Murder Ballad is the new musical set to hit the Arts Theatre on the 30th September. A few of us were invited into a sneak peak of rehearsals and to chat to the cast.

The cast is made up of West End Royalty Kerry Ellis, Ramin Karimloo, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and Norman Bowman. The show tells of 3 New Yorkers who are caught in a love triangle. Sara (Kerry Ellis) is torn between her ex boyfriend and her current partner. During the show a murder takes places but we will keep this spoiler free and not reveal who is murdered who indeed who the murderer is.

Murder Ballad is written by Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash. It is a sung through rock musical and judging from the extracts we heard the music in rehearsal the music is really something special. (Head over to my facebook page to see the live stream of one of the songs.) The show premiered off Broadway 2 years ago (and had Ramin Ksrimloo in the audience) and this is the first time it has been brought to a British audience.

The show is set to be something different for this cast, especially for the likes of Kerry Ellis who is more at home at the Royal Albert Hall or the Apollo Victoria than the intimate Arts Theatre. With a cast of 4 and a band of the same size it really does look set to be a cozy affair. All of the cast however look upon this as a challenge and something different (in a positive way) to the huge venues they are used to. They believe that an intimate venue is the best home for Murder Ballad. For the audience and fans of the stars it is an exiting opportunity to see these West End Stars up close.

The show is written by two women, something in itself which is fairly unusual in musical theatre. This enables a fresh take on marriage post children and the fall out of the affair as far as musical theatre goes. Murder Ballad demonstrates archetypal male traits being depicted by the female characters, creating a more real and intelligently drawn piece.

This is only a limited run until the 3rd December. I would recommend getting your tickets soon as from what I saw today Murder Ballad has potential to be the hot ticket this autumn.

If you like Kerry Ellis you may be keen to see what I thought of her concert with Louise Dearman.