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UK Premieres for Off-Broadway Silence! & Zombie

Silence! The Musical, billed as “the unauthorised parody of the Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs”, will receive two London outings in the coming months.

The spoof comedy musical, created by Jon and Al Kaplan, was first seen at the Off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theatre in August 2005 as part of the New York International Fringe Festival, though a subsequent transfer failed to materialise.

Now it's set to hit the UK, firstly in a two-week run at the Baron's Court theatre from 20 to 31 October, then at Victoria's Above the Stag from 21 January (previews from 19 January) to 28 February 2010, in a production helmed by original New York director Chrisopher Gatelli.

Speaking to Whatsonstage.com, Above the Stag artistic director Peter Bull said he decided to stage Silence! after including a number from the show in their recent 'greatest flops' show Blink! …and you missed it. 

“It's a very funny show, described when it first appeared as being 'like vintage South Park scored by Andrew Lloyd Webber'” Bull said. “It's not one of those musicals that's only good because it's bad, it's a genuinely great show. I was delighted when I spoke to Christopher (Gatelli) about doing it and he said he was keen to finish what he started”

Silence! The Musical follows F.B.I. trainee Clarice Starling as she uses her relationship with Dr. Hannibal Lecter to hunt serial killer Buffalo Bill. The production transforms the film's dialogue into a full-scale musical, “complete with singing serial killers, unprintable titles, and a chorus of tap-dancing lambs”.

Musical numbers include “In the Dark With a Maniac”, “Are You About a Size 14?” and “I'd F**k Me”. Additional material is being written for the Above the Stag run.

Another zany Off-Broadway musical receiving its UK premiere in the coming months is Zombie Prom, which is at the Landor Theatre from 22 October to 14 November (previews from 20 October).

Featuring music by Dana P Rowe and lyrics by John Dempsey (the team behind The Witches of Eastwick and The Fix) and directed by Ian McFarlane, it's adapted from a story by John Dempsey and Hugh M Murray about a sweet teenage girl whose rebel boyfriend commits suicide in a nuclear cooling tower and returns as a 'teenage nuclear zombie'.

Zombie Prom, which is produced by Christopher D Clegg Productions, follows the Landor's revival of Stephen Sondheim's fairytale musical Into the Woods, which runs from 17 September to 17 October to mark the venue's 15-year anniversary (See News, 6 Aug 2009).

- by Theo Bosanquet

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