Award-winning music producer MNEK announced as
part of team of new West End musical
WHY AM I SO SINGLE?
Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0HH
From Tuesday 27th August 2024
The internationally acclaimed music artist and record producer MNEK has been announced as part of the powerhouse music production team of the highly anticipated new West End musical, WHY AM I SO SINGLE? From Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the multi-award winning writers of SIX the Musical, this new musical comedy is a love letter to ‘the messy, magical lives of the city’s unmatched and unattached’ (Vogue). As a treat for fans as the show opens, one of the catchy numbers from the soundtrack, C U Never, is being released as a rehearsal video on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts.
MNEK is a Grammy and Brit Award-nominated singer/songwriter and producer, who has worked with Beyoncé, Stormzy, Selena Gomez, Dua Lipa, Madonna and FLO among many others, with hits including Blinded By Your Grace, Ready For Your Love and The Lead. He has been a coach and guest judge on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and established a songwriting camp for LGBTQ+ singer/songwriters with Pride in Music, and contributes to the Guardian UK diversity panel. They are part of the amazing music production team of WHY AM I SO SINGLE?, including orchestrations, vocal arrangements and musical supervision by Grammy and Olivier Award nominated Joe Beighton (SIX the Musical, West End; 42 Balloons, The Lowry), and music production and additional orchestrations by Future Cut (Rihanna, Shakira, Lily Allen, Tom Jones).
Future Cut and MNEK bring their popstar experience and unrivalled producing talent to the team, bringing to life high quality pop numbers in WHY AM I SO SINGLE? at the Garrick Theatre!
This new production from Marlow and Moss follows two best friends through the ups, and mostly downs, of their dating lives in the era of Tinder (and Bumble and Grindr and Hinge). This hilarious big fancy musical will have audiences grabbing their best mates or a hot date and heading to the West End this autumn!
The rehearsal video of C U Never brings fans into the behind-the-scenes process of making this all-new, big fancy musical and gives them an exclusive sneak peek of the show!
Jo Foster (& Juliet; Just For One Day, West End) and Leesa Tulley (SIX, UK tour; Kin, Theatro Technis) play the leading – and eternally single – besties. They are joined by Noah Thomas
(Everything Now, Netflix; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, West End), who plays the honest friend we all love and need in our lives.
The alternate Oliver and Nancy are Jordan Cambridge-Taylor (Schwartz at 75, Lyric Theatre) and Collette Guitart (Just For One Day, Old Vic). The ensemble cast are Jemima Brown (Critics’ Circle National Dance Award-nominated, Tom Dale Company), Josh Butler (Bronco Billy, Charing Cross Theatre), Natasha Leaver (Hamilton, West End), Ran Marner (Jack and the Beanstalk, Imagine Theatre), Jamel Matthias and Olivia O’Connor in their professional and West End debuts, Joshian Angelo Omaña (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, West End), Natasha Wilde (42 Balloons, The Lowry) and Rhys Wilkinson (Just For One Day, Old Vic).
The swings are Callum Bell (Guys & Dolls, Bridge Theatre), Owen McHugh (Clueless The Musical, Churchill Theatre) and Caitlin Redpath in her West End debut, and Ebony Clarke (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, West End), who is also the Resident Choreographer.
WHY AM I SO SINGLE? features a score of original songs by the dynamic, award-winning writing team of Marlow & Moss. From catchy pop songs that you won’t be able to stop singing, hilarious pastiches of well-known musicals, dazzling disco anthems and orchestral epics, Marlow & Moss’ score will capture audiences’ hearts – and ears – this autumn.
The production is directed by Lucy Moss; with choreography by Ellen Kane (Matilda the Musical, Working Title Films; Dear England, National Theatre/West End); set design by Moi Tran (A Play for the Living in A Time of Extinction, Barbican; Peaky Blinders, Rambert); costume design by Max Johns (Choir Boy, Bristol Old Vic, As You Like It, Shakespeare’s Globe); lighting design by Jai Morjaria (My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) and Accidental Death of an Anarchist, West End); and sound design by Grammy and Tony Award-nominated Paul Gatehouse (The Little Big Things, @SohoPlace; Mandela, Young Vic). The production manager is Phoebe Bath (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Birmingham Rep; Noises Off, West End and UK tour) with the casting direction from Harry Blumenau and Sarah-Jane Price from Harry Blumenau Casting (Death Note, West End; Derren Brown’s Showman, Apollo Theatre).
WHY AM I SO SINGLE? is produced by Kenny Wax, George Stiles and Ameena Hamid.
Kenny Wax is a past President of the Society of London Theatre (SOLT). He has 35 years of experience working across award-winning and hit shows in the West End, on Broadway and all over the world. His work includes Mischief productions The Play That Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong and Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle, Marlow and Moss’ Tony Award winning global hit SIX currently running in London, New York, Toronto, and on a UK and North American tour, and Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World, based on the book by Kate Pankhurst, is running at The Other Palace. Kenny’s Olivier Award winning shows include Top Hat, Once On This Island, Hey Duggee and The Worst Witch. He is thrilled to be a Producer on Toby and Lucy’s second show.
Ameena Hamid is a producer and general manager who was named Best Producer at the Black British Theatre Awards 2022 for her work on the critically acclaimed production of The Wiz. Hamid is just 24 and having started her West End career in 2020, she is the youngest producer to work on the West End. Producer Credits include: Woman Life Freedom! (GDIF); Invisible (59E59TH); The Wiz (Hope Mill Theatre). Co Producer and Associate Producer credits include: Bonnie & Clyde (Garrick Theatre & UK Tour); Dick Whittington (Phoenix Theatre); Death Drop (Criterion Theatre and Garrick Theatre).
George Stiles is a multi-award-winning writer who has worked on Honk! (National Theatre/UK Tour and Worldwide); Mary Poppins (West End, Broadway, International and UK Tour) and Cameron Mackintosh’s new version of Half A Sixpence (Chichester Festival Theatre and West End). George is also one of the producers of SIX, a journey that has brought him deep joy, helping to guide Marlow & Moss’ breakout hit around the world. With his writing partner, Anthony Drewe, his passion for nurturing new musical theatre is celebrated through the annual Stiles+Drewe Prize.