Stiletto - Musical
Stiletto - Musical
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
Stiletto - Musical #1
Posted: 4/29/26 at 10:39am
There is a proshot of the new(ish) musical Stiletto which was in London in Spring 2025 at the small Charing Cross Theatre. Just posted to YouTube.
I haven't watched and cannot vouch for its qualities. Theatreboard was mixed - liked the music, but not so much the book (which seems like so many musicals!) The "official" description from Charing Cross Theatre is:
"Stiletto, the new musical with Music and Lyrics by three-time Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Matthew Wilder (Disney’s Mulan) with the Book by double Olivier Award nominee Tim Luscombe (Noël Coward’s Easy Virtue, Terrence Rattigan’s The Browning Version and Harlequinade) has been nominated for a staggering 11 awards at the 2025/2026 Fringe Theatre Awards including Best New Musical and Best Production.
Set in 18th-century Italy, Stiletto follows Marco, a young castrato singer navigating the opulent yet perilous world of Venetian opera. His life changes when he meets Gioia; confident, strong willed...and supremely talented. But despite her musical gifts, as a black woman in a racist and misogynist society, there’s no chance for her to fulfil her dreams.
Marco recognises her talent and, sensing that they are both outsiders as well as sharing a love for music, they fall in love. When a murder shatters their world, Marco must confront his past to save her. A sweeping tale of ambition, love, sacrifice, and resilience, Stiletto brings an opulent, rarely explored slice of musical history to the stage."
Stiletto - Musical #2
Posted: 4/29/26 at 2:49pm
Really, really not great, occasionally bordering on embarassing. The broadest strokes are there in terms of plotting, and some of the melodies are charming, but the libretto is astonishingly witless and bland, burping up vague, halfhearted approximations of 18th-century dramatic text with absolutely no insight or surprise. Now and then my ears perked up at the music, but a lot of it comes across as stale leftovers from the megamusical era, and often the lyrics aren't much better than the book, stumbling haplessly over rhymes and images. 90s direct-to-video Disney knockoff vibes.
Also, the fact that they wrote a musical about a castrato, and then instead of casting a counter-tenor, just had a masked woman sing the castrato songs, is baffling to me.
Stiletto - Musical #3
Posted: 4/29/26 at 6:11pm
Also, after a quick glance through the video -- wow this is badly filmed.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/25/06
Stiletto - Musical #4
Posted: 4/29/26 at 6:21pm
Charley Kringas Inc said: "Also, the fact that they wrote a musical about a castrato, and then instead of casting a counter-tenor, just had a masked woman sing the castrato songs, is baffling to me."
^this x 100.
Stiletto - Musical #5
Posted: 4/29/26 at 6:35pm
Charley Kringas Inc said: "Really, really not great, occasionally bordering on embarassing. The broadest strokes are there in terms of plotting,and some of the melodies are charming, but the libretto is astonishingly witless and bland, burping up vague, halfhearted approximations of 18th-century dramatic text with absolutely no insight or surprise. Now and then my ears perked up at the music, but a lot of it comes across as stale leftovers from the megamusical era, and often the lyrics aren't much better than the book, stumbling haplessly over rhymes and images. 90s direct-to-video Disney knockoff vibes.
Also, the fact that they wrote a musical about a castrato, and then instead of casting a counter-tenor, just had a masked woman sing the castrato songs, is baffling to me."
100%. I saw this in London last year, and it was bad. Alternating between silly and overblown to just inferior knockoff.
Videos
