Max Eade and Aidan MacColl will reprise their roles in Dylan MarcAurele’s Pop Off, Michelangelo! when the show plays a limited five-week run at Underbelly Boulevard Soho.
Eade plays Michelangelo and MacColl is Leonardo da Vinci in this “unhinged adventure” about the best-pals-turned-bitter-rivals, which plays against the backdrop of an original electropop score.
A bloodthirsty friar is on the hunt for homosexuals in Renaissance Italy at the exact moment when childhood friends Mike and Leo realise they both like boys. Terrified, they devise a foolproof plan to gain God’s forgiveness: they simply need to become the greatest religious artists of all time. Can Michelangelo gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss his way to the Vatican? Will Leonardo ever shut up about his helicopter?
The company is completed by Kurran Dhand (Salai), Aoife Haakenson (Mother), Sev Keoshgerian (Italian Chef), Michael Marouli (Pope) and Laura Sillett (Savonarola).
From Blair Russell Productions, Joe McNeice will direct, with musical supervisor & orchestrations Aron Sood, costume designer Emily Bestow, video designer PJ McEvoy, lighting designer Adam King and sound designer Ed Lewis. Music director Aron Sood is on keys, Felix Barrett is on bass and Paul J Forster on percussion.
The choreographer is Sundeep Saini, the casting director is Sarah-Jane Price and the assistant choreographer is Conn McGirr. The dramaturg is Rose Oser and production manager is James Anderton.
Following runs at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 and concert performances at The Other Palace, the show comes to Underbelly Boulevard Soho on May 23, 2025, with previews from May 17, and runs until June 22.
Tickets: www.popoffmichelangelo.com
Top image: Max Eade and Aidan MacColl (images supplied)