Simon-Anthony Rhoden takes on the role of Lola and Emmerdale star Verity Rushworth joins the cast as Lauren in West End hit KINKY BOOTS, which extends until Saturday 24 March 2018.
Kinky Boots, the winner of every major Best Musical award, is pleased to announce that Simon-Anthony Rhoden will take on the role of Lola and Verity Rushworth, popular with TV viewers for her role as Donna Windsor in ITV’s Emmerdale, will star as Lauren from Monday 10 July 2017.
Kinky Boots, which recently played its 700th performance at London’s Adelphi Theatre, today also announces the opening of a new booking period until Saturday 24 March 2018, with tickets on sale from Friday 5 May 2017.
Also joining Kinky Boots from Monday 10 July 2017 will be Jed Berry, Momar Diagne, Lauren Drew, Dale Evans, Jordan Fox, Rosie Glossop, Keith Higham, Ben Jennings, Georgia Louise, Emma Odell, Antony Reed and Tom Scanlon.
Continuing with the show are current cast members David Hunter (Charlie Price), Alan Mehdizadeh (Don), Cordelia Farnworth (Nicola), Michael Hobbs (George), Suzie McAdam, Jemal Felix, George Grayson, Robert Grose, Melissa Jacques, Robert Jones, Jane Milligan, Robin Mills, Sean Needham, Jon Reynolds and Dominic Tribuzio.
Matt Henry (Lola) and Elena Skye (Lauren) will play their final performances on Saturday 8 July 2017.
Kinky Boots at the Adelphi Theatre has become a favourite with UK theatregoers having won three Olivier Awards for Best New Musical, Best Costume Design and Best Actor in a Musical for Matt Henry who plays Lola. Kinky Boots also won the London Evening Standard BBC Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical as well as three WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Musical, Best Actor in a Musical and Best Choreography.
With a book by Broadway legend and four-time Tony® Award-winner Harvey Fierstein (La Cage aux Folles), and songs by Grammy® and Tony® winning pop icon Cyndi Lauper, this joyous musical celebration is about the friendships we discover, and the belief that you can change the world when you change your mind. Inspired by true events, Kinky Boots takes you from a gentlemen’s shoe factory in Northampton to the glamorous catwalks of Milan. Charlie Price is struggling to live up to his father’s expectations and continue the family business of Price & Son. With the factory’s future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola, a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos.
With direction and choreography by two-time Tony® Award-winner Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde, Hairspray), Kinky Boots is the winner of every major Best Musical award including three Olivier Awards, three WhatsOnStage Awards as well as six Broadway Tony® Awards.
Simon-Anthony Rhoden (Lola) is currently the understudy for Lola in Kinky Boots (Adelphi Theatre). His theatre credits include Ash in Marianne (New Wimbledon Theatre); Devon in Married to the Game (Theatre 503); Man in If I Should Stay (Soho); Lance in Beauty’s Legacy (The Keeper’s Daughter); Jim Conley in Parade (Edinburgh Fringe). Television credits include Let it Snow, and Simon-Anthony has also appeared on film in 2 Birds and a Wrench and Blue.
Verity Rushworth (Lauren) has multiple theatre credits which include Vera Claythorne in And Then There Were None (UK tour); Velma Kelly in Chicago (Leicester Curve); Penny Lane in Carnaby Street the Musical (UK tour); Beth and Meg in Merrily We Roll Along (Theatr Clwyd); The Girl in The Seven Year Itch (Salisbury Playhouse); Grace Farrell in Annie (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Maria Rainer in The Sound of Music (UK tour); Sophie in Departure Lounge (Waterloo East); and her West End debut as Penny Pingleton in Hairspray (Shaftesbury). At the age of 12, Verity landed the role of Donna Windsor in Emmerdale (ITV), a role which she played for over 11 years. Verity recently returned to reprise her role as Donna for a dramatic and final award-winning five month stint.
PANIC! AT THE DISCO’S BRENDON URIE TO STRUT ON BROADWAY THIS SUMMER AS CHARLIE PRICE IN
“KINKY BOOTS”
Producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig announced today that Grammy Award-nominated Panic! At the Disco front man Brendon Urie will make his Broadway debut as ‘Charlie Price’ in Kinky Boots, beginning Friday, May 26 through August 6, 2017. Urie succeeds Killian Donnelly in the hit musical, which just celebrated its 4-year anniversary on Broadway. He joins a cast that includes J. Harrison Ghee as ‘Lola,’ and Taylor Louderman as ‘Lauren.’
“I’m thrilled to be making my Broadway debut with this fantastic company,” Urie said. “I’m a huge fan of Kinky Boots and musical theatre, and am honored to be joining the cast.”
Brendon Urie is the frontman of the Grammy-nominated, award-winning, internationally acclaimed rock band, Panic! At The Disco. The band’s fifth-studio album, Death Of A Bachelor, debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart with their single “Victorious” debuting at No. 1 on iTunes Top Songs, iTunes Alternative Songs, Billboard + Twitter’s Trending 140 charts just hours after its release. In addition, platinum-certified Death Of A Bachelor was the #4 biggest selling album released in 2016 just behind Drake, Beyonce, and Rihanna respectively and has amassed over 500 million streams.
The winner of six 2013 Tony® Awards, including Best Musical, Kinky Boots features a Tony® Award-winning score by Cyndi Lauper, a book by Tony® Award-winner Harvey Fierstein and direction and choreography by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell. Kinky Boots tells the uplifting and heartwarming tale of Charlie Price, a young man reluctantly taking over his family’s struggling shoe factory and looking for a fresh idea. Charlie meets and finds inspiration in Lola and together, they discover that it takes a good friend to make a great pair.
Kinky Boots has won every major Best Musical Award and is represented around the world with the Tony Award-winning Broadway company now in its fifth year, a North American First National Tour in its third year, a London production in its second year (where it won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Musical), an Australian production that opened in October 2016 and an upcoming production in Germany. Other previous productions include an extended run in Toronto, two productions in Korea, and a Japanese language production. The Grammy Award-winning Original Broadway Cast Recording of Kinky Boots is available on Sony Masterworks Broadway.
The current Broadway cast of Kinky Boots includes J. Harrison Ghee (as Lola), Killian Donnelly (as Charlie Price), Taylor Louderman (as Lauren), Daniel Stewart Sherman, Shannon O’Boyle, Marcus Neville, Sean Patrick Doyle, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Fred Odgaard, Kyle Post, Eric LaJuan Summers, Hernando Umana, Adinah Alexander, Eugene Barry-Hill, Stephen Berger, Damien Brett, Devin Trey Campbell, Christopher Convery, Holly Davis, Jesus Del Orden, Stephane Duret, Christy Faber, Mia Gentile, Blair Goldberg, Natalie Joy Johnson, Jake Katzman, Jeff Kuhr, Ross Lekites, Eric Leviton, Ellyn Marie Marsh, John Jeffrey Martin, Michael Milkanin, Nathan Peck, Jennifer Perry, and Stephen Tewksbury.
The design team for Kinky Boots includes Tony® Award nominee David Rockwell (Scenic Design), Tony® Award-winner Gregg Barnes (Costume Design), Tony Award-winner Kenneth Posner (Lighting Design), Tony® Award-winner John Shivers (Sound Design), Josh Marquette (Hair Design), Randy Houston Mercer (Make-up Design), Telsey + Company, Justin Huff, CSA (Casting), Brian Usifer (Musical Direction), with Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations by Tony and Grammy Award-winner Stephen Oremus.
