New York’s hottest jazz musicians and tap dancers will bring a 1920s Harlem rent party to The Other Palace Studio from 4 – 15 April 2017. This Joint is Jumpin’ will be a fusion of live jazz, tap dancing and storytelling celebrating and radically interpreting jazz icon Fats Waller’s music, breathing new life into classics such as Ain’t Misbehavin’, Black and Blue and Honeysuckle Rose. This Joint is Jumpin’ is produced by Hoagy B. Carmichael, son of the legendary American composer Hoagy Carmichael.
Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-winner Lillias White (Dreamgirls, The Life, Netflix’s The Get Down) will make her London debut in This Joint is Jumpin’. British actor Samuel Anderson (Doctor Who, Gavin and Stacey, Emmerdale) plays the host of the rent party, which features internationally celebrated tap dance artist Michela Marino Lerman, Princess Grace Award-winning tap dancer Joseph Wiggan (Shuffle Along, Cirque du Soliel’s Michael Jackson: The Immortal Tour), critically acclaimed vocalist Michael Mwenso and his band The Shakes: a unique troupe of global artists who present music that merges the highest form of entertainment and artistry. The Shakes are Dion Keith Kerr IV on bass, Mathis Picard on piano, Mark Kavuma on trumpet, Kyle Poole on drums, Ruben Fox on tenor saxophone, and the remarkable South African Jazz vocalist Vuyo Sotashe.
Michael Mwenso
Vuyo Satashe
Lillias White
Michela Marino Lerman
The Shakes
Joseph Wiggan
The show’s director is Patrice Miller, choreographer is Michela Marino Lerman and musical director is Michael Mwenso.
DUSTY, the first authorised new musical charting the life of Dusty Springfield is set to premiere in the UK in 2018. Details of dates, venue and casting are still to be announced.
Originating from the notes and memoirs of the late singer’s close friend and manager Vicki Wickham, DUSTY is written by Jonathan Harvey who tells the story behind this iconic artist having interviewed key people from her life including Pat Rhodes, Dusty’s lifelong personal assistant, and friend and record company executive Tris Penna.
DUSTY will be directed by Olivier Award winning Maria Friedman.
Dusty Springfield is one Britain’s most successful and enduringly popular singers, with hits spanning four decades. Born in London, she became known across the world for her soulful voice and iconic look. Her solo career began way back in 1963, and included the global hits “I Only Want to Be with You”, “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” and ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’ with the Pet Shop Boys. Her 1969 masterpiece ”Dusty In Memphis’ is considered one of the greatest albums of all time and Dusty has been inducted into both the US Rock and Roll and UK Music Halls of Fame.
Jonathan Harvey wrote his first play in 1987, and has since written over 15 more, including Babies, Boom Bang-A-Bang and Beautiful Thing, which was later made into an acclaimed film. He has been the recipient of the Evening Standard, George Devine and John Whiting Awards, and his work has been both Bafta- and Olivier-nominated. Jonathan’s extensive television writing includes Coronation Street, on which he has worked since 2004, Beautiful People and Gimme, Gimme, Gimme. He has also written for shows as diverse as Rev, Shameless, At Home With The Braithwaites, The Catherine Tate Show and Tracey Ullman’s Show. He has also published five novels and been hailed as ‘the new theatrical voice of his generation’.
Best known as a three-time Olivier Award winning star of the musical stage, director Maria Friedman made an astonishing directorial debut in 2012 with a hugely acclaimed production of Merrily We Roll Along which won Best Musical at the Evening Standard Awards 2013, the Oliver Awards 2014 (for which Maria was also nominated for Best Director of a Musical), and the Critic’s Circle Award 2013. She went on to direct High Society at The Old Vic in 2015 and is currently directing Stepping Out which will play the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre from March 2017.
DUSTY is produced by Eleanor Lloyd Productions whose recent projects include Nell Gwynn with Gemma Arterton, Olivier Award for Best Comedy (Apollo), 1984 (Playhouse, 2014, 2015 & 2016), My Night with Reg, Olivier Nomination for Best Revival (Apollo), and Handbagged, Olivier Nomination for Best Comedy, (Vaudeville and UK tour).
