Emily Benjamin to star in UK premiere of Bronco Billy – The Musical

Cabaret star Emily Benjamin will lead the Bronco Billy – the Musical early next year, it has been announced.

Benjamin, who has been the alternate Sally Bowles in the award-winning production at the Kit Kat Club in London since it first opened in late 2021, has credits including Bat Out of Hell and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 

She now takes on the starring role in Bronco Billy, which is based on the hit Clint Eastwood motion picture. First seen in Los Angeles in 2019, the show won the Ovation Awards for Best Book for an Original Musical and Best Lyrics/ Composition of an Original Musical the subsequent year.

The musical follows a group of Wild West roustabouts whose lives take a turn when their troupe leader meets a runaway heiress.

Benjamin explained today: “I’m so excited to explore this wild world of Bronco Billy – a show that says you can be whatever you want to be if that’s a powerful woman, a disco dancer, a poet, a performer, a cowboy – there’s somewhere out there that you can be your true self, no matter what other people tell you.”

The show has a book by Dennis Hackin, music and lyrics by Chip Rosenbloom and John Torres, with additional lyrics by Michele Brourman. It is based on the Warner Brothers motion picture written by Dennis Hackin, by special arrangement with Warner Brothers Theatre Ventures.

Bronco Billy is directed by Hunter Bird. Other creatives include Amy Jane Cook for scenic design, Sarah Mercade for costume design, Alexzandra Sarmiento as choreographer, Nick Richings as lighting designer, Andrew Johnson as sound designer, John Bulleid as illusion designer, Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown of RC-Annie Ltd as fight and intimacy directors, Amber Sinclair-Case as associate director, David O as music supervisor, Danny Hackin as associate producer, and Will Burton for casting.

Tickets are on sale now, with the show running at the Charing Cross Theatre in London from 23 January until 7 April.