Olivier Award winner David Thaxton and Follies star Savannah Stevenson will head the cast of the London Musical Theatre Orchestra’s concert version of Camelot at the London Palladium next month.
Thaxton, who won an Olivier Award in 2011 for his performance in the Donmar Warehouse’s Passion and has played multiple roles in the Les Misérables in the West End will play King Arthur opposite Stevenson (Wicked, Aspects of Love) who will play his Queen Guenevere. Internationally renowned opera star Charles Rice (The Barber of Seville, Candide) will play the third character in the love triangle, the knight Lancelot.
They will be joined by: Sam Swann (Jekyll & Hyde) as Mordred; Clive Carter (We Will Rock You) who will play the roles of Pellinore and Merlyn; with Celinde Schoenmaker (The Phantom of the Opera) as Nimue; Matthew McKenna (Sunset Boulevard) as Sir Dinadan; Emmanuel Kojo (Girl From the North Country) as Sir Lionel; Oliver Savile (LMTO’s State Fair) as Sir Sagramore and Raphael Higgins-Humes (Matilda The Musical) as Tom of Warwick.
The LMTO Chorus includes: Jake Byrom, Elissa Churchill, Charlotte Clitherow, Ed Court, Emma Fraser, Lee van Geelen, Erin Hair, Daniel Hall, Adam Hepworth, Matthew McDonald, Emma Oliver, Cameron Potts, Lydia Shaw, Rosie Williamson, Lizzie Wofford and Thomas Wright.
The special concert performance on Saturday 6 October 2018 will mark the return of Lerner and Loewe’s haunting story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table to the West End for the first time in decades.
Announcing the full cast for the performance, LMTO’s founder and conductor Freddie Tapner said: “I’m extraordinarily excited to have this sensational cast join LMTO at the London Palladium for Camelot, led by Olivier Award-winner David Thaxton and Savannah Stevenson.
“I’m particularly thrilled to introduce opera star, Charles Rice, to musical theatre fans – I know you’ll fall in love with his voice, just as we did at LMTO HQ when we found him. Camelot hasn’t been seen in the West End for 30 years, and we can’t wait to share this glorious score with you on Saturday 6th October.”
Celebrating the centenary of Alan Jay Lerner’s birth, the LMTO’s version of Camelot will feature a full orchestra and a classic song list that includes ‘If Ever I Would Leave You’, ‘How to Handle a Woman’ and the title track ‘Camelot’.
Based on TH White’s novel The Once and Future King, Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot debuted on Broadway in 1961 with Richard Burton giving a Tony Award-winning performance as King Arthur, Julie Andrews as his Guenevere, Roddy McDowell as Mordred and Robert Goulet (making his Broadway debut as Lancelot)
Camelot first appeared in the West End in 1964 in a production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane that starred Laurence Harvey and Elizabeth Larner as Guenevere. The triple Oscar-winning film version in 1967 starred Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, David Hemmings and Franco Nero as Lancelot.
Following on from the critically-acclaimed summer performances of Martin Smith’s King at the Hackney Empire, Camelot is the first of the three closing productions in the LMTO’s 2018 season.
The early November performances of Howard Goodall’s Girlfriends at the Bishopgate will be followed by the return of the orchestra’s hit version of Alan Menken’s A Christmas Carol at the Lyceum Theatre in December.
With patrons including Alan Menken, Jason Robert Brown, Michael Feinstein, Julian Fellowes, Stiles and Drewe, and Stephen Schwartz, the LMTO features some of London’s most accomplished professional musicians who all share an enthusiasm for musical theatre.
Previous LMTO successes include star-packed concert versions of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair, Jerry Herman’s Mack & Mabel and the concert staging of Honeymoon in Vegas with the show’s composer Jason Robert Brown as guest conductor.
Angela Thomas
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