Theatre News

Perfect Pitch Names Six Musicals for West End Run

Perfect Pitch – the showcase for developing homegrown musicals, which is supported for a second year by Whatsonstage.com – has selected six promising musicals to present in its first-ever West End season, running from 25 to 29 November 2008 at Trafalgar Studios 2 (See News, 1 May 2008).

The selected shows are: Can You Keep a Secret? by Matthew Brind and Lesley Ross; The Diary of Me by Simon James Green and Stuart Matthew Price; Lift by Craig Adams and Ian Watson; The Lost Christmas by Laurence Mark Wythe; Rebels and Retail by Cush Jumbo and James McConville; and Through the Door by Laurence Mark Wythe and Judy Freed.

From Tuesday to Saturday during the Perfect Pitch showcase, there will be performances daily at 3.30pm and 7.45pm. Each musical will be presented as a 45-minute extract from its full piece and each will be performed three times during the week.

Producer Andy Barnes commented on this year’s selection: “We received well over 100 submissions this year, and the standard of writing was the highest it has been. It was very difficult to narrow it down to just six musicals, but we have tried to select shows that we believe could potentially have commercial appeal. As a company, we champion shows that could attract a new audience to musical theatre and have therefore selected a few pieces that have modern, contemporary themes. I am very excited to be able to present six new pieces of British musical theatre performed by established West End performers.”

The showcase has been held at the Highgate fringe theatre Upstairs at the Gatehouse for the past two years since its inception. For more information on this year’s selected musicals and Perfect Pitch’s other activities, visit www.perfectpitchmusicals.com.

– by Terri Paddock