This is London Magazine July Edition 2026 - Flipbook - Page 10
‘COME ALIVE!’ THE GREATEST
SHOWMAN CIRCUS SPECTACULAR
‘COME ALIVE!’ is a Circus
Spectacular inspired by the world of
The Greatest Showman featuring
incredible West End talent and aweinspiring international circus acts. It has
extended its run at Empress Museum,
Earl’s Court, until February 2027. The
show includes performances of all of
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s hit songs
from the 20th Century Fox Motion
Picture including ‘This Is Me’, ‘Rewrite
the Stars’, ‘A Million Dreams’, and more.
All ticket holders are invited to explore
the world of the Empress Museum
before taking their seats in the 700
capacity Big Top.
At the helm of the production is
Drama Desk award-winning Creative
Director Simon Hammerstein, cofounder of The Box and the mastermind
behind Usher’s sold-out ‘My Way’ Las
Vegas Residency and producer of Queen
of the Night.
Go along early for the interactive
pre-show experience, enjoy close-up
performances, curious characters and
delicious food and drink. Then, prepare
to be royally entertained in the Big Top
where circus meets musical theatre in an
epic spectacular.
Produced by Outside The Box
Amusements and TSG Entertainment.
www.comealiveshow.com
Photo: Manuel Harlan
10
PRIDE THE MUSICAL
National Theatre
It seems a very long time ago now,
but back in the 1980s, Margaret
Thatcher’s government passed a law
containing ‘Section 28’, a clause which
forbade local authorities and state
schools from ‘promoting’ homosexuality.
The age of consent for heterosexual sex
was 16. It was 21 for homosexuals.
‘Queer bashing’ was rife. And yet the
victim who complained to the police was
more likely than the perpetrator to be
locked in a cell for the night, while the
latter walked free on the basis that they
had suffered an insulting advance by the
queer person.
No wonder gays and lesbians felt
persecuted. But in 1984, an
extraordinary young activist called Mark
Ashton had a light bulb moment. Times
were hard for people like him – but they
were harder for the striking coal miners
of the day, and the source of their
hardship was the same: the government.
Based on the hit film of 2014,
Stephen Beresford’s play is a heartfelt
retelling of the rapprochement between a
bunch of cultured, camp Londoners, and
a slew of Welsh working class mining
folk. Easy bedfellows? Not really. Even
after Ashton orchestrates an impressive
fund-raising scheme in the capital, he
can’t seem to give it away to the miners
and their families, since union officials
hang up on them at every turn.
It takes a deaf old lady in a village
hall to invite them to meet the miners’
social committee (‘I thought they were
theatrical,’ she explains to her fellow
committee members about the approach
of the gays and lesbians. ‘That’s
thespians,’ someone explains.)
How the ice is eventually broken by
disco dancing in the village hall; how
the women are the ones to finally
welcome the fundraisers (Lesbians and
Gays Support the Miners or LGSM) and
how they go on to form deep bonds of
solidarity are the stuff of this feel-good
musical. There are tears and laughter
along the way. Matthew Warchus’s
nuanced production is not a silly, camp
songfest. Beneath the agitprop and the
personal tensions lies the aching feeling
that too many of Ashton’s generation
died of the ‘gay plague’ – HIV Aids.
It was terrifying – an abyss of the
unknown, compounded by societal
prejudice. But if LGSM broke through
the mining community’s resistance in
1984 then the fruits of that genuine
friendship were felt in 1985, when the
striking miners joined the Pride march
in London. It was an astonishing leap
forward in the perception of queer
people in this country – and it grew out
of the community’s own spirit of
generosity. An exhibition titled ‘Queer
Britain’ is on show in the National
Theatre’s Lyttelton Lounge until
September.
Sue Webster
T H I S I S L O N D O N M A G A Z I N E • T H I S I S L O N D O N O N L I N E • w w w. t i l . c o m • @ t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g
