Johnson will be presented for five consecutive Sunday afternoon performances beginning June 14, with further performances on June 21, June 28 and July 5, all at 4 PM, and two performances on July 12 at 2 PM and 6:15 PM. The cast will comprise Max Gold (in the title role), Lauren Ward (Minnie Belle), David Birrel (Dr. McBray), Gay Soper (Aggie), Richard Stemp (Anguish), Myra Sands (Private Goldberger), Valerie Cutko (Nurse), Valda Aviks (Statue of Liberty) and Christian Walker (Sniper). Fisher directs, with music direction by Chris Walker. The Group Theatre produced the original 1936 production at Broadway's 44th Street Theatre, where it ran for 68 performances with a cast that included Elia Kazan and Lee J Cobb. The musical is described as an anti-war fantasy that combines satire, sentiment and surrealism. The score, whose best-known numbers are "Johnny's Song" and "Song of the Guns," embraces cowboy ballads, French music-hall, American vaudeville, and Weill's own mordant, sinister and heartbreaking style.
Gold was seen at the Tricycle in Nicolas Kent's production of Dreyfus, and has been in many RSC productions. Ward's roles include Baroness Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music (London Palladium), Liz in The Philadelphia Story (with Kevin Spacey, at the Old Vic), Titania in A Mudsummer Night's Dream and Guinevere in Camelot at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park; earlier Broadway credits include appearances in Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Carousel, plus the Roundabout revivals of 1776 and Follies. Birrell was last seen in the West End in Spamalot, and also had roles in the Donmar revival of Grand Hotel and Chicago; he has also appeared extensively with the RSC. Soper was last in Marguerite at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and Sunday in the Park with George (Menier Chocolate Factory and Wyndham's). Stemp previously appeared in the Lost Musicals production of Around the World in Eighty Days. Sands is currently in Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Cutko has been seen in Cabaret and Beautiful and Damned (both at the West End's Lyric) and My Fair Lady at the Royal National Theatre. Aviks was in the original National Theatre cast of Jerry Springer — the Opera and has also appeared in the West End in Oliver! and Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
To book tickets, contact the box office at 0870 737 7737 or visit www.sadlerswells.com. For more details on the season, visit www.lostmusicals.org.
