TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) Writers' New Musical, MONA LOSER, Finds Cast for Southwark Playhouse Workshop
Ako Mitchell, Annabel Marlow, Steven Webb and more will star in the new musical by Kit Buchan and Jim Barne this September.
Casting is announced for the latest workshop performances of Mona Loser, a new musical with an original pop score by 2026 Tony Award nominees Kit Buchan and Jim Barne, directed by Tony-nominee Tim Jackson (Merrily We Roll Along, Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York), The Least Problematic Woman in the World). Running at Southwark Playhouse from 2 – 5 September 2026, tickets are on sale now from £25 at SouthwarkPlayhouse.co.uk/mona-loser/.
The cast includes: Ako Mitchell (Mean Girls, Savoy Theatre (original West End cast); Once on This Island, Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Annabel Marlow (Saturday Night Live UK, Sky Max; Six, Edinburgh Festival Fringe (original cast)), Carla Dixon-Hernandez (Something Rotten!, Manchester Opera House; Mrs. Doubtfire the Musical, Shaftesbury Theatre), Chad Saint Louis (Something Rotten!, Manchester Opera House; 50 First Dates, The Other Palace/ATG), Kayna Montecillo (Ride the Cyclone, Southwark Playhouse Elephant; Starlight Express, Troubadour Theatre), Nic Myers (Brigadoon, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre; Cabaret, Kit Kat Club), Obioma Ugoala (Frozen: The Musical, Theatre Royal Drury Lane; Hamilton, Victoria Palace Theatre), and Steven Webb (Shucked, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre; The Book of Mormon, Prince of Wales Theatre).
Produced by Tim Johanson Productions, with Birmingham Hippodrome, Mona Loser is a contemporary musical set in the music industry about viral fame, fakery and identity, drawing inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the modern monsters created both on and offline.
Buchan and Barne made their West End debut with home-grown hit British musical Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York), which recently received eight 2026 Tony Award nominations including best musical, actor and actress in a leading role in a musical, original score, direction, book, orchestrations and scenic design, making it the most-nominated British production of the season.
Following workshops at Southwark Playhouse Borough (The Little Auditorium) in 2025 and Birmingham Hippodrome earlier this year, this next round of workshops for Mona Loser will offer audiences another opportunity to be some of the first to get a glimpse at this new musical-in-development. These workshops marked the beginning of the creation and development process which is supported by Birmingham Hippodrome's New Musical Theatre Department, a department dedicated to championing original British musical theatre.
When rock bottom hits, washed-up producer DOC makes one last gamble: change the sound, change the voice, change the game. He drops the track, and the result? It blows up. Suddenly, the world wants to know: Who is Mona Loser? Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and set to a slick, high-energy pop score, this sharp, satirical musical follows an unsuspecting girl as she's pushed into the spotlight to play the part of a viral sensation. But as the spotlight gets hotter and DOC lurks just out of frame, the question is: how high can Mona climb, and how far can she fall?
