All London's live music

Sex. Class. Murder. The Ruth Ellis story had them all.
It was a sensational case that shook conventional 1950s Britain to its core – the peroxide blonde nightclub hostess who shot and killed her violent upper class lover and was sentenced to hang for the crime, making her the last woman to be executed in Britain.

Now Ruth’s compelling story is brought to the stage as a powerful new musical with moody noir visuals and an emotive score. It’s a timely tale of a woman’s struggle against a patriarchal society that resonates deeply in the era of #MeToo.

Taking in the tawdry glamour of London’s vice clubs, the thrill of the racetrack and the chilling finality of the condemned cell, Ruth traces the 28-year-old’s relationships with the men who shaped her tragically short life – her abusive father Arthur, devoted Desmond, and volatile David, who was her obsession and her undoing.

But there is one more man who will play a key role in Ruth’s fate. A mysterious stranger who visits her cell as the clock ticks ever closer to her end.