Glorious Madness description
Glorious Madness is a new British musical built around the songs of Joan Armatrading.
Iman Qureshi's original book places Armatrading's catalogue inside a love story written for the stage, so that the songs carry the narrative rather than sit alongside it. The production runs in the Dorfman Theatre, the smallest and most flexible of the National Theatre's three auditoriums, and the house where its new writing and new musicals are usually first staged.
This is a world premiere and one of eight new works in the National Theatre's 2027 programme. It is also the first stage musical drawn from Armatrading's songwriting. Her recording career began in the early 1970s and includes Love and Affection, Down to Zero and Drop the Pilot, and she was the first Black British female singer-songwriter to find an international audience.
The music and lyrics are by Joan Armatrading and the book is by Iman Qureshi, whose The Funeral Director won the Papatango New Writing Prize and whose The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs was staged at the Soho Theatre. Phyllida Lloyd directs, having staged Mamma Mia! and Tina - The Tina Turner Musical and an all-female Shakespeare trilogy at the Donmar Warehouse. The production is made with KPPL Productions.
Casting has not yet been announced and the company will be confirmed nearer the run.
Book tickets to hear Joan Armatrading's songs given a story of their own on the South Bank.
