Anoushka Lucas, Ramin Karimloo and more talk country music and the prescient timing of A Face in the Crowd on opening night

On Friday evening, WhatsOnStage was invited to London’s Young Vic to attend the official opening for the world premiere musical, A Face in the Crowd.

Based on the 1957 Warner Bros film (with a screenplay by Budd Schulberg), adapted for the stage by Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl and featuring a score by Grammy-winning music legend Elvis Costello, the piece explores themes of celebrity, power and politics and runs fittingly alongside the current US presidential election. It also marks the swansong for the Young Vic’s outgoing artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah.

Find out what Kwei-Armah and Ruhl, as well as the show’s leading actors – WhatsOnStage Award winner Ramin Karimloo and Olivier Award nominee Anoushka Lucas – have to say about the Country and Western-infused crowdpleaser below:

Alongside Karimloo (as Lonesome Rhodes) and Lucas (as Marcia Jeffries), the cast also includes Stavros Demetraki (as Joey D), Olly Dobson (as Mel Miller), Emily Florence (in her professional stage debut as Betty Lou), Howard Gossington (as Sheriff Hosmer/Ensemble), and Andrew Coshan, Sadie-Jean Shirley, Chris Jenkins, Durone Stokes, Vicki Lee Taylor and Annie Wensak in the ensemble, with Jasmin Colangelo and Bobby Windebank as swings.

The creative team includes lighting designer Jackie Shemesh, musical supervisor and musical director Phil Bateman, sound designer Emma Laxton, choreographer Lizzi Gee, and casting director Heather Basten.

A Face in the Crowd plays at the Young Vic Theatre until 9 November 2024, with tickets on sale below.