Details have been released of the house band lined up to feature in the eagerly-anticipated European premiere of Heathers – The Musical at The Other Palace.
Musical director Simona Budd will lead a band of experienced musicians drawn from the West End and major tours. The five-piece assembled to perform Laurence O’Keefe’s much-admired score is made up of: Becky Brass (Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) on drums; Robyn Brown on bass; Roseanne Duckworth (Wicked, Les Misérables) on trumpet; Emily Linden (Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) on guitar; and Katie Punter (La Cage Aux Follies, Sister Act, Shrek The Musical) on reeds.
Already a record-breaker at the central London venue within days of tickets first going on sale, the producers recently announced an additional performance and 1,000 extra seats would be released in response to exceptional public demand.
Starring Carrie Hope Fletcher (The Addams Family UK tour) in the role originally played by Winona Ryder in the cult classic 1980s film Heathers, the musical version is due to play a strictly limited run from 9 June to 4 August 2018.
After meeting the band, Hope Fletcher said: “I am beyond thrilled to get to sing each night alongside such a fierce group of musicians and love the fact that this will be the first ever all female band at The Other Palace. Look out Westerberg High, this girl band is going to bring the house down this summer.”
With music, lyrics and book by O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy and based on Daniel Waters’ screenplay for Michael Lehmann’s dark tale of murderous teenage angst, Heathers The Musical was previously presented at The Other Palace in workshop form last year as the venue’s first Work in Progress production.
Arriving in the UK following successful runs in the US in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and in Sydney Australia, the production will be produced by the team behind another film to stage musical Carrie in 2015, Bill Kenwright and Taylor Mills.
The director of the workshop Andy Fickman will once again direct the show with which he has been involved since its conception. Working with screenwriter Waters, Fickman brought in Legally Blonde’s O’Keefe and Murphy, the writer who worked with Fickman on the musical version of the 1930s satire Reefer Madness which premiered in LA in 1998.
Featuring new material exclusively written for the London production Murphy and O’Keefe, Heathers – The Musical will feature choreography by Gary Lloyd (Thriller Live, Carrie), design by David Shields (Chess, Ice Age Live), lighting by Ben Cracknell (Young Frankenstein, Annie), sound by Dan Samson (Evita, Cilla) and casting by Will Burton (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, The Wild Party).
Further casting and creative details will be released at a later date.
Angela Thomas
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