Life is a Cruise.

Ruthie Henshall was on a cruise I did last year. She was outstanding, singing with the resident orchestra but bringing along her own MD. I arranged to meet her after the show, and she was just charming!

I know that Daniel Boys regularly does engagements on cruise ships between shows - guess it's a nice stable income.

I haven't cruised since the 90s (behave!) but I was very impressed by the shows that were put on on a Celebrity Cruises tour of Alaska.

Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth to Bilbao and Silja Line from Stockholm to Tallinn, not so much...

But even Jane has all her own teeth... (And can hold a note.) Now Glenn on the other hand...   

We went on our first cruise in November last year with P&O. Daniel Boys was on and was excellent. Another group called four tunes, with 4 west end guys also did two nights and were very good. However then on all the other nights in the auditorium it was the ships entertainment team, which the only way i could describe it was a Highs chool B-Tec in performing arts revue.

I just caught that too... Was about to nominate a new Cute Chorus Boy when I realized he was the new bloke who repaired the boilers! 

(Don't you just love the Dance Mistress? Like a Young Mme Giry...)

I am tempted to book on this cruise and purposely break the shower in my room ;-)

I've been on gay cruises around the Caribbean and they always attract big names. I've seen Patti LuPone, Chita Rivera, Jennifer Hudson. I suppose its for a specific (meat) market that like their Broadway Divas!

They fly in, perform a few shows, spend the next day on board and fly out again. Nice work if you can get it!

This year the new ship has a 1600 seat theatre and has a full production of 'We Will Rock You' on.

I see what you did there

I never thougt of myself as a cruise person either but I had the best time on it. Obviously a gay cruise is very different to your typical P&O service, but they are also far more expensive.

Do people on regualr cruises still have to dress up for dinner??

How often do you get real musicals on cruises? Is it mostly cabarets and solo performers or do cruises often have real musicals on?

I think it depends on the cruise line. I know that American cruise lines often do proper musicals, IIRC they did Hairspray and Grease and probably several others on the "classic" routes to the Caribbean. I would expect that Disney Cruises will show shortened versions of their famous musicals but someone who knows the American cruise lines can certainly tell you more.

Here in Germany, we had one fairly well-known musical composer write a special (shortish) musical for AIDA cruises. I did one cruise with this cruise line where they had quite a fun mix of things that weren't actually musicals but one Abba thing was very clearly inspired by Mamma mia, one 80's rock thing by Rock of Ages and so on. What I remember most was one chap from the company there doing a short "best of Josh Groban" concert and he was really good. 

Tbh, I don't really want/need to see a real musical on a cruise ship, I really like the newer AIDA vessels that have some sort of theatre in the middle of the ship over two decks (basically creating stalls and a dress circle) but open to everything else. People can stroll in, watch whatever is happening for half an hour or an hour and bugger off again.  The older AIDA vessel I've been on had a proper "theatre" with access through doors at the back only, so it was much harder to bugger off in the middle of something dull. Mind you the evening entertainment on that cruise was so mindbogglingly dull that I was rather tucked up in bed by 9pm with a book (yes, I'm that boring).

Could consider this if you are looking for entertainment? Ahem.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2016/aug/25/david-hasselhoff-launches-a-fan-cruise-promising-six-unforgettable-days

Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) are the two best known cruise liners who usually have big proper musicals onboard. NCL has had Rock of Ages, Legally Blonde and Priscilla. Royal Caribbean have had Cats, Grease, Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You.