Benjamin Till’s award-winning BRASS will receive its professional London premiere at the Union Theatre as part of a series of events to mark the centenary of Armistice Day.
Commissioned by the National Youth Music Theatre and set during the First World War, the first production of the moving musical drama at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall earned critical acclaim and the Best Musical title at the 2014 UK Theatre Awards. BRASS also played three performances at the Hackney Empire as part of the NYMT’s 2016 season.
With book, music and lyrics by multi-award-winning composer and filmmaker Till and additional lyrics by Nathan Taylor and Arnold Wesker, BRASS tells the story of a group of men from a Leeds brass band who enlist to fight in the Great War as part of the Leeds Pals regiment and the women they leave behind. While the men fight on the front line, their wives and sweethearts work in the munitions’ factory and keep their men’s musical dreams alive by learning to play the instruments left behind.
The Union Theatre’s founder and artistic director Sasha Regan will direct the new production which will begin previewing on 31 October with a press night on 4 November. The season is due to end on 24 November and will include a special performance on Remembrance Sunday which this year coincides with the Armistice Centenary on 11 November.
Presented by arrangement with R&H Theatricals Europe, the cast includes: Lucy Aiston, Joe Douglass, Tamsin Dowsett, Hannah Francis-Baker, Adam George-Smith, Emma Harrold, Alistair Hoyle, Maison Kelley, Sam Kipling, Rosa Lennox, Kelsie-Rae Marshall, Michael Martin, Matthew Peter-Carter, Jack Reitman, Samantha Richards and Lawrence Smith.
Regan heads a creative team made up of associate director Lee Greenaway, musical director Henry Brennan, lighting designer Matthew Swithinbank, producer Union Creatives Ltd, associate producer Luke Byrne with set design by McVoy Design.
Angela Thomas
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.