Louise Dearman announced in Leicester Curve new season

On Friday 22 November I was fortunate enough to attend a season preview at Leicester Curve, presided over by Chief Executive Fiona Allan. She was quick to let slip the big news of the day, which was that Curve will host the premiere of a new musical, Water Babies, inspired by Charles Kingsley's novel of the same name, and that West End star Louise Dearman will lead the cast.

The show will feature an updated and modernised story and boasts an original score from Chris Egan, featuring no fewer than 19 songs. Perhaps most interestingly, and the part that the production team were reluctant to talk about in too much detail, the show will feature underwater special effects. We were told that one of the reasons for choosing the Curve as a venue was due to the technical challenge staging the show presented.

Allan was then joined by Artistic Director Paul Kerryson, currently rehearsing Chicago, which opens 29 November, to talk about what his next projects will be. When asked if the failure of Leicester to win the City of Culture was a blow, Kerryson summed it up by saying it was “disappointing, but business as usual.”

After working on Hairspray (which opens on February 28), Kerryson stated that Curve would be looking to continue their tradition of “including something new and something well loved in every season". He went on to talk about his work with Curve’s community projects and said that they would be producing two further musicals with the community group: Annie and Rent.

Allan spoke of the gala evening the theatre will be hosting for their 5th birthday on January 12. This will include songs from all of the musicals shown at Curve, including hits from shows such as The Light in the Piazza, The King and I, West Side Story, 42nd Street, Gypsy, Oliver!, Hello, Dolly!, Sweeney Todd and this year's Christmas show, Chicago.

Next we heard from Tim Ford, Associate Director of Participation and Learning, who has particular responsibility for the Curve Young Company, who will be working on the musical Honk!, and we were treated to a live performance of "Every Tear a Mother Cries" by the excellent Lola McKinnon.

Suba Das, Associate Director of Community Engagement, talked about his work with De Montfort University on the upcoming show Mother Clap’s Molly House by Mark Ravenhill.

Overall, then, it seems that Curve are betting on large, popular shows, particularly musicals, to be their mainstay, while developing their in-house community alongside their youth work, which is also mainly musical based. 2014 is set to be a singalong year at Leicester's Curve.

– William Breden