In development 2019/20

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The show re-unites writer / composer team Bea Roberts and Jack Drewry who first collaborated on Pins and Needles Productions acclaimed production of Little Mermaid – Winner of Best Show for Children and Young People, UK Theatre Awards 2018.

Based on a 1950s’ Sci-fi B-movie, Wasp Woman the Musical will be a kitsch and irreverent dive into the world of shlocky sci-fi,1950s pop music, female monsters and feminism featuring original music and an all female cast. 

The show follows the story of Veronica Rose, the head and face of a cosmetics company who resorts to an experimental royal jelly serum in a desperate bid to save her fading beauty and her company. Initially her plan works and she has success as a revitalised beauty but as she continues to take the serum she begins to transform into a murderous monster – The Wasp Woman. 

Samples of the music can be found here.

Co-Composer & Musical Director – Jack Drewry

Co-composer – Ellie Showering

Writer Bea Roberts

Director Miranda Cromwell

Designer ­- Max Johns

Book & Lyrics – Bea Roberts

Bea is a west country writer and joint winner of the inaugural Theatre503 Playwriting award for her play And Then Come The Nightjars – which also earned her a place as a 2016 Finalist for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her next play, the critically acclaimed Infinity Pool; A Modern Re-telling of Madame Bovary garnered a sell out run at Edinburgh Fringe, a Total Theatre Award nomination and is now under option to Hartswood Films. Bea is also a recipient of the JB Priestley Award from the Royal Literary Fund and won a UK Theatre Award for her adaptation of Little Mermaid, co-devised with Pins and Needles Productions.

Alongside writing Wasp Woman: The Musical, Bea was recently selected to represent the west country in the Young Vic Theatre’s My England project and she is currently under commission to the National Theatre, English Touring Theatre, the Royal Court in collaboration with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Performer – Ellie Showering

Singing/performing credits include: The Borrowers (Nik Partridge – Tobacco Factory Theatres), Undersong, Hug, MmmHmmm, Symphony and Airborne (Verity Standen), The Tempest (Insane Root), A Very British Bird Show (Conker Group), Bread and Butter (Theatre & Radio 4 – Jen Bell), Interlude (Jenny Minton), 16 Singers (Kitty Morley), Out of Water (Catherine Wright/Helen Paris/Jocelyn Pook), How Lucky (Soundtrack – Freya Billington), Bristol Green Capitol Opening Ceremony (Cirque Bijou/Dom Coyote), Leviathan, Cart Macabre and Biosphere (Living Structures)

Composer credits include: Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, Orpheus & Eurydice and Macbeth (Insane Root), A Very British Bird Show (Conker Group), Lovely Ugly City (Jo Tyabji)

Ellie has had her music played on BBC Radio 3 & BBC Radio Bristol and is also the Musical Director for Insane Root Theatre Company.

Composer & Musical Director – Jack Drewry

Jack is a composer, sound designer and collaborative theatre-maker. He is artistic director of Tremolo Theatre and musical director of Closer Each Day the improvised soap opera. Jack is in Bristol bands 4th Project and Clumsy and is a member of Interval, artist collective. He is an associate artist of The Wardrobe Ensemble, The Table Of Delights and The Wardrobe Theatre. Jack is the composer for the new Pins and Needles Productions Christmas show ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ and recently joined the Wardrobe Ensemble in a sell out run of ‘Star Seekers’ at the National Theatre. 

Max Johns – Designer

Max Johns is a set and costume designer for theatre, opera and film based in London. Trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School with an MA in Theatre Design and a BA in Drama and German from the University of Bristol.

Recipient of a BBC Performing Arts Fellowship Award in 2015.

Recent work in the UK has included productions at the Young Vic, Leeds Playhouse, Royal Festival Hall, the V&A, the Yard, Bristol Old Vic, Tobacco Factory Theatres, the Orange Tree and Theatre Royal Bath. 

With thanks to the The Carne Trust and Wiltshire Creative for supporting this period of development.