Blitz! at The Union Theatre

The Phil Willmott Company's popular Essential Classics season is celebrating the 75th anniversary of V.E. Day with 3 productions exploring the British in World War II.

For its fourth year at The Union Theatre, the Essential Classics Season is featuring a rare revival of Lionel Bart's BLITZ! which runs at The Union Theatre from 5 February to 7 March 2020.

Lionel Bart's epic musical BLITZ! is a celebration of London's working-class spirit as the Nazi's rained down bombs on British cities.

It's the story of the redoubtable Mrs Blitztein, loved and feared by her neighbours as the "Queen of Petticoat Lane" - based on Lionel Bart's mother!

Initially, determined that her kids won't marry outside the Jewish faith she's forced to reconsider as neighbourhood feuds take an unexpected turn in the nightly scramble for the air raid shelters.

All that and you're never more then 10 minutes away from a cockney knees-up or a haunting ballad from the writer of Oliver!

The first production of Blitz was one of the most spectacular and expensive musicals ever staged and, although it was a hit, producers have been intimidated by the cost of a remount ever since.

This production is the first ever attempt to reframe Blitz! as a chamber piece; with the intimacy of the Union theatre pulling the characters and relationships into sharper focus then ever before and allowing recreation of the crowded claustrophobia of the air raid shelter and the bustle of London's alleyways.

Casting has been announced today with Jessica Martin starring as Mrs Blitztein.

From West End leading lady to one-woman cabaret shows, Ms Martin has performed all over London and the UK in many productions (including hit musicals Me and My Girl, Elf, Spamalot, and Mack and Mabel) and is a 'seasoned' multi-faceted entertainer with a thirty-year career performing in theatre, comedy, television and radio.

She has gone from teenage jazz singer, to television impressionist (in the days when light entertainment was at its Saturday night best!), to cult Doctor Who guest star, leading West End musical theatre actress and now, in the last four

years, a comic creator and published graphic novelist.

She received critical acclaim for her one woman show Sunset Bitch at the new Waterloo East Theatre and was the first artist to perform in cabaret at the

newly refurbished Savoy Hotel.

Full casting and listing details are given below.

Show listing information