Theatre News

Galas: Full Broadway Line-up, Concert for Bruce

| London's West End |

30 July 2009

The full line-up has been announced for Broadway to West End – by Special Arrangement, a gala concert taking place on 4 October 2009 at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in tribute to the work of Tony Award-winning orchestrator William David Brohn (See Photos, 1 Jul 2009).

The evening, which showcases a number of Brohn’s arrangements for shows including Carousel, Crazy for You, Miss Saigon, Wicked, Oliver! and Mary Poppins, will raise money for the children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent, and feature performers from London’s Arts Educational School.

The cast will include: Gareth Gates, Alistair McGowan, Jodie Prenger, Rosemary Ashe, Alexia Khadime, Graham Bickley, Earl Carpenter, Ima Castro, Sharon D Clarke, Kim Criswell, Simon Green, Alison Jiear, Josie Lawrence, Robyn North, Charlotte Page, Nicholas Parsons, Joanna Riding, Caroline Sheen and Rebecca Thornhill.

Special appearances will by made by composer Claude Michel Schönberg, Stiles and Drewe, Broadway orchestrator Christopher Jahnke and guest conductor Gareth Valentine. Direction and choreography is by Bill Deamer, the musical directors are Stephen Brooker and Martin Koch.

Producers Richard Morris and Doug Pinchin said: “We’ve got an amazing line up of talent singing a whole range of show music … Alongside great numbers like ‘I Got Rhythm’ and ‘The Wizard and I’ we’re also delighted to be championing some exciting lesser performed pieces with songs from George Stiles’ The Three Musketeers, Marvin Hamlisch’s Sweet Smell of Success and Kander & Ebb’s Curtains. We hope to make it a very special evening indeed.”

West End stars including Julie Atherton, Helena Blackman, Daniel Boys, Clare Foster, Alex Jessop, Sarah Lark and Paul Spicer will showcase the work of young British musical theatre composer Michael Bruce in a gala concert at the Apollo Theatre on 1 November 2009.

Michael Bruce: A Little Less Ordinary is billed as “an opportunity for a truly talented songwriter to make his mark on the West End stage and have his songs performed for the first time by a selection of the UK’s hottest young musical theatre stars”.

25-year-old Bruce is described in press material as a “burgeoning ray of hope for the future of the British musical”. The multi-talented composer is a former Highland Dancing Champion and in his teens he was a member of the Scottish national table tennis team. He studied as a singer/songwriter at LIPA and won the Notes for the Stage competition in 2007. His new work Ed: The Musical premieres at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Michael Bruce: A Little Less Ordinary is produced by Neil Eckersley and Paul Spicer for Speckulation Entertainment in association with Notes from New York.