12th July – BEN AND HOLLY’S LITTLE KINGDOM
July 12, 2019 – On the stage – for three days – BEN & HOLLY’S LITTLE KINGDOM, somewhere, hidden amongst the thorny brambles is a little kingdom where everyone is very very small…From the makers of Peppa Pig comes this BAFTA award-winning television animation live on stage! Holly is a young Fairy Princess, who is still learning how to fly and her magic doesn’t always go quite according to plan. Her best friend, Ben the Elf, doesn’t have wings and he doesn’t do magic, but he runs very fast and flies on the back of Gaston the Ladybird. They live in the Little Kingdom, a tiny land where flowers and grass rise high above them and every day is an adventure. Ben and Holly have fun and games helping Gaston the Ladybird clean up his messy cave, they go on a trip into The Big World with tooth-fairy Nanny Plum, even plan a surprise birthday party for King Thistle, and oops, let’s hope there’s not another jelly flood! A musical adventure packed full of games, songs and laughter on an enchanting journey through the Magical Kingdom. With actors, masks and colourful costumes this beautiful story of elves, princesses and childhood innocence is set to delight all the family.
15th July – MINISTRY OF SCIENCE – LIVE
July 15, 2019 – On the stage – for one day only – MINISTRY OF SCIENCE: LIVE – is not your ordinary science show – it comes with a bang. It comes with a whoosh. But most of all is comes with a hovercraft built on stage…. Oh, and a Human Cannon too! This new production takes an anarchic approach to science communication whilst looking at the inventors and engineers who have shaped and inspired the modern world that we live in. From Liquid Nitrogen frozen flowers to Hydrogen Bottle Rockets. From Buzz Aldrin to Virgin Galactic. From a cat food tin to the Hovercraft. From the discovery of Methane to the invention of the Battery. Join the super talented presenters and the voiceover from above (X Factor’s Peter Dickson) as they take you on a journey using brilliantly designed demonstrations with a few loud bangs to lead the way. Fingers in ears advised….
16th July – ROCK OF AGES
July 16, 2019 – On the stage for five days – ROCK OF AGES. Strictly Come Dancing 2018 Winner Kevin Clifton plays the lead role of ‘Stacee Jaxx’. The internationally renowned dancer swapped the Ballroom for the ‘Bourbon Club’ when he plays alongside Kevin Kennedy, Zoe Birkett, Jodie Steele, Luke Walsh, Lucas Rush, Andrew Carthy, Vas Constanti and Rhiannon Chesterman in the ultimate ’80s rock ‘n’ roll musical. Rock of Ages is an LA love story lavished with over 25 classic rock anthems. Lose yourself in a city and a time where the dreams are as big as the hair, and yes, they can come true! This hilarious musical comedy will have you singing and laughing along with its epic songs played loud and proud by an awesome live band. Now a global smash with hit seasons on Broadway, London’s West End and Las Vegas and a star-studded Hollywood movie version, we promise you the biggest party in town!
21st July – THE GREATEST SHOWMAN
July 21, 2019 – on the screen – for one day – THE GREATEST SHOWMAN; SING-A-LONG. Singalonga Productions, producers of Singalonga Sound of Music and Singalonga GREASE brings you their newest show, the smash hit film musical that everyone can’t stop singing – The Greatest Showman! Audiences were encouraged to cheer on Hugh Jackman, lust after Zach Efron and hiss Rebecca Ferguson (…or maybe not) as you experience The Greatest Showman in the greatest way possible – with lyrics on the screen so you can join in as loud as you want. The live host will teach you a unique set of dance moves that will truly make you come alive. As they show you how to use the interactive prop bags, you also get to practice your cheers, your boos and even a few wolf whistles. Then you can sit back and relax and sing and dance along to the lyrics on screen. YOU the audience will rewrite the stars! It couldn’t be easier or more fun! The first rule of Sing-a-long-a is THERE ARE NO RULES! Fancy dress is strongly encouraged and full audience participation essential.
Please note this is a screening of the movie not a live stage show
22nd July – CLUB TROPICANA
On the stage – for six days – CLUB TROPICANA. From the producers of the UK tour of Hairspray. The cast is led by Joe McElderry (X Factor winner and star of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and this year’s Mayflower pantomime ), Neil McDermott (Ryan Malloy in EastEnders, Eugenius!), Kate Robbins (Spitting Image, ITV’s The Imitation Game, Dinnerladies), Emily Tierney (Eugenius!, Wicked, The Wizard of Oz); and former Sugababe star Amelle Berrabah, making her musical theatre debut. Take a trip back to the electric 80s and embark on a summer of love and smash-hit classics! Welcome to the Club Tropicana Hotel- the 1980s answer to Love Island- where the drinks are free and the whole family is invited to join the ultimate holiday musical, celebrating all that we love about the 80s. Set to the most iconic pop anthems of the era, performed live on stage, including: Just Can’t Get Enough, Take On Me, The Look of Love, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Relax and many more!
28th July – CLOSED
16th August – PETER PAN: AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE
On the stage – for two days – PETER PAN – AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE – MAYFLOWER SUMMER YOUTH PROJECT – 292 young local talented performers auditioned in February for 160 spaces in this Mayflower Summer Youth Project. The chosen company spent two weeks in the theatre at the beginning of August rehearsing, with the project culminating in 3 performances of Peter Pan on the Mayflower Theatre stage in the 2300 seat auditorium. This production was specially written for the Summer Youth Project cast adapted from JM Barrie’s wonderful play and features a score with a mix of songs from musicals and recent chart hits.
Mayflower Theatre Chief Executive said, “After last year’s success with our sell-out production of Les Misérables School Edition, we wanted to offer a very different style of show for 2019. Our version of Peter Pan features a large number of local young people and I am delighted that almost half those cast are working with us for the first time. While the show is based on JM Barrie’s original script we have added our own spin on it”.
The titular role of Peter was played by Jordan Cambridge-Taylor, Captain Hook was played by Charlie Steggall, Tinker Bell was Isabelle Hepburn and Wendy was Emily Lucas. Peter, Wendy, Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys battle the pirates and the evil Captain Hook in the classic story of the boy who never grew up. This family adventure which celebrates the joy of being young and never wanting to grow up. To Live is an Awfully Big Adventure.
20th August – CANCELLED – DOCTOR DOLITTLE
August 20, 2019 – for TWO weeks – CANCELLED – DOCTOR DOLITTLE – MAYFLOWER – Following the success of their 2017 tour of The Addams Family, Music and Lyrics in association with the Churchill Theatre Bromley were to present DOCTOR DOLITTLE as part of the UK Tour which set off in November 2018 with comedian Mark Williams in the title role. The tour was cancelled and closed at the end of its run at the New Theatre, Oxford, on Saturday 26 January 2019. The company cited lower than anticipated advance ticket sales for the reason to cancel the tour.
This left the Mayflower with a two week slot to fill in the middle of the busy holiday season.
20th August – SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
On the stage – for five days – SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER – returned to the Maylfower for the fifth time. But this time was different, the show had a completely new production, with a storyline more akin to the film, an accomplished musical theatre choreographer, a cast that could act and a completely different take on how the score should be delivered. The director Bill Kenwright has a finger on the pulse of his audiences, knows his music and how it should be delivered. All this made for a highly enjoyable evening. The lead, Richard Winsor, made you forget about John Travolta as Tony Manero, his was a spellbinding performance. Poor publicity, both locally and nationally meant that the show didn’t reach its potential audience.
Read our review of the show – https://overtures.org.uk/?p=18528
27th August – AVENUE Q
On the stage – for five days – AVENUE Q. Following five years in the WestEnd, sell-out runs worldwide and smash hit tours in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016 (packed with mischief, bad behaviour and political incorrectness!) makes a fourth visit to the Mayflower Theatre. The Tony Award-winning Musical, created by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, Co-creator of Book of Mormon and writer of the songs for Disney’s Frozen, is an irresistibly charming tale of the loveable characters on a downtown New York street trying to make sense of life’s burning issues. Meet Princeton, a bright-eyed graduate who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. Brian the out-of-work comedian and his therapist fiancée Christmas Eve; Nicky the good-hearted slacker and his closet gay Republican roommate Rod, an Internet ‘sexpert’ called Trekkie Monster, Lucy the Sl*t (the name says it all!) and a very cute kindergarten teacher named Kate Monster. Featuring hysterically funny songs including The Internet is for Porn and Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist, Avenue Q is a hilarious musical with a warm (and very fuzzy) heart.
Cast includes Megan Armstrong, Jasmine Beel, Ellis Dackombe, Chloe Gentles, Nicholas Mclean, Robbie Noonan, Saori Oda, Cecily Redman, Lawrence Smith, Oliver Stanley and Tom Steedon
Avenue Q first opened Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in 2003, before transferring to Broadway later that year where it won three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. In 2006 it transferred to the West End where it ran for five years before touring the UK. It has appeared in more than ten countries all over the world.
Avenue Q is produced by Selladoor Worldwide (producers of Footloose, Little Shop of Horrors, Flashdance – The Musical and Fame – The Musical), Showtime Theatre Productions and in association with Richard Darbourne Limited – Avenue Q is directed and choreographed by Cressida Carré, designed by Richard Evans, Lighting Designed by Charlie Morgan Jones and Sound Designed by Chris Bogg. Puppets are designed by Paul Jomain of Q Puppets with Puppet Coaching by Nigel Plaskitt.
Read our review of the show – https://overtures.org.uk/?p=18590
3rd September – KINKY BOOTS
On The Stage – for ELEVEN days – KINKY BOOTS – MAYFLOWER – With songs by Grammy® and Tony® winning pop icon Cyndi Lauper, Kinky Boots takes you from the factory floor to the glamorous catwalks of Milan. It tells the story of Charlie Price who is struggling to live up to his father’s expectations and continue the family business of Price & Son. With the shoe factory’s future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola – a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos. Kayi Ushe put on the boots to play Lola. He was joined by Paula Lane as Lauren and Joel Harper-Jackson, who recently starred in the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time UK tour, as Charlie Price. The Hollywood News review said “Inspired by true events, this joyous story of Brit grit to high-heeled hit is the ‘Freshest, most fabulous, feel-good musical of the decade”.
15th September – RUSSELL KANE
On the stage – for one night – RUSSELL KANE – A “fast, mental, neurotic bastard” is how Russell Kane described himself – and there’s no sign the 43-year-old will be slowing down any time soon. Yes, he’s moved to Cheshire, fathered a child and is now hobnobbing with Prince Charles – but in this new touring show, his standup is as much of a whirlwind as when he won the Edinburgh comedy award almost a decade before. This show, THE FAST & THE CURIOUS is his first visit to the Mayflower and is bound together only by its cast of recurring characters, the most prominent being Kane himself – an impatient southerner transplanted to the north, a highly strung husband tethered to a carefree wife, and a slave to the cacophonous overthinking going on inside his head. An opening 10 minutes on our EU turmoil – from the “bi-Brexional” perspective of a working-class boy turned liberal elitist – whets the appetite for a show that doesn’t materialise. What we get instead is not Kane’s most ambitious set – but plenty of laughs are won as he brings marriage, early parenthood and the provinces to Looney Tunes life.
17th September – AN INSPECTOR CALLS
On the stage – for five days – AN INSPECTOR CALLS – J.B. Priestley’s 1945 drama “An Inspector Calls,” as revived by director Stephen Daldry, offers a biting criticism of capitalist hypocrisy and class divisions, disguised at first as an Edwardian mystery. But alas, our national circumstance makes it seem like docudrama. Consider the characters: a blustery, truth-allergic businessman, his imperious wife, his pathetic son (named Eric!), his beautiful, privileged daughter and his scheming son-in-law (to be). Consider the toll they take on the less fortunate, and the way their lives are thrown into turmoil by the arrival of a tall, implacable, formally dressed investigator. We might as well call it — spoiler alert — “An Inspector Calls . . . And Ivanka Gets Woke.”This is a flippant take, of course, but it can’t help but run through your mind as you watch this vivid touring production. This is Daldry’s remounting of his much-lauded 1990s revival, and the highly stylised production adds to the eeriness of Priestley’s parable. In this production Liam Brennan plays ‘Inspector Goole’, Christine Kavanagh ‘Mrs Birling’, Jeff Harmer ‘Mr Birling’, Alisdair Buchan ‘Gerald Croft’, Chloe Orrock ‘Sheila Birling’, Ryan Saunders ‘Eric Birling’ and Diana Payne-Myers ‘Edna’. The cast is completed by Michael Ross, Portia Booroff, Elissa Churchill and Jonathan Davenport.
24th September – MATTHEW BOURNE’S ROMEO & JULIET
On the stage – for FIVE days – MATTHEW BOURNE’S ROMEO & JULIET. When most people sit down and think of Romeo and Juliet, images of warring families spring to mind. They might be in Shakespeare’s traditional version, or Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet, or Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirelli’s films. Even if they’re living in a dystopia such as Mats Ek’s Romeo & Juliet or in the tougher boroughs of New York in West Side Story, the essential lineaments of the story of young lovers kept apart by the forces of society around them will remain the same. The wrenching shock of MATTHEW BOURNE’S ROMEO & JULIET, set in the white-tiled Verona Institute, where groups of young people are drilled and drugged into conformist submission, is how huge a leap of imagination he has made. Just as Terry Davies’s reconfiguring of Prokofiev’s score makes the familiar sound strange and edgy, Bourne’s approach lets an overworked story take on a different life. The approach is visceral and ferociously on the side of the young people at its heart, which is appropriate since one of the features of this production is that it deliberately showcases dancers who are at the start of their careers, and each member of the creative team is also shadowed by a young artist.
29th September – RAMESH RANGANATHAN
Live on stage – one night only – ROMESH RANGANATHAN THE CYNIC’S MIXTAPE – Romesh Ranganathan is a 41 year old British stand-up comedian and actor. He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2013 Edinburgh Comedy Awards. He has made numerous appearances on comedy panel shows. He is known for his deadpan comedy. In 2016, he completed his first major tour, Irrational Live, in which he performed in large venues such as the Hammersmith Apollo. Ranganathan also joined A League of Their Own as a regular panellist in 2018, replacing Jack Whitehall. His autobiography is titled Straight Outta Crawley.
This tour ‘The Cynic’s Mixtape’ marks his first visit to the Mayflower and it was a sell-out performance.
