My post-show talk with Benjamin Scheuer for The Lion

I cannot recommend Benjamin Scheuer’s The Lion highly enough. This is a beautiful one-man musical about a boy and his father and how that boy became a man and fell in love with playing music.

Last night, after being blown away by the 70-minute performance, I had the great pleasure of chairing a Q&A with The Lion’s, creator, star and subject, the staggeringly talented composer, lyricist, book writer and guitar wunderkind Benjamin Scheuer.

Amongst the topics discussed were: the development of the show from album to gigs to musical; fathers and sons, mothers and brothers; society’s changing understanding of depression; performing at the Royal Albert Hall with Mary Chapin Carpenter; photography; living with cancer; London vs New York; guitars, guitars, guitars; and what happened to a girl called Julia. There were plenty of questions from the audience too, including, sneakily, one from Benjamin’s youngest brother Adam, who also features in the show’s story.

Below is the full podcast – please do have a listen – and have a scroll through the Q&A photos. For details of this and other events I’m involved in, more coming soon, visit my Calendar page.

The Lion runs at the Studio at the St James Theatre (closest Tube: Victoria) until 7 September 2014.

Q&A photos

Event photography by Peter Jones.