Thalidomide!! A Musical is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 written and composed by Mat Fraser

Mat Fraser

Mat Fraser is an English rock musician, actor and performance artist. Between 1980 and 1995 he was a drummer with several rock bands including Fear of Sex, The Reasonable Strollers, Joyride, The Grateful Dub, and Living in Texas, the latter of which had a number one single in Italy.- Life :Fraser...

, who was born with phocomelia

Phocomelia

Phocomelia is an extremely rare congenital disorder involving the limbs . Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire coined the term in 1836....

 as a result of the drug thalidomide

Thalidomide

Thalidomide was introduced as a sedative drug in the late 1950s that was typically used to cure morning sickness. In 1961, it was withdrawn due to teratogenicity and neuropathy. There is now a growing clinical interest in thalidomide, and it is introduced as an immunomodulatory agent used...

 being taken during his mother's pregnancy. Fraser and Anna Winslet

Anna Winslet

Anna Melissa Winslet is an English actress.She was born in Reading, Berkshire and is the elder sister of Kate and Beth Winslet.She performed alongside actor Mat Fraser in Thalidomide!! A Musical.-Filmography:*Red Rose...

 play all the roles in the show.

The musical premiered at the (London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

) Battersea Arts Centre

Battersea Arts Centre

The Battersea Arts Centre is a performance space near Clapham Junction in Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth that specialises in music and theatre productions.-History:...

's Octoberfest in 2005 and has since played across Britain and at festivals in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

 and Versailles, France.

The production tells the story of a love affair between Glyn, a thalidomide

Thalidomide

Thalidomide was introduced as a sedative drug in the late 1950s that was typically used to cure morning sickness. In 1961, it was withdrawn due to teratogenicity and neuropathy. There is now a growing clinical interest in thalidomide, and it is introduced as an immunomodulatory agent used...

 victim (Fraser) and an able-bodied woman, Katie Crawford (Winslet), attracted by his phocomelia

Phocomelia

Phocomelia is an extremely rare congenital disorder involving the limbs . Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire coined the term in 1836....

. Fraser calls the story a "cartoon version" of his own life. Winslet won the role in part because she did not shirk at an audition request to mimic Fraser himself.

Musical numbers

• "Monster Babies"
• "I'll Be His Arms"
• "It's Hard To Hitch Down Life's Highway With No Thumbs"
• "Talk to the Flipper ('Cause the Face Don't Care)"

Reception

The Daily Telegraph summarized the show as "sharp and original, but not for the squeamish".
One Wolverhampton councilor, Malcolm Gwinnett, criticised the show, arguing that, "To exploit people in this way is, frankly, sick", while Fraser said that, "It makes Jerry Springer look tame".