Underbelly Festival Adds 50 New Acts Including Andy Zaltzman, Luisa Omielan, Richard Gadd

Underbelly Festival - the massive new festival experience which sees the hugely popular Udderbelly and LonDon Wonderground festivals join forces - has added over fifty new shows to its line-up, including some of the top names in stand-up, sketch character and alternative comedy, as well as cabaret, burlesque, circus, music, variety and family shows.

Newly announced comedy highlights include master satirist Andy Zaltzman, big hitting stand-ups Gina Yashere, Luisa Omielan, Andrew Maxwell, Ellie Taylor and Tony Law, Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Richard Gadd, fellow nominee for comedy's grand prize Kieran Hodgson and the stage version of Angus Deyton's iconic Radio Active.

As well as this stellar comedy offering, Underbelly Festival provides a spiritual home for the very best of cabaret, burlesque and all of their weird and wonderful subgenres with highlights including Alternative Eurovision, 2016 Musical Comedy Award winners Four Femmes on the Thames, burlesque variety spectacular La Bouge Neon, drag legend Trevor Ashley and star of RuPaul's Drag Race Courtney Act: The Girl from Oz.

Underbelly's proud tradition of providing a platform for the most electrifying contemporary circus performers in the world will also continue with Jess Love (Black Cat, La Soiree) introducing her funny, heart-warming, visually spectacular solo show And the Little One said... Further circus highlights include all-female cyr wheel troupe Alula who are teaming up with Jackson's Lane to create Hyena, and Gaulier trained Zach & Viggo adding a dose of slapstick hilarity in Thunderflop.

For the musical among us highlights include acapella all-stars The Magnets, the inimitable blend of beat box and surfer rock from Tom Thum & Jamie McDowell and Notes of a Native Song: Stew and the Negro Problem - a musical journey through the life and work of American artist and civil rights activist James Baldwin.

Underbelly Festival will likewise provide a brilliant range of entertainment for all the family, including Metta Theatre's striking urban retelling of Jungle Book which combines circus, street dance, hip-hop and spoken word, pirate rom Arr We There Yet, children's versions of cult comedy hits The Dark Room and Comedy in the Dark and magical variety from The Tap Dancing Mermaid.

Topping it all off are Underbelly Festival's three spectacular headlining shows; Driftwood from acclaimed Australian circus company Casus (Knee Deep), Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit Catch Me (Attrape Moi) from impossibly athletic Quebecois troupe Flip FabriQue, and cult boylesque cirque-cabaret act known as Briefs, who will unveil their first new show in four years following their internationally acclaimed Second Coming.

About Underbelly

Underbelly is a UK based live entertainment company. Their events and festivals division operates one of the largest operations at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, selling 234,000 tickets for over 140 shows over 25 days in 2016.

This year marks the ninth year of Underbelly on the Southbank, with Udderbelly and LonDon Wonderground festivals - already two of the biggest multi-arts offerings in London - joining forces for the first Underbelly Festival.

Elsewhere Underbelly also produces Edinburgh's Christmas, Christmas in Leicester Square, Udderbelly Festival in Hong Kong, West End Live in Trafalgar Square, Pride in London for Westminster City Council and the Society of London Theatre, and produced the 2015 Rugby World Cup Fanzone in Richmond.

Through their Underbelly Productions arm they produce and promote live shows in London's West End, throughout the UK and on tour internationally. In 2016 Underbelly sold over 1.3 million tickets to their various events. www.underbelly.co.uk

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