DORIAN: The Musical Comes to Southwark Playhouse Borough in July

DORIAN: The Musical will premiere at Southwark Playhouse Borough (The Large) for a five-week run, from 4th July to 10th August 2024.

The iconic lead role of Dorian will be played by emerging talent Alfie Friedman (“The Undeclared War” Channel 4/Peacock; “The Witches of Eastwick” Sondheim Theatre; “Legacy” Menier Chocolate Factory; “Laughing Boy” Jermyn Street Theatre/Theatre Royal Bath). Further casting to be announced.

This striking piece of new musical theatre skilfully explores the dark side of eternal youth with a modern twist. A fully 21st-century production of the Victorian classic incorporates rock music and social media while remaining true to the bohemian thrillof the original. 

This modern queer fairy-tale follows Dorian Gray, a wannabe rockstar with grandiose dreams who strikes a dangerous bargain to achieve success. Inspired by the classic Oscar Wilde novel, this musical retelling explores the heartache as Dorian faces the prospect of eternal glory which opens a Pandora’s box of love, lust, and corruption. This show gives the Gothic story a glam-rock twist as the young musician is pulled in every direction by his fans, record producers, photographers - slowly warping his impressionable mind. 

Is Dorian cursed? Has he sold his soul - and can he save it? We follow him on the quest for his true identity as he falls further and further into the belief that to love him is to die. Is it too late to change the course of life for “The King Of Black Hearts”, as his adoring fans call him? 

This atmospheric and ambitious interpretation is fully updated for 2024 audiences - darker, more explicit, and overtly queer; society’s rules during Oscar Wilde’s life necessitated that he had no choice but to hesitate over the extent of the homoerotic content he should include in his novel. Dorian: The Musical has the freedom to explore this subtext.

DORIAN: The Musical began life as a reading at Café Royal, in the same room where Oscar Wilde staged his own readings. An earlier version was cancelled two days before it was due to open in March 2020 and that version instead was made available to stream on ‘Stream.Theatre’ during lockdown in 2021. After a workshop at The Other Palace, this version is moodier, edgier, and ultimately more glam. 

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