Ian Cheeseman presents Break-a-Leg on Tameside Radio, which is packed with great guests and theatre music. Read his latest column here...
There have been many attempts to take the songs of well-known, well-loved music acts and turn them into widely appealing so-called Juke Box Musicals and like any simple idea sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.
Clearly Mamma Mia! which has the songs of Abba telling the story of a girl who has three potential fathers has been, by far the most successful. It seems that whatever Abba’s songwriting team of Benny & Bjorn touch turns to gold. Mamma Mia! has been running in the West End for nearly a quarter of a century, plus there’s Mamma Mia! The Party, an immersive Dinner Show at the O2 and Abba Voyage, the digital concert at their own Abba Arena at the Olympic Park.
I’m hoping to speak to one of the West End cast of the stage show soon, so I’ll be asking him what the secret of the show’s success is. I think it’s the music, but we’ll see what he says.
Other acts have tried their hand at turning their back catalogue into a modern show too. “Viva Forever”, using the songs of the Spice Girls, ran for just seven months and lost £5 million but the Rock of Ages, which is built around classic rock songs of the 1980s has been touring since 2005 and will no doubt perform to another sell-out crowd at Manchester’s Opera House from 14 March with Wythenshawe lad Kevin Kennedy playing rock guru Dennis Dupree.
There’s the brilliant Bat Out of Hell which has just returned to the West End, Moulin Rouge!, and &Juliet which features the music of Swedish song writer Max Martin. Generally these shows have new stories with established hits as the soundtrack but there are also biopics like Jersey Boys, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, On Your Feet: The story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan and the brand new A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical, which has recently opened on Broadway.
I feel certain that the new Take That musical, Greatest Days, which will be at the Palace Theatre in May with Kym Marsh and her daughter Emilie Cuncliffe starring together. I guess, to a certain extent, your view on juke box musicals might depend on whether you were a fan of the originals but also the inventiveness of the story, the humour and pace at which it is told.
On that basis I can’t wait to see Head over Heels, featuring the songs by the Go Gos, which is running at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre until Saturday 4 March. A bit like Viva Forever, it ran on Broadway for just over six months but it’s toured a fair bit and I can’t wait to see it this week.
Among my guests this week on Break-a-Leg, my weekly radio show on Tameside Radio, are comedian Steve Royle, who’ll tell us more about his career so far, which included reaching the final of Britain's Got Talent. I’ve also been chatting to the director of West Side Story by Hyde Musical Society, which is at the Festival Theatre from 29 March, and Karen Ryder from the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy about the great work her and her team do to help boost the self-esteem of young people.
The music comes from Dream Girls, Matilda and The Wiz, which has just been announced as the autumn production for Dukinfield Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, so I’m hoping that if you love theatre there’s something for you.
You can join Ian for Break-a-Leg on Tameside Radio 103.6FM every Sunday evening from 7pm to 9pm and Wednesdays from 9pm to 11pm. You can also catch up on previous episodes here.
