Set in Dublin, ONCE centres around a recently jilted street busker whose love of life – and music – is reignited after meeting a young Czech woman with big dreams. ONCE has music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who played the unnamed Guy and Girl in the film. The score includes the Oscar-winning song “Falling Slowly”.

This production, directed by Peter Rowe, was first seen in 2018 at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, marking the musical’s UK regional premiere. Two years on, Dan Healy and Emma Lucia reprise their performances as Guy and Girl alongside several other returners in the 16-strong cast of actor-musicians.

“You cannot walk through your life leaving unfinished love behind you”

Prior to 2018, Dan appeared for two years in ONCE‘s West End production. Amongst others in the role of Guy in London, he understudied Ronan Keating - he went on to play guitar in Ronan’s live band and co-write six songs on Ronan’s 2016 album Time of My Life, including the single “Breathe”.

After a performance at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking, I was joined by Dan, Emma and fellow cast members Ellen Chivers, Dan Bottomley, Sean Keany, Lloyd Gorman, Samuel Martin, Susannah van den Berg and Peter Peverley.

We discussed falling in love, the rigours of actor-musicianship, naming instruments, perfecting accents, going a cappella and believing in destiny… Once you hear Emma Lucia‘s story on the last, you may be forced to believe in destiny too

Once The Musical continues on tour until 25 July 2020.

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Enter to win by Friday 6 March!

Are you aware of your inherent biases about gender? How much do they affect your judgments about women or men are capable of? What about when it comes to a violent crime?

In new British musical The Jury, 12 strangers must deliberate on a high-profile murder case. A man is charged with murdering his wife. He admits to the crime but claims it was self-defence. Could this be true? Is the woman always the victim? And what happens to the dead woman’s daughter if her father goes to prison?

There’s far more to consider than headlines suggest and, as the audience, we’re asked to check our biases and make our own judgments too – an official-looking Jury Summons and Case File is provided with your ticket – in order to reach impartial justice. Though, in fact, The Jury is less about the case specifics and more about the process of decision-making, the dynamics of the group and the revelations about each of the individuals in it. Where do their moral compasses point? (And by extension, where do ours?)

To discuss the musical’s development, morality and more, I was joined onstage after the opening night performance by composer Ashley M A Walsh, who also conceived the piece, book writer Amy Fletcher, director Joseph Meighan and actors Laura Coard and Kaidyn Hinds.

There was great input too from other members of the cast – Ashley Ball, Bethany Grace, Charlie Culkin, David Gibbons, Elizabeth Brooks, Huon Mackley, Janice Fryett, Katherine Victoria, Laura Meaton and Tom Blackmore – and the audience, including a representative from one of the production’s partnered charities, Rainbow Trust, supporting families with seriously ill children.

The Jury runs at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate, north London, until Sunday 16 February 2020. CLICK HERE TO BOOK!

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In the show-within-a-show, the star of a troubled new Broadway-bound musical Robbin Hood is murdered on stage on opening night in Boston and all the cast and crew are suspects. Local detective Frank Cioffi (with Jason Manford following in the footsteps of David Hyde Pierce), who just happens to be a huge musical theatre fan, is called in to solve the crime… and perhaps he can save the show too.

Curtains itself was beset with untimely deaths before its New York opening, including lyricist Fred Ebb. His long-time collaborator, composer John Kander, completed the work without Ebb, including the show’s song “I Miss the Music”, which became a tribute to his late friend.

This brand-new UK production – directed by Paul Foster, choreographed by Alistair David and designed by David Woodhead with costumes by Gabriella Slade – launched on tour in October, and has shunted into London for a limited five-week season over the holidays before continuing on the road in the new year.

Comedian and presenter Jason Manford – whose other recent musical theatre credits include Sweeney Todd, The Producers, Guys & Dolls and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (not to mention presenting the Olivier Awards, of course!) – is joined in the 23-strong cast by Carley Stenson, Rebecca Lock, Samuel J Holmes, Andy Coxon, Leah Barbara West and Alan Burkitt, who joined me to discuss the show and why it’s going down a storm with London audiences who so well understand and appreciate “the language of theatre”.

The cast also make some priceless confessions about reading reviews... and which ones they remember most clearly! Please watch and share the full discussion below, including my modelling of some very fetching “Show Must Go On” and “Show People” merchandise. Christmas gift ideas, people!

Curtains runs until 11 January 2020 at the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DA, with evening performances Mondays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, matinees Thursdays and Saturdays at 2.30pm, Sundays at 3pm. Tickets from £17.50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

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Curtains: Post-show Q&A

The premiere production of The Boy in the Dress, directed by RSC artistic director Gregory Doran, stars, in the adult roles, Rufus Hound (as the titular boy Dennis' father), Irvine Iqbal (as shopkeeper Raj), Natasha Lewis (as Dennis best friend Darvesh's mum) and Forbes Masson (as headmaster Mr Hawtrey), as well as teams of young stars in the children's roles.

During rehearsals, I spoke to David Walliams about his experience working with the RSC for the first time, what distinguishes Robbie and Guy's music, his own cross-dressing reputation, and his secret wish to play Miss Trunchbull in Matilda. (You can totally see that, can't you?

David Walliams with Guy Chambers & Rufus Hound at The Boy in the Dress rehearsals

Was there a particular message you were trying to convey with the book of The Boy in the Dress?

It’s quite an adult theme – a boy dressing as a girl – but it’s dealt with in a simple way. I didn’t want to put any labels on Dennis, the boy in the dress. He doesn’t really understand everything that’s going on in the world or what anything means. He’s just Dennis. He wants to be different and to express himself and, in doing so, the world around him changes for the better.

You’ve played a part in adapting a number of versions of The Boy in the Dress. Did you have any qualms letting go here & allowing others to interpret your work?

As an author, I think the only thing you’d be concerned about is if you thought others were changing the meaning of your story in a way that you didn’t intend. Mark has done a brilliant but pretty faithful adaptation. The story that I wrote, the characters that I wrote and some of the lines that I wrote are intact, and the musical is true to the spirit of my book.

Ultimately, the book’s the book and the book will always be there if anyone wants to read it. Each iteration is different in its own way, and anything added is just a plus.

What do Guy Chambers & Robbie Williams, in particular, bring to The Boy in the Dress?

They’re brilliant. What I was really impressed with when I first heard their songs for The Boy in the Dress was how immediate they were. There’s a directness and simplicity to them. Sometimes you can see a musical and you’re listening and you can think, what were they just saying? Because Guy and Robbie are used to writing pop songs, they’re very immediate and very gettable.

Also, while their songs are obviously based on things in The Boy in the Dress, they’re not slavish to it. They’ve found their own new language, but also they’ve somehow enlarged it. They’ve made the whole thing grow and feel much bolder than it was before. Songs have that power, don’t they?

They’re all really catchy too and each song is unique to the character, that character’s voice and the emotion they’re expressing.

The RSC has also had a recent musical hit with Matilda. Are you a fan?

I love everything about Matilda. I’ve gone back lots over the years with different family members and I get something different out of it every time. Actually, I’ve always wanted to be in Matilda – I’d love to play Miss Trunchbull. I’ve suggested it, but you’ve got to be able to commit for six months. I can’t really do six months because I’m busy with other commitments, but if I could do it for a shorter amount of time… Maybe one day.

I’m sure that some people will compare The Boy in the Dress with Matilda, but you can’t worry too much about that. There are similarities – it’s a book for children and it’s a musical – but it’s very different in terms of tone and story. As much as I admire Roald Dahl’s work, I don’t think he would have written this story.

How important has cross-dressing been in your life & career?

I guess I have a history of cross-dressing. My older sister wanted a little sister not a little brother so she used to dress me up when I was a toddler. Then there were school plays. I went to an all-boys school and no one else wanted to play the girls’ roles. I remember once, when we were studying Macbeth, my English teacher wrote on my report “a very memorable Lady Macbeth”.

With Little Britain, even though we were two men doing it, we wanted to show different aspects of life and it felt natural to play female characters – some of whom became quite well known. Cross-dressing is not something I think about a lot, but I know people do associate it with me and that’s fine. I’ve always thought it’s brilliant for people to express themselves. That should be celebrated.

The Boy in the Dress rehearsals

The development of The Boy in the Dress has happened over several years. What have you learned from the process?

When you write a book, it’s a very intimate thing – it’s just you and the page or computer screen. You’re on your own. Even when you publish, there’s an illustrator, a designer or editor, but it’s still a very small number of people. The experience of putting on a musical with the RSC has been something else entirely…. In the first rehearsal, there were over 100 people – all the actors and directors and designers and choreographers – and it was pretty overwhelming. I was humbled and felt quite nervous seeing all these people working to bring what was my vision to the stage. It was one of those moments where you imagine you might feel pride, and I wished the ground would swallow me up.

But it has been amazing to see all these people working together and how every single one of them has to do their job brilliantly for the piece to really take off. I have been impressed.

What would you like audiences to take away from the musical?

Although there are some serious themes in The Boy in the Dress, it’s a funny show. I hope people will have a really good time, have a laugh and sing along, but also take away something that’s a little bit surprising and a little bit challenging. Guy Chambers says it’s feelgood – it’s an overused word, I know, but it is, it’s a really feelgood piece. You should come out feeling more positive about the world.

The Boy in the Dress runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon from 8 November 2019 to 8 March 2020. Times vary. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

MORNING ☀️ It’s THE BOY IN THE DRESS day! We’ve been waiting for this moment for so long - we’re so excited to share this really special show with you ✨ #RSCBoyinDress pic.twitter.com/dKWBxBFMa3

— The RSC (@TheRSC) November 8, 2019

I’ve seen Rufus Norris’ multi-award-winning revival of Kander & Ebb’s Broadway musical classic Cabaret twice before in the West End: when it first opened at the Lyric Theatre in 2006 and when it returned for a run at the Savoy Theatre in 2010. It now kicks off a brand-new tour and it’s more powerful than ever.

What good is sitting, alone in your room? come hear the music play! Life is a cabaret, old chum! Come to the cabaret!

Kander & Ebb’s musical premiered on Broadway in 1966, coming to the West End two years later (starring a young Judi Dench) and being immortalised in the 1972 film headlined by Liza Minnelli. It’s based on Christopher Isherwood’s short novel Goodbye to Berlin, about life in Germany as the Nazis rose to power, and John Van Druten’s play of it, I Am a Camera.

A musical about loss of rights, freedoms and humanity as a far-right populist party takes over a once-liberal society? Nothing familiar about that… Seriously, Cabaret couldn’t really be more timely than it is right now – and I can’t imagine Rufus Norris‘ production feeling any fresher or in more capable hands.

John Partridge tackles the iconic role of the Kit Kat Klub’s Emcee, with Kara Lily Hayworth (recently acclaimed for her title role in Cilla The Musical) as flighty singer Sally Bowles and 1960s legend Anita Harris as landlady Fraulein Schneider.

After only their second performance, I was joined by the three stars as well as associate director Tim Welton, who has worked closely with Rufus Norris on Cabaret (and many other projects) since 2002, for a post-show Q&A at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, the first stop on a nationwide tour.

• Why are the cast custodians of the show’s legacy?
• How is the stage musical different from the film?
• Why is now such a potent time to revive the show?
• Might this be one of the LAST times you’ll be able to see John Partridge on the musical stage?

We talked about this and much more – including John’s own personal experiences at the real-life Kit Kat Klub in Berlin, where he lived for ten years. After Bromley, Cabaret visits Wolverhampton, Nottingham, Crawley, Chester, Dublin, Belfast, Leicester, Shrewsbury, Hull, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Malvern, Peterborough, Sunderland and Oxford.

For more videos, photos and live-tweeting from this event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

For the full Cabaret tour schedule, visit www.kenwright.com.

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What’s it like to play iconic roles like #Cabaret’s Sally Bowles & the emcee? I asked @KaraLHayworth & @mustbejp.Extra incentive to see @BKL_Productions new tour? #JohnPartridge won’t do musicals ‘much longer’. Full video on @StageFaves Facebook: https://t.co/tfbSLik5aR pic.twitter.com/Ftctx0sUZn

— Terri Paddock (@TerriPaddock) August 30, 2019

Michael John LaChiusa was on his way back to the States by the time I chaired my post-show Q&A at the West End (and UK) premiere of his musical Queen Of The Mist – but I wonder if his ears were burning badly en route?

A central part of my discussion – with director Dom O’Hanlon, musical director Connor Fogel, leading lady Trudi Camilleri and fellow cast members Will Arundell, Conor McFarlane, Emma Ralston and Tom Blackmore – was LaChiusa himself. What distinguishes his work? Why has he inspired such a devoted following on both sides of the Atlantic? How do his songs challenge – and reward – performers? Given his esteemed reputation, why don’t we see more of his shows in London?

Michael John LaChiusa is a five-time Tony Award-nominated composer, lyricist and librettist whose other shows include The Wild Party, See What I Wanna See, Hello Again and Little Fish, which have all had Off-West End productions in London, as well as Giant, Marie Christine, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, First Lady Suite, Bernarda Alba, Four Short Operas: Break, Agnes, Eulogy for Mr Hamm and Lucky Nurse.

Queen Of The Mist, originally seen in New York in 2011, won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical and was nominated for six Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical.

It’s based on the astounding and outrageous true story of Anna Edson Taylor, who, in 1901, on her 63rd birthday, set out to make her fortune by becoming the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls. She accomplished the plunge in a barrel of her own design, but fame and fortune – as well as the barrel – proved more elusive.

This UK premiere production, care of Pint of Wine Theatre Company, had a sell-out run at west London’s Brockley Jack Studio Theatre in April. It has moved from the fringe 50-seater for a limited West End season at Charing Cross Theatre, where Tara Usher's barrel-set is stunningly reconfigured for the underground venue’s traverse staging, with lush lighting by Beth Gupwell, soundscape by Adrian Jeakins and costumes by Lemington Ridley – who also received shoutouts in our post-show discussion.

Watch and share the full post-show discussion video below. For more photos from this event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

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Queen of the Mist: Post-show Q&A

Queen of the Mist continues until 5 October 2019 at the Charing Cross Theatre, The Arches, Villiers Street, London, WC2N 6NL, with performances Mondays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, matinees Wednesday at 2.30pm and Saturday at 3pm. Tickets are priced from £15. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

I had just enough time to wipe away my tears – I was sobbing – at the end of The View Upstairs before jumping up after the curtain call to announce this post-show Q&A at Soho Theatre.

My family are from Louisiana and I’ve been to New Orleans countless times, but it’s thanks to London theatre – first via Martin Sherman‘s Gently Down the Stream at the Park Theatre and now via this transfer of Max Vernon‘s musical – that I became aware of the 1973 arson fire at The UpStairs Lounge in the city’s French Quarter.

On the evening of 24 June 1973, 32 people burned to death there. Until 2016, when 49 people were killed in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, it was the biggest single attack on the #LGBTQI+ community in American history.

In The View Upstairs, first seen Off-Broadway in 2017 and now receiving its European premiere here at Soho Theatre in a production directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, the present collides with the past at this address in stunningly powerful fashion.

Millennial fashion designer Wes (Tyrone Huntley) has just purchased an abandoned building, but little does he know that this forgotten gem was the UpStairs Lounge, a vibrant 1970s gay bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans. So starts an exhilarating, time-travelling journey of seduction and self-exploration in the summertime heat with the rush of lust, sex and incense mixed in the air.

Huntley is joined in the stellar cast by Smash star Andy Mientus, making his British stage debut, Cedric Neal, John Partridge, Declan Bennett, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, Garry Lee, Carly Mercedes Dyer, Joseph Prouse and Derek Hagen.

For the post-show Q&A, I was joined by Huntley, Mientus and Neal from the cast as well as two of the show’s producers, Jack Maple and Brian Zeilinger of Take Two Theatricals (who also have the distinction of having been the youngest producers in the history of the West and Broadway, respectively).

• How well do you know LGBTQI+ history?
• Why is it important to remember 24 June 1973?
• Can a musical help heal a community?
• What’s changed since the musical’s 2017 Off-Broadway premiere?
• How much do language and labels matter?
• How many connections can you name between members of the musical theatre royalty cast?
• What are the best nightspots in London and New York?

That and much more covered. Such a privilege to chair this discussion. (And by the way, Smash fans, I totally understand now why you’re all so keen on Andy Mientus – what a talented performer and really intelligent, insightful and amiable human being!)

The View Upstairs runs from 18 July to 24 August 2019 at Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE, with performances Mondays to Saturdays at 7.15pm and Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets are priced £10-£19.50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

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For more photography (by Peter Jones), live-tweeting and other coverage from the event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

I’m in love with love… or more precisely with Amour, as in the lushly romantic Michel Legrand musical fantasy now receiving its UK professional premiere at Charing Cross Theatre.

Amour is set in 1950 in post-war Paris where shy civil servant Dusoleil (Gary Tushaw) lives alone and works diligently in a dreary office. To pass the time, he writes letters to his mother and daydreams about the beautiful Isabelle (Anna O’Byrne), who is kept locked away by her controlling husband (Alasdair Harvey).

Then Dusoleil miraculously gains the ability to walk through walls and begins to lead a double life, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor to right the wrongs of his impoverished neighbours. Can he also get the girl and live the life he’s always longed for?

Amour has music by multi-award-winning Michel Legrand, who passed away in January 2019, just one day after producer Danielle Tarento submitted her rights request for Amour. It has English lyrics by Jeremy Sams (from the original French by Didier Van Cauwelaert). The production has choreography by Matt Cole, musical direction by Jordan Li-Smith, set and costumes by Adrian Gee, lighting by Rob Halliday and sound by Andrew Johnson.

Last week, I chaired a post-show Q&A with producer Danielle Tarento, director Hannah Chissick and cast members Gary Tushaw, Anna O’Bryne, Alasdair Harvey, Elissa Churchill, Claire Machin, Keith Ramsay, Jack Reitman and Laura Barnard.

• How does hitmaker Danielle Tarento choose her projects?
• How instrumental has translator, and Legrand collaborator, Jeremy Sams been in this new life for Amour?
• What did Hannah Chissick learn from first directing the musical at the Royal Academy of Music?
• What’s the difference between musical, opera and operetta?
• How quintessentially French is this snapshot of Paris in the 1950s?
• How does the cast cope with many chairs, suitcases, umbrellas and balloons?
• Why aren’t ‘the walls’ given a casting credit?
• Will Charing Cross Theatre keep its wonderfully intimate traverse configuration?
• What would Michel Legrand think of this chamber musical presentation, so very different from the big-budget 2002 Broadway production that closed after just two weeks despite five Tony nominations?

Watch and share the full post-show discussion video below, with lots of shout-outs for Jeremy Sams and the creative team and love for all things French. For more videos, photos and live-tweeting from this event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

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Amour runs until 8 June 2019 at Charing Cross Theatre, The Arches, Villiers Street, London WC2N 6NL, with performances Mondays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, matinees Wednesdays at 2.30pm and Saturdays at 3pm. Tickets are priced £22.50-£32.50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

Charming, delectable, delicious. And those are just the custard creams… It’s not often I get offered biscuits at the post-show Q&As I chair, but at a show called The Ministry of Biscuits, it would have seemed remiss not to.

Since its 1998 premiere, this delightful musical has been scaled down to a bijou four-hander performed by The Foundry Group’s Brian Mitchell (who also wrote the music and co-wrote book and lyrics with Philip Reeve), David Mounfield, Murray Simon and Amy Sutton. After extensive touring, it’s now transferred to Barons Court Theatre for a limited London season.

Here’s the bonkers idea: In rationed, post-World War II Britain, fancy biscuits are subversive. The Ministry has been established to “control biscuits, and to control the idea of biscuits.” Anything more exotic than Rich Tea outlawed. What happens when one decadent designer goes rogue?

Think George Orwell‘s 1984 meets Gilbert & Sullivan and The Ealing Comedies. Super, silly, and perhaps a deeper meaning about open versus closed, collectivism versus individuality, past versus future (especially in our Brexity times).

For last week’s post-show Q&A, I was joined by the company and, making a special visit, Philip Reeve. Since leaving Brighton, where he and Mitchell collaborated in the 1990s, Reeve has gone on to international renown as the author of novels including the Mortal Engines series (now a major feature film). But it was evident from the post-show discussion that he’s got another musical collaboration in him… and the idea was revealed exclusively! Watch the full post-show Q&A below.

The Ministry of Biscuits continues at Barons Court Theatre until 10 February 2019.

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I’ve been following the insanely talented improv geniuses of The Showstoppers for most of their eleven years. How do they do it? I still can’t really fathom it, but I was pleased to gain a few more insights – and a new well of admiration – after chairing a post-show Q&A with them last week.

After 11 years of touring nationally and internationally, becoming an Edinburgh Fringe institution, conquering the West End and winning an Olivier Award (the first improv show to ever have been nominated let alone to win), Showstopper! The Improvised Musical has now moved into The Other Palace for an eight-week season. Last week, while there, the company celebrated their 1000th performance.

For the Q&A after Wednesday night’s performance, I was joined by Showstopper! co-founders Dylan Emery and Adam Meggido; other stalwarts from the now 17-strong family of improvisers, Ruth Bratt, Andrew Pugsley, Lucy Trodd, Justin Brett and Susan Harrison; and from the stable of musicians, Chris Ash and Chloe Potter. Would they all stick around to see The Showstoppers hit their 2000th performance? “We’ll have to speed up,” quipped Adam.

The audience of both diehard Showstopper! fans – including one gentleman, planted firmly front row centre, who is now up to 51 visits and counting – and improv virgins had plenty of questions about the improvisation craft.

The insightful nuggets and phrases that stick with me from our discussion: they enjoy it most when audiences don’t try to be too clever and “just give us something with heart” to respond to (such as the setting of “inside my mother’s head” from an audience member whose mother had dementia); sadism is an important part of what makes the show; the cast have committed to muscle memory how to perform over 300 musicals; the foundation of improv is to “Listen, Accept, Commit” and, yes, they do get asked to do Hamilton… A LOT.

As for the premiere we as an audience helped create on the night: it was a musical fantasy set in the last Blockbuster video store (in Anchorage, Alaska – with various side-trips to Bo-Kaap in Cape Town, Western Cape) in the musical style of Chicago, Cher and 42nd Street (amongst others). The title: One Block Away…. Just press play. Now just press play to watch the full post-show Q&A video.

Showstopper! The Improvised Musical runs 22 January to 16 March 2019 at The Other Palace, 12 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JA. Performances are Mondays to Thursdays at 7.30pm, Fridays at 5.30pm and 8.30pm, Saturdays at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Tickets are priced £20-£50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

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For more photography (by Peter Jones), tweets and other coverage from the event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

StageFaves vlogger Perry O'Bree was on hand to help Faves founder Terri Paddock capture the brilliance of Bernadette Robinson at the West End post-show Q&A at the transfer of tour-de-force one-woman show SONGS FOR NOBODIES. Watch the full Q&A, and Perry's take on it, here...

How does it feel to have a one-woman show written especially for you by one of your country’s leading writers? Pretty damn good, according to Songs for Nobodies' Bernadette Robinson – though, to be clear, there was nothing passive about this privilege in her case.

In the post-show Q&A I chaired with Robinson at the West End’s Ambassadors Theatre, the Australian star revealed how it was she who approached both author Joanna Murray-Smith and director Simon Phillips, then artistic director of Melbourne Theatre Company, after hearing about their work on Bombshells, a series of monologues they created for fellow antipodean Caroline O’Connor.

The “begging” paid off – and certainly so for audiences, including Friday night’s packed house. Songs for Nobodies takes advantage of Robinson’s extraordinary vocal ability – to conjure the distinct singing voices of Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and Maria Callas – as well as her powerful acting in a series of five monologues in which five different ‘nobody’ women recount how their lives were changed by brushes with these famous twentieth-century divas.

As part of the post-show discussion, Robinson also tantalised us with details of some of her other work, including the subsequent solo piece Murray-Smith and Phillips created for her, Pennsylvania Avenue (can we have it all staged in London, please?) and, to prove that her talent is in no way limited to the Songs for Nobodies‘ quintet, gave us an exclusive snatch of her Shirley Bassey.

We also discussed her international journey with the show to date, how she feels making her West End debut, who she’d choose if she could only ever sing one person’s music ever again, and what she listens to in her spare time. Watch in full below. For more videos, photos and tweets from this event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

Songs for Nobodies runs from 9 January to 23 February 2019 at the West End’s Ambassadors Theatre, West Street, London WC2H 9ND, with performances Mondays to Saturdays at 7.45pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 3pm. Tickets are priced £25-75. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

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You know you’re at a different type of theatre experience when you find yourself singing along – loudly – about how much we all love looking at cocks in the locker room. (Even when you’ve never been in a cocker-room.)

The party spirit for Hot Gay Time Machine starts before the performance as co-stars Toby Marlow and Zak Ghazi-Torbati run out into the bar at Trafalgar Studios screaming for attention and then dance their audience conga-style into Studio 2.

On the night I attended, the party continued well beyond the 75-minute time-travelling musical journey through formative moments in these two Hot Gays’ young lives (they’re all of 23 and 24). First, at the curtain-call dancing when Toby surprised Zak with a cake for his birthday. Then, with our post-show Q&A, for which, in addition to Zak and Toby, I was joined by their director and co-writer Lucy Moss, who also directed and, with Toby, co-wrote the royal hit Six.

There were plenty of vocal Six fans in the audience too – including one young woman who’d seen it 13 times (this was her first time seeing Hot Gay Time Machine but she promised to make a dozen more visits to even the score). And for my second time chairing a Q&A with Toby and Lucy, a theatregoer assured them that their her-storic musical was better than Hamilton. (Open invitation to Lin-Manuel Miranda still standing.)

What’s it like achieving such incredible success – two West End shows in the space of three months – so young? What might this extraordinary trio of university friends achieve next? What Australian drag star are they collaborating with? How would a two-man version of Six work? Why was Zak wearing a penis costume in the woods?

Hot Gay Time Machine runs from 27 November 2018 to 5 January 2019 at Trafalgar Studios 2, 14 Whitehall, London SW1A 2DY, with performances (75 minutes) Tuesdays to Thursdays at 7.45pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm and 9.15pm. Tickets are priced £26. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

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For more photography (by Peter Jones), tweets and other coverage from the event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

Perry O'Bree video

One of my favourite reviews of Fanatical, the new British musical currently receiving its world premiere season at London’s Playground Theatre, opines: “It will remind you why you love whatever it is that you’re a fan of”. This warm, big-hearted, unashamedly geeky show is indeed “a love letter to fandom”, and at my post-show Q&A with cast, creatives and an audience stuffed full of fans of various stripes, we savoured and celebrated the fanboys and girls in all of us.

Fanatical was originally conceived by Matt Board (music and lyrics) and Reina Hardy (book) more than ten years ago, as they mourned the cancellation after just one season of Firefly, the American space Western drama series written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Joss Whedon.

An incredible, transatlantic development journey followed with various workshops in Chicago (where Reina lives) and London, and with The Stable producer Neil Marcus picking up the project four years ago after discovering Matt’s first three songs for the show through the ‘Search for a Twitter Composer’ competition.

In Fanatical, the hit comic book Angel 8, which follows the ragtag crew of a cargo spaceship in a distant galaxy, has won legions of new fans after being turned into a television series. In a conference centre in England, a misfit collection of fans gather for Angel 8’s first-ever official sci-fi convention. But the series’ reclusive author Scott Furnish announces some devastating news as part of the convention keynote speech…

The cast for Fanatical are: Suanne Braun (who knows a thing or two about sci-fi conventions and fans, having starred in Stargate and Red Dwarf), Sophie Powles, Stephen Frost, Amber Sylvia Edwards, Amy Lovatt, Eddy Payne, Theodore Crosby and Tim Rogers.

For the post-show Q&A, I was joined by them as well as composer/lyricist Matt Board (with Reina following via Twitter from Chicago), director Grace Taylor, designer PJ McEvoy and producer Neil Marcus.

I was also delighted to have my StageFaves colleague Perry O’Bree in the audience. Perry pitched in with a great question – what word sums up being a fan? – which the actors and creatives answered while also sharing what brings out the fan in each of them. Amazing responses!

By the way, can you imagine a more perfect place to stage a musical set at a sci-fi convention than… a sci-fi convention? We had offers from an organiser in the audience last night. You heard it here first. Watch this space for more news on that.

FANATICAL runs from 8 November to 9 December 2018 at The Playground Theatre, 8 Latimer Road, London W10 6RQ. Performances are Tuesdays to Sundays at 7.30pm, with Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 3pm. Tickets are priced £11-£25. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

Q&A video

Q&A photos

For more photography (by Peter Jones), tweets and other coverage from the event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

Perry O'Bree video

How to Catch a Krampus is the latest offering from Sink the Pink. After a decade of huge club nights and parties “in need of glitter”, and two special seasons in a performance space created at Selfridges, this renowned drag collective ends its tenth birthday year at The Pleasance with its first-ever theatrical residence.

The show is a mad and macabre combination of music hall, Victorian melodrama, British horror and panto – and lots of queer jokes, pop and musical theatre references and bountiful bawdiness.

Think Sweeney Todd. Think Shockheaded Peter. Think The Wicker Man. At the centre of the story is the Eastern European myth of the krampus, a horned beast that terrorises naughty children. Can a part-time spirit medium and full-time con artist save a child, and her own skin, by catching the krampus?

For last night’s post-show Q&A, I was joined by Ginger Johnson and two of her fellow How to Catch a Krampus cast members, Mahatma Michael and David Cumming, as well as musical director Sarah Bodalbhai and Alicia Jane Turner. After lots of fun and laughter, my final question was taken from the show: are humans inherently good or inherently bad? Another great answer from Ginger. Watch the Q&A in full below.

The two charities mentioned during the discussion, which Sink the Pink are supporting during the run, are: the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre and ELOP, an East London based mental health and well-being charity also supporting LGBTQ+ people. (Follow the links to donate.)

How to Catch a Krampus runs from 13 November to 23 December 2018 at The Pleasance, Carpenters Mews, North Road, London N7 9EF, with performances Tuesdays to Sundays at 7.30pm and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets are priced £25 (concessions £22). CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

Q&A video

Q&A photos

For more photography (by Darren Ross), tweets and other coverage from the event, visit TerriPaddock.com.

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Adrenaline still pumping as I type this! SIX The Musical was the undisputed hit of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe and it’s now transferred back to the West End’s Arts Theatre for an extended run at the Arts Theatre, where it had a handful of showcase performances over the Christmas/New Year period.

I first caught the show last December, and it was fantastic to see how it’s grown and gained even more in sass and confident with new direction by co-writer Lucy Moss (with Jamie Armitage), stunning new costumes by Gabriella Slade, and new choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille as well as, on the night of the Q&A, five new queens, riding a wave of excitement after its crowd-rousing success at Edinburgh and West End Live.

Like most performances of SIX up to now, the night of the post-show Q&A was a complete sell-out and the audience’s enthusiasm carried over for a rollicking Q&A, in which we didn’t have anywhere near enough time to cover everyone’s questions (sorry! not sorry!).

DIVORCED. BEHEADED. LIVE IN CONCERT! From Tudor queens to pop princesses, the six wives of Henry VIII finally take the mic to tell their tale, remixing five hundred years of her-storical heartbreak into a 75-minute celebration of sisterly sass-itude.

SIX is co-written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, their first musical, written while they were still at university. For the post-show Q&A, I was joined by Marlow and Moss, as well as musical director Katy Richardson (one of only three female musical directors currently employed on a London musical) and cast members Jarneia Richard-Noel (who plays Catherine of Aragon), Millie O’Connell (Anne Boleyn), Natalie Paris (Jane Seymour), Alexia McIntosh (Anna of Cleves), Grace Mouat (Katherine Howard, cover for Aimie Atkinson) and Maiya Quansah-Breed.

Amongst some of the questions covered: Why can’t we think of more female figures in history deserving musicals? Why is it so important to have female creatives and all-female band as well as the six queens? What does composer George Stiles (of Stiles & Drewe) have to do with the show? Is this really REALLY the first thing – anything – that Lucy Moss has ever written? (Wow!)  When will a full cast album be released? What do the writers think of being labelled the British equivalent of Hamilton? (Toby wrote his dissertation on Hamilton.) Has Lin-Manuel Miranda been invited?

SIX runs at the Arts Theatre, London from 30 August to 14 October 2018. Tickets are priced £6-£39.50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

For more videos, photos and tweets from the post-show Q&A, visit TerriPaddock.com.

So often with the news these days, parallels are drawn with our turbulent political times and the fascism that swept across Europe in the 1930s, and the question is asked: what would you do if…?

On Thursday, I and the audience at the Union Theatre travelled back to the 1930s care of Midnight, in which the question is not only asked but set to musical refrain. This new British musical by Timothy Knapman (book and lyrics) and Laurence Mark Wythe (music and lyrics) is based on the 2007 play Citizens of Hell by leading Azerbaijani writer Elchin.

It’s set in Azerbaijan on New Year’s Eve, in the very final minutes of 1937, during the communist purges of Stalin’s Great Terror. A man and a woman are at home alone when there’s a worrying knock on the door. Who is the mysterious Visitor? Is he the NKVD secret police or something worse? Who’s hiding what?

Incredibly, Debunk Theatre, and its Azerbaijani producer Sanan Aliyev, commissioned Knapman and Wythe to adapt Citizens of Hell four years ago – before Trump, before Brexit, before Corbyn’s Labour Party, before the rise of the alt-right in Europe, before we got quite so concerned here about Putin – and yet so many references drop like time bombs. Enemies of the people. Enemies of the party. Anti-elitism. If I call a lie a truth, it becomes true. What would you do?

For last night’s post-show Q&A at Midnight, I was joined by the two writers, as well choreographer Chris Cuming (just Offie nominated), lighting designer Fridthjofur Thorsteinsson, and actor-musician cast members Colin Burnicle (Man), Norma Butikor (Woman), Leon Scott (the Visitor), Melania Maggiore, Tilly-Mae Millbrook and Luke Thornton.

Watch the full Q&A video – we all tried very hard not to reveal the secrets of the plot, of which there are many!

Midnight continues at the UnionTheatre until 29 September 2018.

For more videos, photos and tweets from the post-show Q&A, visit TerriPaddock.com.

Can musical theatre help us find common ground with those with whom we disagree? If so, Unexpected Joy is undoubtedly the musical to do it. 

Set in Provincetown, Cape Cod, Unexpected Joy is the story of three generations of female singers, long-held family tensions and a week together where change is in the air. Joy, a baby boomer pop star, is visited by her daughter Rachel and granddaughter Tamara, who have come from their home in Oklahoma, to attend a commemorative concert in honour of Joy’s life partner, former singing partner and Rachel’s father, Jump, who died a year ago.

But Joy has some other news for Rachel: she’s getting married to someone else. She’s hesitant to tell her, not just because of the memory of Jump, but because the person she’s marrying is a woman, Lou, and she fears – rightly – that Rachel, a born-again Christian married to a prominent televangelist, won’t approve.

Bill Russell and Janet Hood (whose other work includes Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens) started writing Unexpected Joy long before Donald Trump‘s presidency and before same-sex marriage was legalised across the United States by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision. The latter happened just three years ago and the former means it is quite possible that it may soon be overturned.

All of which brings an added poignancy – and indeed urgency – to Unexpected Joy‘s message of tolerance and acceptance. For me, as someone from a family replete with evangelicals who has now found a home in the London arts community, the clash of two cultures and belief systems was totally believable and incredibly moving. I have struggled to find common ground with my Trump-supporting religious relatives.

At last week’s post-show Q&A at Southwark Playhouse, I was joined by Unexpected Joy‘s four-strong all-female cast – Janet Fullerlove, Jodie Jacobs, Melanie Marshall and newcomer Kelly Sweeney – as well as musical director Gareth Bretherton and producer Katy Lipson of Aria Entertainment. This European premiere production, directed by Amy Anders Corcoran, is the centrepiece of Aria’s sixth annual From Page to Stage festival of new musicals, running this month at Southwark Playhouse. It follows Unexpected Joy's Off-Broadway premiere earlier this year.

Inevitably, we touched on politics, and the timeliness of this musical in today’s divisive society, during the discussion, but we also talked lots about female-led companies and stories on the musical stage (big shout-outs to Six, Sylvia and Wasted), how we can all better support new work, the significance and history of Provincetown, differences in reactions from US and UK audiences, cast meals and what else brings the company joy.

Unexpected Joy runs from until 29 September 2018 at Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD. Performances are Mondays to Saturdays at 8pm, with Saturday matinees at 3.30pm and Sunday matinees at 3pm. Tickets are priced £20 (concessions £16). CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

For more videos, photos and tweets from the post-show Q&A, visit TerriPaddock.com.

Are women punished in drama for liking sex and drink? What has modern classic The Rise and Fall of Little Voice got in common with Greek drama? What’s the secret to vocal impressions?

I was delighted to return to Cirencester this weekend to chair my third consecutive post-show discussion at the pioneering Barn Theatre. For this revival of Jim Cartwright‘s Olivier Award-winning 1992 play with music, I was joined by director Michael Strassen and the full cast including Sarah Louise Hughes, who he cast straight out of Italia Conti to play Little Voice, Gillian McCafferty, who plays her foul-mouthed and fast-living mother Mari, Gary Richards, Larissa Hunter, Hadley Brown and Stephen Omer.

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice tells the story of a reclusive Northern girl-next-door whose remarkable ability to impersonate the great singers of old – including Cilla Black, Edif Piaf, Marilyn Monroe and many others – brings her into the spotlight. Pushed by her mother and her mother’s talent agent boyfriend RaySay, timid ‘Little Voice’ will need to conquer more than just stage-fright if she is to find her own voice in the world.

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice runs 7 July to 11 August 2018 at The Barn, 5 Beeches Road, Cirencester GL7 1BN. Performances are Mondays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, with Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets are priced £14-£30. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

More event coverage

For more videos, photos and tweets from the post-show Q&A, visit TerriPaddock.com.

Andrew Lloyd Webber came up twice in conversation at the post-show for It Happened in Key West. The second pertained to the title of the show which, many years ago, when Jeremiah James was first inspired by a late-night television documentary about Carl von Cosel. James had originally wanted to call this musical Love Never Dies… unfortunately, the Lord nabbed that name in 2010 with his sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. (For the first Lloyd Webber reference – from an audience member – you’ll have to watch the livestream video…)

Another potential title, which was the show’s working title through much of its seven-year development, was “Undying Love”, also the name of its frequently reprised ballad. But the team eventually ruled that out as another book on the subject already had that title.

My contribution to the title debate? The quibble with “It Happened in Key West” as a title was that, despite posters and all marketing materials carrying the line that the show is “based on a true story”, the audience still couldn’t believe it. My easy fix? Call it: “It ACTUALLY Happened in Key West”. (Marketing professionals, you’re welcome!)

So what’s the story? In 1930s Key West, Florida, eccentric scientist Count Carl von Cosel finally finds Elena, the girl he’s imagined all his life, only to diagnose her with tuberculosis and find out she’s married. The musical follows his desperate attempts to save her. Even when she dies, Carl doesn’t give up. He ‘rescues’ her from her mausoleum and spends seven years of marital bliss with her before the court catches up.

For the Q&A at Charing Cross Theatre, I was joined by Jeremiah James, co-writer Jill Santoriello (book, music and lyrics, co-producer Marylou Rothfuss and the entire 14-strong cast, led by Broadway’s Wade McCollum as Carl and Alyssa Martyn as Elena.

It Happened in Key West runs 4 July to 18 August 2018 at Charing Cross Theatre, The Arches, Villiers Street, London WC2N 6NL, with performances Mondays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. And a post-show Q&A chaired by Faves founder Terri Paddock on Wednesday 11 July. Tickets are priced £15-£49.50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!!

For more videos, photos and tweets from the post-show Q&A, visit TerriPaddock.com.

Before the performance at Tristan Bates Theatre, the 16-strong company of San Domino entertain theatregoers in the bar with some jaunty patriotic songs, with which they lead them into the auditorium. It’s somewhat akin to the chilling scene in Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret when the Hitler Youth sings “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”.

Inside the auditorium, we learn more about how a fascist state treats those for whom, in their opinion, the future does not belong – including the “degenerates” who are unwilling to perform their duty of providing their nation with sons and daughters.

San Domino is an original British musical, written by long-time friends (and former bandmates) Tim Anfilogoff and Alan Whittaker, about the real-life Mediterranean island prison of the title, where, under Mussolini in the years leading up to the Second World War, hundreds of gay men were imprisoned. Anfilogoff first learned about San Domino from a 2013 feature on BBC Radio Four’s From Our Own Correspondent, when a reporter attended a ceremony on the island to unveil a small plaque on the island that commemorates the victims and promises that Italy does not forget.

In fact, like many of collaborationist activities of the Vichy Government in France, this stain on Italian history is largely forgotten – a point immediately underlined by an Italian couple in the audience yesterday who said they recently vacationed on the very island, hadn’t seen the plaque and had no idea that it was once a prison.

For the discussion after yesterday’s matinee, I was joined by Alan and Tim, as well as San Domino director Matthew Gould, musical director James Cleeve and cast members Mark Stewart, Matthew Hendrickson, Alexander Hulme and Joe Etherington, with additional contributions from co-stars Christopher Laishley, Andrew Pepper, David Gibbons and Roger Parkins.

SAN DOMINO runs until 30 June 2018 at Tristan Bates Theatre, 1A Tower St, London WC2H 9NP, with performances Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets are priced £12-£17.50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

Q&A livestream

Here's how Terri got the discussion going... before the wifi dropped! To hear more from the team and other experts, we advise that you return to the show for one of the other post-show talks running during London Pride month in June: on Saturday 23 June with Sarah Day, author of Mussolini's Island, and on Tuesday 26 June with LGBTI and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

Three weeks on, it was wonderful to revisit this beautiful, new, 200-seat theatre and this stunning, folk-influenced production of The Secret Garden in a totally packed-out house. If possible, I loved the show even more than the first time. And I got to enjoy another #SecretGardenJam at the interval, with a different set of audience requests. (The company’s rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Cecilia” was so popular, there was an encore request – which they graciously fulfilled – at the Q&A as well!)

After the performance, I was joined onstage by artistic director Iwan Lewis, the production’s director Dominic Shaw and the full 12-strong cast of actor-musicians who perform The Secret Garden with such gusto. The Barn’s facilities really are second-to-none – extending to their multi-camera filming of the Q&A, which was streamed live on Facebook. (Last I checked, over 2000 people had viewed it.)

You can watch in full below for insights into the creative process of the show, advice to aspiring actors, recommendations for your own trip to Cirencester (book a pre-theatre meal at Teatro for starters) as well as future plans for the theatre and more. Also scroll down for Q&A photos by Peter Jones – cast member Jenny O’Leary‘s chihuahua Polly isn’t the only pup in the spotlight, my very own Lottie made her stage debut on the night too (pictured right). Lottie LOVES this cast!

Believe me: there is, as Iwan Lewis planned, something remarkable happening in Cirencester. This gives you a good glimpse, but I hope you’ll get yourself there soon to experience it first-hand. 

For more videos (including more #SecretGardenJam clips), photos and tweets from the post-show Q&A, visit TerriPaddock.com.

The Secret Garden continues at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester until 28 April 2018.

StageFaves founder Terri Paddock hosted a post-show Q&A with the company of MISS NIGHTINGALE, now transferred to the London Hippodrome in the heart of the West End after its run last year at The Vaults. Watch this video of the full Q&A discussion, including big respect for multi-talented, crazily hard-working actor-musicians everywhere...

When I chaired my first post-show Q&A at Miss Nightingale a year ago, I thought its home then was ideal: The Vaults, in its labyrinth beneath Waterloo Station, so like an air raid shelter, seemed to perfectly fit the setting of London during the Blitz. But now that it’s moved to the London Hippodrome, it’s obvious, THIS is truly the ideal venue for this lovely original British musical, which tells the story of a cabaret act in a wartime nightclub.

At Thursday night’s post-show Q&A, it was great to hear more about the Hippodrome, then and now – including how the venue’s management saw Miss Nightingale at The Vaults and not only invited the actor-musician production to its stage but decided to co-produce and immerse it here.

In London in 1942, Maggie Brown, an aspiring singer and her best friend George Nowodny, a songwriter and Jewish refugee, perform a dazzling act at the newest nightclub in town, owned by wealthy socialite and RAF war-hero, Sir Frank Worthington-Blythe. Maggie’s beau Tom Connor paves the way for the sexy and charismatic ‘Miss Nightingale’ to be born, and the musical duo quickly find themselves with a West End hit. However, what the leading lady doesn’t know, is that George and Sir Frank are hiding a secret and as Miss Nightingale’s success grows, so does a forbidden love between the two men.

For the Q&A, I was joined once again by the show’s creator Matthew Bugg – who has written the music and lyrics for Miss Nightingale’s 16 shows as well as its book, directed it and also appears, playing no fewer than six instruments (or is it seven?) – and his real-life partner and show co-producer Tobias Oliver as well as 2018 cast members Lauren Chinery (Miss Nightingale, pictured above at the Q&A), Matthew Floyd Jones (George), Oliver Mawdsley (Sir Frank) and Adam Langstaff (Tom).

Miss Nightingale continues at the London Hippodrome until 6 May 2018. 

For more photos, video, podcast and live-tweeting from the Miss Nightingale Q&A, visit Terri's personal website at www.terripaddock.com.

Full Q&A video

The Jewish story must continue to be told, Sheldon Harnick told me and a packed house at London’s Park Theatre after Tuesday night’s performance of Rothschild & Sons, for which he wrote the lyrics to the music by late collaborator Jerry Bock.

My post-show Q&A with Sheldon, and the UK premiere of Rothschild & Sons the night before, come in the same week as the annual Holocaust Memorial Day and, unhappily, a new report released today showing that the number of anti-semitic incidents have reached a new record level in the UK, with violent attacks on Jew rising 34% last year.

If for no other reason, it is to combat such prejudice and ignorance, that this production of Rothschild & Sons is so necessary and really should be seen. “The Rothschild conspiracy” is one of the most pernicious and enduring smears used by bigots to justify their anti-semitism. This musical, a one-act re-imagining of the two-time Tony Award-winning 1970 musical The Rothschilds, tells the real human story of Mayer Rothschild and his five sons, who built a banking empire in 19th-century Europe and used it to secure hard-won freedoms for Jews across the continent.

At the post-show Q&A, Sheldon Harnick (now 93) spoke more about his legacy of presenting the Jewish experience on stage, through this show and his earlier collaboration with Jerry Bock, stage and screen blockbuster Fiddler on the Roof, which preceded The Rothschilds by six years, and why he and Bock (who died in 2010) never worked together again after 1970.

For the discussion we were also joined by Arnold Mittelman, the show’s American producer and president of the National Jewish Theatre Foundation, director Jeffrey B Moss, Broadway stars Robert Cuccioli and Glory Crampton, reprising their roles as Mayer and his wife Gutele from Rothschild & Sons' 2015 staging in New York, West End star Gary Trainor, who plays middle son Nathan (a role Cuccioli played in a 1991 US revival of The Rothschilds!). 

Terri Paddock with Sheldon Harnick at the Park Theatre

Other topics covered included why the creatives wanted to revisit the story of the Rothschilds after more than forty years, the indelible mark our family makes on us, the actors’ approaches to their characters (and whether Robert taught Gary anything about Nathan Rothschild), differences in US versus UK reactions and a fair bit about the real Rothschilds today, including from several well acquainted audience members!

One of Broadway’s most successful songwriting partnerships, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock hits include Fiorello! (1959) and She Loves Me (1963) in addition to The Rothschilds and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). In addition to three earlier Tonys for Fiorello! and Fiddler, Sheldon was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 Tony Awards.

Rothschild & Sons runs at London’s Park Theatre until 17 February 2018, with performances Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 3pm. Tickets are priced £18.50-£29.50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!

For more photos and live-tweeting from the Rothschild & Sons Q&A, visit Terri's personal website at www.terripaddock.com.

Podcast

Two years ago, I chaired the opening night discussion at the third annual From Page to Stage festival of new musicals founded by Aria Entertainment’s Katy Lipson. The central question on that occasion was “are we doing enough to nurture new musicals?” And the central answer was no. Amongst the suggestions made by the audience as to what more we should be doing? “Create a new ‘musical laboratory’ to one that shuttered several years ago at the Bridewell Theatre.”

Monday night, I was back to help open the fifth annual From Page to Stage and, as we looked around us at the festival’s new home, Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s dedicated musical house The Other Palace, under the artistic direction of Paul Taylor Mills, we all felt a great satisfaction in being able to say: job done. At least on that score.

In other areas, most notably diversity and the appointment of musically-minded literary managers in flagship theatres, progress has been much slower, as panellists and audience members acknowledged in a wide-ranging discussion after the opening night concert.

Pre-show with @AriaEnts impresario #KatyLipson @TheOtherPalace. Follow @FromPage2Stage from 8.40 for Q&A live-tweeting #excited #newmusicals pic.twitter.com/53cAUcOqNo

— Terri Paddock (@TerriPaddock) August 14, 2017

The discussion followed an hour-long concert, directed by Kolja Schallenberg with musical direction by Oli Rew, in which Lucy Kemp, Sinead Wall, Adam Small, Gabriella Margulies and Oscar Tollofsen performed songs from some of the international submissions to this year’s festival. And thus, for the discussion, we opened by looking some of the differences in the musical theatre scene around the globe.

For the Q&A, I was joined by two of those international writers – Wolfgang Adenberg, Germany’s leading lyricist and translator, and T Rob Brown, from Panama by way of Canada – as well as British lyricist and book writer Jake Brunger, one half of Brunger & Cleary (whose Chicken Little features in the festival and whose The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole is currently selling out at the Menier Chocolate Factory), American director and dramaturg Amy Anders Corcoran, who is over from New York to direct one of the festival’s showcase evenings of four new musicals, and, of course, From Page to Stage‘s Katy Lipson.

In the unedited podcast below, be sure to also listen out for: which writing team has the best ‘how we met’ story; why the Germans don’t get Stephen Sondheim; Katy’s big new producing ambitions; and the challenges of translating musicals.

The three-week From Page to Stage festival continues at The Other Palace until 3 September 2017. In addition to a packed programme of showcases, rehearsed readings and concerts, the headline main-house musical, the premiere of Burt Bacharach’s Some Lovers, runs from 24 August to 2 September.

For event photos and tweeting about the From Page to Stage Q&A, visit Terri's personal website at www.terripaddock.com.

Podcast

How many creatives does it take to make a one-man musical? The answer can be “quite a few”. And that it is in the case of SUPERHERO, the British one-man – or rather “one-dad” – musical now receiving its world premiere at London’s Southwark Playhouse.

Pre-show video @swkplay with director @AdamLenson. Tune in from 9.30 for live Q&A tweeting @TheSuperheroMT. #NewMusicals pic.twitter.com/m7BQH4IRc7

— Terri Paddock (@TerriPaddock) July 11, 2017

At a post-show Q&A I chaired after last night’s performance, I was joined by the show’s three writers Richy Hughes (lyrics), Joseph Finlay (music) and Michael Conley (book), as well as director Adam Lenson, musical director Joe Bunker and one-dad star Michael Rouse to discuss SUPERHERO's evolution, from an idea conceived after a ride on London Eye, through introductions via the ground-breaking Book Musics & Lyrics workshop programme, Stiles & Drewe Prize-winning success for standout song “Don’t Look Down”, workshop development and now critic acclaim in its full form here at Southwark Playhouse.

What are the four sweetest words in the English language? “Ninety minutes, no interval”

SUPERHERO centres on Colin Bradley, a stay-at-home dad who adores his daughter Emily. After separation from his wife, he’s now battling to retain access to his child, and willing to don cape and, despite being acrophobic, scale the heights of Big Ben as well as the family courts to win. SUPERHERO continues at Southwark Playhouse until 22 July 2017.

For more photos and live-tweeting from the SUPERHERO Q&A, visit Terri's personal website at www.terripaddock.com.

Podcast