Infidel about to hit Stratford

Tickets have just gone on sale today for a new, musical version of David Baddiel’s hit comedy movie The Infidel, which Baddiel has himself adapted for the theatre. The production has been made possible by the success of a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign which raised £55,110. The adapted work The Infidel – The Musical is to be staged at Theatre Royal Stratford East from Friday, 3rd October to Sunday, 2nd November.

The book and lyrics are by David Baddiel, with additional material by Arvind Ethan David and music by Erran Baron Cohen. The show will be co-directed by David Baddiel and Theatre Royal Stratford East’s Artistic Director, Kerry Michael.

Like the film, The Infidel – The Musical tells the story of an ordinary British Muslim man, Mahmoud Nassir, who discovers that he is adopted and goes on to find out that his birth parents were… Jewish! The resulting cultural and religious chaos leads to an uproarious and insightful comedy of identity, race, prejudice and confusion.

Kerry Michael, Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Stratford East said: “We’re very pleased that members of the public got behind our campaign to stage this exciting new musical version of David Baddiel’s The Infidel. We’ve been supporting the development of this production over the past 18 months and it’s evolved to be a funny, edgy and courageous show, which I have no doubt will be a joy to watch.”

David Baddiel said “I always had a hunch that this story could be a musical – it always seemed as if there were moments in it where it would make more sense for the characters to burst into song – and so I went and wrote some songs with the incredibly talented Erran Baron-Cohen to see if that hunch was correct. It turns out it was –  there is a musical in there, a piece that draws on musicals about race and religion both old and new, the lovechild – we hope – of Fiddler On The Roof and The Book of Mormon (with a bit of Bombay Dreams thrown in); and I’m very excited that we’ve now got the go-ahead (for which I deeply thank those good members of the public who helped us through Kickstarter) to see that lovechild take its first steps into song, dance and comedy at Theatre Royal Stratford East.”

Theatre Royal Stratford East is one of the UK’s most prolific producers of new musicals and is committed to programming for young and diverse audiences. The theatre has a vision to break new ground with musicals that bring contemporary and urban music into the mainstream of British theatre.

Listings Info
Performances Tuesday-Saturday at 7.30pm. Matinees from 18th October are on Wednesdays at 2pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm (there are no matinee performances first two weeks of the run 3rd-17th October) .
Tickets start from £7 to £24, with concessions available for all performances.
A group discount is available: 10 for 9 (full price seats only).
To book tickets call the Box Office on 020-8534 0310, visit www.stratfordeast.com or book in person at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, London E15 1BN.