Recent Norwich Writers' Circle visiting writer Glenn Chandler has written a musical, Cleveland Street.
The musical, which features music written by Matt Devereaux, will be premiered at the The Above The Stag Theatre, Victoria, London, in April 2011.
The show tells the story of the scandal that broke in 1889 when Telegraph Messenger boys were discovered selling sexual favours to members of the aristocracy at a house in Cleveland Street, London. One of the clients who regularly visited the male brothel at 19 Cleveland Street was Lord Arthur Somerset, Private Equerry to the then Prince of Wales. Another reputed visitor, it was alledged, was Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Edward Victor, known more popularly as Prince Eddy. The whiff of Royal connections was enough to set the machinery of the law in motion, and the brothel was shut down, with numerous people escaping across the Channel to France.
At its heart, it is a story of Victorian hypocrisy, and how the establishment always looks after its own. Three people went to prison. One of them was a 19 year old employee of the Post Office, another the editor of a newspaper who dared to print the truth. None of the clients of the brothel were ever charged, despite homosexuality being illegal at the time.
For more information on this interesting and exciting new musical, please visit clevelandstreetthemusical.com.
News updates on the show can also be found via Facebook.
