West End Wednesday: EUGENIUS!
EUGENIUS! is a 2016 comic book musical with a book, music and lyrics by Ben Adams from A1 and Chris Wilkins. The story tells of Eugene, your average high school nerd who dreams of writing the ultimate comic book as an homage to his love of cult sci-fi and superhero classics. When a talent scout comes to his high school declaring a competition opportunity that would see the winning submission turned into a Hollywood motion picture, Eugene’s dreams could become a reality. When Eugene’s story is selected, he is plunged into the world of Hollywood, producers, agents and must realise who the true supervillains are. When fame and fortune start to affect change in the relationships surrounding him, Eugene is forced to question what it really means to be an actual superhero.
The musical premiered for a one night only gala performance on 29 June 2016 at the London Palladium with an all-star cast. Louis Maskell played the titular role of Eugene, with Amy Lennox as Janey, Daniel Buckley as Feris, Warwick Davis as Evil Lord Hector, Samuel Holmes as Theo, David Bedella as Lex and Summer Strallen as Carrie/Super Hot Lady. The production also featured the voice of Brian Blessed as the Space Lord and the production was narrated by Marcus Brigstocke. The production also released a recording of the production on old school cassette tapes available to the audience, with a recording later becoming available for download.
After 18 months of work on the musical, EUGENIUS! premiered as a full show at The Other Palace from 22 January to 3 March 2018. The production had direction by Ian Talbot, choreography by Aaron Renfree, sound design by Gareth Owen, set and costume design by Hannah Wolfe, lighting design by Andrew Ellis and musical supervision by Stuart Morley.
Word of mouth instantly spread causing the show to sell out and require extra matinee performances to be added. The show also received positive notices. Liam Forde played the role of Eugene, with Laura Baldwin as Janey, Daniel Buckley coming back as Feris, Ian Hughes as Evil Lord Hector, Scott Paige as Theo, Cameron Blakely as Lex and Melissa James as Carrie/Super Hot Lady.
Due to the success of the first run at The Other Palace, the show returned later the same year for a limited engagement from 1 September – 7 October, however, again due to popular demand, the show was extended until 21 October. Baldwin, Paige and Buckley all reprised their roles and were joined by Rob Houchen as Eugene, Neil McDermott as Evil Lord Hector, Alex Bourne as Lex and Emily Tierney as Carrie/Super Hot Lady.
Due to the success of the second run requiring an extension, the producers announced that the show would transfer to London’s West End, opening at The Ambassadors Theatre only a week after its curtain at The Other Palace for a limited ten week run. However, shortly after the announcement, it was announced that the planned transfer would not go ahead, with speculation arising that this was due to a main producer backing out. An archive recording of the second Other Palace run was also made available during lockdown for people to view and raise money.
Besties, if you haven’t listened to EUGENIUS! yet, you absolutely need to, its MT pop glory!
Cast recording available on Spotify and AppleMusic.
FACTS:
Music: Ben Adams and Chris Wilkins
Lyrics: Ben Adams and Chris Wilkins
Book: Ben Adams and Chris Wilkins
Theatre: The Other Palace
Run: 22 January – 3 March and 1 Sept – 21 Oct 2018 ( Around 100 shows)
