Nicholas Lyndhurst (Star Keeper) joins the previously announced Alfie Boe (Billy Bigelow) and Katherine Jenkins (Julie Jordan) in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, the third production in the partnership between The GradeLinnit Company and English National Opera (ENO).
This semi-staged production of Carousel marks BAFTA Award Winning Actor Nicholas Lyndhurst’s return to the West End stage, where he was last seen in Trevor Nunn’s 2011 production of The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. His other West End credits include Allan Davis’ The Straight and Narrow at the Wyndham’s Theatre, Peter Hall’s production of The Dresser at the Duke of York’s Theatre and The Foreigner, by Larry Shue at the Albany Theatre. Lyndhurst is best known for his classic television series; Only Fools and Horses, Goodnight Sweetheart, After You’ve Gone, Rock & Chips, Butterflies and The Piglet Files. Lyndhurstcan also be seen in the 2016 film, A United Kingdom.
Lonny Price will direct the season of 41 performances at ENO’s London Coliseum. Beginning on 7 April 2017, with press night on 11 April 2017 at 7pm, the final performance in this strictly limited five week run takes place on 13 May 2017. ENO award winning 40 piece orchestra and chorus, conducted by David Charles Abell, will accompany the cast in this semi-staged production. Tickets for Carousel are £12 – £110, with over 100 available at £12 for every performance.
Further casting includes Brenda Edwards (Nettie Fowler), Derek Hagen (Jigger Craigin), Alex Young (Carrie Pipperidge), Gavin Spokes (Enoch Snow), Susan Kyd (Mrs Mullin), Martyn Ellis (Mr Bascombe) and Davide Fienauri (Carnival Boy). Final casting will be announced shortly.
Other parts will be played by Bruce Aguilar Rohan, Thomas Audibert, Will Barratt,Jay Bryce, Danielle Cato, Jacob Chapman, Nolan Edwards, Alexander Evans, Lizzi Franklin, Alice Jane, Tessa Kadler, Hannah Kenna Thomas, Jasmine Leung, Leisha Mollyneaux, Rachel Muldoon, Saori Oda, Kane Oliver Parry, Daniel Perry, Alastair Postlethwaite, Joseph Poulton, Verity Quade, Genevieve Taylor, James Titchener, Adam Vaughan, Matthew Whennell-Clark and Anna Woodside.
When the charming Carousel Barker, Billy Bigelow falls in love with Julie Jordan, little do they realise that their relationship will end in tragedy. Fifteen years after getting caught up in an armed robbery, Billy gets the chance to redeem his past and restore pride to his family.
Carousel is presented by Michael Linnit and Michael Grade with English National Opera who have previously produced together the critically acclaimed seasons of Sweeney Todd with Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel and Sunset Boulevard with Glenn Close. The GradeLinnit Company are currently producing 42nd Street, to open March 2017 at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
LISTING
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S
CAROUSEL
7 April – 13 May 2017
English National Opera, London Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm
Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
Tickets £12 – £110.00 plus booking fee
(no booking fee in person at Box Office)
Box Office
020 7845 9300
Online
NB – Katherine Jenkins will not be performing on Tuesday 18 April 2017 – the role of Julie Jordan will be played by Molly Lynch
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Presented by
Theatre Royal Bath Productions &
the James Grant Group
Stepping Out
Natalie Casey will join the previously announced Amanda Holden, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Tamzin Outhwaite and Nicola Stephenson in heart-warming comedy Stepping Out when it opens in London this Spring. Directed by Maria Friedman, this brand new staging of Richard Harris’s award-winning play which toured UK venues last year, will open at West End’s Vaudeville Theatre with preview performances from 1 March 2017 and opening night for press on 14 March 2017.
Further cast in the West End production of Stepping Out include Judith Barker, Jessica-Alice McCluskey, Sandra Marvin and Dominic Rowan with Janet Behan, Suzy Bloom, Emma Hook, Marcia Mantack, Katie Verner and Nick Warnford.
Stepping Out charts the lives of seven women and one man attempting to tap their troubles away at a weekly dancing class. Initially all thumbs and left feet, the group is just getting to grips with the basics when they are asked to take part in a charity gala. Over the course of several months we meet the group, and all of them have a story to tell. There’s perfectionist Vera, mouthy Maxine and uptight Andy, bubbly Sylvia and shy Dorothy, eager Lynne and cheerful Rose, and, of course, Geoffrey. At the piano is the dour Mrs Fraser and spurring them all on, the ever-patient Mavis.
This uplifting comedy originally premiered in the West End in 1984 starring Barbara Ferris and Marcia Warren, winning the prestigious Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and enjoying extended runs both in the West End and on Broadway. Stepping Out has also been made into a musical, which became a film in 1991, starring Julie Walters, Liza Minnelli and Shelley Winters.
One of the UK’s best-loved personalities, Amanda Holden plays Vera. Nominated for an Olivier Award in 2004 for her leading role in Thoroughly Modern Millie, she also starred in the U.K. premiere of Shrek The Musical as Princess Fiona. Her numerous television credits include Wild at Heart, Kiss Me Kate, The Grimleys, Big Top and This Morning. She has been a judge on the award-winning Britain’s Got Talent throughout all of its ten series.
Natalie Casey is well known to TV audiences as playing Carol Groves in Hollyoaks and Donna Henshaw in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. West End theatre credits include Fame, Legally Blonde, Well and Abigail’s Party with other stage work including 9 to 5, Hobson’s Choice, The Wedding Singer, The Vagina Monologues and Oklahoma!
Tracy-Ann Oberman played Chrissie Watts on EastEnders, and has also worked extensively with the RSC and National Theatre. She appeared with Kenneth Branagh in Edmond, and in the West End run of Boeing-Boeing. Her television appearances also include Toast of London, Friday Night Dinner and New Tricks.
Tamzin Outhwaite is well-known for the role of Melanie Healy in EastEnders which she played for four years. Her stage credits have included West End productions of Sweet Charity, Boeing-Boeing and How The Other Half Loves.
Nicola Stephenson’s many television credits include Brookside, Holby City and Emmerdale. Her stage credits include War Horse in the West End and roles with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Best known as a three-time Olivier Award winning star of the musical stage (with seven nominations), director Maria Friedman made an astonishing directorial debut in 2012 with a hugely acclaimed production of Merrily We Roll Along. In 2005 she won the award for Best Debut Performer on Broadway for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White.
A prolific writer for both television and stage, Richard Harris’s credits include A Touch of Frost, Shoestring, The Darling Buds of May, The Last Detective, and Outside Edge, which won the Writer’s Guild Best Comedy Award, the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Drama Series and the Television and Radio Industries Club Award for Best Comedy.
Presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions and the James Grant Group, Stepping Out is directed by Maria Friedman, designed by Robert Jones and choreographed by Tim Jackson with lighting design by Peter Mumford, sound design by Gregory Clarke and orchestrations by Christopher Walker.
Thereafter the performance schedule will be as follows*:
Mon NO PERFORMANCE Tues 7.30pm Weds 2.30 & 7.30pm Thurs 2.30 & 7.30pm Fri 7.30pm Sat 2.30 & 7.30pm
Ticket prices from £20
*The only exception to this will be w/c 10 April which will have evening performances Monday to Saturdays evenings and matinees on Thursday and Saturday only.
