Ready to snap, crackle and pop its way onto the stage, there’s a brand new British musical opening at The Other Palace next month: The Cereal Café, inspired by the opening of the Cereal Killer Café in East London.
Created by Jacob Dorrell wtih lyrics by Tom Ling, The Cereal Café is a fictional story of two young brothers whose brilliant idea for a café sparks up enough interest to open on the vibrant streets of Shoreditch. But the Cereal Killer Café’s presence eventually becomes a symbol of threatening gentrification to some residents of one of London’s poorest neighbourhoods, and suddenly something as simple as cereal divides the whole community.
And as the café ultimately becomes the focal point of the Shoreditch anti-gentrification riots of 2015, the show explores how people with conflicting views came together in very unlikely places during the most challenging of times.
The cast will star Norma Atallah (Follies), Fanta Barrie (Songlines), Thomas Grant (The Dreamers), Rosalind James (Bat Out of Hell), Julie Legrand (An American In Paris), Harveen Mann (Bend It Like Beckham), Minal Patel (Aspects of Love), Keith Ramsay (The Keith Kat Klub), Howard Samuels (The Glenn Miller Story), and Tosh Wanogho-Maud (Dreamgirls).
Dorrell said of the show: “It’s a real collision of light and dark, where subjects so far apart all somehow come together. This is reflected in the show’s sound-world, mixing musical theatre, pop, rock and cinema.”
The show will have a limited workshop production from Thursday 28 February to Saturday 2 March. Tickets are available via The Other Palace website.