Posts with the label musical
Showing posts with label musical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musical. Show all posts

Friday 25 March 2022

The Choir of Man to return to the Arts Theatre, London this Autumn 2022


Due to phenomenal demand, the smash-hit, Olivier-nominated The Choir of Man returns to The Arts Theatre in London’s West End this autumn, with performances beginning 1 October 2022 and a national press night on Thursday 13 October.  Tickets will be on sale from 10.00am, Friday 25 March.
 
Casting is to be announced.
 
The initial limited season at The Arts Theatre will finish on Sunday 3 April 2022.  This month, it was announced that the show has received an Olivier nomination for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play.
 
The Choir of Man has previously played three sell-out seasons at the Sydney Opera House and multiple sold-out US and European tours.
 
The Choir of Man is the best lock-in at your local you'll ever have, featuring amazing reinventions of folk, pop, Broadway and rock chart-toppers from artists including Guns ‘N’ Roses, Fun!, Adele, Avicii, Paul Simon, Sia and many more. It’s a party, it’s a concert and it’s a lock-in like no other.
 
The multi-talented cast combine beautiful harmonies and foot-stomping singalongs with world-class tap dance and poetic meditations on the power of community. This is a riotously feel-good homage to that gathering place we all love: the pub, complete with a real working bar on stage.

The Choir of Man is created by Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay, directed by Nic Doodson, with musical supervision, vocal arrangements and orchestrations by Jack Blume, movement direction and choreography by Freddie Huddleston, monologues written by Ben Norris, scenic design by Oli Townsend, lighting design by Richard Dinnen, costume design and associate scenic design by Verity Sadler, sound design by Sten Severson, casting by Debbie O’Brien. Associate Choreographer is Rachel Chapman and Associate Musical Director is Hollie Cassar.
 
The show is produced by Immersive Everywhere, Nic Doodson, Andrew Kay, Wendy & Andy Barnes and AK Theatricals.
 
Facebook: @thechoirofman
Twitter & Instagram: @choirofman

The Choir of Man to return to the Arts Theatre, London this Autumn 2022

Friday 25 March 2022

Monday 21 March 2022

Fra Fee, Amy Lennox, Omar Baroud and Vivien Parry in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club


Released today – production shots of Fra Fee (Emcee), Amy Lennox (Sally Bowles), Omar Baroud (Cliff Bradshaw) and Vivien Parry (Fraulein Schneider) in CABARET at the Kit Kat Club ahead of their first performance this evening, Monday 21 March.

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club has recently been nominated for 11 Olivier Awards including Best Musical Revival,  Best Director, Best Set Design, Best Costume Design, Best Theatre Choreographer, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design.  
 
Fra Fee (Emcee) most recently starred as Kazi in the hit Disney+ series Hawkeye, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He created the role of Michael Carber in the award-winning play The Ferryman at the Royal Court, the Gielgud Theatre in the West End and the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. His other theatre credits include Owen in Translations and Amiens in As You Like It, both at the National Theatre and the title role in Candide at the Menier Chocolate Factory. He played Courfeyac in the film of the musical Les Misérables and also appeared in the stage production at the Queen’s Theatre.
 
Amy Lennox (Sally Bowles) received an Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical for her portrayal of Lauren in the West End production of Kinky Boots. Her other credits include Ellie in the London premiere of the David Bowie and Enda Walsh musical Lazarus. She was in the original West End cast of the musical Legally Blonde and created the role of Doralee in the original UK production of 9 to 5 The Musical.
 
Fra and Amy appeared together in the critically acclaimed production of The Last Five Years in Belfast.
 
Omar Baroud (Cliff Bradshaw) is soon to appear in the series Wedding Season for Disney+. His other TV credits include Baptiste for the BBC and The Innocents for Netflix. His theatre credits include You Bury Me for Paines Plough, As You Like It at the Watermill Theatre, A Song at Twilight at the Theatre Royal Bath and All Places That The Eye of Heaven Visits at Shakespeare’s Globe.
 
Vivien Parry (Fraulein Schneider) has appeared in many West End productions including Madge Hardwick in the original cast of Top Hat at the Aldwych Theatre, Madame Thénardier in Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre, Donna in Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales Theatre and Mrs Walshingham in Half A Sixpence at the Noel Coward Theatre. Vivien’s other credits include Twelfth Night and The Shoemaker’s Holiday, both for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Celia in The Girls at Leeds Grand Theatre.
 
They join the full company including Elliot Levey as ‘Herr Schultz’ (Olivier Award nominee for his role in this production), Stewart Clarke as ‘Ernst Ludwig’ and Anna-Jane Casey as ‘Fraulein Kost’. The cast is completed by Josh Andrews, Emily Benjamin, Sally Frith, Matthew Gent, Emma Louise Jones, Ela Lisondra, Theo Maddix, Chris O’Mara, Daniel Perry, Andre Refig, Christopher Tendai, Bethany Terry, Lillie-Pearl Wildman and Sophie Maria Wojna.
 
Cabaret is directed by Rebecca Frecknall,  set and costume design is by Tom Scutt with choreography by Julia Cheng. Musical supervision and direction is by Jennifer Whyte. Lighting design is by Isabella Byrd with sound design by Nick Lidster. The casting director is Stuart Burt and the associate director is Jordan Fein.
 
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club is booking until October 2022. 

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
Photos by Marc Brenner

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Amy Lennox as 'Sally Bowles'

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Fra Fee 'Emcee'.

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Fra Fee 'Emcee' and Amy Lennox 'Sally Bowles'

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Fra Fee 'Emcee'.

Fra Fee, Amy Lennox, Omar Baroud and Vivien Parry in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Monday 21 March 2022

Friday 18 March 2022

Full Casting Announced for 101 Dalmatians at Regent's Park


Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre have today announced full casting for their forthcoming production of 101 Dalmatians (12 Jul – 28 Aug), a newly commissioned musical written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris. Based on the book by Dodie Smith, leading the cast as the iconic villain Cruella de Vil is Olivier and Tony Award nominee Kate Fleetwood.

Dalmatians Pongo and Perdi are puppeteered by Danny Collins (Pongo Voice), Emma Lucia (Perdi Voice), Yana Penrose (Perdi Head) and Ben Thompson (Pongo Head).

Also joining the cast are: Jamil Abbasi (Ensemble), Stuart Angell (Captain Head), George Bukhari (Jasper), Sonya Cullingford (Ensemble), Jade Davies (Swing), Karen Fishwick (Danielle), Joseph Fletcher (Ensemble), Taofique Folarin (Swing), Courtney George (Ensemble), Tash Holway (Swing and Dance Captain), CJ Johnson (Ensemble), Kody Mortimer (Ensemble), Simon Oskarsson (Swing), Tom Peters (Captain Voice), Eric Stroud (Dominic), Jonny Weldon (Casper), and Grace Wylde (Madam Doué).

Director Timothy Sheader said:
“We are incredibly excited to finally bring 101 Dalmatians to our stage after postponing the production twice due to the pandemic. I think audiences are going to love reconnecting with this favourite story outside in Regent’s Park; the original home of Pongo and Perdi. The brand new script and music are both packed with fun and joy and I am delighted that Kate Fleetwood’s filming schedule for The Wheel of Time allows us the opportunity to work with her on creating that all time baddie, Cruella de Vil.”

101 Dalmatians is created by: Shanaé Chisholm (Casting Assistant), Josie Daxter (Associate Director),   Jill Green CDG (Casting Director), Tash Holway (Associate Choreographer), Barbara Houseman (Voice and Text & Season Associate Director), Howard Hudson (Lighting Designer), Maia Kirkman-Richards (Assistant Puppet Director), Nick Lidster for Autograph (Sound Designer), Katrina Lindsay (Costume Designer), Ingrid Mackinnon (Season Associate: Intimacy Support), Tarek Merchant (Musical Director), Verity Naughton and Nick Hockaday for Verity Naughton Casting (Children’s Casting Directors), Toby Olié (Puppetry Designer and Director), Colin Richmond (Set Designer), Timothy Sheader (Director), Liam Steel (Choreographer) and Sarah Travis (Musical Supervisor and Orchestrator).
 
The Open Air Theatre is working with Mousetrap Theatre Projects to create a relaxed performance of 101 Dalmatians on Sunday 14 August (2.15pm). Relaxed performances are designed to provide those with learning disabilities, those who are on the autism spectrum or have other sensory and communication needs who would benefit from a more relaxed environment, the opportunity to experience the production.
 
Kate Fleetwood currently plays the leading role of Liandrin Guirale in Amazon Prime’s The Wheel of Time. Her previous stage roles include: Lady Macbeth (Chichester Festival/Gielgud/ BAM/Broadway) for which she was nominated for a Tony Award, Medea (Almeida) and Goneril in King Lear (National Theatre). She also appeared in Absolute Hell and Ugly Lies the Bone (National Theatre), Bug (Found111) and Life is a Dream (Donmar Warehouse), for which she received a WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Kate received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for London Road (National Theatre), and she also played Tracy Lord in High Society (Old Vic).

Kate’s television credits include: VictoriaWar and PeaceThe People Next DoorThe WidowerBrave New World and Fate: The Winx Club Saga. Her film credits include: Star Wars: The Force AwakensThe NegotiatorLondon RoadPhilomenaLes Misérables and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s 90th Anniversary season also includes the musical Legally Blonde     (13 May – 2 July) directed by Lucy Moss, co-writer and co-director of Six the Musical, and - in a second commission from the theatre in 2022 - Antigone (3 – 24 September) by Barber Shop Chronicles writer Inua Ellams after Sophocles, directed by Max Webster and co-directed by Jo Tyabji.
 

Full Casting Announced for 101 Dalmatians at Regent's Park

Friday 18 March 2022

Thursday 17 March 2022

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre Announces Principle Cast for Legally Blonde


Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre have today announced principal casting for their forthcoming production of Legally Blonde (13 May-2 July), along with the full creative team.

Courtney Bowman takes the central role of Elle Woods. Courtney previously appeared in SIX (Arts Theatre/Lyric), Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Apollo/Sheffield Crucible), Blondel (Union) and The Wind in the Willows (UK Tour). Courtney can currently be seen as Small in the hit children’s CBeebies show Big Cook Little Cook.

Directed by Lucy Moss, co-director and co-writer of SIXLegally Blonde is written by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin (music and lyrics), Heather Hach (book) and is based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture.

Also joining the cast are Michael Ahomka-Lindsay (Emmett), Lauren Drew (Brooke), Vanessa Fisher (Vivienne), Isaac Hesketh (Margot), Nadine Higgin (Paulette), Alžbeta Matyšáková (Enid), Eugene McCoy (Callahan), Grace Mouat (Pilar), Alistair Toovey (Warner), and Hannah Yun Chamberlain (Serena).

Full casting will be announced in due course.

Legally Blonde is created by Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong (dramaturg), Cat Beveridge (musical supervisor), Jean Chan (costume designer), Shanaé Chisholm (casting assistant), Natalie Gallacher CDG for Pippa Ailion Casting (casting director), Tony Gayle (sound designer), Phillip Gladwell (lighting designer), Ainsley Hall Ricketts (assistant choreographer), Laura Hopkins (set designer), Barbara Houseman (voice & text and season associate director), Majella Hurley (dialect coach), Ellen Kane (choreographer), Ingrid Mackinnon (season associate: intimacy support), Lucy Moss (director), Priya Patel Appleby (associate director), Chris Poon (assistant musical director), Alexzandra Sarmiento (assistant choreographer), Amber Sinclair-Case (associate director) and Katharine Woolley (musical director).

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s 90th Anniversary season also includes 101 Dalmatians (12 Jul – 28 Aug), a newly commissioned musical written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris, based on the book by Dodie SmithAntigone (3 – 24 September) by Barber Shop Chronicles writer Inua Ellams after Sophocles, is the second commission from the theatre in 2022, directed by Max Webster and co-directed by Jo Tyabji.
 

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre Announces Principle Cast for Legally Blonde

Thursday 17 March 2022

The Witches of Eastwick to have Concert Performance Starring Giles Terera


Producer Jack Maple, by arrangement with Cameron Mackintosh Ltd, is delighted to announce a special one-off concert of The Witches of Eastwick at the Sondheim Theatre on Monday 20 June 2022.

The Witches of Eastwick has a book and lyrics by John Dempsey and music by Dana P. Rowe, based on the novel by John Updike and the Warner Brothers motion picture. Maria Friedman will direct with musical staging by Stephen Mear. Olivier Award-winning actor Giles Terera will star as Darryl Van Horne. This will be the first time the musical has been seen in London since it originally played at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2000, transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre in 2001. Tickets are on sale from 10am on Thursday 17 March.
 
Further all-star casting is to be announced.
 
The Witches of Eastwick tells the tale of the people of the little town of Eastwick. It is a town where everyone knows everything about everyone else, and it is presided over by the indomitable Felicia Gabriel. Bored with their small town lives, three women - Alexandra (Alex), Sukie, and Jane--share a desire for “all manner of man in one man” to provide excitement and variety. That man arrives, literally in a flash, in the devil-like form of Darryl Van Horne. Darryl seduces the women and teaches them powers, which they never knew they had. 
 
Cameron Mackintosh said “I’m really thrilled that Jack Maple is conjuring up the wickedly funny Witches of Eastwick again, for one night only in concert with a glorious cast at the Sondheim Theatre.  It has always been one of my favourite scores, which I’m very much looking forward to hearing in its full splendour.”
Maria Friedman said “I’m so incredibly excited to be revisiting Eastwick after all these years. To be reunited with the fantastic Stephen Mear and to have the opportunity to bring this beloved musical back to London, and at the simply stunning Sondheim Theatre, for one night only is an absolute thrill and I can’t wait to get started.” 

Giles Terera MBE is an award-winning actor, musician and writer. He is best known for originating the role of Aaron Burr in the London production of the award-winning musical Hamilton, for which he won the 2018 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Giles’s other work on stage includes RosmersholmThe Tempest, Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, 125th Street, Rent (West End); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Hamlet, Death and the King’s Horseman, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, Troilus and Cressida, Candide, Honk! (National Theatre); The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe/international tour); The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Donmar Warehouse); Pure Imagination – The Songs of Lesley Bricusse (St. James’s); King John (Shakespeare’s Globe/UK tour);  The Ratpack (West End/international tour); Jailhouse Rock (Theatre Royal Plymouth/West End); The Tempest (RSC) and Generations of the Dead (Young Vic). As a writer, his theatre work includes The Meaning of Zong (Bristol Old Vic), The Ballad of Soho Jones (St. James’) and Black Matter (Crazy Coqs). Giles was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to theatre.

The winner of three Olivier Awards and an Evening Standard Award, Maria Friedman is one of Britain’s most successful and acclaimed Musical Theatre actresses. Maria starred in the original West End production of The Witches of Eastwick as Sukie alongside Lucie Arnaz as Alex and Joanna Riding as Jane. Her many other West End acting credits include PassionRagtimeMerrily We Roll Along, Blues in the Night, ChicagoThe Woman in White and, most recently, she played Golde in the Olivier Award-winning Trevor Nunn production of Fiddler on the Roof at the Playhouse Theatre. Maria won over a whole new audience when she joined the cast of long-running soap EastEnders, playing Elaine Peacock.  In 2013, Maria made her directorial debut at the Menier Chocolate Factory with a production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Merrily We Roll Along.  After a series of 5-star reviews, the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical and a sell-out extended run, it transferred to the West End and played Boston.  In 2014, it won the Olivier for Best Musical Revival. It was recently announced that Maria will stage Old Friends, a celebration of the work of Stephen Sondheim at the Sondheim Theatre, with Matthew Bourne in May, as well as an Off-Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along starring Daniel Radcliffe as part of New York Theatre Workshop’s 2022/23 season.

The multi award-winning Stephen Mear, is one of the world’s most celebrated choreographers, with two Olivier Awards, an LA Drama Critics Circle Award, and a Helpmann Award. His theatre work includes Mary Poppins with co-choreographer Matthew Bourne (Prince Edward Theatre 2004 & 2019); Funny Girl and Guys and Dolls, as director/choreographer (Marigny Theatre); Guys and Dolls Concert, as director/choreographer (Royal Albert Hall); Chess (ENO); Sunset Boulevard (ENO and Broadway); On the Town (ENO and Théâtre du Châtelet); 42nd Street as director/choreographer (Théâtre du Châtelet); Singin’ In The Rain (Grand Palais);  City of AngelsThe Vote and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Donmar); White Christmas (Dominion Theatre and Curve, Leicester);  Mack and MabelThe Pajama GameShe Loves Me as director/choreographer, Amadeus, The Music Man, Funny Girl, How to Succeed In Business, Putting it Together and The Grapes of Wrath (Chichester Festival Theatre);  Die Fledermaus (The Metropolitan Opera, New York) and The Little Mermaid (Broadway). Stephen will be choreographing Old Friends at the Sondheim Theatre this May.

John Dempsey wrote both the book and lyrics for Zombie Prom (Off Broadway & Germany), The Fix directed by Sam Mendes at the Donmar Warehouse (Olivier Award & Helen Hayes Award nominations) and lyrics for The Reluctant Dragon, A Country Christmas Carol, and the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus. Plays include; One Miracle in a Lifetime (Ohio Arts Council Award), The World Today and The Greater Goode.

Dana P. Rowe wrote the music for Zombie Prom (Off Broadway & Germany) and The Fix, directed by Sam Mendes at the Donmar Warehouse (Olivier Award & Helen Hayes Award nominations). He also  prepared the score for The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde which premiered at the 2005 New York Musical Theater Festival as a featured production.

The Witches of Eastwick to have Concert Performance Starring Giles Terera