MickeyJoTheatre

This week Mickey-Jo saw 4 shows at Off West End Theatres: • The Jonathan Larson Project at Southwark Playhouse Borough • Ride the Cyclone at Southwark Playhouse Elephant • Hit Machine at Soho Theatre • Hole! at Soho Theatre Check out what Mickey-Jo thought of the material, creative choices, and performances in each production. sign up to Mickey-Jo's weekly substack newsletter: www.mickeyjotheatre....

With increasing frequency, theatregoers in the UK have been observing a rise in the number of theatrical productions utilising AI. This comes amidst a global increase in the prevalence of artifical intelligence, in spite of its environmental and social impact. Today, Mickey-Jo is sharing his unfiltered thoughts about the arrival of AI in the theatre industry, bith onstage via generative AI imagery...

A new production of the musical SWEENEY TODD, written by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, opened earlier this week at the Birmingham Rep in the UK. The revival, which stars Ramin Karimloo and Meow Meow, features a condensed company and orchestra, offering a chamber-style reinterpretation of the usually grand piece, as well as shifting its setting around a century earlier. Find out more about thi...

It was recently announced that CATS: The Jellicle Ball, the groundbreaking, award-winning revival of the iconic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, would close early on Broadway. The production, playing until early August at the Broadhurst Theatre, was the best reviewed musical of the Broadway season and won multiple Tony Awards for its creative team, though notably not for Best Revival of a Musical. Tha...

Good news! 3 years after they got engaged, Mickey-Jo and Aeron James are finally making wedding plans, and they're going to be tying the knot next year at a theatre! Today they are sharing some details of that upcoming wedding day, inspiration for a similarly theatrical wedding, including the types of theatres at which you can get married, and also letting you know their honeymoon plans and how yo...

Though it first premiered off-Broadway in 2013, Mickey-Jo had never seen FUN HOME on stage, and had been waiting to experience this celebrated show. He finally got the chance to see a production last week when it was revived at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, a unique regional venue in the UK. Check out what Mickey-Jo thought of this intimate production, its performances, and the show itself......

Mickey-Jo recently visited the Soho Theatre in London where the new play HIT MACHINE is readying to begin its sold out preview performances. The play stars Josh Radnor and Noah Galvin as brothers and musicians with differing success in the industry. Check out what they each had to say about their characters, how they arrived at this play, and what translating pain into art means for each of them....

The upcoming West End revival of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical RENT has recently announced its cast. Joining Gaten Matarazzo as Mark will be Travis Ross as Roger, Bella Brown as Mimi, Billy Nevers as Collins, Lazy Violet as Maureen, Olivier Award nominee Danielle Fiamanya as Joanne, Jeevan Braich as Angel and Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Benny. Find out why this news is so exciting...

This week marked the arrival of one of the most anticipated shows of 2026 when the revival of the musical JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR opened at the London Palladium. The production, first seen in an earlier iteration at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, stars Sam Ryder and Tyrone Huntley alongside Desmonda Cathabel. Check out this full review to find out what Mickey-Jo thought of this latest staging of t...

Currently two things seem to be true: there are ever more stage musicals based on films, and there is ever more debate about whether there are too many of them. Today Mickey-Jo is glancing back at the history of the film-to-stage adaptations, the major examples that shifted how audiences engage with such shows including Disney's arrival on Broadway as well as musicals including Monty Python's Spam...

Summer in London brings a slew of new limited runs, and in the past few weeks Mickey-Jo has seen a handful of play revivals which he's been eager to tell you about. • A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe • The Truth at the Apollo Theatre • Cyrano de Bergerac at the Noel Coward Theatre • The Misanthrope at the National Theatre Check out what Mickey-Jo thought of each of these production...

Mickey-Jo recently had the chance to meet the cast of DEATH NOTE: THE MUSICAL, which arrives in London later this Summer with a fully staged limited run at the Barbican Centre. The newly announced cast includes Xander Pang, Colin Ryan, Telly Leung, Stephanie Zaharis, Grace Mouat, Paolo Montalban, Chloe Saracco, and more. Check out what they have to say about their characters, the story's huge foll...

Earlier this year, Mickey-Jo saw EVERY BRILLIANT THING on Broadway starring Daniel Radcliffe. The play heavily incorporates audience participation, and during this visit Mickey-Jo was very nearly a part of the show in a key role. As well as telling the story of how that almost happened and why it didn't, Mickey-Jo is letting you know how well he thought the production transferred from an intimate...

In the last few weeks, two more musicals have cancelled forthcoming dates of their Australian tour, citing low ticket sales and economic challenges. Waitress and Beetlejuice will close early, with Back to the Future the Musical and Dear Evan Hansen having shuttered similarly in the last couple of years. In this conversation, Mickey-Jo is trying to figure out what's going wrong in the Australian th...

Yesterday, the West End production of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA announced the cast for their upcoming 40th Anniversary Celebrations. Broadway breakout star Jordan Donica will return to the musical, this time as the Phantom, with Beatrice Penny-Touré also returning as Christine Daaé and Rhys Whitfield as Raoul. They will be joined by new and familiar faces, including Joseph Millson and Sierra Boggess wh...

This week, the United Kingdom has once again been experiencing soaring temperatures, and theatres around the country have had to adapt. Today, Mickey-Jo is reporting from his own heatwave-hit home to let you know what to expect when theatregoing during high temperatures, as well as sharing some recent stories of how shows have adapted both on and offstage. • 00:00 | introduction 02:11 | audience a...

Mickey-Jo saw his most anticipated new show of the year - a musical adaptation of the film PRIDE. The show, which is set in the 1980s, tells the true story of LGSM, a group of Lesbians and Gay men from London who supported a community of miners during Thatcher era strikes. Check out what Mickey-Jo thought of the show, its material, and the extent to which it measured up to the extraordinary film u...

Following its world premiere production at Birmingham Rep, SINATRA the Musical has arrived in the West End. Playing at the Aldwych Theatre, the musical stars Joel Harper Jackson as Frank Sinatra, depicting a chapter of his career scored by some of his most recognisable hits. Check out what Mickey-Jo thought of the show and how it sits alongside other jukebox bio-musicals... check out Mickey-Jo's f...

It was announced this week that WARRIORS, co-written by Lin Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis, would begin performances in March 2027 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway. The show, which is a stage adaptation of the film THE WARRIORS, began its life as a concept album which originally featured Amber Gray, Lauryn Hill, Kim Dracula Philippa Soo, and more. Check out my thoughts about the show, the d...

This weekend, Mickey-Jo headed back to one of the most anticipated, and best attended events in the UK theatrical calendar: West End Live! This annual free performance featured almost all of the musicals in the West End including Hercules, The Lion King, Les Misérables, Hamilton, Six, Matilda, Paddington, Beetlejuice, Titanique and more as well as various upcoming, regional and off-West End shows!...

Mickey-Jo recently had the enormous privilege of sitting down with Ramin Karimloo, Meow Meow, and David Bedella from Birmingham Rep's upcoming revival of SWEENEY TODD. Check out what the stage stars had to say about this exciting new production, tackling Sondheim, and even their favourite kind of pie. You can still get tickets to see the production at Birmingham Rep between 4 July and 15 August. c...

Earlier this week it was announced that the stage adaptation of the Traitors would be a 5 part cycle, offering different endings on each subsequent night of the week. The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal will begin performances in May 2027 at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End and will also allow audience members the opportunity to vote to affect the show on Saturdays. Check out Mickey-Jo's thoug...

Since its announcement last year, audiences have been eagerly anticipating THESPIANS, the first ever full stage musical from Mischief Theatre. Mischief are the award winning company behind hits such as The Play That Goes Wrong and the Goes Wrong Show, with their latest comedy play, The Comedy About Spies, returning to the West End this summer. Check out what Mickey-Jo thought about this latest off...

It was announced yesterday that PADDINGTON The Musical, the multi-Olivier Award winning West End smash hit, would officially transfer to Broadway, opening at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in Spring 2027. The stage adaptation of the Michael Bond story and the STUDIOCANAL films is directed by Luke Sheppard (The Little Big Things, Starlight Express) with Tom Fletcher and Jessica Swale having written the...

Last night Mickey-Jo finally caught the UK Tour of OPERATION MINCEMEAT, the award winning musical still running in the West End and on Broadway. The show, which included three of its co-writers among its cast for much of its early development, has recently welcomed many new cast members and thus the question, is it still brilliant without its original stars? Check out what Mickey-Jo thought of the...