Gypsy Cast Announced
Joining Imelda Staunton, who stars as the indomitable Momma Rose in the West End transfer of Jonathan Kent’s production of Gypsy, are Lara Pulver who will reprise the role of Louise and Peter Davison who joins the cast to play Herbie. Final casting for this five star Chichester Festival Theatre production will be announced shortly.
A musical fable with book by Arthur Laurents, Gypsy has music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim su
ggested by the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, choreography by Stephen Mear, designs by Anthony Ward, musical direction and orchestration by Nicholas Skilbeck, lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Paul Groothuis.
The first production to be seen in London for forty years in a strictly limited season, Gypsyopens at the Savoy Theatre on 15 April 2015 with previews from 28 March 2015 and is produced in the West End by Michael Harrison and David Ian.
Gypsy is considered by many to be the greatest of the Broadway musicals. It tells the true story of ambitious showbiz mother Momma Rose, who treks across America with her daughters Baby June and Louise in search of success with their homespun vaudeville act. As times change, Momma Rose is forced to accept the demise of vaudeville and the rise of burlesque, as well as her daughters’ quest for autonomy.
Gypsy reunites actor Imelda Staunton and director Jon
athan Kent who previously collaborated on the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Sweeney Todd, which, after a sell-out run there, transferred to the West End. Kent also directed Staunton in Good People for Hampstead Theatre, which similarly transferred to the West End after a sell-out season in Hampstead.
Multi award-winning actor Imelda Staunton’s extensive theatre credits include Sweeney Todd for Chichester Festival Theatre, Guys and Dolls, A Chorus of Disapproval and Life x 3 for the National Theatre, There Came a Gypsy Riding for the Almeida Theatre, They Shoot Horses Don’t They? and The Wizard of Oz for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Slavs for Hampstead Theatre, Circle Mirror Transformation for the Royal Court Theatre, Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the Trafalgar Studios, Calico at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Uncle Vanya at the Vaudeville, Into the Woods at the Phoenix Theatre and Habeas Corpus at the Donmar Warehouse. Her many film credits include Pride, Maleficent, The Awakening, Another Year, Taking Woodstock, Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoen
ix, Vera Drake, Nanny McPhee, Bright Young Things, Shakespeare in Love, Sense and Sensibility, Peter’s Friends and Twelfth Night. Her television includes the upcoming That Day We Sang, Psychoville, Cranford Chronicles, The Wind in the Willows, My Family and Other Animals, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fingersmith, Cambridge Spies, David Copperfield and The Singing Detective. .
Lara Pulver is making her West End debut as Louise. She previously appeared at Chichester Festival Theatre in Uncle Vanya. Her other theatre credits include Parade for the Donmar Warehouse, Honk! for the National Theatre, The Last Five Years for the Menier Chocolate Factory, Into The Woods at the Royal Opera House, High Society at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Grease at the Victoria Palace Theatre. Her television credits include Skins,Da Vinci Demons, Fleming, Sherlock, Robin Hood, True Blood and Spooks. Her film credits include The Edge of Tomorrow and Spooks: The Greater Good due for release
next year. In 2015 Pulver will also be seen reprising the role as Erin Watts in Spooks: The Greater Good and in The Riders opposite Liam McIntyre, which is released later this year in Australia.
Peter Davison joins the Company to play Herbie. He was last on stage in the West End as Professor Callaghan in Legally Blonde The Musical and King Arthur in Spamalot. Davison became a household name when he played the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who between 1981 and 1984. His extensive television credits include Tristan Farnon in the long running BBC series All Creatures Great and Small and DC Davies in four series of ITV’s acclaimed The Last Detective as well as New Tricks, Micro Men, At Home with the Braithwaites, The Complete Guide to Parenting, A Very Peculiar Practice, Ain’t Misbehaving and Fear Stress and Anger. His more recent television credits include Unforgiven, Midsomer Murders, Miranda, The Queen, Death in Paradise, Cabbage and Pat and Toast of London. His other stage credits include The Vertical Hour at the Park Theatre, Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre, An Absolute Turkey at the Globe Theatre and Arsenic and Old Lace for Chichester Festival Theatre. On film his credits include Parting Shots and Black Beauty.
Director Jonathan Kent’s theatre credits includes Sweeney Todd and Private Lives for Chichester Festival Theatre, Good People for Hampstead Theatre, Le Cid, Mother Courage and Her Children, The False Servant, Oedipus and Emperor and Galilean for the National Theatre, Man of La Mancha on Broadway, Hecuba for the Donmar Warehouse, As You Desire Me at the Playhouse Theatre, The Country Wife, The Sea and Marguerite for the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Faith Healer in Dublin and on Broadway. Kent was joint Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre for 12 years, where his many productions
included Gangster No 1, All For Love, The School for Wives, Medea, Hamlet, The Life of Galileo, Ivanov, The Tempest, Richard II, Coriolanus, Phèdre, Britannicus, Plenty, Lulu, Platonov and King Lear, many of which transferred to the West End and Broadway and toured internationally. His many opera credits include productions for the Mariinsky in St Petersburg, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House, ENO, Royal Danish Opera and Santa Fe Opera.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Theatre: Savoy Theatre, Strand, London WC2R 0ET
Dates: previews from 28 March 2015 at 7.30pm
Press Night: 15 April 2015 at 7pm
Running time: Approximately 2 hours 50 mins including 20 minute interval
Performances: Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Wednesday & Saturday at 2.30pm
(No matinees on 1 and 15 April)
Prices: in previews £19.50 – £54.50 including £1.50 theatre restoration levy then £24.50 – £69.50 including £1.50 theatre restoration levy
No booking fee or transaction fee for tickets purchased directly from Gypsy website, ATG Tickets website, call centre and box office.
Box Office: 0844 871 7674
Website: gypsythemusical.uk
For further press information: theatre@premiercomms.com
