Tony Award-winning American actor Gabriel Ebert will make his UK stage debut in the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Local Hero this autumn.
The winner of the 2013 Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony for his performance as Mr Wormwood in Matilda The Musical, the veteran Broadway and Off-Broadway star will take on the role of Texan oil man Mac Macintyre in the production which will be directed by CFT’s artistic director Daniel Evans.
Running from 8 October until 19 November in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre, the cast will also include Lillie Flynn (Love Story, Chichester Festival Theatre, Wicked, Apollo Victoria) as Stella, Paul Higgins (Caledonia, National Theatre of Scotland, The White Guard, National Theatre) as Gordon, Hilton McRae (My One and Only, Chichester Festival Theatre, Miss Saigon, National Theatre) as Ben and Jay Villiers (Quiz, Chichester Festival Theatre/West End, Arcadia, Chichester Festival Theatre) as Happer.
They will be joined by Rodney Earl Clarke, Ali Craig, Julie Cullen, Liz Ewing, Murray Fraser, Craig Hunter, Rachael Kendall Brown, Joshua Manning, Jackie Morrison and Betty Valencia.
Co-written by the Edinburgh Lyceum’s artistic director David Greig and Bill Forsyth, the multi-award-winning director and writer of the much-loved original film, the stage adaptation features new music and lyrics by Mark Knopfler, based on the Dire Straits’ musician’s distinctive score for the film.
Commenting on his version of the musical which debuted in Edinburgh in 2019, Evans said: “I came to Local Hero innocently; the film having passed me by in my childhood. However, the minute I read David Greig’s warm, witty book and heard Mark Knopfler’s seductive folk score, I fell hook, line and sinker. I then watched Bill Forsyth’s extraordinary film and appreciated its resonance immediately. It’s a story for our time where communities and corporations collide. It asks us to readdress how we look at the world by interrogating what we value.”
Local Hero will be designed by Frankie Bradshaw, with lighting design by Paule Constable with Ryan Day, sound design by Paul Arditti, musical direction by Richard John, movement direction by Sasha Milavic Davies and video design by Ash J Woodward. The music producer is Guy Fletcher, with orchestrations and arrangements by Dave Milligan, casting by Charlotte Sutton and US casting by Jim Carnahan.
Angela Thomas
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