BETWEEN THE ANGEL AND THE OLD KENT ROAD

Do not think for a second that because Spott’s debut musical hasn’t been staged since 2010 that it can’t be staged again! Or that it can’t be made into a movie. After all, he wrote the first draft of his feature screenplay, Either Side Of Midnight, in 2001 and that didn’t get shot until 2019. Mr. Spottiswoode is a master of the long game.

Between The Angel And The Old Kent Road is a gothic rock opera loosely based on Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Set in a therapist’s Islington loft apartment it follows the story of a young musician trying desperately to balance the demands of love and career. Except that isn’t really the story at all.

Under the original title Above Hell’s Kitchen, the musical debuted as a staged reading in 2009 at Joe’s Pub in New York’s Public Theater. In addition to Spottiswoode and his band of Enemies, the cast included Martha Redbone, Don DiLego, Meghan McGeary, Max Low, Kyra Climbingbear and Anthony Patellis as the narrator.

The following year the script was accepted for inclusion in the New York Musical Theatre Festival, then the top musical theatre festival in the world. Directed by Hayley Finn and starring Andrea Frierson in the role of Dr. Charity, the 2010 NYMF production played to sell-out crowds. It also garnered a Best Orchestration Award for Spottiswoode & His Enemies and for musical director, Riley McMahon.

Several years later Spottiswoode decided to write a film adaptation - Between The Angel And The Old Kent Road - and to set it in London. A chamber piece for six actors evolved into something much larger.

So when Anthony Patellis reached out in 2024 to say he and his partner Janine Molinari wanted to revisit the project for their Breaking Borders production company, Spott immediately sent them the new screenplay. There followed the challenge of adapting the screenplay adaptation - now with more characters - back into a piece for theatre.

After a successful in-house reading of the new script in early 2025 Breaking Borders decided to use a Rockefeller Grant to take the project to the next level… a weeklong workshop culminating in a staged reading with live music at the Seven Dials Playhouse in January 2026.

You can hear some of the songs including performances from the original staged reading at Joe’s Pub HERE. Script available upon request.