MTFestUK to return with Romy and Michele musical and more

The line-up has been revealed for The Other Palace and Turbine Theatre’s MTFestUK 2024, a two-week event running from 30 January to 11 February.

The festival will feature eight new musicals, presented in ‘sharing’ sessions to allow audiences to witness and engage with musical theatre in its early developmental stages.

Appearing at the Other Palace will be Sam Cochrane’s A Jaffa Cake Musical, a family-friendly musical comedy inspired by the 1991 Jaffa Cake tribunal (with arrangements by Rob Gathercole), and Declan Bennett and Olivia Broadfield’s Both, an intimate musical exploring the complexities of love and choices. Abey Bradbury and Sam Kearney-Edwardes’ Tit Swingers is a punk gig musical telling the story of polyamorous queer pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read, while Plastered, penned by Randy Roger, developed and co-created by BT McNicholl and directed by Jerry Zaks, is a twisted killer comedy musical set in a ’50s San Francisco coffee house.

At The Turbine Theatre, Romy and Michele The Musical  (based on hit 1997 film Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion) will be staged, penned by the film’s screenwriter Robin Schiff with a score by Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay and direction by Kristin Hanggi.

Also featuring is Elliot Clay and Tori Allen-Martin’s Bling, a darkly comic pop-opera inspired by true events in 2008. Jordan Luke Gage and Josh Seymour’s Redcliffe is a tale of forbidden love based on the true events of William Critchard and Richard Arnold in 1753. Finally, Chisara Agor  and Robin G Breeze’s The Garden is an afro-electric-folk musical exploring themes of social housing, nature, and love.