A one night celebration of new LGBTQ+ musical theatre comes to The Other Palace this October in fantasies come true: the queermusicals.com concert, co-produced by the University of Wolverhampton and queer musical development company Chromatic Creative.
Writer and podcast host Dr James Lovelock is joined by a cast of West End stars for a unique concert of new songs for LGBTQ+ characters in musicals that explores why queer representation is important across all the different identities and intersections of our LGBTQ+ community and what we gain by making musical theatre’s queer joy visible on stage. All proceeds from the concert will be donated to Mermaids UK (www.mermaids.org.uk), a charity that supports trans, non-binary and gender-diverse children and young people. The concert is generously funded by the University of Wolverhampton from their Research Investment Fund.
Lovelock comments, “I loved musical theatre growing up but I was always struck by the lack of LGBTQ+ characters onstage. I hope this concert will give people from all across our community the opportunity to see themselves in these wonderful new characters and songs”.
The cast bringing the stories of LGBTQ+ representation to life will include Roshani Abbey (Hamilton), Madeline Charlemagne (The Secret Life of Bees ), Joshua Clemetson (Wicked), Allie Daniel (How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying), Jacqui Dubois (Ghost), Joe Foster (& Juliet), Kaidyn Niall Hinds (Hey Duggee), Beth Hinton-Lever (A Chorus Line), Melissa Jacques (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), Nicholas McLean (Wicked), Jack Reitman (Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story), Aaron Shales (& Juliet), Robin Simoes da Silva (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Jaz Terry (Lifeboats) and Elliott Wooster (Stranger Sings: The Musical). The cast will be joined by Jamie-Lee Lee Grant and D’arcelle Wright-Harvey, recent graduates from the University of Wolverhampton’s BA (Hons) Musical Theatre programme.
The concert will feature music from & Juliet by Max Martin and David West Read, Bad Queers by Marti Hope Stump, Brother by Robin Simoes da Silva and Annabel Mutale Reed, The Edge of Me by Finn Anderson, Interstate: A New Musical by Melissa Li and Kit Yan, It’s Only Life by John Bucchino, Lifeboats by Gus Gowland, A Mother’s Song by Finn Anderson and Tania Azevedo, Triangularity by Flora Leo, The Unconventionals by Jude Taylor, Unexpected Joy by Janet Hood and Bill Russell, Unicorn by AJ O’Neill and Simon Lock, The View Upstairs by Max Vernon and XY by Oliver Houser.
The concert is directed by Tania Azevedo with music direction by Flynn Sturgeon. The concert is arranged by Sturgeon and Ash Collard, with associate music direction from Flora Leo and is co-produced by Matt Powell (for Chromatic Creative) and James Lovelock (for the University of Wolverhampton).
fantasies come true performs for one night only on Monday 16th October in the main space at The Other Palace, with all tickets at £15.00. The event will also be live streamed by theatrical.solutions, available on Chromatic Creative’s YouTube channel.
