Carrie Hope Fletcher is to star as Sarah in Ballad Lines, the folk musical by Finn Anderson and Tania Azevedo, for 12 weeks at The Other Palace from April 2027.
Carrie Hope Fletcher heads back to The Other Palace next spring to lead Ballad Lines. It is a limited run of 12 weeks, opening in April 2027. Tickets went on sale at 10am today.
She plays Sarah, a New Yorker who has just moved into a new apartment with her girlfriend. A box turns up from her estranged aunt, who has died. Inside are audio tapes holding the songs and stories of the women who came before her. Listening to them pulls Sarah back through her ancestors' lives, and forces her to face her own past.
The show comes from Southwark Playhouse Elephant, where it had its London premiere earlier this year. Anderson's score puts new songs next to traditional Scottish, Irish and Appalachian ballads, reworked with a modern edge and played by an all-female band. A 17-track concept album, sung by a guest cast, came out on 12 September 2025 and has passed two million streams.
It has been a long road. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Northwestern's American Music Theatre Project jointly commissioned the piece in 2018. An earlier version, then called A Mother's Song, had its world premiere at Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling in 2023.
Fletcher is a four-time WhatsOnStage Award winner whose credits include Heathers, Waitress and Les Misérables. She discovered the score on social media during the Southwark run, and said: "I am so excited to be joining the cast of Ballad Lines. I became entranced by the music over social media when it was at the Southwark Playhouse and I remember thinking 'I want to be in a show like that!'. So getting the opportunity to sing Finn Anderson's score and tell the story that he and Tania Azevedo have beautifully crafted is really exciting and I just can't wait to get started!"
Azevedo, who directs, said: "Carrie is an exceptional artist, with a voice, an honesty and a fearlessness that have moved audiences for years, and from our very first conversation it was clear she understood the character of Sarah completely." Anderson added that he was "over the moon to welcome Carrie and her extraordinary, powerful voice to this production".
The production is led by Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment and Kate Taylor for KT Producing. The pair said the new house gives them room to grow: "Taking the show to The Other Palace allows us to expand the cast, story, design and themes of this mighty musical, and we're delighted for both returning and new audiences to discover Finn Anderson and Tania Azevedo's rich and evocative work."
Music direction is by Shonagh Murray and choreography by Tinovimbanashe Sibanda. Diego Pitarch designs the set and costumes, with lighting by Simon Wilkinson. Eliza Beth Stevens is associate director, Titch Gosling production manager and Jane Deitch casting director, with RJG Productions as general manager. The rest of the company will be named in the coming months.
Ballad Lines runs at The Other Palace, 12 Palace Street, from Sunday 11 April to Sunday 4 July 2027, with press night on Friday 16 April. The running time is 2 hours 20 minutes including an interval.
