Broadway star Phillip Attmore will make his UK debut opposite West End star Lucy St Louis in Chichester Festival Theatre’s eagerly anticipated production of Irving Berlin’s dance musical Top Hat.
The winner of the Fred and Adele Astaire Award for Best Male Dancer for Shuffle Along and a Playbill Breakout Performance Award for On the 20th Century, Attmore will take on one of Fred Astaire’s most celebrated roles, Broadway sensation Jerry Travers. St Louis (Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera) will step into the role of society girl Dale Tremont in the production which will play the Festival Theatre from 14 July to 6 September.
The centrepiece of the prestigious venue’s 2025 season, the new production of the acclaimed stage version of the classic 1935 film musical Top Hat will be directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, the multi-Tony and Olivier Award-winner whose revival of Anything Goes delighted audiences in London and across the UK in 2021 and 2022.
Attmore and St Louis will be joined by triple Olivier Award-nominee Clive Carter (Moulin Rouge!, Come From Away, Into the Woods) will make his Chichester debut as Horace, and WhatsOnStage Award-winner Sally Ann Triplett (Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Anything Goes) who last appeared at Chichester in 2015 in A Damsel in Distress.
The cast will also include James Clyde as Bates and Alex Gibson-Giorgio as Beddini with Lindsay Atherton, Rhiannon Bacchus, Jeremy Batt, Freddie Clements, Pedro Donoso, Bethan Downing, Autumn Draper, Tilly Ducker, Laura Hills, Connor Hughes, James Hume, George Lyons, David McIntosh, Jordan Oliver, Emily Ann Potter, Molly Rees Howe, Kirsty Sparks and Toyan Thomas-Browne completing the company.
Announcing the cast, CFT’s artistic director Justin Audibert said: “We are dancing with delight that Kathleen Marshall has assembled such a fantastic cast for what promises to be a glorious summer highlight in Chichester. In Phillip Attmore, Lucy St Louis, Clive Carter and Sally Ann Triplett, we have two of the brightest rising stars paired with two of the most distinguished and seasoned performers in musical theatre, on both sides of the Atlantic, with a wonderful supporting company. We can’t wait to welcome them all.”
The creative team for the production will also include set designer Peter McKintosh, musical supervisor Gareth Valentine, orchestrator and arranger Chris Walker, lighting designer Tim Mitchell, sound designer Paul Groothuis and casting director Natalie Gallacher for Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher Casting.
There will be a Dementia Friendly performance of Top Hat on 31 July and a Relaxed Performance on 26 August. A Summer Gala on 29 August will support Chichester Festival Youth Theatre.
Following its Chichester run, the production will embark on a UK tour, produced by Kenny Wax Productions and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions.
Featuring Irving Berlin classics including ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’, ‘Cheek to Cheek’, ‘Isn’t This a Lovely Day’ and ‘Top Hat, White Tie and Tails’, the musical version of the much-loved RKO musical comedy features a book by Matthew White and Howard Jacques, based on the screenplay by Dwight Taylor and Allan Scott. The most successful film to feature the partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Top Hat tells the story of Broadway sensation Jerry Travers and his efforts to win the heart of society girl Dale Tremont. The musical’s West End premiere production won three Olivier Awards in 2013 including the award for Best New Musical and the Evening Standard Award for Best Night Out.
Angela Thomas
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