Jim Barne News

On Sunday 18th September 2022 at 7.00pm GMT (1900hrs), greats of the West End and Broadway join together for a unique night of musical theatre at REGENERATE: Lost Songs from the Musicals.

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School - one of the UK's leading drama conservatoires - is preparing to go back to its roots this summer and take over Bristol Old Vic's Theatre and Weston Studio with a powerful season of work, 75 years after the School's first graduating cohort took to the stage. 

To launch the project today, two singles from  the album are being released: Rachel Portman’s prologue to A Tale of Two Cities featuring Judi Dench and White Lies’ prologue to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof featuring Amanda Seyfried, both of which are available now!

Sit in the Stalls today announce their brand new project ‘New Year, New Songs, New Writers’ starting in January 2021.

The Stagea??has announced the 2020 winners ofa??The Stagea??Debut Awards, in association witha??Access Entertainment. The awards were presented as a virtual ceremony on Sunday, September 27, filmed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, in the heart of London's West End.   

The Stage has today announced the award-winning & Juliet actress Miriam-Teak Lee will host this year's The Stage Debut Awards, in association with Access Entertainment.

Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Suits), Robbie Williams (Take That), David Mitchell (Peep Show), Aimee Lou Wood (Netflix's Sex Education) and the stars of West End musical Dear Evan Hansen are among the nominees for The Stage Debut Awards 2020, in association with Access Entertainment. 

Metta Theatre a?" one of the UK's leading mid-scale touring theatre companies a?" has six new British musicals in progress, all being developed and showcased around the UK throughout the first half of 2020. Established in 2005 by Poppy Burton-Morgan and Motley trained Designer William Reynolds, Metta Theatre is at the forefront of new work - with a strong focus on the development of new British musical theatre, and a commitment to highlighting climate justice and sustainability; disability and deaf integration and inclusion (both from a political perspective and in order to artistically enrich the work); queering mainstream and family theatre - writing characters that represent and normalise (rather than problematise) the diverse range of queer experiences and identities; re-gendering protagonists in order to give girls strong female role models.

Today, Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre Network, in partnership with Royal & Derngate Northampton, are delighted to announce the line-up for their upcoming BEAM2020 showcase. BEAM2020 is the UK's leading showcase for new British musical theatre writing and will take place on Thursday 26th March and Friday 27th March 2020 at Royal & Derngate, Northampton.

Once in a while, a musical comes along that truly reminds you why so many of us adore the art form. The show on this occasion is The Season, which officially opened at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton last night.

Royal & Derngate, Northampton, and New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, have announced Tori Allen-Martin and Alex Cardall as the cast for their co-production of the new musical, The Season, by 2018 MTI Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award winners, Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, playing in Northampton and Ipswich in November. The production will be directed by Tim Jackson and designed by Amy Jane Cook.

Musical Theatre Network and Mercury Musical Developments, in partnership with Royal & Derngate, Northampton, today announce the dates of BEAM2020, the third presentation of their biennial industry showcase of new British musical theatre, and that it will take place outside London for the first time.

The Stephen Sondheim Society and Mercury Musical Developments today announce West End Musical Director Gareth Valentine as the final judge for the 2019 Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year (SSSSPOTY), alongside the previously announced Julia McKenzie, Peter Polycarpou, and Edward Seckerson. Lyricist Charles Hart and Olivier Award-winner Jenna Russell join Nkeki Obi-Melekwe and Stiles + Drewe to complete the judging panel for the Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Prize. Winners will be announced at Theatre Royal Haymarket on Sunday 9 June.

Royal & Derngate announces another world premiere production, a musical staging of Pippi Longstocking, for the venue's Made in Northampton 2019 Christmas show. Meanwhile, the venue's 2018 Christmas production of The Worst Witch continues to tour the UK. Pippi Longstocking is adapted for the stage for the first time by Mike Akers from Astrid Lindgren's much-loved books, with original music by Stu Barker. It will be directed by The Wardrobe Ensemble's Jesse Jones and Helena Middleton who co-directed Education, Education, Education for Royal & Derngate in 2017.

This Autumn Season, join the New Wolsey Theatre as they present the brilliantly funny ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS by Richard Bean in association with Nuffield Southampton Theatres.

Royal & Derngate, Northampton, and New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, have just announced their co-production of a new musical, The Season, by 2018 Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award winners, Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, playing in Northampton and Ipswich in November.

This afternoon the winners of the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year and Stiles + Drewe Prize were announced at the 12th anniversary West End Gala at the Savoy Theatre which was hosted Olivier Award winner Tracie Bennett.

This afternoon the winners of the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year and Stiles + Drewe Prize were announced at the 12th anniversary West End Gala at the Savoy Theatre which was hosted Olivier Award winner Tracie Bennett.

Musical Theatre Network and Mercury Musical Developments today announce Hannah Chissick, Adam Lenson, James Dacre, Peter Rowe, Josh Seymour, Tania Azevedo, Cressida Carre and Kate Golledge as directors for the eight 25-minute extracts from new musicals to be presented at BEAM2018.

Musical Theatre Network and Mercury Musical Developments today announce the programme selected from their pitching days held around the UK between September and November for BEAM2018. Fifty-eight of the new British musicals pitched at these days have been selected to be shared at the biennial industry showcase which will next year be held at Theatre Royal Stratford East on 1 and 2 March. BEAM is designed for anyone in a position to help develop and stage new British musicals to attend, bringing the most exciting musical theatre projects together from around the UK for industry professionals to grab the opportunity to become involved from the early stages of development.