Dylan Marcaurele’s POP OFF, MICHELANGELO! Stages A Highly Anticipated Stricly Limited Run At Underbelly Boulevard Soho

Dylan MarcAurele’s Pop Off, Michelangelo! today announces its transfer to Underbelly Boulevard Soho for a limited 5-week run, following its highly successful season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 and concert performances at The Other Palace.

Returning to London in a revitalised production, Dylan MarcAurele’s Pop Off, Michelangelo!, directed by Joe McNeice, opens on 23 May, with previews from 17 May, and runs until 22 June. The full cast and creative team to be announced shortly.

A smash hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it received a Popcorn Award Special Mention, MarcAurele and McNeice reunite to take you on a wild ride through Renaissance Italy. Pop off, Michelangelo! is a high-camp musical comedy telling the (somewhat edited)history of two of Italy’s greatest artists, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, as they both race to create the most legendary religious masterpieces.

Dylan MarcAurele said today, “I am so excited to be bringing Pop Off, Michelangelo! to London audiences, especially in such a vibrant and dynamic venue that is Underbelly Boulevard Soho.

With the vision of director Joe McNeice and the brilliant Blair Russell at the helm, this camp artistic rivalry promises over-the-top drama and uplifting singable anthems. It’s a love letter to artistic ambition, queer identity, and a wildly inaccurate version of history. Expect electropop bangers and a whole lot of divine intervention (or lack thereof). It’s ridiculous and heartfelt, and most importantly, a whole lot of fun.”

Director Joe McNeice said today, “I’m delighted to be directing Dylan MarcAurele’s fabulous and hilarious Pop Off, Michelangelo! and to bring this absolute celebration of a show to the heart of Soho, right where it belongs!”

Pop Off, Michelangelo! is on sale now at https://underbellyboulevard.com/tickets/pop-off-michelangelo/

www.popoffmichelangelo.com

Instagram, TikTok: @popoffmichelangelo

POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!

By Dylan MarcAurele

Writer: Dylan MarcAurele;

Director: Joe McNeice;

Choreographer: Sundeep Saini;

Musical supervisor & orchestrations: Aron Sood

Costume Designer: Emily Bestow;

Lighting Designer: Adam King;

Casting Director: Sarah-Jane Price;

Producer: Blair Russell Productions

Production Manager: James Anderton

General management: Paul Virides Productions

17 May to 22 June

Press night: 23 May at 7 pm

at Underbelly Boulevard Soho

The high-camp musical comedy that stole the Fringe makes its limited West End debut season.

POP OFF, MICHELANGELO! tells the story of best-pals-turned-bitter-rivals Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. A bloodthirsty friar is on the hunt for homosexuals in Renaissance Italy at the exact moment when childhood friends Mike and Leo realise they both like boys. Terrified, they devise a foolproof plan to gain God’s forgiveness: they simply need to become the greatest religious artists of all time. Can Michelangelo gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss his way to the Vatican? Will Leonardo ever shut up about his helicopter? Featuring an original electropop score as infectious as the bubonic plague, POP OFF, MICHELANGELO! is an unhinged adventure that you won’t want to miss.

Dylan MarcAurele is a New York-based writer and recent winner of the Jonathan Larson Grant and the Richard Rodgers Award. His other credits for Book, Music, and Lyrics include MEG4N (2024 US Tour starring Rosé of RuPaul’s Drag Race), and The Real Housewives of NYC: The Musical (featured on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live). As a composer, his work includes Lewis Loves Clark (2024 NAMT Festival; 2020-21 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship), Tea with G (reading directed by Scott Schwartz), and The Land of Forgotten Toys (Broadway Licensing). In playwriting, his piece God Gives Ryan a Very Important Job premiered at the 2023 Samuel French OOB Festival. MarcAurele has also written music and lyrics for Miley Chase: The Science Ace (Broadway Licensing) and the song “Say Bravo!” (sung by Andy Cohen with the cast of Vanderpump Rules at the Paris Theater, Las Vegas).

Joe McNeice directs. He is the founding Artistic Director of the Lavender Theatre and the founder of Lavender Productions Ltd. In 2023, he launched the 250-seat open-air Lavender Theatre in Epsom, opening the venue with a revival of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, starring Eurovision’s SuRie. His other directing credits include DIVA: Live From Hell! at the Turbine Theatre, which was nominated for Best Off-West End Show at the 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards. In 2024, he directed a revival of DIVA at London’s King’s Head Theatre and Underbelly Cowgate in Edinburgh. As a producer and writer, he co-wrote and produced the 2020 charity Christmas single Christmas Again: The Show Must Go On! for the Theatre Support Fund+, and worked on Magic Mike Live (US Tour). He is also the creator of On Hope, A Digital Song Cycle, and co-wrote the full-length musical Twilight Robbery with composer Matthew Spalding. Writing credits include Songs in the Key of Springfield (2016), Des Ludo’s Good Clean Fun (2018), and Sugar and Smoke (2018), all performed at the University of York.

Pop Off Michelangelo musical, Soho theatre shows, high-camp musical comedy

Listings Information POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!

Underbelly Boulevard Soho

6 Walker’s Court, Soho, London W1F 0BT

www.popoffmichelangelo.com

Instagram, TikTok: @popoffmichelangelo

www.underbellyboulevard.com

Box Office: 0207 432 3860

TICKETS

£15-65, previews £10-35.

Running time: 75 minutes approx.

Content warnings: themes of homophobia, strong language

17 May to 22 June

Press night: 23 May at 7 pm

Performances Tuesday to Friday at 7 pm

Performances on Saturday at 3 pm and 7 pm

Performances on Sunday, 2 pm and 6 pm

NOTES TO EDITORS:

BLAIR RUSSELL PRODUCTIONS

Blair Russell is a producer who specializes in new work. STILL (Off-Broadway); Lizard Boy (Theatreworks Silicon Valley, Hope Mill Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, Off-Broadway, Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Pop Off, Michelangelo! (Edinburgh Fringe, The Other Palace – London); For Tonight in Concert (Adelphi Theatre – London); DIVA: Live From Hell! (Edinburgh Fringe, Kings Head Theatre – London); Salem (Green Room 42 – New York); and Slave Play (Broadway – 12 Tony Noms, West End).Other projects include The Wiz (Broadway/ NT 2024), Sweeney Todd (Immersive Off-Broadway 2017), and Gypsy with Imelda Staunton (West End 2014). On the board of The New Harmony Project, Goodspeed Musicals, and SPACE.

ABOUT UNDERBELLY

Underbelly is a UK-based live entertainment company founded in 2000 by Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood that specialises in producing and programming ground-breaking theatrical productions and the creation of city-centre cultural events and festivals across the UK, USA, Asia & beyond.

Underbelly, alongside ATG Productions, is the lead and originating producer of the Olivier Award winning Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, now in its third year in the West End. In 2023/24 Underbelly also produced Macbeth alongside Wessex Grove starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma. The production toured to Liverpool, Edinburgh, London and Washington D.C.

Other recent productions also include The McOnie Company’s Nutcracker at the Tuff Nutt Jazz Club at Southbank Centre, La Clique in Manchester & London, Cabaret Royale at the Gaillard Center in Charleston and the inaugural headline show at Underbelly Boulevard, Club Kabarett.

Underbelly Boulevard Soho, their first permanent venue, opened in 2023 in the heart of Soho presenting and producing an outstanding variety of cabaret, comedy, circus, music and theatre.

Current and recent live events include West End Live presented by Westminster City Council and SOLT, Pride in London, Christmas in Leicester Square, Skate West End, Edinburgh’s Christmas, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and Underbelly Festival on London’s Southbank, at Earl’s Court and in Cavendish Square.

In 2024, Underbelly produced Tweedy’s Massive Circus beginning a UK-wide tour at The RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon and the 20th anniversary of La Clique in Edinburgh and London.

One of the largest producers at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Underbelly is proud to have previously presented Fleabag in 2013, Six in 2018, Rob Madge’s My Son’s a Queer, (But What Can You Do?) in 2022 and Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder in 2023.