James Aymon, Grant Jackson, James Lowrie, Christian Lunn, Billy J Vale, Dereck Walker and Santino Zapico are today announced as the cast for the new production of ‘Grindr: The Opera’ (Winner! Best New Musical, Off West End Awards 2019), which puts the most notorious gay hook-up app into the exaggerated world of opera.
With musical styles ranging from baroque to contemporary pop, ‘Grindr: The Opera’, Book, Music & Lyrics by Erik Ransom, directed by William Spencer, is a daring, humorous look at the changing landscape of gay relationships, and the greatest catalyst for the shift: Grindr.
GRINDR, a mythical siren from remote antiquity, has been awoken from its millennial slumber by technology. Its power, which is derived from human lust, is exhibited as it manipulates its gay devotees in a soaring soprano…
“Opera brings to mind tuxedos, elegant gowns and pearl necklaces. GRINDR brings to mind bare torsos, leather harnesses and, well… pearl necklaces.
“This may not be opera in the traditional sense, but I would argue it fulfils the necessary prerequisites to be defined as such and, like all opera, it lives in a heightened world. I was interested in exploring and exaggerating themes that have become commonplace across the spectrum of queer culture in the Information Age, while paying occasional homage to iconic musical greats like Verdi, Wagner and, of course, The Village People.
“I hope you’ll lose yourself in this eclectic musical world, which is frequently as frivolous as ‘Figaro’ and at times as tragic as ‘Tosca’. I hope you’ll take differing sides in the disputes between the characters, because in my view there are no heroes or villains in this story.
“GRINDR is neither good nor bad. It is, like its trademarked sigil, a mask. A guise to be donned by myriad men for a plethora of purposes. However you receive GRINDR: The Opera, may you find it at least as enjoyable as your most recent hook-up!”
Arch 22 & 23, Old Union Yard Arches, 229 Union Street, London, SE1 0LR from 25 May – 8 July 2023
Times: Tuesday – Saturday 7.30pm; Sunday 2.00pm
Tickets: 25th & 26th May £20; 27th & 28th May £25; from 30th May £35.Bookings: uniontheatre.biz
