Glee favourite Kevin McHale will make his UK stage debut as Xanthias in a new production of Stephen Sondheim’s quirky musical comedy The Frogs at Southwark Playhouse Borough next summer.
Best known for his performance as Artie Abrams in the much-loved TV series Glee, the award-winning actor who recently starred in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington DC, will take to the stage at the London venue from 23 May until 28 June 2025.
The new production will be directed by Georgie Rankcom with musical direction by Ben McQuigg. The creative team also includes choreography by Matt Nicholson, set and costume designer by Libby Todd, lighting design by Samuel Biondolillo, sound design by Joshua Robins, orchestrations by Tim Sutton, casting by Peter Noden, production artwork by Rebecca Pitt andproduction management by Adam Smith. The stage manager will be Waverley Moran and the assistant stage manager will be Evie Graham-Brown
Very loosely based on an Ancient Greek comedy by playwright Aristophanes, Sondheim and Burt Shevelove’s The Frogs was originally performed in Yale University’s gymnasium’s swimming pool in 1971 by an ensemble that included Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep.
With a book revised and expanded by stage and screen star Nathan Lane, the newest version of Sondheim and Shevelove’s original work which moved the show away from the initial ensemble format and included seven new songs written by Sondheim, opened on Broadway in 2004, with Lane starring as Dionysus and Roger Bart as Xanthias. Featuring original orchestrations by multi-award winner and longtime Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick, the musical received its UK premiere at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre
Angela Thomas
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