RIDE - A New Musical

TheSpyInTheStalls ***** ‘one of the best musicals this year’

WhatsOnStage **** ‘a sublime pitch-perfect production’

ArtsDesk ****

LondonBoxOffice **** 

It’s 1895 and Annie Londonderry has returned victorious to America, hailed as the first woman ever to cycle around the world. She’s pioneering, she’s plucky, and she’s pitching her story to the men who run the newspapers.

From the infamous wager that set her journey in motion, to her freewheeling adventures with captains, cowboys, and customs officials, Annie just knows her tales will spin readers into a frenzy. 

But as she approaches rough terrain, and unexpected paths throw her off balance, can Annie regain her footing, or will she confront the past she left behind? 

This award-winning new musical charts one woman's radical act and explores the lies we tell to escape ourselves. RIDE gears up for its first full production for a limited run at London’s Charing Cross Theatre from August 2022.

After the performance on 6th September there will be a post show discussion 'Women In Sport, Then And Now,' with Helen Pankhurst leading the panel Carrie Dunn, Olivia Munk and Jack Williams.

• Mainstage

Stiletto

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In Italy during the 18th century, an average of 5,000 boys were castrated annually. Almost exclusively, they came from poor families. Their treble voices intact, castration promised those who survived a chance to earn fame and fortune by singing female roles in the opera. A few made it, but most didn’t and were swept aside.

Stiletto, a new musical with Music and Lyrics by three-time Grammy nominee, Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Matthew Wilder (Disney’s Mulan), Book by double Olivier Award nominee Tim Luscombe (Noël Coward’s Easy Virtue, Terrence Rattigan’s The Browning Version and Harlequinade), is set in Venice, Europe’s opera capital.

During the winter of 1730-31, Venice is a city bristling with opportunity where fortunes can be made but life is cheap. A city of lustre and intrigue with plenty of chances of success for Marco, who was castrated as a child to retain his perfect voice. Opera stars being the rock stars of their day, Marco is on course to be an 18th-century Jagger or Bowie, to snag a powerful patron and play leading roles.

In a busy square he meets Gioia, confident, strong willed...and supremely talented. But despite her musical gifts, being the daughter of an African slave, there’s no chance for her to fulfil her dreams. Marco recognises her talent and, sensing that they are both outsiders as well as sharing a love for music, they fall in love.

In an attempt to get her on stage, Marco introduces Gioia to society and his patron, the Contessa Azzurra, but at the end of the evening, a body lies dead and Gioia is hauled off to prison. To free her, Marco must overcome the demons of his past and the morally corrupt forces of the present.

Click here for exclusive first listen to Stiletto

Creatives:

Music & Lyrics: Matthew Wilder

Book: Tim Luscombe

Director: David Gilmore

Staging Consultant: Anthony Van Laast

Musical Director: Jae Alexander

Orchestrator: Simon Nathan

Set Designer: Ceci Calf

Costume Designer: Anna Kelsey

Lighting Designer: Ben Ormerod   

Sound Designer: Andrew Johnson

Casting: Neil Rutherford

Executive Producer: Guy Kitchenn

Produced by Patrick Bywalski for the Robert Stigwood Organisation and Steven M. Levy for Charing Cross Theatre Productions Limited.

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