Based on American musical director Jerry Mitchell’s original idea, WEST END BARES: Strip Britannia! provides an opportunity for the West End’s sexiest, sassiest and downright HOTTEST performers to raise money for charity – and put on a damn good show.

The show will be hosted by TV and stage star John Barrowman, a patron of The Make A Difference Trust, and promises to be a mix of naughty adult-only burlesque and the glitz and glamour of London theatre in a fabulous song and dance spectacular.

There will be two shows, at 9.30pm and midnight, on Sunday 5 September 2010 at the Cafe de Paris in London, with all money raised going to TheatreMAD & The Make A Difference Trust.

Broadway Bares has been running in New York since 1992 and has raised millions for the Broadway Cares and Equity Fights AIDS charities.

The London show will be executive produced by Jerry Mitchell and directed by Darren Carnall, who is currently appearing in the West End’s Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre.

TheatreMAD and The Make A Difference Trust brings together the British Entertainment community and its audiences to raise funds to support people living with HIV and AIDS, and those in the entertainment industry facing hardship as a result of a long-term medical condition.

To book call 020 7734 5683, extension 104.

Links:

Make A Difference Trust

Editors update since this article was first posted: See a round-up of Love Never Dies reveiews from critics following last night’s world premiere at the Adelphi Theatre in London

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brand new musical Love Never Dies will start previewing tonight at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

Ramin Karimloo

And to say there is some anticipation is an understatement.

The show is directed by legendary Broadway director Jack O’Brien, responsible for big Broadway hits The Full Monty and Hairspray.

The first preview performance was originally scheduled for Saturday 20 February but had to be cancelled to give the cast and crew more time to rehearse.

The multi-million pound new musical, which has already taken more than £8 million at the box-office, follows the story of Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, this time setting the show on Coney Island in New York at the turn of the last century.

The original musical has been seen by over 100 million people worldwide, so the pressure is on to create a new work that lives up to the incredible legacy of the original.

The new show is based on a novel by Frederick Forsyth called The Phantom Of Manhattan, and adapted initially by Ben Elton (We Will Rock You), who was responsible for reintroducing some of the original characters including Christine and Raoul.

A strong launch cast includes Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom, Sierra Boggess as Christine, Liz Robertson as Madame Giry, Summer Strallen as her daughter Meg,  Joseph Millson as Raoul, Niamh Perry as Fleck, Adam Pearce as Squelch and Jami Reid-Quarrell as Gangle.

Joseph Millson

The show’s World Premiere will be on Tuesday 9 March 2010, followed by New York on Thursday 11 November and Australia in 2011.

In the musical, the story continues with the Phantom moving from his lair in the Paris Opera House to haunt the fairgrounds of Coney Island in New York. Set ten years after the mysterious disappearance of the Phantom from Paris, the show works on the themes of obsession and intrigue, promising a number of shocking plot twists and large-scale spectacles.

Summer Strallen

LOVE NEVER DIES – CREATIVE TEAM:

Director – Jack O’Brien (Hairspray, The Full Monty, Catch Me If You Can)

Music – Andrew Lloyd Webber (The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Evita)

Lyricist – Glenn Slater(The Little Mermaid, Sister Act)

Set and costume designer – Bob Crowley (Phèdre, The History Boys, Mary Poppins)

Choreographer-  Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde, Hairspray, The Full Monty)

Book tickets to see Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London

Hotel and theatre breaks to see Love Never Dies

Today in London Andrew Lloyd Webber launched his new Phantom sequel Love Never Dies.

The brand new musical will star current London Phantom Ramin Karimloo and American actress Sierra Boggess as Christine.

At a launch event at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, current home of The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber revealed how he struggled for years to find a suitable plot for the sequel. Despite working with novelist Frederick Forsythe on a follow-up story set in Manhattan, it was discussions with Ben Elton (We Will Rock You) that sparked the new plot for the show by suggesting that the sequel should follow the story’s original characters.

This long-awaited new show will have its world premiere at the Adelphi Theatre in London on Tuesday 9 March 2010 followed by a New York opening on 11 November and Australian debut in 2011.

The new musical is set 10 years after the first, and sees the Phantom move from the Paris Opera House to haunt the fairgrounds of Coney Island near New York, billed in its hay day as one of the great wonders of the world.

The original musical has been seen by over 100 million people worldwide and is billed by Lloyd Webber’s company the Really Useful Group as the single most successful entertainment entity in history.

Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom

At the launch event in London a full orchestra played the new show’s dramatic opening waltz set against a film that highlighted the significance of Coney Island at the time. Ramin Karimloo also sang a number from the show. The Iranian-Canadian actor became the West End’s youngest ever Phantom when he took on the role at Her Majesty’s theatre in 2007, aged 29.

Sierra Boggess, who was present at the launch but did not sing, was the original lead role in The Little Mermaid on Broadway and has played Christine in the Las Vegas production of Phantom.

The original cast album will be released on 11 March, a day after the world premiere in London.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music features lyrics by Glenn Slater, who penned the lyrics for current West End hit Sister Act, and will be choreographed by Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray, Legally Blonde) and directed by Jack O’Brien (Hairspray).

Book tickets to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London

Book tickets to Legally Blonde The Musical at the Savoy Theatre

The West End production of Legally Blonde has gone on sale, with the multi-million pound production opening on 5 December 2009 at the Savoy Theatre.

Already a major hit on Broadway, the show is based on the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon about a Californian college girl who follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School in an attempt to win him back.

TV star and Olivier Award winner Sheridan Smith (Little Shop of Horrors, Gavin and Stacey, Two Pints of Lager) will star as Elle Woods, alongside ex-Blue pop star Duncan James (Chicago) and Alex Gaumond (Guys and Dolls).

The show will be directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell and written by Heather Hach with music and lyrics by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O’Keefe, and songs include the infamous Bend and Snap song!

Sheridan Smith is also set to play the lead role of Samantha in a new BBC remake of 1960s classic sitcom Bewitched.

Book tickets to Legally Blonde The Musical at the Savoy Theatre

Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s new sequel to The Phantom of the Opera – “Love Never Dies” – will have its world premiere in London, as reported today by Baz Bamigboye in the Daily Mail.

It was initially believed that the new blockbusting musical would open simultaneously in New York, London and Shanghai, but it now appears that managing the logistics of this has proved too complex. However, the show will still break new ground in opening productions around the world in quick succession – starting with London and then following with Toronto, Shanghai and then Broadway.

In London, the show will play at the Adelphi Theatre, owned by Lloyd-Webber’s Really Useful Group, in late October or early November.

Lloyd-Webber also revealed to Baz that, as predicted by previous rumours, Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess will launch the show in the two main leads.

Variety recently reported that the show would open in Toronto at the Canon Theater, where the original Phantom launched in Canada in 1989, although Lloyd-Webber has now confirmed that it will open after London at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto and then go to Broadway.

The show’s music is written by Lloyd Webber with a book by Ben Elton, who has more than proved his musical credentials with We Will Rock You, which continues to pack them in and celebrates the start of its 8^th year in London from the end of April.

The book is based on an original idea by best selling author Frederick Forsyth, and is set in Coney Island in 1907.

Ramin Karimloo (pictured) is currently appearing as the Phantom in the West End and will continue in the role in the new production. The actor was born in Iran and brought up in Canada.

A notice placed on the Actors’ Equity Association website says of the plot that, “the mysterious “Maestro” who runs the theatre at Coney Island announces a one-off concert by legendary Parisian soprano Christine Daaé. Her arrival in New York with husband Raoul, Victome de Chagny and son Gustave, and their subsequent meeting with the “Maestro,” bring the cataclysmic events of 10 years earlier at the Paris Opera crashing back into all their lives.”

Director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell – the dream team from the Hairspray musical – will stage the show.

O’Brien said to Baz that Lloyd-Webber was enormously passionate about the project: “‘It is like the last flowering of a great era of lyric romanticism – the theatre doesn’t seem to have that any more.”

It is unclear whether Jospeh, currently playing at the Adelphi Theatre starring Gareth Gates, will extend its run until Love Never Dies Opens.

BOOK TICKETS TO THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA – PLUS SAVE ON THEATRE AND DINNER PACKAGES

Original article published 20 March 2009