Triple Olivier Award Musical Brings
The Golden Age Of Hollywood to Newcastle
Glamorous and glorious Top Hat, winner of three Olivier Awards, for ‘Best New Musical’,
‘Best Choreography’, ‘Best Costume Design’ and the Evening Standard Award for
‘Best Night Out’, will waltz into Newcastle Theatre Royal for the first time 9
– 20 September. Get ready to put on the
glitz!
Based
on the 1935 film of the same name, Top
Hat is packed full of Irving Berlin’s greatest hits and brings the glamour
of old Hollywood and tap-dancing magic of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers live
onto the stage.
The
production is very fresh – the world premiere opened in the West End
at the Aldwych Theatre in May 2012 where it played over 600 performances during
its two-year run.
Jerry Travers, the famous American tap dancer, arrives in London to appear in his first West End show. Travers meets the irresistible Dale Tremont, the girl of his dreams, and follows her across Europe in an attempt to win her heart. The result is an uplifting and hilarious romantic comedy celebrating 1930s song, style and romance, and dazzling with over 200 beautiful costumes and breathtaking dance routines.
Stepping
into the shoes of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the lead roles of Jerry
Travers and Dale Tremont, are Alan Burkitt and Charlotte Gooch, who both return
to the show having previously performed these roles in the West End.
They are joined by Clive Hayward who returns as Horace Hardwick, the role he
played in the West End, Rebecca Thornhill as Madge Hardwick, Sebastien
Torkia as Alberto Beddini and John Conroy as Horace’s valet Bates.
Performed
by a cast of 29 and accompanied by 11 live musicians, this multi award-winning
musical comedy includes Irving Berlin classics from the movie such as Cheek to Cheek, Isn’t It a Lovely Day to be Caught in the Rain and Top Hat, White Tie and Tails. In
addition, from Berlin’s 1200 strong back catalogue, a further ten
numbers have been interpolated including well-loved favourites Let’s Face the Music and Dance and Puttin’ On the Ritz.
Nominated
for four Academy Awards, RKO’s Top Hat was the most successful picture of the
nine movies Astaire and Rogers made together. It premiered at the Radio City Music Hall in 1935 where it broke all box office records.
Within a few weeks, all five songs from the film occupied the top five places
on the American Hit Parade. It is still widely regarded as one of the greatest
dance musicals of all time.
The
screenplay by Dwight Taylor and Allan Scott has been adapted for the stage by
Matthew White and Howard Jacques and is presented by arrangement with RKO
Pictures LLC, Warner Bros Theatre Ventures Inc. and the Irving Berlin Music
Company.
Top Hat is
directed by Matthew White and choreographed by Bill Deamer (Olivier Award
winner for Best Choreography), set designs are by Hildegard Bechtler (Olivier
Award nominee for Best Set Design), costume designs by Jon Morrell (Olivier
Award winner for Best Costume Design), lighting design by Peter
Mumford, sound by Gareth Owen (Olivier Award nominee for Best Sound Design),
new orchestrations by Chris Walker and musical supervision by Richard Balcombe.
Alan
Burkitt started his career winning the All England Tap Dancer of the Year
award. A member of the original West
End cast of Top Hat at the Aldwych Theatre, Burkitt
understudied the lead role of Jerry Travers for both Tom Chambers and Gavin
Lee. He received rave reviews when he stood in for Lee on press night, a
success story documented by Channel 4 for the TV series ‘The Sound of
Musicals’. Other recent stage credits include: Singin’ in the Rain, Andy Lee in 42nd
Street
(Chichester Festival Theatre), the Prince in Adam Cooper’s Shall We Dance (Sadler’s Wells), Cats (German Tour) and We
Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre).
Charlotte
Gooch took over the lead role of Dale Tremont from Summer Strallen in the West End,
performing alongside Tom Chambers as Jerry Travers. Gooch performed the lead
role of Penny Johnson in Dirty Dancing
in the West End at the Piccadilly Theatre and also in the original
national tour. Other recent stage credits include: the lead role of Sandy in Grease
(UK Tour), Cats (German Tour) and the workshop of Swing Time, dancing a duet with Anton du Beke.
Top Hat is
produced by Kenny Wax, and his partners on the production are Stewart Lane and Bonnie Comley, Ted Hartley, Flora Suk-Hwa Yoon
and Lee Menzies.
On The Web:
Website: http://tophatonstage.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TopHatOnStage
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tophatonstage
Ticket Information
Top
Hat appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal
Tue 9 – Sat 20 September 2014
(Evenings:
7.30pm - no performance 15 Sep, Matinees: Wednesday &
Thursday 2pm and Saturday 2.30pm).
Tickets
are from £18.00 (a booking fee of 95p - £1.95 will apply to most tickets) and
can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 or select
your own seat and book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk
UK Tour
Tue
12 - Sat 23 Aug WIMBLEDON New Wimbledon Theatre
Tue
26 Aug - Sat 6 Sep MILTON KEYNES Theatre
Tue 9 - Sat 20 Sep NEWCASTLE Theatre Royal
Tue
23 Sep - Sat 4 Oct ABERDEEN His Majesty’s Theatre
Tue 7
- Sat 18 Oct EDINBURGH Festival Theatre
21
Oct - 1 Nov WOLVERHAMPTON Grand Theatre
4 -
15 Nov NOTTINGHAM Theatre Royal
Tue
18 - Sat 29 Nov BRISTOL Hippodrome
Tue 2
- Sat 13 Dec GLASGOW Theatre Royal
23 Dec 2014 - Sun 4 Jan 2015 LEEDS Grand Theatre
Wed
14 - Sat 24 Jan CARDIFF Welsh Millennium Centre
Wed
28 Jan - Sat 07 Feb OXFORD New Theatre
Tue
10 - Sat 21 Feb MANCHESTER Opera House
Tue
24 Feb - Sat 7 Mar SHEFFIELD Lyceum Theatre
Tue
12 - Sat 23 May SOUTHAMPTON Mayflower
On Sale Soon:
10 - 21 Mar BIRMINGHAM Hippodrome
31
Mar - 11 Apr NORWICH Theatre Royal
14 -
25 Apr CANTERBURY The Marlowe Theatre
28
Apr - 9 May PLYMOUTH Theatre Royal Plymouth
24
Jun - 5 Jul SUNDERLAND Empire Theatre
7 -
18 Jul WOKING New Victoria Theatre
21 -
26 Jul EASTBOURNE Congress Theatre
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