London Musical Desperately Seeking Susan Will Now Launch Oct. 16
By Kenneth Jones
and John Nathan
12 Sep 2007
Dates have changed for the launch of the new London musical Desperately Seeking Susan. The new show with music by rocker Blondie will begin West End previews Oct. 16 with a press night of Nov. 15.
"Due to the technical requirements of the show, the producers have cancelled the first two previews on 12 and 13 October but added a new performance on 16 October, to allow additional time for technical rehearsals on stage," according to a Sept. 12 statement.
Performances will play the Novello Theatre, recent home of The Drowsy Chaperone.
The "quirky love story is set in New York City's vibrant Lower East Side and driven by the pulsating energy of classic Blondie songs," the producers say. "Based on the smash hit 1980s movie, this new musical is a whirlwind fairytale of mistaken identity, magic shows and rock 'n' roll."
It will feature favorite Blondie tracks, including "Call Me," "Heart of Glass," "Rapture," "One Way or Another," "Sunday Girl," "Atomic," "The Tide is High," "Dreaming" and "Hanging on the Telephone." The production will also introduce "Moment of Truth," a new song by Deborah Harry and Chris Stein, written especially for this romantic comedy musical.
As previously reported, Emma Williams and Kelly Price in the roles respectively created by Madonna (as free-spirited Susan) and Rosanna Arquette (as housewife Roberta), are Leanne Best (Unprotected); Mark McGee (Thoroughly Modern Millie); screen and stage actor Alec Newman (The Soldier's Fortune) and television soap actor Jonathan Wrather (U.K. tour of When Harry Met Sally).
The cast includes Lucy Banfield, Matthew Boulton, Chloe Campbell, Matt Flint, Alex Gaumond, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, Kaisa Hammarlund, Paul Hazel, Christine Holman, Steven Houghton, Toussaint Meghie, Twinnie-Lee Moore, Steven Serlin, Chris Piper, Laura Scott, Lincoln Stone and Gemma Whitelam.
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The musical is written and conceived by American writer, director and actor Peter Michael Marino, and the action remains set in New Jersey and New York City. Angus Jackson, associate director of Chichester Festival Theatre, directs the production.
Williams' most recent theatre credits include Johanna in Sweeney Todd at the Royal Festival Hall, Fran Kubelik in Promises, Promisesat the Sheffield Crucible and Truly Scrumptious in the original production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium.
Price starred in the title role of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at the Watermill Theatre and as Sarah Brown in Michael Grandage's production of Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre and has also appeared in Mamma Mia!.
American Andy Blankenbuehler, whose work includes the Broadway-bound In the Heights, for which he won the Lortel, Outer Critics and the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Choreography, will choreograph.
The creative team includes Tim Hatley (sets and costumes); Hugh Vanstone (lighting); Bobby Aitken and Brian Beasley (sound) and Martin Koch (orchestrations).
Librettist Marino's other writing projects include Hollywood Nurses, an homage to lesbian pulp novels of the 1950s, which played Off-Broadway. He wrote, produced and performed the title role in the critically acclaimed cabaret spoof Lance Jonathan: All About Me!, and its sequel More About Me!, which were MAC Award-nominated.
The show is produced in London by
The show is produced in London by Susan Q Gallin, Ron Kastner, Mark Rubinstein, Old Vic Productions with Peter Kane, Nordby/Rawley, Mary Lu Roffe and Karl Sydow, in association with MGM On Stage, Darcie Denkert and Dean Stolber and by special arrangement with Deborah Harry.
For more information about Desperately Seeking Susan, call (0)870 950 0921.
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