Ben Platt and Mark Sonnenblick discuss 'Midnight at the Never Get'

Ben Platt is making his London debut playing a queer cabaret performer in Mark Sonnenblick’s musical Midnight at the Never Get. They talk about creating an intimate nightclub experience

Summary

• Ben Platt is making his full London debut in musical 'Midnight at the Never Get'
• Mark Sonnenblick is the show's composer; lyricist and book writer
• The musical follows a 1960s cabaret singer who embarks on a romantic relationship with a composer

Sometimes there is perfect synergy between actor and show: such is the case with Ben Platt and Midnight at the Never Get. The acclaimed actor, who won a Tony Award for Dear Evan Hansen in 2017, and whose work ranges from a concert of The Last Five Years, opposite Rachel Zegler, to satirical TV comedy The Politician and the Pitch Perfect movies, has also become renowned for his cabaret performances.

Fortuitously, musical Midnight at the Never Get centres on a 1960s cabaret singer, Trevor Copeland, who hints at his (then-illicit) romantic relationship with composer Arthur Brightman through the songs he performs at a club in New York’s Greenwich Village. Platt explains: “When I heard the music, how incredible the songs are, that was my first lasso in. But then it also takes two forms I’ve loved: getting deeper and deeper into crafting my own solo show, and, of course, with Evan Hansen, creating new musical theatre. So the fact that there was a piece that exists exactly on the bridge of those two things was amazing.”

The show’s composer, lyricist, and book writer Mark Sonnenblick also has an impressively varied CV, from supplying lyrics for musical The Devil Wears Prada (still going strong in the West End) to writing music for 2023 mockumentary film Theater Camp (co-created by and starring Platt), and winning an Academy Award for KPop Demon Hunters’ “Golden”. His inspiration for Midnight at the Never Get was, he says, his love for the Great American Songbook: popular 20th-century jazz standards, many written for Hollywood movies and Broadway musicals, by the likes of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Cole Porter.

“I grew up playing those songs,” says Sonnenblick. “Then my friend [performer and writer] Sam Bolen had an idea for a cabaret. He said what if a composer has just passed away and they’re celebrating him uptown, but then downtown, we’re in this small, forgotten club with somebody who’s like ‘Let me tell you the real story behind these songs’. So that, for me, was a great way to write a classic score but have a dramatic frame that’s more unexpected.”

Interestingly, says Sonnenblick, this style of cabaret was actually on its way out due to the advent of rock ‘n’ roll. That also coincided with a fascinating period of gay history. “So it felt like a very fertile few years to set the show in, and to ask why these characters are clinging to this music.” Platt notes that Trevor has an emotional attachment since “the origin of a lot of it is the intensity of [his and Arthur’s] love. To get to sing with so much tenderness and earnestness and with a lot of joy about a queer love story feels really gratifying and not something that you get to see all the time.”

This is, in fact, the first time that Platt has played a gay character on stage. He’s now figuring out how to apply what he’s learnt through his own cabaret, “like building a relationship with an audience”, while filtering it through the character of Trevor, “who is slightly more unabashed than me, more flamboyant – his volume is turned up”. Sonnenblick observes that the form of the songs also reflects some of the queer characters’ experience. “Arthur believes a song should be beautiful, rather than raw emotion, but there is a gap between how people receive it and what you’re actually feeling. Being a gay man in this period, where you needed to pass or be closeted, there’s a similar tension between how you present yourself to the world and your authentic self.”

Platt observes that this historical story still has plenty of resonance. “Unfortunately, not a lot of the attitude toward what it’s like to be a queer person, particularly a loud one, in society has really changed.” But he feels that the core of the show “is about love, so while I hope queer people will see how deeply specific it is to their experience, I think anybody who has had any kind of love, requited or unrequited, will find themselves in the piece.” Sonnenblick concurs: “There’s this political backdrop, but you really are on an amazing emotional ride with Ben.”

Bringing the show to London’s wonderfully petite Menier Chocolate Factory has been an exciting opportunity to reimagine it, says Sonnenblick. “It’s a whole new production. You’re going to feel like you’re actually coming into the club.” Platt says he hasn’t “performed in a venue this intimate in quite some time – I’ve really been craving this connectivity”. He adds that, although the show is scripted, there are places to “respond to who’s in the room and even involve them”.

This is a belated full London debut for Platt, who teased us earlier this year with his Last Five Years concert at the Palladium. “I’ve always dreamt of doing it,” he says. “I’m really in love with the theatregoing culture here. There’s a very particular respect for and attentiveness towards theatre that is so special.” He adds: “This feels like the universe aligning in all the best ways. And then on top of that, the universe smiled with my husband [actor Noah Galvin] working at the Soho Theatre [in Hit Machine] this summer as well.”

Fans here already know Sonnenblick’s work from The Devil Wears Prada (he praises its “extraordinary” star Vanessa Williams), as well as global smash hit KPop Demon Hunters. The latter was “a crazy ride,” he says, “having a movie and a soundtrack break through in such an insane way”. But all these works have something in common, he believes. “Whether it’s the American Songbook or Elton [John]’s music for Prada or Demon Hunters, these songs really have to tell the story.”

He would be interested in doing a Demon Hunters sequel when creators Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans “have a vision for it” and the team “figures out how to make something else incredible”. Meanwhile his next project is a stage musical version of beloved book series The Baby-Sitters Club, for which he’s developing songs in the style of ’90s artists like Sheryl Crow and the Indigo Girls.

As for Platt, he had “the best time” working with Zegler on The Last Five Years, but notes that “she’s the busiest woman in show business”. He continues: “If there’s ever a period where we’re both free again, I know that we’d love to throw it back up and do some more at some point, so we’ll see.” But he does have another, very long-term project on the go: Richard Linklater’s film adaptation of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, co-starring Paul Mescal and Beanie Feldstein. “We’re shooting it over a long period of time, like 18 to 20 years,” explains Platt. “We’re following the map of the show in terms of how long exists between each of the nine sequences. We’ve shot three of them, so the fourth one is coming up in the near future.” He adds: “It’s a sort of beautiful, distant checkpoint. It’s like a summer camp I get to return to every couple of years, along with one of my best friends since I was 14 years old, Beanie, so it’s really great.”

Thankfully, though, London audiences don’t need to wait 20 years for their next dose of Platt. This summer, he and Midnight at the Never Get are making the Menier the hottest club in town.

Check back for Midnight at the Never Get tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the July 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Ben Platt for Midnight at the Never Get. (Photo by Matt Crockett). Inset: in Dear Evan Hansen, Mark Sonnenblick, Platt with Rachel Zegler in The Last Five Years. (Photos courtesy of production, Danny Kaan)