The Donmar Warehouse has announced further casting for the production of Sweet Charity which will mark artistic director Josie Rourke’s farewell production after nearly a decade at the helm of the prestigious venue.
As previously announced the production will reunite Rourke with stage and screen star Anne Marie Duff, the award-winning actress, who previously appeared at the Donmar in Rourke’s production of Berenice in 2012. Duff will make her musical theatre debut Charity Hope Valentine opposite Arthur Darvill who will make his Donmar Warehouse debut as Oscar.
They will be joined by Lizzy Connolly (On The Town, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Lauren Drew (Heathers The Musical, Theatre Royal Haymarket & The Other Palace), Jo Eaton-Kent (Mermaids, Kings Head Theatre), Will Haswell (The Book of Mormon, Prince of Wales Theatre), Charlotte Jaconelli (Heathers The Musical, Theatre Royal Haymarket), Stephen Kennedy (The Vote, Donmar Warehouse), Debbie Kurup (Girl from the North Country, West End and Old Vic), Martin Marquez (Anything Goes, National Theatre and West End), Ryan Reid (Dreamgirls, Savoy Theatre), Amy Ellen Richardson (Follies, Royal Albert Hall), Danielle Steers (Bat Out of Hell, Dominion Theatre) and Shaq Taylor (Hadestown, National Theatre).
Running from Saturday 6 April until Saturday 8 June, Rourke’s swansong production will feature choreography by Wayne McGregor who will reunite with Rourke after working on her critically-acclaimed debut film Mary Queen of Scots.
To mark Rourke’s farewell project, all tickets at every Friday performance will be free to theatregoers aged 25 and under. The ‘Sweet Fridays’ free tickets will be allocated by ballot.
As part of ‘Sweet Fridays’, the Donmar will also invite schools from every London borough to see the show for free.
Supported by Susie Sainsbury and the Backstage Trust, the Sweet Friday scheme follows on from the ‘Young + Free’ initiative which has made over 15,000 free tickets available during Rourke’s tenure at the venue.
Announcing details of her final project at the London venue earlier this year, Rourke said: “Part of my mission as the Donmar’s artistic director has been to create cheap and free access for audiences, particularly young people. Through the generosity of Susie Sainsbury and The Backstage Trust, I’m able to finish my time at the Donmar on the happiest of notes, with something I really care about – great theatre for all young people.
“I’m so happy to be joined in my final production as Donmar artistic director by the luminous Anne-Marie Duff, making her musical theatre debut, and the great Wayne McGregor. They are two of the finest people, and collaborators I’ve worked with, and this reunion with them, and the music of Cy Coleman is a joyous way to end a dozen years as an artistic director from the Bush to the Donmar.”
The production’s creative team includes: designer Robert Jones, musical supervisor Gareth Valentine, lighting designer Mark Henderson, sound designer Nick Lidster for Autograph, with orchestrations by Larry Blank and Mark Cumberland, original orchestrations by Ralph Burns, video design by Finn Ross and casting by David Grindrod.
With a book by Neil Simon which was based on Frederico Fellini’s screenplay for Nights of Cabiria, Sweet Charity features lyrics by Dorothy Fields and music by Cy Coleman.
Famously made into a film starring Shirley MacLaine, Sweet Charity made its Broadway debut in 1966 in a production which was directed and choreographed by the legendary Bob Fosse and featured his wife and muse Gwen Verdon in the title role.
Angela Thomas
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.