Following Olivier Award nominations for Best New Musical and Best Actress in a Musical, it has been announced that The Drifters Girl world premiere cast album, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, is due for release on 6 May 2022.
The album features the original cast of the acclaimed new musical: Queen of British Soul, Beverley Knight, Adam J Bernard (Dreamgirls), Tarinn Callender (Hamilton), Matt Henry (Kinky Boots) and Tosh Wanogho-Maud (Show Boat), who capture the essence of notable members of The Drifters – Clyde Mcphatter, Ben E. King, Rudy Lewis and Johnny Moore. Knight reimagines classic Drifters tracks, capturing Faye Treadwell’s story.
The album was produced by the shows arranger and orchestrator, Chris Egan, who along with the creative team, including co-producers Trystan Francis and Will Stuart, took over the iconic Abbey Road Studio 2, with the full show band plus some additional musicians to create an enhanced version of the songs from the show.
The album includes songs from the show from such as ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Under the Boardwalk’, ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’ and ‘Harlem Child’.
The Drifters Girl has been entertaining audiences since beginning in Newcastle in October 2021. The show transferred to London in November 2021, and has continued to play to packed houses and nightly standing ovations. It has recently extended its run at the Garrick Theatre in London to 12 February 2023.
The musical tells the story of Faye Treadwell, the legendary manager of The Drifters who, alongside her husband, George Treadwell, ground-breaking manager and co-founder of The Drifters, fought for three decades to turn Atlantic Records’ hottest vocal group into a global phenomenon. Knight continues in the role of Faye Treadwell through to 2 July, with casting from that date to be announced.
The cast is completed by Marcus Ayton, Ashford Campbell, Ethan Davis, Vanessa Ela Young, Michael James Stewart, Alanna Leslie, Curtis Scott, and the young actors are Aurora Baptiste, Amari Brown, Savanna Musoni, Savannah Skinner-Henry and Shanyia Tsoto (who play the role of George and Faye’s daughter Tina Treadwell).
The Drifters Girl, with a book by Ed Curtis, based on an idea by Tina Treadwell, and which is co-created by Beverley Knight, Adam J Bernard, Tarinn Callender, Matt Henry and Tosh Wanogho-Maud is directed by Jonathan Church, with set design by Anthony Ward, choreography by Karen Bruce, costume design by Fay Fullerton, orchestrations and musical supervision by Chris Egan lighting design by Ben Cracknell, sound design by Tom Marshall and video design by Andrzej Goulding. Associate director is Tyrone Huntley and associate choreographer is Myles Brown with casting by Stuart Burt and children’s casting by Jo Hawes. The show is produced by Michael Harrison and David Ian.
The cast album is released by Tag8 Music, with BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, Treadwell Entertainment Group and Showtime Productions Ltd.
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.