‘Musicals: The Greatest Shows’ to be presented on BBC

Michael Ball, Elaine Paige and Nicole Scherzinger will take part.

UPDATE: On 31 January, the greatest musical theatre song was announced, as voted by BBC Radio 2 listeners. The top song was "One Day More" from Les Miserables, with "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables in second place. 

The BBC have announced today that a celebratory musical theatre production will air on BBC One. The televised event, filmed at the London Palladium, is part of BBC Radio 2's commitment to championing musical theatre, with programming across the BBC's entire catalogue of channels.

BBC Musicals: The Greatest Show will be broadcast on 31 January at 7pm on Radio 2, with a televised show on BBC One on 7 February 2021.

Speaking about the event, Radio 2 host and West End star Elaine Paige said: "Musicals are such a huge part of my life, as they are for so many of my friends and colleagues, so to be unable to perform or go to the theatre for most of last year was devastating for us all. Radio 2 Celebrates Musicals is a way for us all to come together, to be uplifted and sing out loud to the world's best show tunes."

Check out videos of all the stars taking part. The full line-up of performers, as well as song choices, include:

Amanda Holden and Sheridan Smith perform "I Know Him So Well" from Chess.
Nicole Scherzinger with "Never Enough" from The Greatest Showman.
Gavin Spokes performs "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton.
Michael Ball performs "You Can't Stop The Beat" from Hairspray.
Sheridan Smith performs "Don't Rain On My Parade" from Funny Girl.
Ivano Turco performs "Only You, Lonely You" from Cinderella.
The cast of SIX The Musical performing "Six".
Ramin Karimloo sings "The Music Of The Night" from The Phantom Of The Opera.
Mazz Murray, Kate Graham and Jo Napthine sing "Dancing Queen" from Mamma Mia!.
Aisha Jawando performs "The Best" from Tina the Musical.
Lea Salonga performs "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Misérables.
Layton Williams performs "The Wall In My Head" from Everybody's Talking About Jamie.
Sam Tutty sings "You Will Be Found" from Dear Evan Hansen.
Nicole Raquel Dennis sings "And I Am Telling You" from Dreamgirls.
Kerry Ellis sings "Defying Gravity" from Wicked
Exclusively for Radio 2, Josh Groban sings "The Impossible Dream" from Man Of La Mancha.
Exclusively for Radio 2, Elaine Paige sings "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from Sunset Boulevard.
Exclusively for Radio 2, Christine Allado and Alexia Khadime perform "When You Believe" from The Prince Of Egypt.
Jac Yarrow, with the public, performing "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Upcoming BBC documentaries will also focus on West Side Story, as well as shows about Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

^{Photo credit: London Palladium (Photo by MrsEllacott on Wikipedia under CC 3.0)}