Krakowski & Hodge Join McGregor for Guys & DollsDate: 11 January 2005
As previously tipped (See The Goss, 29 Dec 2004), Jane Krakowski (pictured) will make her West End debut when she joins Ewan McGregor in the cast of Guys and Dolls. Also confirmed for the cast is Douglas Hodge, who will make his musical debut in Michael Grandage’s much-anticipated revival, which is now scheduled to open at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre on 1 June 2005, following previews from 19 May (See News, 14 Dec 2004).
Jane Krakowski - who will play Miss Adelaide, the long-suffering girlfriend of Hodge’s gambler, Nathan Detroit - is best known as man-hungry secretary Elaine from American TV’s Ally McBeal. She was originally due to make her West End debut back in 2002 with the black comedy Fuddy Meers, but had to pull out when she landed a starring role opposite Antonio Banderas in Broadway musical Nine, for which she won a 2003 Tony Award.
Krakowski has also appeared on Broadway in the original casts of Once Upon a Mattress, Starlight Express and Grand Hotel, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. Other theatre work includes Tartuffe, Company and Henceforward, for which she received the LA Drama Critics Award for Best Actress and a Dramalogue award. On film, Krakowski was recently seen with Jude Law in Alfie.
Hodge is one of the UK’s foremost performers of the work of Harold Pinter, having appeared in major productions of Pinter's The Collection, The Lover, Betrayal, Moonlight, No Man's Land and The Caretaker. He was most recently seen on the London stage in Three Sisters (West End) and Dumb Show (Royal Court).
No further casting has yet been officially announced.
Guys and Dolls, the “musical fable of Broadway”, has music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, and a book by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerlin, based on the short stories by Damon Runyon about New York low-life in the 1940s. Loesser’s score includes classics such as “Adelaide’s Lament”, “I’ve Never Been in Love Before”, “Sue Me”, “Luck Be a Lady”, “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” and the title song.
Premiered on Broadway in 1950, Guys and Dolls first reached London in 1953 when it ran for 555 performances at the Coliseum. It was made into a 1953 Hollywood film starring Marlon Brandon, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra. In 1982, Richard Eyre mounted a multi award-winning production at the National, which was revived in 1996. The Donmar staging will be the first new London production in 23 years.
The story centres around a group of small-time gamblers and their long-suffering girlfriends. Nathan Detroit, under nuptial pressure from his girlfriend Miss Adelaide, needs $1,000 to enter a crap game and, to raise the cash, bets his friend Sky Masterson that he can't woo the prim neighbourhood missionary, Sarah Brown.
Directed by Donmar Warehouse artistic director Grandage, Guys and Dolls will be the first Donmar musical originated outside of its own 250-seat auditorium (See News, 17 Jun 2004). It’s designed by Christopher Oram, with choreography by Rob Ashford, musical supervision by Jae Alexander, lighting by Howard Harrison and sound by Terry Jardine and Chris Full. It’s produced in the West End by the Ambassador Theatre Group and David Ian for Clear Channel Entertainment, in association with the Donmar’s own in-house production team.
Currently at the Piccadilly, Jailhouse Rock, the stage musical adaptation of Elvis Presley’s seminal 1957 film, will continue at the theatre until April 2005, when it celebrates its first birthday (having opened on 19 April 2004, previews from 26 March), and will then transfer to the West End’s Albery Theatre (exact dates tbc).
- by Terri Paddock
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