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What's going on with BURLESQUE? | The truth behind the West End musical backstage drama rumours
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- [00:00]
Ben
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- [00:30]
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- [01:27]
Mickey Jo
As I sit here right now, the official opening night performance of the musical at the Savoy Theatre in the west end is about 18 and a half hours away. However, all being well, at the exact moment that this was released onto the Internet, the opening night performance is just beginning. And all being well, I myself will be at the Savoy Theatre getting ready to watch the musical for the very first time. Within a few hours, reviews will be released from all the major publications and within 24 hours mine ought to be joining them. And yet, regardless of what the critical verdict is, and regardless also of whether or not the show goes on to sell very well for its limited summer run, there is one thing that Burlesque isn't going to be able to compete with, and that is the show going on behind the show. And it's a story which has been developing for a while. It's a story which has not yet finished. And it's also a story which we are not yet able to fully tell. But here today, to the best of my ability and within the careful confines of defamation law, I am going to let you know what's been going on backstage at Burlesque. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. That was a very intense introduction, wasn't it? If you are meeting me for the first time, my name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre not just that, but I am a lifelong theatre fan. And not just that. I'm also a professional theatre critic and content creator here on social media. And for some time now people have all been asking me the same one question. Mickey Jones, when are you getting a haircut? I know, I know. Listen, I appreciate we've reached the point where it looks a little like if Wolverine was one of the original Charlie's Angels and rest assured an appointment is booked. But the follow up question that I usually get afterwards is this. What the hell is going on backstage at Burlesque? And alongside getting that question, I have also been part of several conversations in person, at shows, at after parties, at events, online, in the DMs, and I have been hearing all sorts of much of which I am not at liberty to repeat in this video. Not because I don't think it's important to talk about these things, not because I don't think it's of public interest and it's relevant to, you know, a conversation about things that happen in the theatre industry, but because I may enjoy musicals and I may even enjoy talking about musicals, but my absolute favourite thing is not getting sued for talking about musicals. And honestly, after last year when I nearly had to commence legal action against an unnamed musical theatre icon, I just don't have the strength. In late summer, the Edinburgh Fringes night, I can't be getting sued right now. It's too much. And so rather than sharing a whole handful of juicy details, instead we are going to talk about everything that has been publicly said and reported and shared and everything that is just objective fact about what is happening with Burlesque the musical in the West End, as well as a little bit of insight from me which I don't think is going to get me in trouble. But for what it's worth, if the whole Cinderella, bad Cinderella saga taught me anything, it's this. When any show is creating these kinds of conversations, this isn to be the last time I'm talking about it. And if you want to make sure you stay up to date with everything I have to say about Burlesque and all of the other musicals happening in the West End and on Broadway, make sure you're subscribed to my theatre themed YouTube channel or following me on podcast platforms. Also, my Burlesque review is hopefully going to be dropping within the next 24 hours. I have no idea. I'm fascinated right now as past Mickey Joe to know what current Mickey Joe out there in London is thinking of the show this very minute. Soon enough we will all have the answer. Make sure you turn on notifications so you don't miss that review. In the meantime, time, let's talk about everything else that's going on behind the scenes. Allegedly. So let's begin with a quick summary of everything which we already knew. Burlesque is a stage adaptation of the 2010 film of the same name. This production is being produced by Stephen Antin along with Christina Aguilera. She of course starred in the film alongside Cher and the Heir above the Club, which had a pivotal role. Also Stanley Tucci can't forget the Tucci alongside the film's director and writer Stephen Antsc, and a UK based production company called Adama. They used to be called D Lab. There's a whole nother story there. Now, the musical received its world premiere production last year at the Manchester Opera House in June. It subsequently played a run in Glasgow and then returned to Manchester later in the year. It initially had sold very, very well and on the back of that success, unsurprisingly, they began looking for a West End venue. Now I have previously shared an unreported tidbit that at one point they were hoping to find a home in the London Colosseum, where the Great Gatsby is currently playing an intimidatingly large venue. But what I hear after they weren't able to secure a run at that venue is that they were next looking at a very different one, the Peacock Theatre. Now if this isn't a West End theatre that you've heard of, it's because it doesn't really have the same profile as many of the others. Though it is technically a West End theatre, more often than not it is a location for dance related programming as part of Sadler's Wells. It is also used as an educational facility and is occasionally the home to touring productions that pass through London, particularly particularly those that are dance focused. And my understanding is that Burlesque may even have been scheduled for a run at the Peacock Theatre in September of this year 2025. However, with the early closure of Mean Girls at the Savoy Theatre, suddenly that became available. Very possibly it was between Burlesque and another show which I'd heard at the time was Kinky Boots. As to who was going to get the slot at the Savoy and who was going to get the slot at the Peacock. And as it happens, Kinky Boots has now opted for the other theatre we were just talking about, the London Coliseum, but going to wait until 2026. In any case, Burlesque is now opening at the Savoy for a Strictly limited run. Limited because there is another musical heading to the same venue later this year. A very different show, tonally speaking, Paddington the musical produced by Sonja Friedman. A show which I suspect is set to be one of the biggest hits that we have seen in the West End for a very long time. But in the meantime, a transfer of burlesque or is it a transfer? Because prior to burlesque, even beginning rehearsals for its London run, there was some eye widening news about shifts in the show's creat. Now, when it was in Manchester and Glasgow, it had been led by director Nick Winston. He had also choreographed with Robin Antin serving as an associate choreographer. Robin Antin, the sister of Stephen Antin, with costume design by Ryan Dawson, late scenic design by Sutra Gilmour, sound design by Ben Harrison and lighting design by Jack Knowles. At this point it will also become pertinent to let you know about the principal cast for that production. So at that time the Cher role was being played by Ex Elphaba Jackie Burns with newcomer Jess Foley as the Christina role. Ali Rose. Now she was discovered when she was brought on as a songwriter and she then later got the part of Ali in that capacity. She's not the only one wearing multiple hats because Todrick hall was also cast in the Stanley Tucci role as well as being one of the show's co songwriters. Now after generally pretty positive audience word of mouth from that regional production, here is where it starts to get a little bit interesting. Because during that run, not only did one of the producers from Adama leave not only the show, but the entire production company. Todrick hall also shared on social media that director Nick Winston had conspicuously unfollowed all of the cast. And there being no Smoke Without Fire, by the time Burlesque was announced for the West End, Nick Winston and his full creative team were no longer attached to the production. And instead who would be directing and choreographing? Well, none other than Todrick hall himself, now wearing four different hats, that is writer, director, actor and choreographer. And I may be no milliner, but that's an awful lot of hats. Now Ben Harrison remains a sound designer, but with many new creatives brought in along. Aaron Renfri has been brought in as an associate choreographer to help Todrick wear carry all of the hats. Nate Bertone, a set designer whose work I have been noticing recently for its extraordinary quality, has been brought in as the set designer and already from model boxes and from things he'd shared on social media prior to previews beginning, it was clear this was going to be an incredibly different design, going from this sort of lighting, heavy scaffolding aesthetic that Sutra Gilmour had designed to something a lot more classic and lush and wood paneled with curtains. Very interesting. And in another big move for costume design, from the brilliant Ryan Dawson late to Marco Marco, much more known for their work in the queer fashion world and the drag scene, but recently having designed the costumes for Drag the musical Off Broadway. So a big shuffle of the creative team, one that was interpreted by some people at the time as Todrick hall taking the opportunity to take over the show, which I think is a disingenuous bad faith interpretation of what actually happened here. And I think we can certainly to a certain extent read into creative differences that may have taken place during the regional run. But what we do know is that Todrick hall has since shared in an interview with Cat McKinsey for broadwayworld.com that their ambition, presumably after the departure of Nick Winston, had actually been to recruit the brilliant director and choreographer Christopher Catelli, known for his choreography of Newsies, as well as his direction and choreography of the current Broadway hit Death Becomes Her. However, Todrick also shared that the schedule for the production moved up unexpectedly, that it became for them to arrive in London much earlier than they had originally planned. I do believe that that is the Savoy availability instead of the Peacock run, and that Christopher Catelli was no longer available and as such somebody had to step up and be the director and somebody had to do that. And Todrick hall, admittedly throughout his career has served in that capacity, at least for his own productions, if not for a full musical theatre piece. All of which begins to sound like the ingredients for a very stressful situation. But shows have been born out of similar cha. The question became what would actually happen when they got back into rehearsals and indeed when preview.
- [11:19]
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- [12:16]
Mickey Jo
Who's began so a few weeks ago the show began preview performances at the Savoy Theater. Jackie Burns no longer playing the role. Instead she is back in the US playing Grizabella in a regional production of Cat Orfe. Broadway star Orfeh instead is now playing the Cher role, whose name I don't remember from the movie, other than the Cher role in Burlesque, with a handful of other company members having also departed the production. Now, while the shifting creatives may have thrown up a couple of red flags, it's what happened at the first preview performance that really got London theatre goers paying attention to this show for some of the wrong reasons and having not been in attendance myself. Now, to my extraordinary regret, I am going to be reading from a post made on Reddit which, while it is admittedly not the most robust and fact checked source of news, echoes things that have been shared all across the Internet. So I am now quoting I've just left the Savoy after seeing Burlesque the musical. Yes, you read that correctly. It's 11:30pm and I have just left the venue. The show itself was okay, I guess I would urge you to disregard any review based commentary made in this because it was a first preview performance and that's not what we do at first previews. Feel free to wait the 24 hours for my review, but it had no business being three hours long including intermission. I got to the theater at around 7pm and was stuck in a queue for 40 minutes. No explanation as to why this could have been. Once I entered the theatre we were basically sat waiting for what felt like forever. And at around 8:10pm One of the creatives of the show made an announcement, something about this being their second dress rehearsal and that they wouldn't be in full costume. The show started maybe around 8:15 and the musical itself didn't end till about 11:15 25. According to London Theatre, the show is meant to be 2 hours 25 minutes including an intermission. Now, among the comments below, somebody had shared a screenshot that Todrick hall had posted to his own socials calling out for talented seamstresses for an upcoming project. Must be London based and available tonight. Making the word upcoming there something of a euphemism admittedly. Please DM me if you're interested. Also, if anyone here is an airbrush artist, I have some jeans I need paint it now. According to UK theatre industry fixture and blogger Carl Woodward for his own website, MrCarlWoodward.com part of the delay can be attributed to the fact that costumes were unfinished and cast members had been asked to buy their own costumes from Primark as well as working unpaid overtime, allegedly. And in that same Reddit post, there was shared underneath in a comment a list of songs from the first preview performance, notably excluding the Diane Warren written song, you haven't seen. The Last of Me, of course, famously sung in the film by Cher and also heard on stage in the Cher show, prompting music legend Diane Warren to take to Instagram to repost a story created by a UK theatre blogger who was shocked at the song not being part of the show. And Diane Warren was echoing the disappointment of that sentiment in a since deleted Instagram post. This is where it gets quite interesting. So the post Diane Warren was sharing said this it appears that Burlesque is no longer an adaptation and more lightly inspired by the movie. Based on what I've been told by multiple attendees, the cast who didn't move from Manchester with the show have had a very lucky escape. Cutting you haven't seen the Last of Me though these reviews are going to be very telling. Diane Warren captured this repost, which I believe was from stagey reviews on Instagram, and tagged a handful of other accounts, including Cher, and she went on to do some sharing of her own in the comments. When asked why would you cut the best and biggest song from the show? Diane replied, um, haha, right. And in response to another comment which read, what a horrible choice that'd be like seeing the Dirty Dancing musical and not hearing had the time of my life at that iconic moment who made this awful choice? Diane Warren, underneath the since deleted post replied, the same guy who hated it and tried to take it out of the movie, Steve Antin, who I will remind you is the writer and producer of the stage adaptation and was also the writer and director of the film. Diane went on to say, I forgot to thank him when I won the Golden Globe for it with two tongues out emojis, but the ones with the eyes wide open, two of those just straight in a row. Now. Like I said, all of this since deleted from Instagram and according to Steve Antin himself, you haven't seen the Last of Me is back in the show. Now. He didn't necessarily acknowledge putting it back in the show, but in response response to reports that have been made about Burlesque's potential backstage drama more recently, he commented beneath to let them know that the song was in fact in the show and it'll be interesting to find out whether it's still in there for press night. Based on the fact that Diane Warren hasn't put the post back up, you'd assume that it probably is now. As a reminder, at the same time, I was receiving plenty of messages, the nature of which and the details of which I will not be able to share in this particular update. But there has been something of a breakthrough in this story. But before we talk about that, I do want to acknowledge that a preview period is the time when a show is allowed to go through changes, and audiences shouldn't necessarily arrive at a first preview performance expecting everything to go swimmingly, expecting it to necessarily start on time or run to the advertised duration or to be a completely finished product. That being said, when one of the producers shared some frustrations perhaps around this on social media, and said something to the effect of I feel like audiences don't know what previews are for anymore with preview capitalized. From what I recall, my immediate response, which I thought but didn't type, was that only really applies when previews are priced differently. And to my mind, it's not just about previews being like £10 per ticket band cheaper than the shows post opening night, which, from what I can tell, I'm not even sure that Burlesque actually is pricing them at any lower price point. But for me, the way I see it, there probably ought to be a ceiling as to how much you can charge for a preview performance if the show is inherently unfinished and that ceiling feels like 75 pounds for premium seating and various different prices cascading down from there. That's my perception of it, at least. Now, admittedly, sometimes you go to an early preview performance and it's basically a finished product already, and you probably could sell those tickets for considerably more. But that is a risk that you take as a producer when you price the thing, and when you charge high prices for previews, you sort of lose the moral high ground that you then try to claim subsequently in saying, well, they were previews and you shouldn't be expecting it to be, you know, ready for a paying audience. But preview drama aside, in the last few days more has come to light about whatever is going on at Burlesque and here.
- [18:49]
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- [19:19]
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- [20:15]
Mickey Jo
Here it is now. This story was broken by Matt Hemley at the so we're going to read from their article first and it's reasonably short news article, but it does sort of seem to suggest that more is coming on that front. So we are all going to have to stay just so tuned. So very tuned. So here it is and the title is Burlesque Musical in Spotlight as issues are flagged with Equity Performers in the West End production of Burlesque are being supported by Equity. That's of course the actors union over a number of issues that have been flagged within the union. A number of issues uses in quotation marks implying multiple things going on. Equity confirmed to the stage that it was engaging with both its members and the producers after concerns were raised with the union. Although the union would not confirm the precise nature of the issues raised, the Stage understands they relate to working hours and conditions, as well as problems with costumes, which is as much as we heard suggested previously. The stage understands some of the production's costumes were not ready when the production began performances at the Savoy Theatre earlier this month. Month and an Equity spokesperson said Equity is engaging with both members and the producers over a number of issues that have been raised with us. Our West End official is in close contact with members and members can seek further support by contacting Equity Direct as needed. The article then goes on to reflect on the changes in creative team which we have already discussed, as well as sharing that the producers declined to comment. And if you want to read the full piece, you can go and check that out on the Stage's website and you can probably expect that as and when there is an update about Equity's involvement with this, you are likely likely to hear it in the stage first. But that won't stop other places talking about it, because very shortly afterwards whatsonstage.com ran a very similar story, adding a note to the comments which Todrick hall had made in the Broadway World. Interview sharing hall claimed that the show's run at the Savoy Theatre was not the original plan, saying at the last minute we move from one theatre to a new theater that had a date open up earlier than expected. This move, according to hall, also scuppered plans to invite director and choreographer Chris Catelli onto the project project in some capacity. Hall therefore states that he got the role of director and choreographer accidentally. This article by Watson Stage Managing Editor Alex Wood also points out that the show, though having been well received by audiences during its regional runs, had not at that point been reviewed by national critics as they were developmental tryouts. He goes on to share as highlighted by the Stage, Famed songwriter Diane Warren was previously listed as contributing tunes to the musical, but has since been removed from the show's website site in the last two months. And it is to that and only that that Stephen Antin publicly responded on social media saying hi there and thank you for the article, exclamation mark. Heart Emoji Just a friendly correction. Diane Warren's song Last of Me is in the show. Many of the new costumes are in the show, we're in previews and more fabulous costumes coming for the gala slash press night. Come join the fun and see the show. Heart emoji clap clap clap. And sure enough, like I said, I am now hearing reports that Last of Me has been added back into the show. If anyone West End Live or saw the performance of Burlesque at West End Live from day two, Orfe sang a new song written for the show which contained as a lyric, you haven't seen the Last of Me, but was unmistakably a different song. And I now hear that that is out of the show and Last of Me is back in. If I felt like speculating, my first assumption would have been that this would have been a royalties thing, that they were writing and conceiving a different song that essentially would achieve the same dramatic purpose purpose but wouldn't require them to pay royalties to Diane Warren. Only her comments on social media made it sound a little bit more like there might be a personal grudge playing into all of that as well. In any case, it seems like that is no longer the plan and we are going to hear the song after all, which I think is ultimately for the best. But is that trivial detail going to make any kind of a difference for the performers and the crew members working on this show in what is reported to be a workplace environment under ongoing equity investigation? You have no idea how carefully I phrase that so sentence. As I said, I believe that there is more to emerge on that front. I dare say we will be talking about it here as and when it does. In the meantime, this is a story which is still continuing. It's a story not all of which we are yet able to tell. But the next significant chapter is going to be the show's critical reception. In just a few hours from when I am first saying these words on the Internet, the first reviews will begin to drop for burlesque and hopefully within the next day I will have shared my opinion as well. One final thought, thought about all of this is that the very public facing Todrick hall, who is becoming synonymous with this show, is also drawing significant criticism amidst all of this conversation on social media. And I would urge people to consider that there are more forces at play here than simply Todrick Hall. And it does strike me, and this is not based on any particular insight, this is just based on my observation and the way that these things usually go, that he is staggeringly unlikely to have been the reason why the majority of the creative team, as well as at least one producer, left the original production before the West End transfer was even happening. And he feels less like the arbiter of any kind of hypothetical downfall than he does like the person left trying to make the thing work. Oh, and one more detail on that front. There have been a handful of reported instances of Todrick replying to social media comments, getting in touch with theater bloggers and theater social media content creators, inviting them to come and see the show, inviting them to return to the show if they went to an early preview. And you are welcome to either interpret this as social media and PR damage control, or the earnest attempts of a creative individual just trying to get people to see and understand their vision for the show that they are working hard on. But I dare say, and I do indeed hope that we will have more clarity on that front in the coming months. In the meantime, I'm very excited to go and see the show. I am very excited to read what everyone else thinks of the show. And I am. I am even more excited to share my own thoughts with you. Make sure you're subscribed right here on YouTube or following me on whichever podcast platform you may be listening to this on turn on notifications so you do not miss my burlesque review, as well as any upcoming installments about this ongoing story. In the meantime, feel free to share any insights that you may wish in the comments section down below. And as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.
- [26:52]
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