Today – Valentine’s Day, of course! – Marlow and Moss, the creative team behind hit musical SIX, have announced that their brand new show Why Am I So Single? will open in London’s West End later this year. The show will play at The Garrick Theatre, with previews from 27th August. Lead casting has been announced, with the show featuring Jo Foster (currently starring in Just For One Day at the Old Vic), Leesa Tulley (SIX UK tour) and Noah Thomas (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, West End). Further casting will be announced soon.
We’re huge fans of the hit musical SIX here – we’ve been following the rise and rise of this show for years, covering its run at the Arts Theatre and its transfer to the Vaudeville Theatre, and watching from afar as the show opened on Broadway, picked up a Tony Award and went on to conquer the musical theatre world. Naturally we’ve been super excited to see what its writers would do next, so we’re thrilled that their new show will be opening this summer.
We recently caught Marlow and Moss for a quick chat while sheltering under a railway arch in Vauxhall (welcome to the glamorous world of showbiz, kids) to find out more about Why Am I So Single?. “It’s about two friends sitting on a sofa over an evening trying to work out why they’re so single, in an effort to procrastinate from writing the big fancy musical they’ve been asked to write,” says Marlow. “It’s loosely based on us and our friendship.”
“To add to that,” begins Moss, “it is loosely autobiographical, but there’s lots of elements of it that are completely fabricated or exaggerated or based on the lives of friends of ours. It explores ideas of singleness, loneliness, friendship… I think we’d say generally it’s inspired by all the amazing relationships between ladies, gaydies and theydies in our lives that we feel don’t get celebrated enough!” We’re fans of ‘ladies, gaydies and theydies’ – it comes up a few times while we chat and it’s a great phrase. Consider it stolen.
The characters in the show are big musical theatre fans – we’re interested to know what musical theatre shows Marlow and Moss have caught recently? “My favourite recent show is Sunset Blvd – everything about that production, Nicole’s performance, the sound design, it was all amazing,” says Moss. Marlow has a very different answer: “This very week, I’m having a real renaissance of my love for Wicked! I went to see it in the West End last week, and then the trailer dropped! I really just cannot stop thinking about how much I love Wicked and how excited I am for the movie!”
Back to Why Am I So Single? – why should GAY TIMES readers come and see this show? “In many ways it’s a celebration of these two characters, one of whom is queer, and their experiences of the dating world. So I hope that GAY TIMES readers will find something very relatable, and find some solidarity and some joy in it,” says Moss. Marlow adds: “The musical doesn’t really have a featured heteronormative relationship in it at all… the focus really is on friendships between ladies, gaydies and theydies! Those are the main characters of this piece, the main relationships we root for and care about.”
“I think we’re so used to seeing relationships, or shows that have queerness in them, that have either a quote unquote ‘gay best friend’ or have lots of queer men experiencing their lives, but women are absent,” says Moss. “We wanted to focus on what are the really important relationships in our lives, which are… the ladies, gaydies and theydies!”
Why Am I So Single? will play at the Garrick Theatre in London, with previews from 27th August. More information can be found here.
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