The full cast and creative team for the world premiere of What’s New Pussycat? at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre this autumn.
Featuring the songs of national treasure Sir Tom Jones, the new musical which is directed by Luke Sheppard (& Juliet, In The Heights) will star Dominic Andersen (The Rocky Horror Show, Playhouse Theatre, Heathers, Theatre Royal Haymarket) as Tom Jones and Bronté’s Barbé (Oklahoma! Chichester, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical UK tour) as Mary Western.
They will be joined by Ashley Campbell (Company, Gielgud Theatre, The Color Purple, Menier Chocolate Factory), Julius D’Silva (The Producers, Manchester Royal Exchange, Made In Dagenham, Adelphi Theatre), Rebekah Hinds (Paradise, Hampstead Theatre, Billy Liar, Royal Exchange Theatre), Harry Kershaw (Mischief Movie Night, UK tour/Vaudeville Theatre, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Apollo Theatre), Kelly Price (Aspects of Love, Hope Mill/Southwark Playhouse, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾, Menier Chocolate Factory) and Melanie Walters (The Importance Of Being Earnest, Theatr Clwyd, Educating Rita, Swansea Grand).
Tom Francis, Naomi Katiyo, Lemuel Knights, David Mairs-McKenzie, Lisa Mathieson, Fallon Mondlane, Jena Pandya, Nathan Rigg, Owen Saward and Carrie Willis will make up the ensemble.
Sheppard heads a creative team that includes choreographer Arlene Phillips, musical supervisor/orchestrator Matt Brind, set designer Jon Bausor, costume designer Janet Bird, video designer Akhila Krishnan, sound designer Gareth Owen, lighting designer Howard Hudson, casting director Annelie, associate choreographer Dale White, assistant director Priya Patel Appleby and musical director Josh Sood.
Presented by Birmingham Repertory Theatre in association with Flody Suarez, Joshua Andrews and Stuart Galbraith from Kilimanjaro Theatricals and executive produced by Donna Munday, What’s New Pussycat? will breeze into The Rep’s current home on Centenary Square from 8 October until 14 November 2021.
Inspired by Henry Fielding’s 18th century novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, the musical takes its name from the Oscar-nominated Burt Bacharach and Hal David title song from the 1965 film comedy which starred Peter O’Toole as an inveterate womaniser and Peter Sellers as his psychoanalyst.
The song ‘What’s New Pussycat?’ became the third UK chart hit for the Welsh singer whose stage name was inspired by the 1963 film version of Fielding’s work which starred Albert Finney and moved the story into the 1960s.
Tony Award-winning playwright Joe DiPietro’s (Memphis The Musical) book for the musical retains the swinging sixties’ setting with music’s most famous Welshman’s greatest hits including ‘Green, Green, Grass of Home’, ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and the more recent ‘Sex Bomb’ and ‘Mama Told Me Not to Come’ providing the soundtrack.
Commenting on the production last year, Sheppard said: “Sometimes you work on a show and you know it could be really special, and our first staged reading of this piece left me flying high. It’s down to the amazing synergy between a fiercely witty script that takes this classic novel and casts it in a fresh and vibrant new light in the swinging 60s, and an incredible catalogue of music that has such range it can break your heart one moment and have you on the dance floor the next.”
What’s New Pussycat? will be the second production in Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s celebratory 5oth anniversary season and will follow on from a return run for comedy-drama East is East (4-25 September) which made its debut on The Rep’s stage in 1996.
Angela Thomas
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