BBC World Service's U.ME: THE MUSICAL Available Now

Following the critically-acclaimed world premiere last week, the BBC's 'U.Me: The Musical' is now available to listen to and watch via BBC Sounds and bbcworldservice.com/musical. 'U.Me: The Musical' is an international love story, based around two young people on opposite sides of the world who meet online and make a true connection, with the glorious accompaniment of the BBC Philharmonic, emotional performances by lead actors Anoushka Lucas and Martin Sarreal, brilliantly witty and heart-warming music and lyrics by Theo Jamieson and a special guest narration by Stephen Fry.

The BBC also revealed rich and vibrant animations to accompany the mega-musical's explosive multi-genre score, which are available in addition to the BBC World Service radio broadcast across BBC platforms. The musical has was instantaneously critically acclaimed, with the press describing it as "charming and heartfelt", "witty and warm" and like "a perky jog in the park on a gorgeous spring day" among others.

Speaking about the musical and animations during the premiere Q&A, Simon Pitts said: "There are 120 people basically in every frame of the animation - musicians, mix engineers, students from Liverpool - there's so much good heart, there's so much good will and you can feel it."

Theo Jamieson discussed writing the musical in just seven weeks: "I had to generate 1.5 minutes of material a day or I was behind. It was both horrifying and refreshing. My feeling now is that the time constraints were actually a huge bonus and freed me up in ways that I hadn't felt before. There was something liberating there, it made it more direct for me."

Steve Levine added: "I think it's one of the hardest projects I've ever been involved in as a music producer. On a normal record you maybe have 20 to 40 tracks for the band, but on something like this, on certain tracks, we're into 300 to 400 tracks, because all the musicians recorded at home. It was quite a mammoth task. Some had quite good studio set ups, others you could hear dogs barking in the background."

The U.Me: The Musical premiere Q&A is available on catch up here

Bringing together an incredible team, 'U.Me: The Musical' is a regional UK production for UK and international audiences on BBC World Service and features words and music by Theo Jamieson (previously music director for 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' and 'Here Lies Love'), music production by Liverpool-based Steve Levine (famed for his work with Culture Club, The Clash and The Beach Boys) and casting by Will Burton (Casting Director for the likes of 'Matilda' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar'). The book is written by Simon Pitts and Theo Jamieson and the musical is created by Simon Pitts, BBC World Service.

The musical is a broadcast hour and is available on BBC World Service, as well as chapterised for podcast on BBC Sounds.

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