“Funny stories from the man who (almost) managed Wham! A surprisingly poignant celebration.” Dominic Maxwell **** The Times

BEFORE FAME

OR: WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN YOU DISCOVER ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST POP DUOS IN A VILLAGE HALL 

What would you do if you discovered George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley rehearsing in a village hall before they were famous? Michael Burdett knows because that’s what happened to him when he was a 19-year-old talent scout. 

Michael tried to get the music company he worked for to sign the duo as part of a ska band called The Executive. And when his bosses told him he was wasting his time, Michael decided he would take The Executive into the studio himself. If he’d succeeded in getting them a deal, music history might be very different. 

Before Fame tells the untold story of the early years before George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley stormed the UK charts as Wham! It follows Burdett as, 40 years later, he took the recording they made together round the UK, photographing strangers listening to it. And it seeks to find the answer to something that had always puzzled him: did he accidentally give The Beat the idea for one of their greatest hits?

The result is a quirky, funny and uplifting solo show that will make you scratch your head at how coincidence shapes destiny. In Michael’s words, it’s a show about two musical geniuses and an idiot. Spoiler: Michael is the idiot.