Host Luisa Lyons chats with Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams, founders of new musical theatre company Bottle Cap Theatre, and creators of recently streamed musicals The Limit, about mathematician Sophie Germain, and RIDE, about Annie Londonderry, the first woman to ride around the world on a bicycle.

Topics include how song cycles and the Edinburgh Fringe inspired Freya and Jack to start writing musical theatre, deadlines and creativity, the development of The Limit, and RIDE, how the pair feel about filming their work, and more!

Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams are award-winning composers and lyricists, and founders of Bottle Cap Theatre. Their work focuses on telling female led stories and includes musicals RIDE (The Garrick, 2021) and THE LIMIT (VAULT Festival 2019). They are the joint winners of Aria Entertainment and ALP's Chamber Musical commission (2021).

Their work has been performed at venues including: The Garrick, The Other Palace, The Roundhouse and The Leicester Square Theatre, and has been developed with drama schools including the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and ArtsEd.

In 2021 Freya received a Michael Grandage Futures Bursary and took up a writing residency at Norwich Theatre Royal.

Learn more at www.bottlecaptheatre.com, follow on Twitter, and at Freya Catrin Smith, and Jack Williams.

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On episode 24 of the Filmed Live Musicals podcast, host Luisa Lyons chats with songwriter and performer Benjamin Scheuer. 

We chat about  the influence of Frank Loesser, how Benjamin came to write his first show (which Prince William ushered), the interplay of different performance and artistic mediums, being diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkins lymphoma at age 28 and our shared journey of cancer treatment and bone marrow biopsies, how The Lion served as a personal ad, the devastating story of one of Benjamin's most memorable performances whilst on tour, and exclusive news about what's next for The Lion! 
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Benjamin Scheuer wrote and performed THE LION (Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Solo Performance; Off-West End Award, Best New Musical). Scheuer and Carlos Acosta made Empty Stage, the “magical…best dance film of the year” (The Guardian). Scheuer’s music-videos have won Annecy Film Festival’s Best Commissioned Film, and the British Animation Awards’ Best Music Video (twice.) Author of two songs-turned-into-children’s books: Hundred Feet Tall and Hibernate With Me. Scheuer is writing a musical about Peter Roget, creator of Roget’s Thesaurus. A Kleban Award winner, “Scheuer plays guitar as if he invented the instrument (LA Times) and his songwriting “gets to the heart of the matter” (NY Times).

The Lion is available to stream on demand on BroadwayHD.

Learn more at www.benjaminscheuer.com and follow Benjamin on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and SoundCloud.

Check out Benjamin's latest short films:
"Empty Stage" with the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Carlos Acosta
"Empty Stage" with Robbie Fairchild. 

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Filmed musicals bring joy to people around the world, create connections between theatre lovers, and shows what can be possible in bringing theatre to the screen. Filmed Live Musicals creates a centralized place to search for information on nearly 200 stage musicals (and growing!) that have been legally filmed and made publicly available. The Filmed Live Musicals podcast features interviews with actors, producers, and creatives about the joys and challenges of filming live theatre. 

As you love musicals as much as I do, I invite you to make an ongoing donation to extend the reach of Filmed Live Musicals. As an alternative, I’d love you to consider a one-off donation. You’ll be helping to spread the love of musical theatre around the world and contribute to a new frontier of theatre on screen.

​With thanks to Josh Brandon, Elliott Charlz, Rachel Esteban, Mercedes Esteban-Lyons, James T. Lane, Al Monaco, David Negrin, Jesse Rabinowitz & Brenda Goodman, David & Katherine Rabinowitz, and Bec Twist for being a part of spreading the love of musical theatre.