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London Debut for Bricusse & Newley Greasepaint

Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley's 1965 Broadway musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd will receive its London premiere at the Finborough Theatre with a four-week run from 9 June (previews from 7 June) to 2 July 2011.

Originally seen for a 1964 pre-London British tour starring Norman Wisdom, the show was championed by New York impresario David Merrick who presented it on Broadway.

Ian Judge helms the allegorical satire on the British class system, which demonstrates how the working class can't get ahead because of the constantly changing rules and social structures. It has a score which comprises a number of standards including "A Wonderful Day Like Today", "The Joker", "Who Can I Turn To?", "The Beautiful Land" (made famous by Tony Bennett), and "Feeling Good" (recently a hit for Michael Bublé)

Judge's musical stage credits include the 1989 West End revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music at the Piccadilly Theatre, Show Boat at the London Palladium and on tour, and The Wizard of Oz for the RSC, which he joined in 1975, going on to direct productions of The Comedy Of Errors, Love’s Labour's Lost, Twelfth Night, A Christmas Carol, The Relapse, Troilus And Cressida and The Merry Wives of Windsor. His other credits include work for The Old Vic, Shaw Festival, Canada, Sydney Theatre Company, Chichester Festival Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company and Sadler’s Wells as well as numerous international operas.

Writer, composer and lyricist Leslie Bricusse has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, nine Grammys and four Tonys, and has won two Oscars, a Grammy and eight Ivor Novello Awards. His stage musicals include Stop The World – I Want To Get Off (1961), Goodbye, Mr Chips (1969), Scrooge (1970), Sherlock Holmes – The Musical (1989) and Jekyll And Hyde (1997). Hundreds of Bricusse's songs have been recorded by major artists including. Anthony Newley, who also was also the book writer, composer and lyricist also had an acting, singing and directing career that spanned more than 50 years - he died in 1999. He collaborated with Bricusse on Stop The World – I Want To Get Off which included the songs "Gonna Build A Mountain" and "What Kind of Fool Am I?" which sold more than a million records and became his signature tune. His recording of "I've Waited So Long" topped the British charts.

The production will be designed by three time Olivier Award-winner Tim Goodchild who has designed over 70 productions for the West End stage, of which 20 have been musicals. The production will have lighting design by Mark Doubleday. The show is presented by Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre and DreamTower Productions Ltd.

Also at the Finborough, casting has been announced for Naomi Wallace's And I And Silence which will debut on 12 May (previews from 10 May 2011) as part of the theatre's “In Their Place” season - a three month presentation of work by women playwrights.

Directed by Caitlin McLeod the production has a cast including Lauren Crace (Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Salisbury Playhouse), Sally Oliver (Two Women for Theatre Royal Stratford East), Cat Simmons (Coming Home at the Arcola Theatre) and Cherrelle Skeete (Joey Boy at MAC).

Wallace's first play The War Boys was produced at the Finborough Theatre in 1993, with her other major plays including One Flea Spare, In the Heart of America, Slaughter City, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Things of Dry Hours and The Fever Chart: Three Short Visions of the Middle East.

A dark, often humorous portrait of desire and daring And I And Silence explores the fierce dreams of youth and the brutal reality of adulthood in 1950's segregated America.

The production is designed by Cecilia Carey with lighting by Elliot Griggs, costumes by Ed Parry, and music and sound by Tegid Cartwright and Ben Osborne. It is produced by Ben Canning for Worn Red Theatre in association with the Finborough Theatre.

- by Andrew Girvan

Related Content

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	And I And Silence Listing Page

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	And I and Silence - 13th May 2011 reviews