Photos: Stephen Fry Hosts Great British Musical

Hosted by Stephen Fry, the concert contained numbers from shows including Elton John‘s screen-to-stage adaptation of The Lion King; Love Story which recently finished its Chichester Theatre transfer run at the Duchess Theatre; Willy Russell‘s long-running Blood Brothers; Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade’s Salad Days which was recently revived at Riverside Studios; Stiles and Drewe’s Betty Blue Eyes which opens at the Novello Theatre on 13 April (previews from 19 March) and their musical based on the short stories of Rudyard Kipling Just So.

Performers featured on the night included Steven Webb, Sophia Ragavelas, Jack Shalloo, Dougal Irvine, Paul Keating, Emma Barton, Peter Polycarpou, Emma Williams, Hadley Fraser, John Addison, Julie Atherton, Stuart Matthew Price, Michael Xavier and Alfie Boe. The cast were supported by a live band led by Paul Herbert and an ensemble of students from the Musical Theatre Academy (MTA).

Perfect Pitch, supported for the fourth year by Whatsonstage.com, develop shows through a series of workshops, readings, showcases and productions. In addition to the Perfect Pitch supported Departure Lounge, which played a limited run at Waterloo East Theatre in October last year, they developed The Go-Between by Richard Taylor and David Wood which is part of this year’s autumn season at West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Royal and Derngate and Derby Live.