Performers Killian Donnelly (left) and Beverley Knight with composer/lyricist David Bryan at the London launch event for Memphis. Pictures: Helen Maybanks
Casting was announced today for the West End production of Broadway musical Memphis, which will have preview performances at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London from 9 October 2014 with opening night on 23 October. Winner of four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Memphis has a Grammy Award-winning original score by Bon Jovi founding member David Bryan and book by Joe DiPietro.
Led by multi award-winning recording artist Beverley Knight as club singer Felicia Farrell and stage star Killian Donnelly as radio DJ Huey Calhoun, with Rolan Bell as Delray, Tyrone Huntley as Gator, Claire Machin as Gladys, Jason Pennycooke as Bobby and Mark Roper as Mr. Simmons, the full cast of Memphis will include Keisha Atwell, Arielle Campbell, Mark Carroll, Joseph Davenport, Momar Diagne, Carly Mercedes Dyer, Kimmy Edwards, Hillary Elk, Laura Ellis, Charlotte Gorton, Benjamin Harrold, Waylon Jacobs, Rachel John, Dean Maynard, Devon McKenzie-Smith, Tim Newman, Simon Ray-Harvey, Jon Robyns, Ashley Rumble, Kyle Seeley, Helen Siveter, Dawnita Smith and Alex Thomas.
Inspired by true events from the underground dance clubs of 1950s Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis follows the fame and forbidden love of a radio DJ who wants to change the world and a club singer who is ready for her big break.
“David Bryan evokes the powerhouse funk of James Brown, the hot guitar riffs of Chuck Berry, the smooth harmonies of the Temptations and the silken, bouncy pop of the great girl groups of the period,” wrote Charles Isleworth of the New York Times.
Directed by Christopher Ashley and with choreography by Sergio Trujillo, Memphis has scenic design by David Gallo, costume design by Paul Tazewell, lighting design by Howell Binkley and sound design by the Olivier Award-winning Gareth Owen.
Beverley Knight performs at the London launch of the musical Memphis
Queen of British Soul Beverley Knight (Felicia Farrell) has been one of the UK’s most consistent artists of the past 15 years, scoring several Top 10 albums. She has sold more than a million albums in the UK, including four gold certified albums. She was awarded an MBE by The Queen in 2007 for her services to British music and her charity work, has won three MOBO Awards, and been nominated for Best Female at the Brit Awards three times and for the Mercury Music Prize twice. Wolverhampton-born Knight has toured the UK several times in her own right over the last decade and a half and has sold out London’s Royal Albert Hall on three occasions. In summer 2012, she performed to a one billion-strong viewing audience with the song ‘I Am What I Am’ at the finale of the London 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony. Most recently, Knight made her critically acclaimed West End debut as Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard at the Adelphi Theatre.
Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Killian Donnelly (Huey Calhoun) has extensive West End theatre credits including Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, Enjolras in Les Misérables, Tony in Billy Elliot the Musical and most recently as Deco in Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments. In his native Ireland, Killian’s theatre credits include: Michael Collins, Sweeney Todd, The Full Monty, West Side Story and Singin’ in the Rain. Film includes: Combeferre in Les Misérables, directed by Tom Hooper.
David Bryan (music and lyrics) is a Grammy Award-winning keyboard player and founding member of Bon Jovi. Over the past 26 years the band has sold more than 130 million records and toured the world, playing to millions of people. Bryan won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Composer, the 2010 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score for Memphis.
Joe DiPietro (book) won two Tony Awards for co-writing Memphis and was also won a Drama Desk award for recent Broadway show Nice Work If You Can Get It starring Matthew Broderick. His other plays and musicals include: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (the longest-running musical revue in Off-Broadway history), The Toxic Avenger and The Thing About Men, Over the River and Through the Woods, The Art of Murder and the Broadway musical All Shook Up.
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