GIGGING FOR IT Cabaret To Feature The Work Of Dougal Irvine At Freedom Bar, Soho on July 1

On Sunday July 1, Gigging For It artistic director/producer Michelle LaFortune will celebrate her native Canada’s national holiday by staging the latest in her monthly Gigging For It cabarets celebrating new musical theatre writing at the Freedom Bar, Soho. This month’s show will focus on the songs of award-winning songwriter Dougal Irvine.

Dougal Irvine, who read psychology at the University of Birmingham before training as an Actor at Mountview and going on to perform a number of major roles in West End musicals (including Mark in Rent and Fiyero in Wicked), has begun to establish himself as one of the UK’s rising stars of musical theatre song-writing. He trained in play-writing at the Royal Court and his first musical, Departure Lounge, won the MTM award for Best Music at the Edinburgh Festival and subsequently had runs Off Broadway, in Chicago and at London’s Waterloo East Theatre. Irvine was lyricist for the recent Stratford East smash hit show, Britain’s Got Bhangra and his latest musical, In Touch, was staged recently in a highly acclaimed production by students at the Award-winning MTA.

Dougal Irvine’s debut album, Acoustic Overtures - with vocals by some of the West End’s elite performers - was released by SimG Records in 2011. And his song, “Do You Want A Baby, Baby?” was the 2012 joint winner of the coveted Stiles & Drewe Award.

As usual, the Gigging For It concert will be preceded by a “warm-up set” (known as the “Sunday Roast”), featuring young performers Lauren Austin, Carly Mackelvie, Simon Ouldred, Maddie Cole, Samuel Parker, Caro Bosticco and Sian Walker belting out their favourite tunes. The main fare that will follow will include a smattering of musical theatre favourite songs, together with the showcase of Dougal Irvine numbers - when songwriter Irvine will also don his cap of performer, joined by Lucyelle Cliffe (hot from the smash Landor Theatre hit, The Thing About Men), Kit Orton (Spamalot, Peter Pan, The Hot Mikado), Alistair Frederick and Michelle LaFortune (La Boheme, Sweet FA).

Gigging For It: the songs of Dougal Irvine

Sunday, July 1 at Freedom Bar, Wardour Street, Soho
Doors open at 6:30 and the Sunday Roast starts at 7. Gigging For It takes the stage at 8. Tickets can be purchased at the door and cost £7 before 7:30 and £9 after.

Robert Gould is a graduate of the University of Wales, Swansea, a former teacher, a writer of history books for schools (The French Revolution and European Nationalism, 1848-71) and the librettist and lyricist of a number of musicals. Collaborating with composer Ty Kroll, he has written the book and lyrics for the musicals, Lovers, Alone and Vocalize!. Concerts of songs from Lovers and Vocalize! were presented at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (in March 2002 and April 2003) and Alone received its world premiere staging in Madison, Wisconsin in April 2003. He has co-written the book & lyrics(with Jimmy Granstrom) for The Dying Game, a musical that speaks for the victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa (with music by Filip von Uexkull, Ty Kroll & Tristan Bons) - which received a showcase production at the Greenwich Musical Futures season in 2005. He wrote lyrics for the Tim Prottey-Jones albums More With Every Line and Surrounded By The Sounds and is currently developing the musical Roundabout with songwriter Joe Sterling and the musicals Based On A True Story, Elephant Juice, Grace Notes, Flop and My Land's Shore with composer Christopher J. Orton.

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