THE TURBINE THEATRE ANNOUNCES MUSICAL LINE-UP FOR PAUL TAYLOR-MILLS¹ FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICAL THEATRE WRITING MTFESTUK – RUNNING FROM 3 ­ 15 FEBRUARY 2020

ANNOUNCES MUSICAL LINE-UP FOR PAUL TAYLOR-MILLS

FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICAL THEATRE WRITING  

RUNNING FROM 3 – 15 FEBRUARY 2020

The Turbine Theatre’s Artistic Director, Paul Taylor-Mills, announces the exciting and diverse new musicals selected for this year’s MTFestUK 2020The lineup includes: Southern Comfort; Jet Set Go!Soapdish; The Assassination of Katie Hopkins; ColdfrontEurobeat: Pride of EurovisionTyrell; and Works of Art.

A celebration of new musical theatre, MTFestUK 2020 runs from 3 – 15 February and sets out to promote quality artistry with a view to showcasing and elevating projects to full production, giving audiences an insight into the process of creating new work and the art of collaboration.

These eight productions at the centre of the festival form MTFestUK’s Taster Menu series of new musicals, and will each be presented as semi-staged productions. Casting will be announced shortly.  

After its success in 2019 at The Other Palace, Paul Taylor-Mills brings this year’s MTFestUK to the new and vibrant Turbine Theatre, located in Circus West Village, the first chapter in the regeneration of the iconic Battersea Power Station. Home to over 1,000 residents, this thriving riverside neighbourhood offers an exciting mix of restaurants, bars, cafés, shops, a cinema, fitness and wellbeing facilities, as well as an ongoing events programme. 

Paul Taylor-Mills, Artistic Director, Turbine Theatre, said, “I’m absolutely thrilled with the line-up for our second MTFestUK which will be housed in my new home: The Turbine Theatre at Battersea Power Station. This year sees us working with an exciting and emerging theatre, a host of first-time writers and Olivier Award winning teams. Importantly, the content of all eight shows, and the stories we set out to tell, represent the world we’re currently living in. 

We’ve listened to over 150 musicals and have made a commitment to give over 100 hours of free space to projects that would benefit from the time to move their work forward.

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MTFestUK 2020 – Taster Menu

SOUTHERN COMFORT

Based on the Sundance award-winning documentary, this heart-warming musical about a group of transgender friends living in rural Georgia is, at its core, a love story between their patriarch, Robert Eads, and newcomer Lola Cola.

Through a unique folk and bluegrass-inspired score, the musical chronicles a year in the lives of this unique American family as they courageously defy the odds by simply remaining on the land to which they were born, reminding us that home is where we find comfort in our skin.

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JET SET GO!

Join Nicola and her in-flight cabin crew as they sing up the aisles and tap-dance down Broadway on a trip to New York that you’ll never forget!

A musical comedy which trails a transatlantic cabin crew and their two pilots on a flight to New York (and back!).

Jet Set Go! premiered at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and is now back ten years in this revised version.

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SOAPDISH

When Celeste Talbert, long time star of popular day-time soap opera The Sun Also Sets, is targeted by her ambitious younger co-star, a chain of events are set in motion which leads to the dramatic revelation of Celeste’s secret love child.

Based on the infamous 1991 film starring Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Elizabeth Shue, Robert Downey Jr, Whoopi Goldberg and a calling card of cameo appearances.

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THE ASSASSINATION OF KATIE HOPKINS

A shocking crime divides the nation.

Fingers are pointed, sides are drawn, facts are hard to come by.

Why did this happen? How do we move on? What must we remember?


It’s easy to have an opinion online, safe behind the anonymity of a keyboard, just like, share and subscribe. But as the digital mob polish their pitchforks, the world starts to question just how free should free speech be?

***

COLDFRONT

Rosemary and James.

 Every month the same park bench. The same sandwiches made by her mother washed down with the same thermos of tea. The same manual tasks to keep the park in order.

But as the seasons change an unlikely romance slowly blossoms between an autistic weather analyst and a tattooed park attendant.

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EUROBEAT: PRIDE OF EUROPE

The latest iteration of the loving parody of the Eurovision Song Contest. Join our glamorous hostess… or is that a host?!… as she presents another selection of songs.

Who takes the crown? You decide! Will it be the hunky Norwegian Vikings? The Ukrainian cave girl? Or the naughty nuns from Vatican City?

Eurobeat: Pride of Europe is a sequin-soaked satire (with just a pinch of socio-political commentary) of the song contest that unites and defines Europe… Just don’t tell Russia it’s basically another Pride!’

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TYRELL

A septuagenarian femme fatale teaches her gay grandson and politically savvy granddaughter to wield power within a medieval patriarchy.

Welcome to Highgarden, home to Olenna, Loras and Margaery Tyrell.

Commenting on Olenna’s grandmotherly guile, Loras’s closeted double life and Margaery’s objectification, Tyrell imagines what these secondary characters from HBO’s Game of Thrones were thinking all along

A musical parody-prequel to HBO’s Game of Thrones, this one-act chamber piece tells the untold backstory of House Tyrell before the series begins.

***

WORKS OF ART

Struck by the unexpected loss of their Mother, brothers Reid and Jackson are forced to face a world without their biggest champion, most constant lifeline and the heart of their childhood home. Re-navigating their relationship as brothers after Reid’s transition and Jackson’s years away studying, the two must come together in deciding Cassie’s legacy as a painter, a Mother and a woman, and discover the value of true works of art. Works of Art is an intimate new folk musical about grief, new beginnings, and brotherly love.

Work of Art is an intimate new folk musical about grief, new beginnings, and brotherly love.

LISTINGS

MTFestUK 2020

3 – 15 FEBRUARY

THE TURBINE THEATRE

PRESENTED BY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR PAUL TAYLOR-MILLS

Southern Comfort

Monday 3 February: 9pm

Tuesday 4 February: 7pm

Wednesday 5 February: 4pm and 7pm

Directed by Sophia Murphy

Music by Julianne Wick Davis

Book and Lyrics by Dan Collins

Jet Set Go

Monday 3 February: 7pm

Tuesday 4 February: 9pm

Wednesday 5 February: 2pm and 9pm

Directed by Luke Sheppard

Music and Lyrics by Pippa Cleary

Book and Lyrics by Jake Brunger

Soapdish

Thursday 6 February: 9pm

Friday 7 February: 7pm

Saturday 8 February: 4pm and 7pm

Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh

Music by George Stiles

Lyrics by Anthony Drewe

Book by Robert Harling

The Assassination of Katie Hopkins

Thursday 6 February: 7pm

Friday 7 February: 9pm

Saturday 8 February: 2pm and 9pm

Directed by James Grieve

Written by Chris Bush and Matt Winkworth

First presented by Theatre Clwyd

Coldfront

Monday 10 February: 9pm

Tuesday 11 February: 7pm

Wednesday 12 February: 2pm and 7pm

Directed and lyrics by Poppy Burton Morgan

Music by Jason Carr

Eurobeat: Pride of Europe

Monday 10 February: 7pm

Tuesday 11 February: 9pm

Wednesday 12 February: 4pm and 9pm

Directed by Max Bex Roberts

Written by Craig Christie

Tyrell

Thursday 13 February: 9pm

Friday 14 February: 7pm

Saturday 15 February: 4pm and 7pm

Directed by Simon Greiff

Written by Alex Ratner         

Works of Art

Thursday 13 February 7pm

Friday 14 February: 9pm

Saturday 15 February: 2pm and 9pm

Directed by Annabelle Hollingdale

Music and Lyrics Robin Simões Da Silva

Book by Annabel Mutale Reed

Tickets: All tickets£12.50

Running Times: All productions will run between 45-60 minutes.

Address: The Turbine Theatre, Arches Lane, Circus West Village, London, SW11 8AB

Box Office: 0207 851 0300

Website:

MTFestUK.co.uk

TheTurbineTheatre.com

Twitter:

@Fest_MT

@TurbineTheatre

#MTFestUK

#PoweringTheImagination