a story we all know and love: Ebenezer Scrooge, mean-spirited miser, does not believe in the power of Christmas. But on a Christmas Eve filled with spectacular songs, ghostly apparitions and journeys to the past, present and future, Scrooge acknowledges his mistakes and discovers the joy of redemption. With a sparkling Broadway score, a 24-piece orchestra, an all-star cast and a touch of festive magic, A Christmas Carol at the Dominion is the season’s must-see West End production.

The staged concert will feature TV comedy legend and West End star Brian Conley (9 to 5, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Oliver!, Hairspray) as Scrooge, who will be joined on stage by an orchestra and cast of over 50.

Written by the critically acclaimed team of Alan Menken (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast), Lynn Ahrens (Anastasia, Ragtime) and Mike Ockrent (Me and My Girl, Crazy for You), the stage musical of A Christmas Carol first premiered in 1994 at New York’s Paramount Theatre. It ran for a decade at Madison Square Gardens, and was seen by over five million people, becoming a firm Christmas tradition. LMTO previously performed A Christmas Carol to sell-out audiences and five-star reviews in 2016, 2017 and 2018 at the Lyceum Theatre.

As a way of giving back to those who have worked tirelessly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, 900 free tickets will be made available to key workers and their families at Alpha’s La Dolce Vita Key Workers Matinee on Thursday 10th December. Further information on how to apply will be announced in the coming weeks.

COVID-19 security

COVID safety measures and social distancing will be in place front of house, on stage, backstage and throughout the Dominion Theatre. We will work with the most up-to-date guidance from the UK Government to ensure that we are able to present a safe production for the general public and our staff. As the information shifts, we will adapt to ensure that we are meeting all regulations and guidelines.

If you become unable to attend, are unwell or having to isolate, you will be able to exchange your tickets free of charge up to 24 hours before your performance.

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The 50-piece London Musical Theatre Orchestra will be returning to the Royal Albert Hall on Monday 9 March for a spectacular evening of hits from stage and screen. With an all-star cast including Ramin Karimloo, Ruthie Henshall, Ben Forster, Mazz Murray, Layton Williams, Marisha Wallace, Lauren Samuels, Matthew Croke and Ben Haenow, the show will feature songs from all your favourite musicals, from Les Misérables to Mamma Mia!, The Greatest Showman, Everybody’s Talking about Jamie, Hairspray, Aladdin and many more.

Book now for this stellar night of musical magic!

 

The Best of the West End is produced by Alpha Club and will be recorded live for future broadcast on BBC Radio 2.