The Barn Theatre has announced an all-star West End line up for their sixth virtual concert, The Barn Theatre Presents: The Music of Gus Gowland, which will celebrate the work of musical theatre composer Gus Gowland (Pieces of String).
The concert, which will be hosted by Barn Theatre producer Jamie Chapman Dixon, is the sixth edition of the Barn Theatre in Cirencester’s virtual concert series, The Barn Presents:, which celebrates the work of British musical theatre writers.
The musical will showcase his work including songs from his first full-length musical Pieces of String, whichpremiered in 2018 at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. For his work on Pieces of String, Gus won The Stage Debut Award for Best Composer/Lyricist, and was nominated for a Writer’s Guild of Great Britain award for Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting. The show was nominated for the UK Theatre Best Musical Production award.
The upcoming virtual concert will feature performances from: Stephenson Ardern Sodj (Hamilton), Ryan Carter (Motown, The Boy Friend), Gabriela García (West Side Story, In The Heights), Rebecca Gilliland (Wicked), Imogen Halsey (Just So), Sandra Marvin (Waitress, Emmerdale, Romantics Anonymous), Craig Mather (Les Misérables), Michael Mather (Mythic, Soho Cinders), Abigail Matthews (The Butterfly Lion), Newtion Matthews (The X Factor, The Voice UK), Kiran Patel (The Lion King, Just So), Jay Perry (Hamilton), Jack Reitman (Amour, Thrill Me) and Charlotte Wakefield (The Sound of Music, The Boy in the Dress).
The Barn Presents: The Music of Gus Gowland will debut on the Barn Theatre’s Facebook and YouTube channels on 29 August 2020 at 7:30pm BST. The concert will be released on the Barn Theatre’s Facebook and YouTube channels and will see Gus Gowland chat with Barn Theatre producer Jamie Chapman Dixon about his career so far, the creation process behind his songs and special appearances from some of the performers, to discuss their experience rehearsing and recording from home.
Previous concerts from The Barn Presents: series can be watched on the Barn Theatre’s YouTube channel.
The Barn Theatre have also recently launched their first outdoor theatre festival BarnFestwhich runs until 5 September. The festival, which marks the theatre’s first live theatre performances since the start of the year.
The festival will feature a two-week run of the Kander & Ebb musical revue The World Goes ‘Round. The new production, which features songs from the duos iconic musicals including Chicago and Cabaret, will run at the outdoor festival from24 August to 5 September. The production will be directed by Kirk Jameson with musical direction by Nick Barstow and casting will be announced at a later date.
The festival also includes Illyria’s family production of Adventures of Doctor Dolittle (24-27 August) and Scoot Theatre’s reimagined production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (29-30 August) starring Aaron Sidwell (EastEnders, Wicked), Tricia Adele-Turner (Dear Evan Hansen) and Claire-Marie Hall (Les Misérables, The Grinning Man).
The Barn Theatre (registered charity no. 1174253) have launched their SAVE OUR BARN campaign, via their website and social media platforms, to ensure the Barn Theatre’s survival.