Picture: Ellie Kurttz
Heathers leading man Jamie Muscato and newcomer Adriana Ivelisse will play star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria in the eagerly-anticipated Leicester Curve production of the classic musical West Side Story.
Following on from last year’s Made at Curve seasonal production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, the team at Leicester’s major new production of the Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical is due to run from 23 November 2019 until 11 January 2020.
A 2019 Spotlight Prize Finalist, Puerto Rican native Ivelisse will make her professional UK debut as Maria with Carly Mercedes-Dyer (The View Upstairs, Soho Theatre, Dreamgirls, Savoy Theatre) as her friend Anita.
They will be joined by Jonathan Hermosa-Lopez (Grease, UK and Ireland tour) as Maria’s brother Bernado and Ronan Burns (Kiss Me, Kate, Sheffield Crucible) as rival gang leader Riff. Darren Bennett will return to Curve after appearing in a number of productions including Grease (2016 and 2019 UK and Ireland tour) and in the 2017 production of Scrooge The Musical, to play Lieutenant Schrank.
The cast also includes Ryan Anderson (Grease, UK and Ireland tour) as A-Rab, Damian Buhagiar (Grease, UK and Ireland tour) as Chino, Thea Bunting (Grease, UK and Ireland tour) as Graziella, Alex Christian (Oklahoma!, Chichester Festival Theatre) as Baby John, Abigail Climer (Grease, UK and Ireland tour) as Consuelo, Isaac Gryn (Oklahoma!, Chichester Festival Theatre) as Action, Beth Hinton-Lever (Hadestown, National Theatre) as Anybodys, Katie Lee (Matilda, Royal Shakespeare Company) as Velma, Mireia Mambo (Evita, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) as Rosalia, Michael O’Reilly (Dirty Dancing, UK and Ireland tour) as Diesel, Dominic Sibanda (Aladdin, Prince Edward Theatre) as Indio, Dale White (Grease, UK and Ireland tour) as Big Deal and Christopher Wright (The Ladykillers, Oldham Coliseum) as Officer Krupke and Doc.
Unveiling the cast for the venue’s re-imagining of Leonard Bernstein’s timeless love story, Curve’s chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said: “West Side Story really is one of the greatest musicals ever written theatre. To bring to life any piece of theatre you need an astonishing group of collaborators and we are proud to have assembled such a talented, imaginative and quintessentially 21st century group of actors, who will celebrate the heritage of this play, whilst rediscovering it for an entirely new generation.
“Adriana, Carly, Jamie, Jonathan and Ronan lead an outstanding company of actors, who all recognise how important the musical’s message of love and acceptance is in 2019.”
The production which will be directed by Foster features new choreography by Ellen Kane who arrived in Leicester fresh from working on Tom Hooper’s film version of Cats. Curve associate artist Sarah Travis is the production’s musical supervisor. Set design is by Michael Taylor, with costume design by Edd Lindley, musical direction by George Dyer, lighting design by Guy Hoare, sound design by Tom Marshall and casting by Kay Magson.
Based on Jerome Robbins’ original idea, with music by Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Arthur Laurents, West Side Story debuted on Broadway in 1957 with a Tony Award-winning production also directed and choreographed by Robbins.
Angela Thomas
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