Curtains

Delegates interested in musicals may wish to attend a performance of Curtains – ‘A musical comedy whodunit from the creators of Cabaret and Chicago’ – presented by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.  Performances take place at the Guildhall School, immediately next to the Barbican Centre, so it would be very easy for people to go on to the show from the reception in the Barbican Conservatory on Friday 9^th July.  Students from Guildhall School frequently go on to have careers as performers, directors, designer in music and theatre, and the standard of their productions is invariably extremely high, comparable to the best that London has to offer.  For details, go to the Guildhall School website at www.gsmd.ac.uk/events.  Tickets are booked through the Barbican Centre box office at www.barbican.org.uk.

Curtains is a spoof murder mystery set in Boston, Massachusetts, during the late 1950s. The helter-skelter plot follows the story of an ill-fated theatre company whose inordinately untalented leading lady is murdered during the curtain call at the opening night of their production of a new musical Robbin' Hood of the Old West. A police detective, who happens to be a musical theatre fanatic, arrives to take charge - can Lieutenant Cioffi solve the case, save the show, win the girl and also escape with his life?

Curtains was the last musical written by Kander and Ebb. Their skilful and tuneful score includes the beautiful and moving "I Miss the Music", sung by a lonely composer when his writing partner has left him, which is made even more poignant by the fact that Fred Ebb died during the final stages of production, leaving John Kander to complete the project alone.