Stage Door, Digital Radio Station Devoted to Musical Theatre, to Be Launched in U.K.; Ramin Karimloo, Kerry Ellis Among Presenters | Playbill

Related Articles
News Stage Door, Digital Radio Station Devoted to Musical Theatre, to Be Launched in U.K.; Ramin Karimloo, Kerry Ellis Among Presenters Stage Door, a new digital radio station for fans of musical theatre, will be launched in the U.K., with presenters that will include such West End stars as Ramin Karimloo, Louise Dearman, Kerry Ellis, Mark Evans, Alex Gaumond and Ollie Tompsett.

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/fbfb1e03e9e4d22ba6b75d4b3bee8e8b-ellis200.jpg
Kerry Ellis

The station will initially be available to listen to online for musical theatre fans in the U.K. and U.S. via computers, tablets or smartphones.

It is a joint project between Wise Buddah and Mothership Management, and arose out of a conversation between Wise Buddah’s head of content Simon Willis and Mothership Management founder Rebecca Sichel-Coates. Willis is a radio and TV producer and musical theatre fan with 15 years BBC experience. Sichel-Coates is a music professional and musical theatre fan who manages leading men and women for some of the biggest West End shows, after previously being media director at EMI Records and Columbia Records. Both huge fans of musical theatre, they identified the lack of a radio station dedicated just to the genre, and have since devised a plan of how to change that.

They are launching an Indiegogo campaign June 19 to start raising funds to make the project a reality, with a host of pledge incentives, from private singing lessons with a star of the stage to VIP tickets to West End shows to the opportunity to produce or present a segment of a Stage Door show. The target has been set at £145,000, which will fund the station for the first year, with plans to expand into the rest of the world after that.

In a press statement, Willis commented, "Last year 13,992,773 people bought a West End theatre ticket, and millions more bought a soundtrack CD or download. We're creating Stage Door to bridge the gap between listening to a CD and seeing a show, and catering for those fans that want to listen to their favourite songs throughout the year. It’ll offer great songs from the best shows and presented by the leading men and women of the West End."

Louise Dearman, who is currently starring in the West End in Wicked, said, "I was really excited about the prospect of Stage Door when first told of it - millions of people love musical theatre so it's strange there isn't an established station catering for them! I'm really looking forward to hosting my own show on the station and giving people an insight into the life of a West End performer - and of course playing my favourite songs from the shows!" For further details, visit http://www.stage-door.tv/.

 
RELATED:
Today’s Most Popular News:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!