For more on
Carrie Hope Fletcher or Joel Montague, see Carrie's own wiki page.
Shows
Bonnie and Clyde 2024 UK tour - The official reason given for the cancellation was that it was because of poor ticket sales. However, the cast and crew reportedly weren't told and had to find out through the press/social media - as did the new cast/crew who were due to take over. This is very similar to the infamous closing of Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Cinderella in 2022. According to one source, the cast and crew were waiting at the next tour stop and wondering why nothing had arrived!
Aladdin (West End 2016) - There are many stories about what went on BTS during this production. Jade Ewen, who played Princess Jasmine, sued Disney alleging vocal damage but there are rumours this was a cover-up for the sake of the press and is not the real reason for the lawsuit. Another one is that a cast member was allegedly hostile towards a co-worker and sent a very vicious email about them, which was not supposed to be seen but the co-worker found out about it and lawyers were called in.
Heathers - There are no swings in the UK production because Paul Taylor Mills doesn’t want to pay for them - he has even blocked people on social media for asking why there are no swings. In the West End production, which closed in 2023, there would sometimes be only three or four people in the ensemble because everyone else was covering absences. Sometimes, previous cast members or actors from the current tour would have to be asked to step in at the last minute to cover a role. Hannah Lowther became the first actress in the UK to play all three Heathers because she frequently covered the roles when someone was away.
Possible future shows/transfers
Beetlejuice - Despite many rumours, this appears unlikely to come to the West End in the foreseeable future. Original Broadway star Alex Brightman has said he has an agreement with the producers that he's first choice for the role if it ever transfers to London.
Martin Guerre - Has been workshopped for a possible future revival with multiple sources saying that it may play the Old Vic.
Six
Abusive relationship allegations - The owner of a popular Facebook group about musical theatre suggested on the group and her social media that she had been in an abusive relationship with another person in the industry (she works in theatre herself but is not a performer.) She was deliberately coy about whether they were supposedly dating or just FWB; and made a big show of not wanting to say who it was. However, she dropped heavy hints that it was Danielle Steers (2019-21 Parr.) Lots of Twitter and Insta vagueposting followed and fans of both Danielle and the group owner had plenty to say about it.
2022-3 tour departures/alleged bullying - Aiesha Pease (Cleves) and Jaina Brock-Patel (Howard) both abruptly left the tour before their contracts were up. No official reason was ever given. There were lots of rumours about Chloe Hart (Aragon) being a bully/difficult to work with and that this was the reason for Aiesha’s departure. By this stage, none of the other Queens were following Aiesha on social media and they did not say anything about her leaving the show. She posted a cryptic Insta message praising Reddit, this seems to be because the sub for Six fans was discussing the bullying rumours. She is also suspected to have posted about it on Reddit herself under a sock account.
Performers
Bradley Jaden - Got married in 2022 but the marriage seemingly ended less than a year later, with all videos/photos of the wedding disappearing from his, and his now ex-wife's, social media. This led to speculation as to what might have happened for things to be over so quickly. He dated Zizi Strallen for a while in 2024.
Olly Dobson - Was the original Manchester/West End Marty in
Back to the Future. During his time in the show he was often absent from performances or called out at the last minute. When the West End production resumed performances after COVID, it got worse and he was away more often than he was performing. There has been lots of speculation about this including that he had a substance abuse problem. He left the show at the cast change and didn't resurface for a long time.
Myles Frost - Played Michael Jackson in the West End production of
MJ the Musical but, like Olly Dobson, was (for unknown reasons) rarely in the show despite being the first lead.
Hannah Lowther - Has her own
Tattle thread and has been criticised for various reasons:
- She has some similarities to Carrie Hope Fletcher including a big ego, over-devoted fans, and being cast on the strength of her social media presence. Carrie at least is an established performer who's played several lead roles, while Hannah has not had a major role yet and is not a strong singer, dancer, or actress.
- Comes across as annoying on her social media, and has done unprofessional things like filming for TikTok while working at her day job in a supermarket
- She took a while to settle into her roles at Six and some felt she was miscast. She complained a lot about bootleg recordings of the show, which people took as her being very sensitive about the criticism she was getting (since the bootlegs let more people see her performance.) Obviously if she cannot handle criticism well, she probably isn't in the right industry.
- A clip went viral of a theatre school's production of Legally Blonde with an around 10-year-old girl delivering the famous "Courtney, take your break" line - which became a meme through another youth production (in Canada) that was made fun of online. Hannah posted a video of her lipsyncing to the audio and obviously making fun of the child. She quickly deleted this and never addressed it, but was called out by a number of people. Hannah wasn't the only West End performer to do this and others, including Rob Madge and Joel Montague, also made similar videos. But she seems to have got the most attention partly because of a TikTok video where a theatre reviewer criticised her, suggesting she should know better because she herself is young and just starting her career.
- She is friendly with a number of shady/grifty influencers such as Louise Pentland, Anastasia Kingsnorth, and Elphaba Orion Doherty
- Started drama with another TikToker (Flora - @flower.theatre) who had posted a video suggesting that Hannah gets cast on the strength of her social media presence, even though Flora did not criticise Hannah and the video was generally positive.
Schools
In the last few years, there have been a lot of allegations and concerns around student welfare, including:
- Laine’s, Bird, and Urdang (which are primarily dance schools) regularly weighing students and bullying/body-shaming them over their weight.
- Racism and sexual harassment at the now-closed ALRA (see below)
- Arts Ed staff bullying auditionees
- East 15 ignoring dozens of complaints of sexual harassment
There are also concerns about the cost of auditions and the fact that someone who may have travelled halfway across the country and paid hundreds of pounds for travel, hotels, etc. only to be treated poorly or not even given the chance to finish their audition. Guildhall has been criticised for having ex-students (who themselves may not have worked professionally yet) run the auditions.
Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) - Abruptly closed down on 4th April 2022, with just a notice on its website. Students and staff weren’t told in advance, and many of them had to find out from social media. This came after years of budget cuts, overworked staff, and increasingly poor quality training. A recent internal investigation had found that the school had a culture of racism, and there was another ongoing investigation over allegations of sexual assault.
ALRA students were offered the chance to transfer to Rose Bruford, but staff were left without jobs and freelancers weren’t paid. ALRA’s closure also meant the loss of opportunity for working class actors in the north of England because it had a site in Wigan, and fees were not as high as at some of the big-name schools.
Arts Educational (ArtsEd) - Has very strong connections within the musical theatre industry, and new graduates often go straight into big shows like Les Mis or Wicked. However, they’re often not at the standard of acting you would expect from people on straight acting courses; and this makes it harder for them to move into straight plays or film/TV, so they may struggle to get work later in their careers.
It has been rumoured that Cameron Mackintosh gets paid to audition final year students from Arts Ed (and a couple of other MT schools) so that he has a constant supply of fresh graduates who can be paid less and easily disposed of.
