Rosalie Craig, Tamsin Carroll, Kat Ronney and Michael Elcock will lead the company assembled for Hex – the new musical inspired by the story of Sleeping Beauty which is due to premiere at the National Theatre this Christmas.
Craig (The Light Princess, Company) will play Fairy with Carroll (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Oliver!) as Queenie, Ronney (McDonald & Dodds) taking on the central role of Rose and Elcock (The Visit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) as Bert. They will be joined by Esme Bacalla-Hayes, Madeline Charlemagne, Tamsin Dowsett, Eleanor Kane and Daisy Maywood.
Directed by the National’s director and joint chief executive Rufus Norris who also provides the lyrics, the musical that takes the traditional fairy story beyond the Prince’s wake-up kiss features a book by Tanya Ronder and music by Jim Fortune. Adapted from Norris’ critically-acclaimed 2002 Sleeping Beauty which took its inspiration from the 17th century folk tale, Hex reunites Norris with Katrina Lindsay, his set and costume designer on the Young Vic production.
The creative team also includes orchestrator Simon Hale, with music supervision by Marc Tritschler, music direction by Tarek Merchant, lighting design by Paul Anderson, choreography by Jade Hackett with consultant choreography by Bill Deamer and sound design by Simon Baker. The development of new music theatre is supported by the Genesis Foundation through the Genesis Music Theatre Programme.
Announced last month as part of a diverse programme of live theatre at the Southbank venue, on tour and on Broadway along with major cinema releases including the re-release of the National Theatre Live recording of Follies, Hex will premiere in the Olivier from 4 December 2021 until 22 January 2022.
The NT’s plans include three major UK tours, and two productions on Broadway including the hit 2018 production of American folk singer Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown. Directed by Rachel Chauvin, the multi-award-winning production will reopen in New York in September with a North American tour planned for October onwards. A South Korean production will also open in Seoul in August.
With all three Southbank theatres reopening for live performances for the first time since March 2020, the programme at the Lyttelton will include Emma Rice’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic work Wuthering Heights. A co-production with Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal, the world premiere production will arrive at the NT in early 2022 before embarking on a UK tour in the spring 2022.
Angela Thomas
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