Metta Theatre – one of the UK’s leading production companies devoted to British musical theatre – has released studio album for hip hop musical In The Willows, in collaboration with Perfect Pitch. In The Willows has been produced remotely during October and November 2020, and is released via Spotify, iTunes and other digital media today, 1 February 2021, alongside a new music video for the number Head Above Water, choreographed and starring deaf dancer Chris Fonseca, who starred in the original production.
In The Willows transforms Kenneth Grahame’s well-loved tale into a thrilling new hip hop musical, written and directed by P Burton-Morgan (Little Mermaid UK Tour, Jungle Book UK & International Tour), with music and additional lyrics from award-winning composer Pippa Cleary (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Ambassadors Theatre; Prodigy, St James Theatre) and groundbreaking hip-hop Composer Keiran Merrick.
P Burton-Morgan, who in 2020 won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for musical theatre book writing for In the Willows explains, “This is not Disney. These animal students are recognisably human, young and for the most part abandoned by the rest of society. Their teacher Badger is one of the few adults who believes in them and in their potential to achieve. They are by turns angry, lost, mischievous but ultimately searching for a sense of belonging – a new family made up of their fellow classmates.”
Andy Barnes, producer at Perfect Pitch who support and develop new musicals said, “It has been a pleasure to partner with Metta Theatre to put this EP together during lockdown – a much-needed creative outlet for the team during a difficult time. We have been honoured to work with many fabulous performers, musicians, and a fantastic team of writers who worked tirelessly to ensure we found the right sound across a varied landscape of musical styles. We’re excited to share it with you.”
Amongst the performers on the album is Olivier award-winning actor, ‘the nation’s favourite pantomime dame’, and star of BBC’s The Story of Tracey Beaker, Clive Rowe – who starred in the 2019 touring production of the show as ‘Badger’ and has just been appointed as Metta Theatre’s new Patron.
Clive Rowe said, “I’m incredibly honoured to have been asked to become a patron of the Metta Theatre company. Its drive, diversity, and constant pursuit of focused truthful work is a breath of fresh air and at its heart P Burton Morgan strives tirelessly to create new innovative and expressive work. I only hope that my patronage will in some way go to shine an even brighter light on this wonderful company.”
Clive is joined on the album by former cast member Harry Jardine (Shakespeare in Love, Les Miserables) as well as Hiba Elchikhe (Aladdin, Ghost the Musical), Sharon Rose (Hamilton, Motown The Musical) and Tim Mahendran (& Juliet, Spring Awakening).
In The Willows transposes Kenneth Grahame’s bucolic animal fable to an urban British Comprehensive school ‘The Willows’ and surrounding estates. It’s Mole’s first day – she is taken under the wing of hip-hop cool girl Rattie, her boyfriend Otter and the bling laden, rich-kid rapper Toad. A series of adventures ensue in which Mole learns both how to make friends and how to lose them – but ultimately how to find her voice and finally speak up about her troubled past. Simultaneously uplifting and politically provocative, we hope to give a voice to a group of young people rarely represented on our stages.
