BLAIR RUSSELL PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCES EXTENSION OF POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!
AT UNDERBELLY BOULEVARD SOHO
Blair Russell Productions today announces a 3-week extension of Pop Off, Michelangelo! by Dylan MarcAurele, now completing its run at Underbelly Boulevard Soho on 13 July.
Joe McNeice directs Aidan MacColl (Leonardo da Vinci), Aoife Haakenson (Mother), Kurran Dhand (Salai), Laura Sillett (Savonarola), Max Eade (Michelangelo), Michael Marouli (Pope), and Sev Keoshgerian (Italian Chef).
www.popoffmichelangelo.com
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Blair Russell Productions present
POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!
By Dylan MarcAurele
Cast: Natalia Brown (Understudy), Kurran Dhand (Salai), Max Eade (Michelangelo),
Aoife Haakenson (Mother), Sev Keoshgerian (Italian Chef), Aidan MacColl (Leonardo da Vinci), Conn McGirr (Dance Captain/Understudy), Michael Marouli (Pope), Laura Sillett (Savonarola)
Keys/MD: Aron Sood; Bass: Felix Barrett; Percussion: Paul J Forster
Director: Joe McNeice; Choreographer & Intimacy Director: Sundeep Saini;
Musical Supervisor & Orchestrations: Aron Sood; Costume Designer: Emily Bestow;Video Designer: PJ McEvoy; Lighting Designer: Adam King; Sound Designer: Ed Lewis;
Casting Director: Sarah-Jane Price;Assistant Choreographer: Conn McGirr;
Dramaturg: Rose Oser; Production Manager: James Anderton;
General Management: Paul Virides Productions; Set Designed in Collaboration Between Joe McNeice, Emily Bestow, and PJ McEvoy
17 May – 22 June 2025
at Underbelly Boulevard Soho
The high-camp musical comedy that stole the Fringe makes its limited West End debut season.
Pop Off, Michelangelo!tells the story of best-pals-turned-bitter-rivals Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. A bloodthirsty friar is on the hunt for homosexuals in Renaissance Italy at the exact moment when childhood friends Mike and Leo realise they both like boys. Terrified, they devise a foolproof plan to gain God’s forgiveness: they simply need to become the greatest religious artists of all time. Can Michelangelo gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss his way to the Vatican? Will Leonardo ever shut up about his helicopter? Featuring an original electropop score as infectious as the bubonic plague, Pop Off, Michelangelo!is an unhinged adventure that you won’t want to miss.
Dylan MarcAurele is a New York-based writer and recent winner of the Jonathan Larson Grant and the Richard Rodgers Award. His credits for Book, Music, and Lyrics include MEG4N (2024 US Tour starring Rosé of RuPaul’s Drag Race), and The Real Housewives of NYC: The Musical (featured on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live). As a composer, his work includes Lewis Loves Clark (NAMT Festival), Tea with G (reading directed by Scott Schwartz), and The Land of Forgotten Toys (Broadway Licensing). In playwriting, his piece God Gives Ryan a Very Important Job premiered at the 2023 Samuel French OOB Festival. MarcAurele has also written music and lyrics for Miley Chase: The Science Ace (Broadway Licensing) and the song “Say Bravo!” (sung by Andy Cohen with the cast of Vanderpump Rules at the Paris Theater, Las Vegas).
Kurran Dhand plays Salai. His theatre credits include Aladdin (Royal Hippodrome Theatre) and Rishi Sunak’s Doing a Musical (Waterloo East Theatre). Dhand graduated from Brighton Academy in 2023.
Max Eade reprises his role as Michelangelo, which was his stage debut. Eade graduated from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in 2024.
Aoife Haakenson plays Mother. Her theatre credits include Six (UK and international tour) and The Crucible (National Theatre); and for television, Downforce.
Sev Keoshgerian plays Italian Chef. His theatre credits include I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical (UK tour), The Rocky Horror Show (European tour), Little Women the Musical (Park Theatre), Little Miss Sunshine (Arcola Theatre), The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) (Above the Stag) and Jack and the Beanstalk (Corn Exchange Newbury).
Aidan MacColl reprises his role as Leonardo. His other theatre credits include The Little Mermaid (UK tour), Jack and the Beanstalk and Beauty and The Beast (Eastwood Park Theatre).
Michael Marouli plays Pope. Marouli is an international drag performer, actor, host, stand-up comedian and show producer. He finished as runner-up in season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and has since toured the world as both a solo artist and with his drag group Angels of the North. He has also starred in BobThe Drag Queen: This is Wild! World Tour (Adelphi Theatre), and guest starred in Paramount Plus’s The Road Trip.
Laura Sillett plays Savonarola. Her theatre credits include Barnum, Sweet Charity, Assassins (The Watermill Theatre), Ordinary People (The Farnham Maltings), Sunday in the Park with George (Mill Studio, Guildford), Hair, Dreamboats & Miniskirts (UK tour), A Night at the Oscars (Upstairs at The Gatehouse), The Selfish Giant (Vaudeville Theatre and Royal & Derngate, Northampton), Footloose (UK and international tour), The Railway Children (Electric Theatre, Guildford), Dick Whittington, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), Dick Whittington, Robin Hood & Babes in the Wood and Jack & The Beanstalk (Gatehouse Theatre); and for film, Matilda.
Joe McNeice directs. He is the founding Artistic Director of the Lavender Theatre and the founder of Lavender Productions Ltd. In 2023, he launched the 250-seat open-air Lavender Theatre in Epsom, opening the venue with a revival of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, starring Eurovision’s SuRie. His other directing credits include DIVA: Live From Hell! (Turbine Theatre), DIVA (King’s Head Theatre and Underbelly Cowgate). As a producer and writer, he co-wrote and produced the 2020 charity Christmas single Christmas Again: The Show Must Go On! for the Theatre Support Fund+, and worked on Magic Mike Live (US tour). He is also the creator of On Hope, A Digital Song Cycle, and co-wrote the full-length musical Twilight Robbery with composer Matthew Spalding. Writing credits include Songs in the Key of Springfield, Des Ludo’s Good Clean Fun, and Sugar and Smoke, all performed at the University of York.
Listings Information
POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!
Underbelly Boulevard Soho
6 Walker’s Court, Soho, London W1F 0BT
Box Office: 0207 432 3860
TICKETS
£15-65, previews £10-35.
17 May to 13 July
Performances Tuesday to Friday at 7pm
Performances on Saturday at 3pm and 7pm
Performances on Sunday, 2pm and 6pm