BBC1 Big Night of Musicals National Lottery event on Saturday line-up and numbers announced

The line-up for the BBC1`s  The National Lottery's Big Night of Musicals, has just been revealed. Taking place this evening, it is being  broadcast on BBC One at 19.00 on Saturday 29th January as well as 1-3pm on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday 30th January. It will be available both live and for 30 days afterwards on BBC Sounds.

 Jason Manford who will be hosting the event, said: "It's fantastic to see such a positive response after the first ticket release.It's been a very difficult 20 months for the theatre industry and I hope that as many National Lottery players as possible will be able to join this National Lottery musical spectacular. The event promises to be a brilliant show full of celebration, featuring some of the best musicals on right now."

The list of performers and shows is as follows:

Jason Manford

Dreamgirls – "One Night Only" – Nicole Raquel Dennis, Natalie Kassanga, Paige Peddie

& Juliet – "Teenage Dream/ Break Free" – Keala Seattle and David Bedella

Frozen – "I Can't Lose You" – Samantha Barks and Stephanie McKeon

Disney's The Lion King – "He Lives In You" – Thenjiwe Nofamele and Kayi Ushe

Beauty and the Beast – "Beauty and the Beast" – Courtney Stapleton and Shaq Taylor

Frozen – "Let It Go" – Samantha Barks

Back to the Future – "Gotta Start Somewhere" – Cedric Neal and the cast

John Owen-Jones

The Wiz – "Ease On Down The Road" – The cast

Dear Evan Hansen – "You Will Be Found" – Sam Tutty and Samantha Mbolekwa

Jim Steinman's Bat Out of Hell – "Bat Out of Hell" – Glenn Adamson, Martha Kirby and the cast

Waitress – "She Used To Be Mine" – Chelsea Halfpenny

Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock – "Teacher's Pet" – Jake Sharp and castt

The Drifters Girl – "Kissing in The Back Row" / "There Goes My First Love" / "Harlem Child" / "You're More Than A Number In My Little Red Book" – Beverley Knight, Adam J Bernard, Tarinn Callender, Matt Henry and Tosh Wanogho-Maud

Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical – "One Love" / "Jammin'" – Arinzé Kene

Tina - The Tina Turner Musical – "We Don't Need Another Hero" / "Simply The Best" / "Proud Mary" – Aisha Jawando

Tour of the Color Purple announced for this autumn

Leicester Curve  and Birmingham Hippodrome theatres have today revealed plans to tour their critically acclaimed, award-winning co-production of The Color Purple this Autumn.

Having previously only played to UK audiences in London, Leicester and Birmingham, thanks to support from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Funding, the musical is now set to visit six new cities across England and Wales.

The  Pulitzer prize-winning novel,  classic hit movie and Tony® Award-winning production on Broadway was originally staged in 2019. This revival of Marsha Norman, Allee Willis, Brenda Russell and Stephen Bray's theatrical version of Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning novel is directed by Tinuke Craig.

An  unforgettable story told over the course of 40 years follows tormented heroine Celie, as she journeys through joy, despair, anguish and hope in her own personal awakening to discover her unique voice in the world with a profoundly evocative score drawing inspiration from jazz, ragtime, gospel and blues,

With full casting and creatives for the production still to be revealed the  tour will open at Birmingham Hippodrome on 13 eptember

Cast for Beauty and the Beast at the London Palladium

Shaq Taylor (Hex, Girl from the North Country) begins rehearsing on Tuesday to play the monster in the Alan Menken and Howard Ashman musical Beauty And The Beast, which will be  playing at the London Palladium for a limited 12 week run from June 24th to September 17th.  Courtney Stapleton  is currently playing  Belle on a UK tour Also continuing in their roles will be Gavin Lee (Mary Poppins) as Lumiere and Tom Senior ( Eugenius!) as Gaston, with Sam Bailey (Blood Brothers) as Mrs Potts and Nigel Richards (The Phantom of the Opera) as Cogsworth.

Martin Ball (Les Misérables) takes the role of Maurice, Samantha Bingley (Martha In The Secret Garden) is Wardrobe, Emma Caffrey (Curtains) is Babette and Louis Stockil (Miss Saigon) plays Le Fou.

The full company is completed with Richard Astbury, Sarah Benbelaid, Jake Bishop, Pamela Blair, Liam Buckland, Jasmine Davis, Matthew Dawkins, Autumn Draper, Daisy Edwards, Alyn Hawke, George Hinson, Jennifer Louise Jones, Brontë Lavine, Thomas-Lee Kidd, David McIntosh, Aimee Moore, Sam Murphy, Ashley-Jordon Packer, Emily Squibb, Grace Swaby, India Thornton and Rhys West.

Get access to the pre-sale Disney Tickets  from Thursday 27th January  Remaining tickets on sale 28 Jan.

Keala Settle to join cast of &Juliet

 

Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman, Waitress, Rent: Live, Les Misérables and Hands on a Hardbody) will make her West End debut and join the Award-winning musical & Juliet from 29th March-18th June. She will be performing the role of Nurse (taking over from Melanie La Barrie). Joining her will be Miriam-Teak Lee as Juliet with  Cassidy Janson as Anne Hathaway, Oliver Tompsett as William Shakespeare, Tim Mahendran as Francois and Alex Thomas-Smith as May.

David Bedella (Lance) and Jordan Luke Gage (Romeo) will play their final performances on 26 March,with replacements to be announced.

The ensemble currently includes Roshani Abbey, Jocasta Almgill, Josh Baker, Ivan De Freitas, Rhian Duncan, Kieran Lai, Nathan Lorainey-Dineen, Jaye Marshall, Grace Mouat, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Billy Nevers, Kerri Norville, Christopher Parkinson, Kirstie Skivington, Alex Tranter, Sophie Usher and Rhys Wilkinson. &Juliet is now booking to 24 September 2022

Directed by Luke Sheppard, the musical has choreography by Jennifer Weber, set design by Soutra Gilmour, costume design by Paloma Young, musical supervision, orchestration and arrangement by Bill Sherman, lighting by Howard Hudson, sound by Gareth Owen, video design by Andrzej Goulding, musical direction and additional arrangements by Dominic Fallacaro and casting by Stuart Burt.

Keala is also performing in Concert at the Cadogan Hall on 13th February

Cast and dates for Blood Brothers 2022 tour

The new tour of Willy Russell´s Blood Brothers opens tonight at Windsor´s Theatre Royal.

Cast members for the 2022 tour are former X Factor finalist Niki Evans returning to the role of Mrs Johnstone (having previously played the part in the West End) with Sean Jones (Mickey), Joel Benedict (Eddie), Robbie Scotcher (Narrator), Carly Burns (Linda), Melissa Potts Brenda) and Jacob Yolland ( Bus Conductor), Josh Capper ( Neighbour), Tim Churchill (Mr Lyons), Paula Tappenden (Mrs Lyons), Grace Galloway (Donna Marie/Miss Jones), Andy Owens (Perkins), Daniel Taylor ( Sammy) and Nick Wilkes (Teacher/Policeman).

New cast Members joining Pretty Woman the Musical at the Savoy

PRETTY WOMAN THE MUSICAL has just  announced that  new cast members, Patrick Barrett, Elly Jay, Annabelle Laing, Will Luckett and Cilla Silvia will be joining the production at the Savoy Theatre.

The complete company for PRETTY WOMAN THE MUSICAL will therefore be Aimie Atkinson as ‘Vivian Ward’ and Danny Mac as ‘Edward Lewis’, Rachael Wooding as ‘Kit De Luca’, Bob Harms as ‘Happy Man/Mr Thompson’, Neil McDermott as ‘Philip Stuckey’ and Mark Holden as ‘James Morse’ alongside John Addison, Jemma Alexander, Andy Barke, Patrick Barrett, Katie Bradley, Oliver Brenin, Olivia Brookes, Erin Caldwell, Alex Charles, Olly Christopher, Ben Darcy, Hannah Ducharme, Nicholas Duncan, Tom Andrew Hargreaves, Antony Hewitt, Elly Jay, Matt Jones, Annabelle Laing, Will Luckett, Serina Mathew, Cilla Silvia, Charlotte Elisabeth Yorke and Tara Young. Full casting from June 2022 onwards to be announced in due course.

West End Musical Love Songs Concert at Lyric Theatre on Valentine's Day

West End Musical Love Songs will follow on from the West End Musical Celebration and West End Musical Christmas concert series, next month on Monday 14 February at 8.00pm at the Lyric Theatre.

Promising the greatest love songs of musical theatre for one night only with romantic ballads and up-tempo numbers from shows including Wicked, The Phantom Of The Opera, Little Shop Of Horrors, Heathers, & Juliet and Moulin Rouge!. The line-up includes Jon Robyns (Les Misérables), Shan Ako (Les Misérables), ‍Emma Hatton (Wicked), Jodie Steele (Heathers the Musical), Natalie Paris (Six), Matt Jeans (Joseph), Nikki Bentley (Wicked) and Shanay Holmes (Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical), who once again hosts and co-produces the event with Chris Steward.

Holmes commented: "We are delighted to announce this special concert under our award-winning West End Musical banner. It promises to be the dream date night for fans who want to spend this Valentine with the one they really love… musical theatre!"

Buy tickets West End Musical Love Songs

Big Night of Musicals to be shown on BBC at the end of his month

The BBC is broadcasting the National Lottery's Big Night of Musicals on BBC One on Saturday 29th January, with the event taking place at the AO Arena in Manchester on 24 January (further tickets will be available from 10.00 tomorrow).

The event is hosted by Jason Manford and shows set to appear  will be Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, & Juliet, Waitress The Musical and Get Up, Stand Up!, joining the previously announced acts from Frozen, Dear Evan Hansen, The Lion King, Back to the Future, Beauty and the Beast, Dreamgirls, The Wiz, Bat Out of Hell, The Drifters Girl and School of Rock.