Stage Appropriate (A Musical Theatre Podcast)

This summer, we made our second trip to Edinburgh for the craziness of the Fringe and it was EPIC. You'll hear all about it in this episode, featuring Shakespeare, netball, aerobics, acapella, velociraptors and Jaffa Cakes, as well as a insight into Juno's complex life plans despite being only 12. Roll on Fringe 2026!

Don't worry; despite Juno's confusing into to this episode, this is still the same silly theatre podcast. In this episode, we're talking about a charming childhood favourite (including dogs) and a classic musical with metaphors that are either very profound or confusing, depending on which one of us you agree with. Let us know if you've seen either of these shows!

In a change to our usual programming, we're talking about a play today, with bonus lecturing on the history of football from Katy; who wouldn't want to listen to that?

We're back after a long delay, because Katy has been too busy sewing Juno's Musical Con outfit to edit anything. Thanks to Ava Max, we know that in chess, a king can move one space at a time, but queens are free to go wherever they like. Thanks, Ava Max. In 'Chess,' the actual musical, however, things are a bit more complicated, especially when there's crazy David Bowie make-up...

We present you with lots of corn-y jokes (haha), Juno repeatedly listing the whole principal cast of The Great Gatsby in London and Katy, quite shamefully, calling Georgina Onuorah "Georgia." Why? I don't know. Also featuring: pigeons, performative ovations and stage door stampedes.

What self-respecting 12 year old doesn't beg to see two weird Sondheim shows in two days, especially ones with hardly any songs/baffling amphibian themes? We talk celebrity casting, long notes and nervous dogs in this highly cerebral episode.

In this episode we discuss something fun, something dramatic and something horrible: can you guess which is which? In amongst the serious musical theatre business and continued Jeremy Jordan content, we pitch our plans for 'Charlie and Lola: The True Crime Musical,' yawn a frankly ridiculous amount and engage in some friendly accent critique.

As you can guess from this episode's title, we're all over the place (and way out of date) in this one. From questioning the mechanics of flight to QR code scams, along with the rampant capitalism of show-themed plushies and, once again, Juno showing her spelling skills, try to keep up if you can.

It's been a while since we've had the kind of theatrical parenting fail that inspired this podcast, so here's one for the list! Did we check the age rating properly? No. Also featuring the big question everyone's (probably) talking about: are ABBA murderers?

We love it when a new show has its premiere up north so A Knight's Tale making its debut at the Manchester Opera House is a big win. Listen to find out what we loved about this insanely fun adaptation of the film, with bonus spelling demonstrations and the joy of an opportunity to remember The Great British Bake Off Musical. A Knight's Tale is on until May 10th so book your tickets now!

We're back! Don't worry. Although maybe, like when Roger moves to Santa Fe in 'Rent,' you didn't actually notice we'd gone anywhere. We saw the fantastic Inspired by Theatre stage Jonathan Larson's hit musical in York, which somehow inspired this random conversation covering 'Friends,' Jeremy Jordan and, somewhat inevitably, Pringles.

Are you ready to hear the word "lovely" 800? Then you're okay to press 'play' on this episode. From the National Theatre's big Christmas show to a wonderful amateur production in a tiny theatre in York, we're giving you the full theatrical experience today, along with some nonsense about Funko figures, parking, Christian Pale and a theatre-going first for both of us.

It's our 100th episode! A full century of musical theatre nonsense! Not a hundred years, obviously. We mark this momentous occasion with a shiny new show and adaptation of a 90s classic - Clueless. Spoiler; we loved it. You'll observe much quoting of the film in this episode, as well as a wild piece of hypocrisy in terms of whether musical songs need to be memorable. Whatever!

The Devil might indeed wear Prada, but does she have any good songs? 'Not really' is the answer to that question, which was sad for contrarians like us as we were quite keen to disagree with everyone who doesn't like this show. In amongst the savage criticism (i.e. comparisons to Mildred Hubble), there's intense discussion of Bisto and, for some reason, Katy clearly in the midst of...

There's a weird amount of content about doughnuts in this episode, for which we apologise. Once that's out of the way, you can expect celebrity spotting, fights in the stalls and the jumpsuit questions everyone's asking.

What's a lost show, you ask? It's a show we've seen but not recorded an episode about. Some of them are from pre-podcast days, some suffered technical faults and, let's be honest, some of them we just didn't want to ever have to think about again. And somehow, in amongst all this, we forgot to talk about Mamma Mia, so you can guess which of these reasons applies to that situati...

We went to our first concert staging of a musical and it was ... interesting? This episode features some discussion of the show in question, but significantly more time devoted to talking cats with weird food preferences, the Jonas Brothers, imaginary Les Mis casting and arguing about The Time Traveler's Wife. Because we are professionals.

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson musical is finally in London and what are we talking about? Sunset Boulevard, Wicked and why Percy is everyone's favourite World Book Day costume. This show is currently booking until August so, if you can get to The Other Palace, do it!

We got to see one of the hottest shows of the season on our first trip to the Donmar Warehouse. It may be based on a "complicated Russian novel," but don't worry; we're as silly as usual. So, in amongst incisive analysis of musical styles and the show's prospects of a transfer, we get into My Little Pony while also contemplating whether everyone really was kung fu fighting an...

In craziness not witnessed since our Edinburgh Fringe episode, here, we talk about six different shows (one of which, funnily enough, is Six). In amongst the incisive theatrical analysis, you'll be treated to toilet updates, altercations with ushers (not with Usher, although he does get a mention too) and, crucially, recommendations for the best cookie in NYC.

It's back to Broadway for us for a crazy Christmas of theatre. In amongst the usual deep and intellectual discussion of these three new shows, look forward to hand gesture-based discrimination, merch reviews and some nonsense about whether cows can use phones.

As if the eclectic mix of shows being discussed here wasn't enough, we can also offer travel and weather advice, confessions of childhood-lion-crushes, some judgement of our fellow audience members and, as usual, enthusiastic warbling.

In this special episode, we award our favourite shows of the year through complex democratic methods including rock, paper, scissors and glaring at each other. You might think from listening to this that we only saw about 4 things this year, but don't be fooled; we're just very obsessed with very specific things we saw in 2024.

If you're wondering why it's taken us 89 episodes to get to one of the biggest musicals of all time, it's a combination of technical problems and apathy, but the long-awaited movie adaptation blew one of those problems out of the water. So here we are: being weird about Jonathan Bailey, speculating on uniform codes and, crucially, being spoiler-y. If you haven't seen the show and don't want spoile...

We saw Dear Evan Hansen on its current UK tour and now you can hear what we thought about it, via a diversion into super pets and Juno's apparent beef with vibrato. Also, is this actually a show about vampires? Possibly. We also talk about Red Ladder's latest production, Sanctuary, which is definitely not about vampires.