- May 2025
Expect laughs, laughs, and more laughs...
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand up in an evening of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly; rude and spikey; wordy and nerdy or a little surreal - whatever the style, it's always "uproariously funny" (Varsity)
- May 2025
Ten strangers are invited to a secluded island. None are safe.
When a cryptic recording accuses each guest of a terrible crime, the tension mounts. One by one, their number begins to dwindle. Trapped with no escape, they must confront their pasts as paranoia takes hold. Who can be trusted? Who will survive? And who, or what, is behind it all?
Every shadow hides a secret; every moment tightens the grip of fear. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None will keep you guessing until the very end.
“Prisoners at the bar, have you anything to say in your defence?”
- May 2025
“I’m writing a musical. About two guys writing a musical. About two guys writing a musical!”
[title of show] follows Jeff and Hunter, two friends who hear about a musical theatre festival that could change their lives. The only catch? The deadline for its submission is 3 weeks away! Along with their actress friends Heidi and Susan (and their pianist Larry), they set off to write, compose and rehearse their musical in the space of 3 weeks.
Featuring toe tappers like Two Nobodies in New York and ballads such as A Way Back to Then, [title of show] is a clever, funny and relatable musical that demonstrates the joys and stresses of putting on a show, and shows us the importance of the friends we made along the way.
- May 2025
When Sophie lands a new job in parliament, it’s a chance to leave her past behind. Working as an assistant to a charismatic Labour MP, she climbs the ranks as he rockets from backbencher to leader of the opposition. But when scandal sweeps Westminster, Sophie is forced to choose between ambition and integrity. MESSIAH is a new play about power, corruption and what happens when the personal becomes political.
- May 2025
'Had I as many souls as there be stars, I’d give them all for Mephistopheles'
Doctor Faustus is the best academic of her generation, but she has grown frustrated with studying theology and arithmetic. As she stumbles deeper and deeper into black magic, she starts to form a strange bond with the demon under her control, Mephistopheles. The two wreak havoc across Europe, and yet Faustus is consistently reminded that in exchange for power over Mephistopheles, she has sold her own soul...
Come and watch this dark-academia tragedy, and be enveloped in chaos.
- April–May 2025
- April 2025
- April 2025
Emma Watson is nineteen and new in town. She's been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast.
If not, they face poverty, spinsterhood, or worse: an eternity with their boorish brother and his awful wife. So far so familiar.
But there's a problem: Jane Austen didn't finish the story. Who will write Emma's happy ending now? Based on her incomplete novel, this sparklingly witty play looks under the bonnet of Jane Austen and asks: what happens to characters abandoned by their author?
This amateur production of The Watsons is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. On behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
- April 2025
Amélie is an extraordinary young woman who lives quietly in the world but loudly in her mind. She covertly improvises small but surprising acts of kindness that bring joy and mayhem. But when a chance at love comes her way, Amélie realizes that to find happiness she'll have to risk everything and say what's in her heart.
With a romantic score, colourful characters, and a world of fantastical fun, Amélie is a beautiful tale for the dreamers in everyone.
This amateur production of Amélie: The Musical is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
- March 2025
Why do fools fall in love? And why do we sing about it so much?
From heartwarming ballads to break-up bangers, Silly Love Songs is CU Show Choir’s latest tribute to love in all its forms – romantic, platonic, and everything in between. Join us in a tribute to love in all its messy, beautiful, and sometimes downright silly forms!
- March 2025
Jamie New is Sixteen, and wants to be a drag queen. When he decides that he wants to go to Prom in a dress, he’s met with a blunt refusal. Faced with relentless bullying at school, and a turbulent home environment, there are challenges at every turn. However, supported by best friend Pritti, and a cast of vibrant characters met along the way, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is ultimately a catchy, glitzy, touching, and timely story of self-expression in the face of stigma.
- March 2025
Five so-called “comedians”. Four humiliating tasks. Three French hens. Two reputations on the line. One will be victorious. On your marks, get set, ego! Watch as our panellists try to complete challenges which will push them to their creative limits and be judged by the Master Taskers. What more could you want from a late show? With all of the format, none of the celebrity, this Cambridge show promises to win awards (or would do if the Brits weren’t rigged). Join us for an evening you won't forget - even if you try to. Come if you want. Whatever. We don’t care.
- March 2025
Hear ye, hear ye, come watch a show so funny it'll go down in history!!
Come and see the figures of history: high and low, big and small, smelly and less smelly in this night of hilarious sketches, songs and good fun. There will be giggles galore, and you can nerd out to your heart’s content!
Get ready for a truly educational night as every thing in the show, every single thing, is definitely, 100% entirely True Historical Fact! (definitely)
- March 2025
You’ve heard of Fiddler on the Roof, now hear the untold story of the fiddler himself….
Through a surrealist collage of Yiddish storytelling, comedy, music and movement, the 20th century writer Sholem Aleichem connects us to the tale of ‘Stempenyu’, set in a Ukrainian Shtetl. In a space outside of time and inside folklore, the story of romance between travelling violinist Stempenyu and Rachel the Shtetl girl, explores the seemingly timeless tradition of the Yiddish world in tension with its impermanence. This will be the first ever performance of this play in English, using Alex Kahn's translation that has been created specially for this production.
- March 2025
Say hello to the Tortured Autist. Otherwise he'll make you eat the ham.
This show concentrates the surreal, dadaesque, erratic, nonsequiturial ideas that neurodivergent brains can come up with and hydrogenates those all together into a one-off night of chaos and absurdity. But also no repetitive noises.
Welcome to the weirdest show you'll see all year.
- March 2025
The Marlowe Showcase is an opportunity for 14 of Cambridge's graduating actors to create a dynamic piece for an audience of industry professionals, including agencies seeking new clients to represent, and casting directors for upcoming projects.
There will be a preview in Cambridge leading up to a final closed showcase in London. The Cambridge show will take place at the ADC Theatre on the 5th of March and the London show will take place on Thursday the 13th of March.
This year, the Showcase will operate on an alternating format of monologues and longer duologues.
Along with the experience and exposure of creating the showcase under a professional director, graduates will be equipped with headshots to help them as they continue to seek careers in the industry.
The showcase is open to all who are entering their final year at Cambridge, regardless of past experience and engagement with the theatre scene.
- March 2025
"Vera. Vera Stark. Mmmm. She was beautiful. And a damn good actress. A lot of folks don't know that."
The Golden Age of Hollywood had many faces grace its screens. Meet Vera Stark, an African-American maid who found her way into the movies of 1930s Hollywood through her employer, Gloria Mitchell. Both employer and employee land roles in upcoming hit ‘The Belle of New Orleans’ that seems to be a promising beginning for Vera Stark but what happens to her as the years go on?
Vera’s character was inspired by Thersea Harris, one of the many faces that have faded into the background of history. This witty satire combines screwball comedy and academic scrutiny to pull together a discussion about how Hollywood's racial politics shaped not just careers, but entire lives.
- February–March 2025
CUMTS presents you with the gift of Gala.
For three nights only CUMTS brings you an evening of pure musical theatre decadence. Dressed to the nines and accompanied by a full orchestra, the finest of Cambridge’s Musical Theatre Talent will be performing all of your favourite musical theatre classics alongside the latest Broadway hits, all dazzling with glitz and glamour.
- February–March 2025
Big. Loud. Chaotic. Hilarious.
The annual showcase of the Cambridge Footlights is back. Bigger and better than ever.
- February 2025
Dragtime! is back and better than ever! Take a chance on our dancing (drag) queens, kings and in-betweens and join us for another hit cabaret show from the best of the Cambridge drag scene. Featuring live singing, lip sync, pole dance, live music, spoken word and more, when all is said and done our cast of super troupers are sure to have you saying I do, I do, I do…
- February 2025
The Marlowe Society presents this year's BME show... Lady Windermere's Fan!
Lady Windermere is hosting a birthday ball, when rumours of her husband’s unfaithfulness begin to circulate. The mysterious Mrs Erlynne has been receiving payments from him for months, much to the shock and horror of Lady Windermere. No one would have ever expected that Lord Windermere would actually invite Mrs Erlynne to the ball!
Love, gossip, and drama sweep through the ballroom as proposals and scandal wreak havoc upon the partygoers. As Mrs Erlynne charms her fellow guests, Lady Windermere becomes increasingly upset and decides to run away. But will she actually leave? And will she ever discover who Mrs Erlynne truly is?
- February 2025
We are so back, a sketch show, teched, written, and performed by BME students from Cambridge. And they’re taking back control. For one week only racism in Cambridge is cancelled. Get ready for an hour of comedy about the joys of being able to eat flavoured food and struggles of trying to explain to your grandparents you don’t want to get married.
- February 2025
Expect laughs, laughs, and more laughs...
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand up in an evening of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly; rude and spikey; wordy and nerdy or a little surreal - whatever the style, it's always "uproariously funny" (Varsity)
- February 2025
Sweet Charity explores the turbulent love life of Charity Hope Valentine, a hopelessly romantic but comically unfortunate dance hall hostess in New York City. With a tuneful, groovy, mid-1960s score by Cy Coleman, sparkling lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and a hilarious book by Neil Simon, Sweet Charity captures all the energy, humor, and heartbreak of Life in the Big City for an unfortunate but irrepressible optimist. With a toe-tapping score including The Rhythm of Life, Big Spender and If They Could See Me Now, Sweet Charity is one of Bob Fosse’s seminal works and this production takes great inspiration from this choreographic legend.
- February 2025
Ready for a sketch show so funny it should be illegal?
Footlights Presents: WANTED follows eight convicts who’ve broken out of prison—and straight into chaos. From outrageous disguises to heists gone hilariously wrong, watch as plans spiral out of control in the most unexpected ways. With sharp humour, unexpected twists, and a touch of camaraderie, WANTED delivers big disasters and even bigger laughs. This high-energy, theatrical sketch show is a must see - criminality has never been so funny.
- February 2025
Michael was looking forward to moving house. It was all going to be wonderful. But now his baby sister’s ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling garage. What is this thing beneath the spider webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never seen before? The only person Michael can confide in is Mina. Together they carry the creature into the light, and Michael’s world changes for ever.
David Almond’s own adaptation of his renowned novel, winner of The Carnegie Medal, The Whitbread Children’s Book Award, and a string of prizes around the world. A timeless classic, published in over 40 languages, it touches the minds, hearts and souls of people of all ages. The story has become a movie, an opera, a radio play and this stage play, first produced at the Young Vic, and directed by Trevor Nunn.
- January 2025
Many of us will know someone who's lining up a graduate job at one of the big oil firms; they're probably future Chemical Engineers, Market Analysts, or Petrol-Pump attendants (insert joke about the employability of humanities degrees). But now there’s a new scheme for Stand-Up Comedians! This may all seem unbelievable, as I’ve made it all up, but it’s really true. I’m lucky enough to be partnering with one of these companies to produce my debut stand-up hour, ‘One Shell of a Guy’, this sponsorship will have no impact on the show and I barely even mention the company in the title so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
- January–February 2025
“What, you think philosophy, you think poetry harmless, sir? Sir, it can maim, it can mutilate, blinded for centuries, it can kill.”
A dark summer, 1816, on the stormy shores of Lake Geneva, a utopia is born. This utopia is one built on free love, on unfettered immorality, on shadowy philosophies built to encase reality, to shield from the consequences of any misdeeds.
Here, in this thundery paradise, shelter the radical poets Bysshe and Byron, accompanied by their respective mistresses, Mary and Claire, and the frustrated physician, Polidori, who joins to shadow his sometime lover and document this sundry menagerie of Shelley’s devotees.
But no paradise can last forever, and a storm is coming.
- January 2025
In just 24 hours, CUMTS members will create and perform a brand new musical in this
A theme will be announced to some of Cambridge's sparkiest new writers and composers, who will then put their heads together for an all-night session of creative madness. In the morning, a troupe of CUMTS performers and directors will rehearse the songs they've written, and that night, they, alongside musicians and designers, will bring their writing to life, in what will be a whirlwind celebration of new musical theatre writing.
There will be sleeplessness. There will be coffee. Who knows what the final product will be?
All we know, is that it will be unmissable.
"Chaos - of the wonderful kind."
"a true testament to the scriptural powers of the CUMTS writing team"
"a pleasure to observe"
"undeniably entertaining"
"a night of infectious enthusiasm, comedic chaos and unexpected brilliance"
"a cacophony of creativity like no other"
"an unforgettable whirlwind event"
- December 2024
One of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream tells the whirlwind story of expectations and dreams and getting lost in the in-between. This chaotic tale unfolds in the magical midnight world of the Athenian forest where the air is pierced with jealousy, unrequited love, and delicious confusion. As they enter the forest, the Athenians are caught in Titania and Oberon’s quarrel over a child, both fairies desperate to follow their dreams of motherhood. Determined and yet disoriented, the humans are left to grapple with new identities and unexpected declarations of love.
Founded in 1957 by a group of students, ETG is an all-student theatre company that tours Europe with a Shakespeare play at the start of the Christmas holidays every year. Famous alumni include Derek Jacobi, Stephen Fry and Olivia Colman! Last year’s tour went to Chantilly, Leuven, Frankfurt, Montreux, Konstanz, Bern and Antwerp before coming to Cambridge for a run at the ADC Theatre in January.
If you have any questions about ETG 2024, please get in touch with the Tour Managers, Gemma and Katie Stapleton, at manager@cuetg.co.uk.
- January 2025
The meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he names "Audrey II" - after his coworker crush. This foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore promises unending fame and fortune to the down and out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it, BLOOD. Over time, though, Seymour discovers Audrey II's out of this world origins and intent towards global domination!
- December 2024
- December 2024
- December 2024
To be or not to be? The real question is: to Glee or not to Glee?
Nearly ten years from its finale, join CU Show Choir as we pay tribute to the show that taught us all what show choir even is! Come boogie, belt, and cry along to our latest selection of cheesy pop tunes, diva anthems, and musical theatre classics. Whether you were a New Directions fan or head-over-heels for the Warblers (we see you), there’s something for everyone… even for the Sues in the room!
- December 2024
Comic Sans is back! Check-in with your favourite under-represented genders and watch as they perform with no script, no direction and no men anywhere to be seen...
Will there be crustacean cowboys or shocking soap operas: no-one knows what will happen!
Cancel your late-night date with the library, gather some friends, and get yourself to the ADC for a night filled with chaos, comedy and crazy antics!
- November 2024
A long time ago in a kingdom far far away, Snow White is celebrating her eighteenth birthday surrounded by bags of dirty washing. With Dame Trudy Wench at her side, she makes sure that the palace is spick and span for Queen Grismerelda and her handsome son Prince Charming.
That is until Snow is banished into the Fantasy Forest, all thanks to the Magic Mirror, with nowhere to go and no pennies to her name. Join her, Trudy, Grismerelda, Prince Charming, Hemingway the Huntsman and the Stardom Seven as the magical story unfolds in the fairest panto of them all!
Don't miss this year's CUADC/Footlights Pantomime: Snow White!
This production will contain innuendo and political humour. While the content is suitable for all ages, it may not be appropriate for younger audiences. Parental discretion is strongly encouraged.
