''I Can't Sing! The X Factor Musical'' was a

musical Musical is the adjective of music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact def ...

comedy written by

Harry Hill Matthew Keith Hall (born 1 October 1964), known professionally as Harry Hill, is an English comedian, presenter and writer. He pursued a career in stand-up following years working as a medical doctor, developing an off-beat, energetic performa ...

, and Steve Brown. Based on the TV series '' The X Factor'', the musical made its

West End West End most commonly refers to: * West End of London, an area of central London, England * West End theatre, a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London, England West End may also refer to: Pl ...

and world premiere in March 2014, at the

London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 a ...

. Due to low ticket sales, it closed just 6 weeks and 3 days later on 10 May 2014, reportedly losing £4 million.

Background

In December 2012,

announced that he was working on a musical based on the talent show '' The X Factor''. The show was confirmed in 2013, and it was announced that the musical would open in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 2014, and would be called ''It's Time to Face the Musical!'' On 22 May, it was announced the show would now be called ''I Can't Sing!'', and that it would play the

, with tickets going on sale the following day. The show was written by

and is directed by Sean Foley, with choreography by Kate Prince, set design by Es Devlin, costume design by Leah Archer, illusions by Scott Penrose, lighting design by Jon Clark, orchestrations by Chris Egan, sound design by Gareth Owen and sound effects by Ben and Max Ringham. An original score of 19 songs was penned, by Hill with music by Steve Brown. At the press launch for the show on 2 September 2013,

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of '' The X Factor'' and '' Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on ...

said of the concept of an X Factor Musical: “I thought the idea of an X Factor musical, if it was too pompous, would be rubbish, and I did not want it to appear like a cash cow. I wanted it to be a celebration of the show but at the same time poke fun at what we do, because you can’t take it too seriously. Harry of all the people was the right person. His observation of the show in the past has been spot on.” People parodied in the show include

, Cheryl Cole, Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow and

Dermot O'Leary Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary Jr. (born 24 May 1973) is an English broadcaster who currently works for ITV and BBC Radio 2. His radio career began when he worked as a disc jockey at Essex Radio, but he is best known for being the presenter of ' ...

Production history

West End (2014)

On 30 August 2013, it was announced that Nigel Harman would play the role of

, with

Alan Morrissey Alan Morrissey (born 9 October 1982) is a British actor. He grew up in Stockport at the Farmers Arms Pub, of which his parents were the licensees, before moving to Oldham. Morrissey trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In 2002 and again in ...

playing the role of Max and Cynthia Erivo playing Chenice the main contestant in the story. The production's first public performance came at the Royal Variety Performance in November 2013, performing a medley of "Please Simon" and "I Can't Sing!", the show's title song. ''I Can't Sing!'' began rehearsals on 6 January, with previews commencing on 5 March 2014, at the

, before holding its official opening gala night on 26 March. The production had been scheduled to begin previews on 27 February, however the opening two previews were cancelled due to technical issues with the show's set. Following the initial cancellations, the production had to cancel a further preview performance, due to a key mechanism within the set not functioning correctly. Problems continued into previews, with early performances intervals lasting 50 mins, due to set changeovers between acts taking longer than expected and one preview getting cancelled at the interval due to electrical problems. A typical London performance ran two hours and 30 minutes, including one interval of 20 mins. The production closed on the 10 May, just six weeks and three days after its official opening night. Speaking about the closure, Cowell said “We took a punt and it didn't work out. If I could do things different, I would have gone to local theatres and built up a following. We went in too big a theatre - it's the biggest theatre in the West End."

Music

In September 2013, four tracks were released on SoundCloud and through the shows official website. The songs were "I Can't Sing", "If That's Not Entertainment", "Please Simon" and "I Wanna Be Like Bono", although the latter did not make it into the final show. The musical uses a nine-member orchestra consisting of keyboard, guitar, bass, drums, percussion, trumpets and reeds. On 1 April 2020 a YouTube user uploaded all the songs from the show onto the site. The released songs were recorded live during one of the performances through a soundboard. Harry Hill acknowledged the leak on his Instagram page, saying he was "very pleased" to hear the songs, while jokingly calling the uploader "naughty" and referring to the musical as a "

megaflop In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...

Musical numbers

; Act I * "Overture" - Ensemble * "If That's Not Entertainment" - Young Simon, Ensemble * "It Could Be Me" - Max, Brenda, Vladimir, Alterboyz, Ensemble * "Life Is Lovely" - Chenice, Grandpa, Ensemble * "Please Simon" - Brenda, Vladimir, Alterboyz, Soul Star, Ensemble * "All Woman" - Brenda, Liam, Ensemble * "I Can't Sing!" - Chenice, Max, Barlow * "Better than That" - Hunchback * "The Hugging Song" - Liam * "Missing You Already" - Chenice, Max * "X Factor Fever" - Chenice, Max, Liam, Brenda, Ensemble ; Act II * "Here Come the Judges" - Brunhilde, Liam, Gerrard Smalls, Simon, Jordy, Louis, Ensemble * "Uncomplicated Love" - Simon, Gerrard Smalls, Max, Ensemble * "Uncomplicated Love (reprise)" - Barlow * "Falling in Love with Myself" - Jordy, Chenice, Ensemble * "Make a Wish... It Happens" - Alterboyz, Ensemble * "Fabulous" - Simon, Ensemble * "A Song I Wrote for You" - Max * "I Can't Sing! (reprise)" - Brenda, Ensemble * "X-Tasy" - Chenice, Ensemble * "Journey to a Dream" - Hunchback, Ensemble * "You Can Sing!" - All

Principal roles and cast members

References

External links

* {{The X Factor (UK) 2014 musicals Musicals based on television series West End musicals The X Factor (British TV series) British musicals