Youth Music Theatre UK

Hot is the celebrity magazine - the only publication to read if you want to know who dated who, and who drank, wore or stole what.

The journalists at Hot are the best in their glittering field. No-one gets a reality TV star like Hot. No-one else nails that relationship break-up before it happens. The Hot office is a wise-cracking, deal-making, scandal factory and the reporters who work there truly do hold the keys to the fairytale castle.

Orson however, wants out. She's always dreamed of writing that big life-changing news story about murder and corruption - but instead finds her talents wasted writing gossip for women to read in hairdressers. When Orson's assignments reach a new low - trailing reality TV contestants to the opening of an envelope - she resolves to go out in a blaze of glory and to take Hot magazine's reputation with her. She joins up with a mysterious young party-crasher and together they create Jayne, the ultimate model-slash-actress-slash-what-does-she-do-again? Soon Jayne is front page news and all the fans want to be her. But then things turn ugly and out of control. Now that Orson and Jayne have found fame will they be able give it up? And what lengths will journalists go to in the deadly serious world of trivial magazines?

Dead Heat is a fast-paced musical comedy thriller, packed with love, revenge, jealousy and murder. Stephen Keyworth has written for EastEnders, Radio 4 and the Royal Exchange Theatre, and worked for some years as a stand-up comedian. Composer Alexander S. Bermange has written for twelve musicals in the UK, Europe and US, and he is comedy song-writer in residence for Radio 4's Broadcasting house.