Lyn Gardner’s Lowdown on Pride: The Musical Coming to the Bridge Theatre

Posted on 3 Sep 2026 (Updated on 4 Sep 2026)

[*Pride*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/pride-tickets) is transfering to the [Bridge Theatre](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/venue/bridge-theatre-london) this November. Here's everything you need to know. ### **What is it?** The transfer of *the* show of the summer from the National Theatre to the Bridge Theatre is a musical based on the 2014 movie set during the 1980s when AIDs was on the rise and **Margaret Thatcher** was locked in a battle with striking miners. It tells the loosely true story of a group of gay and lesbian activists who raise money for the striking miners. But when the National Union of Miners turn their back on the donation, the gays set off to a small Welsh mining community, and an unlikely alliance is formed. Because the only people getting worse press in the tabloids than the miners were gay men. ### **Oh, so yet another musical jumping on a screen to stage reinvention?** Don’t be so swift to judge. The movie is great (often cited as one of the best British films of this century), but actually writer **Stephen Beresford** and director **Matthew Warchus** (who did the movie too) don't just try to transpose the movie to the stage and add a few songs like so many do; they play to the fact that this is a story that absolutely shines when it is told as a live experience. It is an evening about community and solidarity told to a temporary community—the audience—and it constantly breaks the fourth wall in intriguing ways. The result is an evening which is actually better than its source material. No mean feat. ### **Matthew Warchus? Didn’t he direct Matilda?** He did. Another rare example of a musical which is a cut above its source, **Roald Dahl**’s novel. ### **Is it really that good?** If you don’t believe me, then hear it from the Daily Mail, not the kind of publication with much sympathy for striking miners, gays, activism or those living with AIDS. They called it “a total triumph". For the sake of balance, here’s the Guardian verdict: “This is an uproarious musical roadmap, of sorts, reminding us of ways to love each other and a reminder that to overcome our fears, we must talk to those we are fearful of. As a musical, it becomes more than the sum of its parts: a remarkable piece of British social history, deeply moving, deeply important.”

### **And what are the music and songs like?** Disco meets the Welsh choral tradition meets power ballads. Oh, and there is tap dancing. ### **Tap dancing! I love a bit of tap dancing. Tell me more.** Delivered by the magnificent **Samuel Barnett** (one of the original *History Boys*) as the gay man with an AIDs diagnosis who sings “You Might as Well Live” as he stares down death. **Barnett** is definitely a contender for the Oliviers. But there are plenty of other great performances from a real ensemble cast, including **Jhon Lumsden** as **Mark Ashton**, the young activist who came up with the idea of supporting the miners and who died of AIDS aged 26. (Note: casting for the role of **Mark** at the Bridge Theatre is yet to be announced.) ### **Strange, isn’t it, that the miners’ strike has spawned two cracking British stage musicals?** Yep, this is definitely up there with [*Billy Elliott*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/billy-elliot-tickets), although of course that began as a stage musical and then became a movie. What’s so delightful here is the melding of the queerest of artforms—musical theatre—with a gay sensibility. It is both hyper-camp but also utterly sincere. That’s a hard combo to pull off, but Beresford and Warchus judge things perfectly here. ### **Sounds fun, and moving too, I assume?** Absolutely. There are some killer one-liners, but it’s a deeply touching evening too, no more so than in the song *Light Perpetual* when the entire theatre becomes a site of remembrance for those who lost their lives to AIDS. ### **That sounds as manipulative as hell.** No, the moment is truly earned. You’d have to be stone-hearted not to respond. Take a hankie. Or too. ### **Do say:** Maybe disco really could save humanity. ### **Don’t say:** But I thought we were going to see *Brassed Off.* Playing from 12 November at the Bridge Theatre, get your [*Pride*](https://www.londontheatredirect.com/musical/pride-tickets) tickets with us today.