TO MAKE WEST END THEATRE DEBUT AS MISS HANNIGAN IN
OPENING AT THE PICCADILLY THEATRE MAY 2017
CHILDREN’S TICKETS HALF PRICE MONDAY TO THURSDAY
Multi award-winning comedy writer, actor and author Miranda Hart, will make her West End Theatre debut as Miss Hannigan in Annie opening in the West End in May 2017. Previews at the Piccadilly Theatre will begin on 23 May 2017 with opening night on 5 June 2017. The production, directed by Nikolai Foster, will be produced by Michael Harrison and David Ian.Further casting will be announced shortly.
Miranda Hart said:
“Miss Hannigan is a dream role, and certainly has been for me, but I never thought it would be a reality. But here we are and I have a newly found musical theatre-esque spring in my step! I hope people will leave the theatre feeling life is a little better and dreamier and jollier after watching it, as much as we feel that performing it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some leg-warmers to put on…”
Public booking for Annie opens on Monday 27 February 2017 at 10am with the production initially booking to 6 January 2018. Children’s tickets will be half price for Monday to Thursday performances (see listings information below).
Set in 1930s New York during The Great Depression, brave young Annie is forced to live a life of misery and torment at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage. Her luck changes when she is chosen to spend Christmas at the residence of famous billionaire, Oliver Warbucks. Meanwhile, spiteful Miss Hannigan has other ideas and hatches a plan to spoil Annie’s search for her true family…
Annie has book by Thomas Meehan adapted from the comic strip Little Orphan Annie, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin. The West End production will have sets and costumes designed by Colin Richmond, choreography by Nick Winston, lighting by Ben Cracknell, sound design by Richard Brooker and orchestration and musical direction by George Dyer.
Foster’s production arrives in the West End 40 years after the original Broadway production opened in 1977 and received seven Tony awards including the Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. The last West End production of Annie opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre in 1998. In 1982, Annie was adapted for the big screen directed by John Huston with a cast including Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters and Albert Finney and in 2014 a further feature film was released, directed by Will Gluck, with a cast including Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. The much-loved score includes the classics It’s A Hard Knock Life, Tomorrow and Easy Street.
Miranda Hart is best known on television for her hugely successful, semi-auto-biographical and multi award-wining BBC sitcom Miranda which ran from 2009 for 3 series and 2 specials. She was the recipient of a BAFTA nomination, an NTA Award and two TV Choice Awards for her performance as Chummy in the BBC television drama Call the Midwife. In 2014 she completed her first sell out stand-up arena tour My, What I Call, Live Show culminating in five shows at London’s 02 Arena. As a best-selling author her first book Is It Just Me? was the biggest selling non-fiction hardback of 2013 winning Non-Fiction Book of the Year at The National Book Awards. She followed this in 2014 with The Best of Miranda and last year released her third book Peggy and Me. Her theatre credits include Cruising for The Bush Theatre, Come Out Eli for Battersea Arts Centre, All About Me for Soho Theatre as well as multiple appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her film credits include Spy, The Infidel, Magicians as well as upcoming The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018).
Nikolai Foster is Artistic Director at Curve. Since taking up his post in 2015, he has directed Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s Grease, Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Spring Awakening, Legally Blonde, Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (also Theatre Royal Haymarket and on tour nationally), Roald Dahl’s The Witches, adapted by David Wood, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Shakespeare’s Richard III, Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing and Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, a performance to celebrate the reveal of the tomb of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral. Foster has also served as an Associate Director at West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds as trained at Drama Centre London and at the Crucible, Sheffield, supported by the Regional Theatre Young Director scheme.
Photography by Matt Crockett
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Listing
Annie
23 May 2017 to 6 January 2018
Tuesday 23 May at 7.30pm, Wednesday 24 May at 7.30pm, Thursday 25 May at 7.30pm, Friday 26 May at 7.30pm, Saturday 27 May at 3pm and 7.30pm.
Then Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7.30pm, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm
NB – Miranda Hart will be performing the role of Miss Hannigan until 17 September 2017
Piccadilly Theatre
16 Denman St, Soho, London W1D 7DY
Box Office
Tickets from £20
which include a restoration levy of £1.75
No booking or transaction fees through official sales outlets
Children Go Half-Price (Monday to Thursday performances, top price only, subject to a maximum of 2 children aged 16 or under with each full paying adult, and subject to availability)
Ben Forster will extend his run as ‘The Phantom’ until Saturday 2 September in the smash hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA”. Now in its 31st year at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the West End, the show also stars Celinde Schoenmaker as ‘Christine Daae’ and Nadim Naaman as ‘Raoul’.
They are joined by Siôn Lloyd as ‘Monsieur Firmin’; Mark Oxtoby as ‘Monsieur Andre’; Paul Ettore Tabone as ‘Piangi’ and Daisy Hulbert as ‘Meg’. Also continuing their roles are: Lara Martins as ‘Carlotta’ and Jacinta Mulcahy as ‘Madame Giry’ and Harriet Jones as alternate ‘Christine Daaé’.
Ben Forster is probably best known for winning the ITV1 show, ‘Superstar’ – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV talent search for ‘Jesus’ in “Jesus Christ Superstar”. His other theatre credits include: ‘Buddy’ in “Elf The Musical” and ‘Magaldi’ in “Evita” both at the Dominion Theatre.
Celinde Schoenmaker has played the role of ‘Fantine’ in “Les Misérables” at The Queen’s Theatre, having made her West End debut in 2013. Previously she played ‘Jenny’ in a production of “Love Story” which toured Holland.
Nadim Naaman most recently appeared as ‘Charles Clarke’ in “Titanic” at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. His London theatre credits include ‘Anthony Hope’ in “Sweeney Todd” at Harrington’s Pie & Mash Shop; “One Man, Two Guvnors” at The National Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket and “The Sound of Music” at the London Palladium.
Siôn Lloyd most recently appeared in “Titanic” at the Charing Cross Theatre. His other recent theatre credits include: “The Bodyguard” on tour; “The Pajama Game” at the Shaftesbury Theatre; “Avenue Q” at the Noel Coward Theatre and “The Full Monty” at the Noel Coward Theatre and UK tour.
Mark Oxtoby most recently appeared in “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory” at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. His other theatre credits include: “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at the Adelphi Theatre; “A Model Girl” at the Greenwich Theatre; “Brighton Rock” at the Almeida Theatre and “Oh, What a Lovely War!” at the National Theatre.
Paul Ettore Tabone’s previous theatre credits include “Love Never Dies” in Melbourne, Sydney and at the Hamburg Stage Operettenhaus. In 2013 Paul was accepted as a ‘Young Artist’ in the prestigious Luciano Pavarotti Foundation of Modena; performing with Placido Domingo and Andrea Bocelli at the Arena in Verona, Italy. He made his professional operatic debut in 2014 in Verdi’s “Rigoletto” at the Opera Națională Bucureşti.
Daisy Hulbert made her West End debut in the corps de ballet in “The Phantom of the Opera”. Previously as a company member of the National Moravian-Silesian Ballet in the Czech Republic she performed in “The Nutcracker”, “Swan Lake” and “Snow White”.
Lara Martins has appeared in many operas around the world. Her credits include ‘Queen of the Night’ in “The Magic Flute”, ‘Susanna’ in “The Marriage of Figaro” and ‘Despina’ in “Cosi fan Tutte”.
Jacinta Mulcahy’s previous theatre credits include playing ‘Baroness’ in the national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and David Ian’s production of “The Sound of Music”. Her other theatre credits include ‘Cosette’ in “Les Misérables” in the West End.
Harriet Jones returns to “The Phantom of the Opera” having made her West End debut as ‘Christine Daaé’ in 2013. Her opera credits include: ‘Flora’ in “Turn of the Screw” at Grimeborn Opera Festival, ‘Zerlina’ in Woodhouse Opera’s “Don Giovanni” and Classic FM’s 20th Birthday Celebration concert. She has recently finished filming the role of ‘The Queen’ in the new Disney film of “Beauty and the Beast.”
Continuing until 2 September the full cast is: Matt Blaker; Bridget Costello; Maria Coyne; Scott Davies; Hadrian Delacey; Morven Douglas; Ben Forster; Lyndsey Gardiner; Lori Gilchrist; Ryan Goscinski; Philip Griffiths; Hettie Hobbs; Lily Howes; Daisy Hulbert; Ellen Jackson; Harriet Jones; Richard Kent; Tim Laurenti; Adam Robert Lewis; Siôn Lloyd; Lara Martins; Luke McCall; Leo Miles; Fiona Morley; Tim Morgan; Paul Morrissey; Jacinta Mulcahy; Nadim Naaman; Mark Oxtoby; Danielle Pullum; James Roxby-Brown; Celinde Schoenmaker; Tom Sterling; Joanna Strand; Paul Ettore Tabone; Claire Tilling, Charlotte Vaughan; Victoria Ward and Georgia Ware
“THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA” became the longest running show in Broadway history on 9 January 2006 when it celebrated its 7,486th performance, surpassing the previous record holder “Cats”. This coincided with the Broadway company and the US national touring company celebrating an unprecedented 20,000 performances in the United States. On 26 January 2013 the Broadway production celebrated an amazing 25 years on Broadway. In October 2011 the London production celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a spectacular staging of “The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall” which was screened live in cinemas all over the world and subsequently released on DVD and in August 2015 the show celebrated 12,000 performances in the West End. On 9 October 2016 the London production celebrated 30 years in the West End with a very special charity gala performance in aid of The Music in Secondary Schools Trust. To celebrate this milestone, the current stellar cast were joined onstage by members of the original company and special guests for a spectacular finale. Footage from the evening including red carpet arrivals, interviews and the finale itself was streamed live on Facebook, gaining over 1 million views and reaching a global audience of 5 million people.
“THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA” has won over 70 major theatre awards, including seven Tony’s on Broadway and three Olivier Awards in the West End. It most recently won the ‘Magic Radio Audience Award’, voted by the public, in the 2016 Laurence Olivier Awards. “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA”, which opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre on 9 October 1986 starred Michael Crawford as ‘The Phantom’ and Sarah Brightman as ‘Christine.’ It is produced by Cameron Mackintosh and The Really Useful Theatre Company Limited.
“THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA” became the first stage production to reach worldwide grosses of $6 billion, which it did last summer. Revenues far surpass the world’s highest-grossing film “Avatar” (at $2.8 billion), as well as such other blockbusters as “Titanic”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “Jurassic Park” and “Star Wars”. Worldwide, a staggering 140 million people have seen “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA” in 35 countries and 160 cities in 15 languages.
“THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA” is currently showing in London, New York, Budapest, Stockholm and on tour in the US.
