Calling all StageSiders, welcome back to another article here at StageSideUK. This time around we are sharing an interview conducted by Lucy Roue at Chameleon Music Marketing, with Mark Middlemiss the creator of The Picture of Dorian Gray: A New Musical. In this interview Lucy asks all about creating a show, how long it really takes and why audiences love a musical. So settle in and lets get started.
Self-confessed musical theatre devotee, Mark Middlemiss has spent more than 20 years nurturing an idea for a stage adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, one of Oscar Wilde’s most enduring novels.
Now, that lifelong ambition has become a reality with The Picture of Dorian Gray: A New Musical, a brand-new show for 2026 inspired by one of his favourite books.
As the production prepares to tour, Middlemiss reflects on his journey from farming life to theatre producer, what makes a great musical, and why Wilde’s dark Faustian story continues to resonate more than 135 years after it was first published….
How did your musical theatre journey begin, was it always the plan?
Well, I was ‘a theatre kid’ before theatre kids were really a thing.
I grew up on a farm near Darlington, and you find that a lot of young farmers take up music as an escape. Farming can be a repetitive life, so music gives something completely different as an outlet.
I always loved music and theatre and then I started out as a mobile DJ, proper old school vinyl. That was my first real route into performing and opened everything up.
What were your first steps into touring theatre productions?
I formed an Irish band called The Wild Murphys back in 2005, and we got into the racecourse and corporate circuit. But I’m the kind of person who is always thinking, what next? What’s the next rung of the ladder?
That natural next step was theatres, so I created One Night in Dublin. I was fronting it as well as producing it, and we toured for about six years.
It did great, but I was constantly on the road and wanted to spend more time at home. I sold the production and ‘retired’ for a bit… which lasted about six months (laughing) I got restless and wanted to come back.
Tell us what first drew you to The Picture of Dorian Gray?
I probably first read the book when I was about 13 and I absolutely loved it! I’ve always been drawn to gothic fiction, Dracula, Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera, that whole world.
Then I re-read The Picture of Dorian Gray in my early twenties and kept thinking, why has no-one made this into a musical already?
The language is almost lyrical. It feels like it should already be sung. There were so many parts of the book that just literally dropped straight onto the music with very little work. It turned into a two-hour musical without really having to cut anything out.
What do you think makes a great musical?
I’ve probably seen around 60 musicals in my life. We try to do it as a family and this year alone, we’ve seen Blood Brothers, Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Waitress. We’ve got Operation Mincemeat booked and we’re hoping to get down to see Beetlejuice as well.
A lot of people are drawn to musicals because they’re easier to digest than straight plays. Take Les Mis for example. If it was a three-hour play about the Paris Uprising where every character lives an entirely horrific life, it might feel a bit heavy for a Saturday night. Add music in and suddenly people are like “let’s go and see it.”
For me, a great musical must be written properly, and the songs need to tell the story. You should be able to sit down not knowing the material and still follow it all the way through.
Some productions make assumptions about what the audience already knows. I’ve seen shows where I knew absolutely nothing beforehand, and the test is whether I came out understanding everything. The drama and the music together make the story much more accessible.
Tell us more about The Picture of Dorian Gray: A New Musical as a stage production, who is it for?
It’s for everyone.
That’s not a marketing line, I’ve really tried to build something that works whether you know the book or not.
If you love the novel, you’ll recognise it. If you’ve never read it, you’ll still follow it completely.
At its core, it’s a gothic Faustian story about beauty, corruption, and consequence. It’s dark, but it’s also incredibly human.
And above all, I didn’t want anyone to leave thinking I’d messed with the source material, so it follows the original text because I’m a huge fan of it myself.
It’s great to see Kevin Kennedy as part of the cast, what made him the right choice?
Kev is fantastic. He’s got a great voice, but more than that, I wanted someone with that old-school recognisable presence.
This is quite an old-school musical in tone, so I wanted someone audiences already feel a connection to, someone who’s been around, who people trust on stage, but who isn’t necessarily known for musical theatre.
He just fits it perfectly and I know he will do a great job!
What was the writing process like for a musical like this?
It was a nightmare (laughing)!
I don’t have a huge amount of formal music theory, which in some ways helped because I’d sometimes go somewhere musically unexpected. But it also meant things took a lot longer than they should have.
I brought in people with more technical knowledge, and they were brilliant at helping shape what I was hearing in my head.
My goal was for it to be fully sung-through, I wanted you to be able to put it on from start to finish and experience the whole show as an album.
Every song had to earn its place. It had to move the story forward.
How long did it take to create The Picture of Dorian Gray: A New Musical and did you ever question the scale of what you’d taken on?
It probably took around two years of intense writing, but the idea had been sitting with me for about 20 years before that.
I’d been making notes on and off for years and then eventually reached the point where I thought, right, I’m actually going to do this. In February 2025 we were touring in Denmark, and I was sat at the back of the tour bus with a keyboard, laptop and headphones. I came back with two of the big opening numbers ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ and ‘The Talk of London’ already written. After that, it became a daily obsession.
Looking back, it wasn’t just ambitious, it was stupid (laughing).
No, it was the most stupid thing anyone could have ever done, and then to top it off, I thought I might as well produce it as well, I mean what could possibly go wrong?
But it was a passion project, and I felt very strongly that if it was going to exist at all, it had to sound and look exactly how I imagined it.
Do you think The Picture of Dorian Gray is a timeless story?
Absolutely, and I think that’s what makes it so good, it’s enduring.
It’s about beauty being currency, identity, and moral consequence, all of which still feel very modern.
For example, the line ‘life is much less of a chasm for the beautiful and handsome’ is still relevant more than 135 years later.
Looking back now, how does it feel seeing the show come to life and go on its debut tour?
It’s genuinely amazing.
To go from being someone sat watching Phantom of the Opera 35 years ago, to now having something similar that I have written on stage… it’s surreal.
It’s awesome and terrifying in equal measures and I still can’t quite believe it.
This interview really taught me alot, from the time scale of writing a show to just how much you have to give up to be in the theatre world.
The Picture Of Dorian Gray: A New Musical is playing at the Darlington Hippodrome, and around the UK, this year.
Have your say
Will you be catching the show in Darlington, or perhaps one of the other tour stops? What are you looking forward to most, in regards to the show?
Let me know in the comments!
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