Musical about Kids Company Donmar Theatre London
A new musical about troubled charity Kids Company will head up the Donmar Warehouse’s new season. Artistic director Josie Rourke has collaborated with actor Hadley Fraser and composer Tom Deering to craft the show, based on transcripts of the public select committee hearings which saw the charity’s executives grilled over its management.
The musical will be titled The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall’s Relationship with Kids Company. Adam Penford, recently named artistic director of Nottingham Playhouse, will direct the show, which runs at the Donmar from June 24 to August 12. A press night will be held on July 3.
Rourke said the season was designed to “step up to what’s happening” around the world. She explained: “Here is a new musical concerned with truth and accountability; democracy and demagoguery; passion, despair and the rebirth of hope". “Throughout this season, characters fight for, rise to and exercise their power. In creating the Power Season, we’re trusting that theatre will deploy its power to speak with swift and urgent clarity into the present.”
She also confirmed the Donmar’s free ticketing scheme for under 25s will continue, with free tickets available at every performance in the theatre’s spring season.