BBC to celebrate musical theatre in three-day event later this month

Photo credit: Mike Marsland/Wire Image

The BBC will celebrate musical theatre from 29-31 January with three days of exciting programming, including a one-off show at the London Palladium.

The celebration will broadcast across Radio 2, BBC1 and BBC4, as well as BBC Sounds and iPlayer. Radio 2 will play only musical theatre songs on 29 January, with other events including documentaries, special guest appearances and a new musical audio series hosted by Sheridan Smith.

The highlight of the celebration is the show from the Palladium, also hosted by Smith and featuring musical performances from Michael Ball, Kerry Ellis, Amanda Holden, Ramin Karimloo, Elaine Paige, Lea Salonga and Sam Tutty to name only a few. The two-hour show will also feature the first performance of ‘Only You, Lonely You’ by Ivano Turco from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella. It will be broadcast on the radio on 31 January, with a 75-minute programme to be shown on BBC at a later date.

Documentaries included in the programming are one on the making of West Side Story, on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh, all to be shown BBC4, and Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, which inspired Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, will be available to watch on iPlayer.

What a treat, Besties!