New musical film Cells starring Clive Rowe released online
New musical film Cells is releasing online this month (April 2021)
Cells will star Olivier award winner Clive Rowe alongside rising star Lem Knights.
Metta Theatre, Royal & Derngate Northampton, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch & Stephen Joseph Theatre will team up to present the piece which has been written, developed and recorded entirely during lockdown by the award-winning writer/director P Burton-Morgan and composer Ben Glasstone.
A teaser for the musical shares: “A university science lab. A kebab shop at 2am. An online gaming forum. Two strangers’ lives become intertwined. Alan Bennett meets The Streets in this tender and uplifting new work, giving voice to the lives of two everyday blokes.”
The musical will first be released as a series of episodes daily from Monday, 19 April with the full film available on Monday, 25 April together with a cast album available here.
You can watch the first episode below…
Royal & Derngate Northampton, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough will each host episodes of the film. It will be free to all to access via YouTube with a suggested donation (£3 per episode, £10 for the whole film) – all of which will go to the three regional theatres to help support their recovery.
CELLS is written and directed by P Burton-Morgan (Madam Butterfly UK tour, In the Willows, UK tour, Jungle Book UK & International Tour), with music by Ben Glasstone, mixed and mastered by Simon Small and the Musical Director is Phil Cornwell. The Director of Photography is Jon Dickinson, the films are edited by Will Reynolds. Phil Cornwell plays keys and double bass and Curtis Volp is on guitar.
P Burton-Morgan, who in 2020 won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for musical theatre book writing for In the Willows, said: “I’ve been talking to Clive about writing something specifically for him ever since we met 4 years ago, so I’m thrilled to have this opportunity. It’s been a wild adventure creating a music video musical for this brave new world of ‘digital theatre’ in which we find ourselves. Hopefully we’ve succeeded in taking the best of both theatre and film to create something intimate and unique.”
For more information, https://www.mettatheatre.co.uk/cells
