RepresentAsian: An Evening of Asian Talent returns to the Lyric Theatre on Monday 9 November 2026 at 7.30pm. It is a one night fundraising concert of songs from across the West End, performed by Asian musical theatre talent and hosted by Nina Wadia, with every ticket helping to fund a performing arts scholarship for a young Asian student. Japan Nakama readers can use the code REPRESENT26 when booking.
Asian West End performers sing the roles they have always wanted, for one night only
Asian performers singing the West End roles they have always wanted
Casting director Ben Armstrong founded RepresentAsian in 2021. Armstrong, who is of mixed race Sri Lankan heritage, wanted to give something back to the Asian community in theatre, and the project grew into six sold-out concerts at the Phoenix Arts Club before its West End debut at the Lyric in October 2025. The 2026 concert is its eighth, produced by Aixa Amarante Productions with the Lyric’s owners, Nimax, inviting it back.
The idea is simple. Each performer picks one or two songs from the West End repertoire, often from roles Asian performers are rarely seen in, and sings them as a solo, a duet or a small group number. The set list stays under wraps until the night itself. The whole company comes together to open and close the evening, backed by a four piece band on keys, drums, bass and guitar under this year’s musical director, Taekkeun Sim. The motto on the fundraising page sums it up: “You have to see it, to be it.”
“Asian” here is used in the broad British sense. This year’s bill runs from performers of Japanese and Malaysian heritage to others with Lebanese, Moroccan and Egyptian roots. It follows a year in which My Neighbour Totoro’s entirely East and Southeast Asian company gave young theatregoers in London a cast that looks like them.
Two Your Lie in April leads and a Broken Wings reunion on the bill
Two pairs of former co-stars share the Lyric stage this year. Mia Kobayashi and Zheng Xi Yong played the violinist Kaori and the pianist Kosei in the West End musical of Your Lie in April, while Nadim Naaman and Hiba Elchikhe starred opposite each other in Broken Wings at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2018. Anime has kept its place on the London musical stage since Your Lie in April, with Death Note: The Musical at the Barbican this summer.
Mia Kobayashi
Mia Kobayashi is a British Japanese performer who made her professional debut as Kaori Miyazono in Your Lie in April at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2024, the stage musical of the much loved romance anime. The role earned her a nomination for Best Professional Debut Performance at the 2025 WhatsOnStage Awards. Since then she has led 42nd Street as Peggy Sawyer at Kilworth House Theatre, toured Japan with A Chorus Line in autumn 2025 and played the title role in Snow White at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury.
Kaori came almost straight out of drama school. Kobayashi graduated from ArtsEd in London with a BA (Hons) in Musical Theatre in 2024, finished her last lesson on a Friday and started rehearsals for Your Lie in April the following Monday. Neither Peggy Sawyer nor Snow White was written as an Asian character, so her career since that debut already looks a lot like the idea RepresentAsian is built on.
Her Kaori lives on in the Original London Cast Recording, released by Ghostlight Records on 4 April 2025. A few days before the Harold Pinter run opened in June 2024, the show released this video of Kobayashi and Zheng Xi Yong singing the duet Catch A Shooting Star:
Zheng Xi Yong
Malaysian actor and singer Zheng Xi Yong originated the lead role of Kosei Arima in Your Lie in April. He made his feature film debut in Barbie, plays Xiang in the BBC comedy Boarders, and appeared in the recent revival of American Psycho.
Nadim Naaman
British Lebanese actor, singer and writer Nadim Naaman played Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre from 2015 to 2017. With Dana Al Fardan he co-wrote the musicals Broken Wings, in which he played the poet Kahlil Gibran, and Rumi.
Hiba Elchikhe
Hiba Elchikhe, who is of Moroccan and Egyptian heritage, played Pritti Pasha in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie in London and Los Angeles and Rose in the Titanic parody Titanique at the Criterion Theatre in 2025. She played Selma Karamy opposite Naaman’s Gibran in Broken Wings.
Roshani Abbey
Roshani Abbey comes to the concert with credits in the Olivier and Tony Award winning Operation Mincemeat and in Hamilton.
Soophia Foroughi
Soophia Foroughi, who trained at the London School of Musical Theatre, has appeared in Aspects of Love in the West End and in The Prince of Egypt.
Three 2026 graduates making their West End debut
Every RepresentAsian concert gives stage time to performers at the very start of their careers. This year that means Charlie Moscrop and Shivaane Subash from the Royal Academy of Music and Sameer Dhanjee from the Guildford School of Acting, all three stepping onto a West End stage for the first time. One more established performer is still to be announced.
Nina Wadia, host
Nina Wadia OBE returns as host after compering the 2025 concert. She made her name in the sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, played Zainab Masood in EastEnders from 2007 to 2013, and her stage work includes the musical Now That’s What I Call A Musical.
The RepresentAsian Scholarship at The Boury Academy
The money raised funds the RepresentAsian Scholarship, which gives an Asian student from an underprivileged background a year of tuition and equipment at The Boury Academy, plus a year of Spotlight membership, the casting directory used across the UK industry. The Boury Academy is a not-for-profit performing arts school in Vauxhall for young people aged 4 to 21, founded in 2017 by Caroline and Rakesh Boury, and it won the Diversity and Inclusion Champion Award at the National Whatson4kids Awards 2025.
The first scholarship has already been awarded, and its recipient is now training at The Boury Academy. Alongside ticket sales, a RepresentAsian Crowdfunder is open until 15 November 2026 with a target of £5,000, so donations can still be made after the concert.
Last year’s West End debut and a set at West End LIVE
The first West End concert took place at the Lyric on 13 October 2025, with Conrad Ricamora making his West End debut alongside Joanna Ampil, Frances Mayli McCann and Desmonda Cathabel. The producers confirmed to us that Ricamora, a 2025 Tony nominee for Oh, Mary!, sang Orin Scrivello, the sadistic dentist from Little Shop of Horrors, which is the whole idea of the night in one song: a performer taking a part he would rarely be cast in. The All That Dazzles review singled out a medley shared by Ampil and Cathabel as the moment of the night. In June 2026 the company took the show to Trafalgar Square for West End LIVE, and you can watch that set below.
Planning your night at the Lyric Theatre
The Lyric Theatre sits at 29 Shaftesbury Avenue in the heart of the West End, a short walk from both Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square Tube stations. The concert starts at 7.30pm on Monday 9 November, and the evening is presented in partnership with Dishoom, who will be serving free chai on the night. Tickets start from £20 including a £1.50 restoration levy, and the best seats in the house are £65.
Japan Nakama readers can book the three top price bands at close to half price with the code REPRESENT26:
- £65 seats for £35: save £30, 46% off
- £50 seats for £25: save £25, 50% off
- £40 seats for £20: save £20, 50% off
Put another way, £20 normally buys one of the cheapest seats in the house, and with the code it buys a seat that would otherwise cost £40.
To use it, book through the Lyric Theatre booking page with REPRESENT26 applied. You will see the reduced prices on the seating plan as you pick your seats, with the original price crossed out beside them. There is no limit on how many tickets you can book with it.
Lyric Theatre
Seats are available now on the Nimax Theatres booking page for RepresentAsian, and news of any late additions to the line up appears first on RepresentAsian’s Instagram.
Japan Nakama is the media partner for RepresentAsian: An Evening of Asian Talent at the Lyric Theatre on 9 November 2026.
