Centre Stage announces new season for 2020

Here at Centre Stage HQ we are extremely excited about our upcoming 2020 season. It really does feature something for everyone with a thrilling mixture of a much-loved favourite, a European Premiere, an innovative cabaret and a glitzy Broadway musical!

Opening our 2020 season is Stephen Schwartz’s (Wicked, Pippin) much-loved musical Godspell. Godspell is a pop/rock musical based around a series or parables known as the Gospel of Matthew and follows Jesus’ teaching through the passion at the end of the show.

Godspell premiered Off-Broadway in 1971 and has since been produced by multiple touring companies and in many revivals worldwide. Our Centre Stage production is being directed and choreographed by Tal Hewitt, musically directed by Stephen Hewitt and produced by Shames AbdelWahab (Jekyll & Hyde The Musical). The show has ten named characters in Godspell and the creative team are also looking for an ensemble of 16. The ensemble will create a cast of ‘The People’ representing the modern world. Slowly but surely, The People will join the Believers (the ten named characters) to join a wider community who share the word of Jesus and spread love throughout the show.

Featuring well-known songs like Day By Day and Prepare Ye, our Centre Stage production features the newly re-written score and band from celebrated 2012 Broadway revival which brought Godspell rocking into the 21st century. Audition booking will be available to members from 17th October, while the general public will be able to book on 19th October 2019. Come Sing About Love at The Bridewell Theatre from 24th – 28th March 2020 in Godspell!

Next up we’re travelling to Heartville, USA to meet a magical group of misfits in Zanna, Don’t! A Rebooted Quantum Football Fable. Zanna, Don’t! premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 and was first seen in London in 2009. Praised by critics and audiences alike, the bubble-gum pop/rock musical was first produced by Centre Stage in 2011. In 2017 the shows author Tim Acito, revised the show with new music and an updated script for today’s evolving attitudes towards the LGBTQIA+ community. Through careful negation with Acito and Theatrical Rights Worldwide, we’re ecstatic to announce Centre Stage have been granted the European Premiere of Zanna, Don’t! A Rebooted Quantum Football Fable!

Welcome to Heartsville USA, a wholesome, patriotic town somehow stuck in a 1950s-esque Leave It to Beaver parallel universe that’s a mirror image of our own: the gay people are the “normal” ones, and the straight people are subjected to taunting and bullying – “heterophobia.” The big-man-on-campus is the chess champion, members of the Drama Club are the cool kids, while football and cheerleading are scorned and Zanna, the most admired student of all, is a magical pangender hall monitor with presidential aspirations. The students write a controversial show called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” about straight people in the military, which becomes a catalyst for a young man and woman to fall in love. Knowing their love is forbidden this straight couple face ‘heterophobia’ and try to hide their love until a spontaneous show of affection lets the cat out of the bag!

Directed by Stuart James (Fame: The Musical, Love Happens Here: An LGBTQI+ Cabaret and Grease The Musical), choreographed by Samantha Herriot (Fame: The Musical, Grease The Musical), musically directed by Ben Roberts and produced by Peter Stonnell, audition booking for Zanna, Don’t! A Rebooted Quantum Football Fable will be available to members on 5th of March and to the general public on 7th of March 2020. Will the students of Heartsville High find respect, loyalty, acceptance and love? Find out from 14th – 18th of July 2020 at The Bridewell Theatre!

After the success of our productions of Mic Drop and the award winning Love Happens Here: An LGBTQI+ Cabaret then comes Gender Bend A Miscast Musical Cabaret. Gender Bend is an exciting new cabaret showcasing a collection of songs from the musical theatre canon traditionally sing by the opposite sex (or anyone in between).

The show has been created by director James-Lee Campbell to challenge an audience to think about how songs are affected by the genders that sing them. Is there a theme to the songs that are written for men? Does a man singing a female song deliver emotions you wouldn’t normally associate with masculinity?

Directed by James-Lee Campbell, choreographed by Samantha Herriot (Fame: The Musical, Grease The Musical, Zanna, Don’t! A Rebooted Quantum Football Fable) and produced by Zsolti Szabo, audition booking will be available for members on 25th June and to the general public on 27th June 2020. Challenging the status quo and turning musical theatre around, Gender Bend A Miscast Musical Cabaret plays at Theatre Technics form 6th – 10th of October 2020 and promises to be another truly unique cabaret for Centre Stage!

Closing our 2020 season is the widely lauded glitzy Broadway musical The Producers. Premiering in 2001 on Broadway, Mel Brooks’s The Producers opened to critical acclaim winning an astounding eleven Tony awards. The show found similar acclaim when it opened on the West End in 2004 winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical and Best Actor In A Musical to the show’s original Broadway star Nathan Lane. Since then a very successful film adaption was released in 2005, followed by multiple touring companies around the world.

After putting together another Broadway flop, down-on-his-luck Producer Max Bialystock teams up with timid accountant Leo Bloom in a get-rich-quick scheme to put on the world's worst show. With a varied cast of hilarious characters, The Producers will be directed by Ellie Cahill-Nicholls (Reviewing The Situation, Lysistrata), musically directed by Max Fagandini (Reviewing The Situation, Lysistrata), choreographed by Hannah McKenna-Vickerstaff (Jekyll & Hyde The Musical) and produced by Alexis Rose (Centre Stage Unplugged, Fame: The Musical).

Audition booking for The Producers will be available to our members on 25th of June and to the general public on 27th June 2020. Centre Stage is very excited to be adding this show to next year’s and can’t wait to tap, sing and goosestep into The Bridewell Theatre from 17th – 21st November 2020!

So as you can see, we have a very exciting season planned for 2020 and can’t wait for you all to audition, support and see our fantastic line up of shows! Until then, our Bring It On The Musical team are hard at work in rehearsal to bring you side kicking and split leap jumping to The Bridewell Theatre in November of this year. So keep an eye out for ticket information soon!

Written by Stuart James Artistic Director of Centre Stage