Jason Manford has gushed over the 'spectacular event' as he gets ready to host the National Lottery's Big Night of Musicals for the fourth year in a row.
The Salford-born comic will take to the stage in Manchester once again to present a fantastic - and free - event that will showcase over 10 musicals in one night. The show at Manchester's AO Arena on January 27 will include musical performances from West End and UK touring shows, including Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell The Musical, Mean Girls, Calamity Jane, Dear Evan Hanson, Here & Now – The Official Steps Musical, and brand new Disney’s Hercules. And Jason, for one, can't wait.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror he said: "It's always spectacular. It's certainly a show that you would never get to see anywhere else. So it's a real one off... This is the biggest show of it's kind; probably in the world I would say."
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Anthony Devlin Photography)Jason added that the show is a great way to dispel the myth that theatre has to be expensive. "Theatre can often be seen as expensive and elitist," he said. "The great thing about what the National Lottery does is it makes theatre accessible to everybody, and that's what's important about it. That's why I'm involved."
He continued: "It's a great introduction to theatre, if you've always thought about it, or you know your son or daughter love theatre and you think, 'how am I gonna, get five of us to the theatre without spending hundreds of pounds?' then this is a brilliant way of doing it. Also, if you're there on the night there are so many shows that you go, 'gosh, I didn't even know that was a show. I'm gonna go see it'. And that's when I think it comes into its own."
Explaining how the idea was initially born in lockdown, Jason said: "Everyone was struggling with theatres going under and shows getting cancelled and whatnot, and the National Lottery, as they often do, came and saved the day and kept a lot of theatres going and obviously getting those people back into the theatres was a big deal. So to put on a massive event with all the best shows from the West End and touring was difficult. But it was just incredible...and here we are four years later."
The show serves as a big thank you to Lottery players who help support theatre related projects, just by playing each week.
Jason Manford will host The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals at the AO Arena Manchester on 27th January 2025. Free tickets to attend the musical spectacular will be available at 10am on 12th December at bignightofmusicals.com
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