Jerry Creator Shows Dancing Shoes at Sadler’s

Richard Thomas, the composer behind acclaimed and controversial 2003 hit Jerry Springer – The Opera, is turning his attention from opera to dance for his new show, Shoes, on which he is collaborating with award-winning director/choreographer Stephen Mear.

Premiering at Sadler’s Wells on 3 September 2010 (continuing until 11 September), Shoes is billed as a ‘dance revue’, that explores “the gamut of footwear, from the highs of the Louboutin to the lows of the croc”.

Musical numbers include “Vex in the City”, “Imelda Marcos Argues with the Nation” and “The Flip-Flop Paradigm”.

Announcing the project, Thomas said: “If you ask anyone to pick out the most significant pair of shoes in their lifetime, you will hear as much about personal memories and emotions as you will about brands. The common factor seems to be joy. So via desire, fetish, hammertoes, bunions and the anomalous success of the Ugg boot, Shoes is basically about joy – searching for it, finding it and losing it.”

The production will feature a cast of 12 dancers, four singers (including Australia’s Kate Miller-Heidke and Alison Jiear), and a live band. It’s directed by multi-award winning choreographer Stephen Mear, whose credits include Mary Poppins and the Menier Chocolate Factory’s current revival of Sweet Charity.

Mear will be working alongside fellow choreographers Aletta Collins (Jesus Christ Superstar) Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (zero degrees) and Kate Prince (Into the Hoods), as well as designer Tom Pye, musical director Martin Lowe and film artist Tim Hope.

Richard Thomas is best known for the multi-award winning Jerry Springer – The Opera, which he co-wrote with comedian Stewart Lee. This was his first full-length show and was commissioned in the wake of his cult hit, Tourette’s Diva. Since then he’s composed a two-act opera, The HA HA Hole, as well as the Kombat Opera for BBC2, which won the Rose D’Or and the Golden Rose.

He has long been rumoured to be working on another opera, this time based on the life of playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, who died of an accidental drugs overdose in 2007.

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