London premiere announced for musical comedy POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!
Following a critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe debut, new musical Pop Off, Michelangelo! will get its London premiere at The Other Palace on 4 & 5 November.
This musical comedy about besties-turned-bitter rivals Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, has a book, music and lyrics by Dylan MarcAurele and is directed by Joe McNeice, with choreography by Sundeep Saini.
After realising they’re both gay, these childhood friends attempt to earn divine forgiveness by becoming the greatest religious artists of all time. Can Michelangelo gaslight, gate-keep, and girl-boss his way to the Vatican? Will Leonardo shut up about his helicopter?
With an electropop original score as infectious as the bubonic plague, and a script that has not been remotely fact-checked, this brand new Renaissance adventure is both hilarious and unhinged.
Reprising their roles from this year’s Edinburgh Fringe are Max Eade as Michelangelo, Aidan MacColl as Leonardo, Paul Toulson as Pope, and Conn McGirr as Salai, with joining cast members Lucy Carter (Babies, The Other Palace) as Savanarola, and Maiya Quansah-Breed (SIX, Edinburgh Fringe/West End) as Mother.
Book writer, composer and lyricist Dylan MarcAurele said: “I had always wanted to go to Italy, and in 2022, my husband and I went there for a week for our honeymoon. We saw the David sculpture, and our tour guide told us all about how tortured Michelangelo was - gay, deeply religious, self-disciplined to an extreme, likely celibate his entire life - in comparison to his artistic rival, Leonardo Da Vinci - also gay, but who lived more freely, wore pink tights, wrote backwards, had ADHD, etc. Anyway, then I finally saw Wicked for the first time (a bootleg that changed casts every 90 seconds) and thought: What if these two guys were once BFFs?”