Five euphoric reasons to see ”Cruise” in the West End

Playing at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue from 13 August until 4 September only – don’t miss the highly anticipated return of this ground-breaking show. To celebrate, we asked Jack Holden to give us five reasons to book your tickets now…

Plus for a limited time only save up to 33%* on tickets!

1. The Music

Everyone loves an ‘eighties banger’ – and Cruise has got more dance classics than you can shake a stick at. Composer, musical performer, and downright genius John Elliott has created a thumping electronic soundtrack with samples and riffs taken from from hits like “I Will Survive”, “Always on my Mind”, “Smalltown Boy”, “(Highway to the) Danger Zone” and many, many more. I always wanted the show to be filled with music, and the rich sonic landscape of Cruise will take you back in time, to a dirty, dingy, dancey Soho of the 1980s.

Prepare to be dazzled by Prema Mehta’s jaw-dropping lighting design. With so many Soho pubs, clubs and bars featuring in Cruise, light plays an important role: setting the scene and creating a mood. As the story crescendoes, and as the music blares, the lights take you on a psychedelic, transcendental flight through one of the biggest nights out ever you’ll ever have. Lighting is one of those things that’s really hard to imagine when you’re writing and rehearsing a play, so it’s extremely exciting when you move into the theatre, see Nik Corrall’s sumptuous design illuminated, and feel the show being elevated to a whole new level.

3. The Moves

Between Bronagh Lagan’s seamless direction and Sarah Golding’s exhilarating movement direction, my body somehow spins around the stage for 90 minutes, morphing into 30 different characters, and shedding about a gallon of sweat in the process. It might sound implausible that we conjure up 1980s Soho in all its seediness, sauciness and vibrancy with just one actor and one musician – but trust me; once you get into it, the show is an urgent, blistering musical odyssey, and a life-affirming emotional rollercoaster.

4. The Story

Cruise is based on a true story I heard when I volunteered for Switchboard, the LGBTQ helpline. It’s a story set in the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. It’s about prejudice, fear, pain and loss. But it’s also about love, community, defiance and liberation. Cruise is a celebration of queer culture, a kaleidoscopic musical and spoken word tribute to the veterans of the AIDS crisis, which will make you laugh, make you cry, and which inspires us all to live every day as if it’s our last.

Watch an exclusive performance from Cruise ahead of its first performance:

5. The Olivier Award Nomination!

Look, we were nominated for Best New Play at the 2022 Olivier Awards. So, the show must be pretty good, right?!

Playing at the Apollo Theatre in the West End until 4 September only – don’t miss out and save up to 33%* on tickets for a limited time only!