Genesis Lynea and Billy Cullum to star in Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote’s new musical This Is A Love Story

Birmingham Hippodrome will host an early look at Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote’s new musical This Is A Love Story next month, and casting has been set. 

Grounded in issues of the climate crisis, the piece plots a romantic relationship between two characters – Earth and Humanity. It has music and lyrics by Godfrey, with book and additional lyrics by Coote.

The first public workshop produced by the organisation’s recently established New Musical Theatre department, set to star will be Genesis Lynea (Sylvia) as Earth and Billy Cullum (Leave to Remain) as Humanity. 

Deirdre O’Halloran, head of new musical theatre at Birmingham Hippodrome said: “We are really proud to be the UK’s first in-house New Musical Theatre department, dedicated to developing new musicals in the West Midlands.”

“Workshop performances are a chance for audiences to discover new talent and play their part in developing a new musical theatre show. Looking forward, we have ambitions to expand our department’s work throughout 2024 and This Is A Love Story is a wonderful way to introduce our work to the public.”

The show runs on 1 and 2 February 2024, and features direction by Jessica Edwards, musial supervision and co-orchestration by Jordan Paul Clarke, sound design by Paul Gatehouse, associate sound by Charlie Smith, costume and design consultancy by Georgia Wilmot, lighting by Joe Price, casting by Ellie Collyer-Bristow, intimacy coordination  by Joana Nastari, production by Christopher Ball and stage management by Maddy Wade.

The band includes Clarke, Georgia Ayew, Alexia Barbera and Ralph Porrett.