‘X Factor’ musical ‘I Can’t Sing!’ West End launch postponed

The launch of Simon Cowell and Harry Hill’s X Factor musical has been pushed back because of “technical issues”.

I Can’t Sing! – starring Nigel Harman as ‘Simon’ – was due to begin previews on Thursday (February 27) at the London Palladium.

However, the first show will now take place on Saturday (March 1), with ticket holders for the cancelled shows advised to contact their point of purchase.

Producers Stage Entertainment said in a statement on the show’s official website: “After much careful thought and discussion we’ve decided that we need to take some more time to work on technical aspects of I Can’t Sing! at the Palladium.

“As audiences will soon see the production is hugely ambitious, and the volume of installation and scale of the set means that technical work has taken slightly longer than could have been anticipated to make the show audience-ready.

“We want everyone who comes to see I Can’t Sing!, from the very first preview, to have the best possible experience. We, therefore, feel that this course of action is the responsible thing to do as producers, both for our cast and production staff at the theatre and for our audiences.

“This is not a decision taken lightly and I’d like to apologise to those who had booked, and indeed sold out, these initial two performances.”

I Can’t Sing! is a musical comedy that pokes fun at Cowell’s reality television empire. Hill and award-winning composer Steve Brown wrote the script and music.