Jason Manford Will Lead SOMETHING ROTTEN! Concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Making its UK premiere, the hit Broadway musical comedy SOMETHING ROTTEN! will play Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Monday 5 August and Tuesday 6 August.  SOMETHING ROTTEN! in Concert stars Jason Manford (The Producers, The Wizard of Oz, National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals) as Nick Bottom and is directed by Tim Jackson (Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York), Merrily We Roll Along).  The full Broadway score is performed by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Freddie Tapner (Love Never Dies, Chess, Kinky Boots).

Tickets go on general sale at 10am on 10 May 2024.  Exclusive pre-sale sign up is available now at www.somethingrottenconcert.com.

SOMETHING ROTTEN! was created by Hollywood screenwriters Karey Kirkpatrick (Chicken Run, James and the Giant Peach), John O’Farrell (Best-selling novels include The Best a Man Can Get, May Contain Nuts, The Man Who Forgot His Wife) and Grammy Award-winning songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick (Change the World by Eric Clapton), who together went on to adapt Mrs Doubtfire into the West End and Broadway Musical.  The show follows the story of Renaissance writers Nick and Nigel Bottom as they seek to outshine Shakespeare by writing the world’s first musical.

SOMETHING ROTTEN! originally opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre in 2015 and received several Best Musical nominations, 10 Tony Award nominations and was hailed by Time Out New York as "the funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years".

SOMETHING ROTTEN! in Concert is produced by Fourth Wall Live, JAS Theatricals, and the London Musical Theatre Orchestra in association with Alchemation.  Fourth Wall Live and the London Musical Theatre Orchestra produced the WhatsOnStage Award-winning concert of Love Never Dies and were producers/co-producers for the concerts of Bonnie & Clyde, Evita and Chess, all at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Originally produced on Broadway by Kevin McCollum, Broadway Global Ventures CMC Mastro/Goodman Jerry & Ronald Frankel Morris Berchard, Kyodo Tokyo, Inc. Wendy Federman Barbara Freitag LAMS Productions Winkler/DeSimone, Timothy Laczynski Dan Markley Harris/Karmazin JAM Theatricals Robert Greenblatt, and Jujamcyn Theaters. Developed in association with the 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle, WA, David Armstrong, Executive Producer and Artistic Director, Bernadine Griffin, Managing Director and Bill Berry, Producing Artistic Director. 

Further casting and creatives are to be announced.   

Salford-born Jason Manford is one of the UK’s leading multi-talented performers, with a career also spanning acting, presenting, and singing on both stage and screen. 

Away from comedy, Jason has hosted many shows for the BBC and ITV including Unbeatable, Sunday Night at The Palladium and The Royal Variety Performance.  He was a judge on ITV1's Saturday night talent show Starstruck and has hosted BBC One's primetime show Big Night of Musicals since 2022. Later this year, he will be back on BBC One hosting a new teatime quiz show, The Answer Run. Jason also presents his award-winning three-hour show every Sunday on Absolute Radio.

His other TV credits include: First & Last (BBC One), The Masked Singer (ITV1), What Would Your Kid Do? (ITV1), Scarborough (BBC One), 8 Out of 10 Cats (Channel 4), The Nightly Show (ITV1), Live at the Apollo (BBC One), Have I Got News For You (BBC One) and QI (BBC Two). Jason will join the cast of Waterloo Road (BBC One) when it returns for its next series later this year. 

On stage, Jason has starred in numerous musicals in the West End and across the UK, including Sweeney Todd (Adelphi Theatre), The Producers (UK Tour), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK Tour), Guys and Dolls (Royal Albert Hall), and Curtains (UK Tour & Wyndham’s Theatre).  Last summer Jason starred as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz at The London Palladium, a role he will reprise later this month in his hometown of Manchester.  Jason has led the cast at the Manchester Opera House as Captain Hook in The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan and Jack in Jack and The Beanstalk.

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