Ruthie Henshall, Adam Garcia, Les Dennis, and Nicole-Lily Baisden will lead Curve and Sadler’s Wells’ highly anticipated new production of classic backstage musical comedy 42nd Street.
Olivier Award-winner and genre veteran Henshall (She Loves Me, Savoy Theatre, Passion, Hope Mill Theatre) will take on the role of Dorothy Brock, alongside Olivier Award-nominee Garcia (Saturday Night Fever, London Palladium, Kiss Me Kate, Chichester Festival Theatre) as Julian Marsh, Dennis (Only Fools and Horses, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Hairspray, London Coliseum) as Bert Parry with Baisden (Anything Goes, Barbican Theatre and tour, The Book of Mormon, West End/tour) stepping into the role of Peggy Sawyer.
They will be joined by Sam Lips (Singin’ in rhe Rain/Strictly Ballroom, UK/Canada) as Billy Lawlor, with Erica-Jayne Alden, George Beet, Charlie Bishop, Briana Craig, Ashleigh Graham, Alyn Hawke, Aimee Hodnett, Connor Hughes, Sarah-Marie Maxwell, Ben Middleton, Benjamin Mundy, Anthony Ofoegbu and Jessica Wright.
Presented by David Ian for Crossroads Live and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions and directed by Jonathan Church (Singin’ in the Rain, The Drifters Girl), the production will open at Leicester Curve on 17 May (until 3 June) ahead of a season at Sadler’s Wells in London from 7 June until 2 July.
The production will then embark on a UK tour visiting Canterbury, Leeds, Bristol, Plymouth, Cardiff, Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Woking, Southampton, Newcastle, Manchester and Belfast. Further locations will be announced at a later date.
The creative team also includes Olivier Award-winning choreographer Bill Deamer (Top Hat), Olivier Award-winning designer Rob Jones (City of Angels), lighting design by Ben Cracknell, sound design by Ian Dickinson and Gareth Tucker, video design by Jon Driscoll, musical supervision by Jennifer Whyte and orchestrations by Larry Blank.
Based on the 1932 novel by Bradford Ropes and the 1933 Warner Brothers film musical, 42nd Street is one of the most popular song and dance shows of all time. Debuting on Broadway in 1980, the musical has a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Al Dubin. The original Tony Award-winning production was directed and choreographed by Gower Champion and produced by David Merrick.
Featuring musical theatre standards including ‘We’re in the Money’, ‘Lullaby of Broadway’, ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ and the title song, the show tells the story of the chorus girl who steps into the spotlight when the leading lady is injured and becomes a star.
The show’s West End debut run in 1984 was notable for a moment of ‘life imitating art’ when a teenage actress in the chorus called Catherine Zeta-Jones stepped into the leading role of starlet Peggy Sawyer after the actress cast in the role and her understudy were unavailable due to a combination of injury and holiday.
Angela Thomas