Rosalie Craig in Hex at the National Theatre, London. Picture: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
The National Theatre’s festive production of Hex which has been blighted by Covid will be remounted with a full run, including an official press night, in November 2022.
Performances of the new musical were sadly cancelled up to 4 January 2022 with opening night twice postponed. The show has now begun its run but only plays at the Olivier Theatre until 22 January.
Directed by the National’s director and joint chief executive Rufus Norris who also provides the lyrics, Hex takes the traditional story of Sleeping Beauty beyond the Prince’s wake-up kiss. Told from the fairy’s perspective, the musical features a book by Tanya Ronder and music by Jim Fortune.
Norris explained that the first week of previews for Hex saw a different combination of understudies and stand-ins at almost every performance, and three weeks of performances were then lost due to illness.
He continued: “We had hoped to emerge into a clearer situation in January, but while we have started performances again, fresh cases of Covid are still emerging and the creative team have had to disperse to other projects. We have also had to cancel the planned NT Live.
“In light of this, and as the show is scheduled to run only until 22 January, we have decided to remount Hex in November, to give it the chance to have a full run, and so we have taken the decision to move the press night to later in the year.
“This is an unprecedented time in theatre in so many ways. It will take us a long while to understand the full and ongoing impact of Covid, and we will no doubt be in a state of constant adaptation for some time yet.”
Rosalie Craig (The Light Princess, Company) plays Fairy with Tamsin Carroll as Queenie, Kat Ronney taking on the central role of Rose and Michael Elcock as Bert. They are joined by Esme Bacalla-Hayes, Madeline Charlemagne, Tamsin Dowsett, Eleanor Kane and Daisy Maywood.
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.
A 16-track recording, ‘Hex: Highlights from the National Theatre production’, is available.
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