Actors from the Little Manchester Theater appear in the TV spotlight.
Written byTimes Magazine
The cast of the all-black 120-seat remake of The Wizard of Oz in Manchester is seen alongside many West End stars. The Wiz at Hope Mill Theater focuses on viewing in front of an audience of 10,000 broadcast by millions on television and radio. It was under 15 musicals in the Easter National Lottery, One on Saturday, and Radio 2 on Sunday.
Wiz co-producer Amina Hamid, 21, said it was a "big problem for us."
Aisha Javando in Tina - Musical Tina Inverter on the musical big night
Other musicals include all West End and Tour hits such as The Lion King, Les Misérables, Frozen, Back to the Future, Dear Evan Hansen, and School of Rock. The main cast includes Beverly Knight, Kiala Settle, Samantha Barks, and John Owen-Jones.
The Great Night of the Musicals, hosted by Jason Manford, was filmed at Manchester's AO Arena on Monday, with each cast performing a song or mix.
"Being on par with the great West End and touring means a lot to us," Hamid said. "It's lovely to do it so intimately at Hope Mill - but there's something truly extraordinary about sharing that joy and spreading it across this bigger stage.
"We've managed to fill that space and I hope people feel like they're part of our Oz." The Great Night of Musicals is set to celebrate British theater after the hardships of the past two years.
The show came just weeks after British theaters canceled shows due to the Covid outbreak affecting the cast and crew. Wiz alone had to cancel 17 shows.
"The Big Musical Night" feels like a dramatic victory over Kovid," said Hamid. "There was a time in December when not only this show, but the entire industry suffered.
"With the new version, it felt like we were knocked down all the time and didn't come back. Having made it into this space with all these shows, we've all created this moment of celebration of musical theater and everything we do as an industry. "It's great to have a following after everything we've been through.
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