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Exclusive first listen to The Boy in the Dress musical cast album

WhatsOnStage gets a first taste of “Disco Symphony”

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3 December 2020

The cast of The Boy in the Dress, directed by Gregory Doran, designed by Robert Jones, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

This show featured Jackson Laing as Dennis, Arjun Singh Khakh as Darvesh, Asha Banks as Lisa James, Zachary Loonie as John. — The cast of *The Boy in the Dress*, directed by Gregory Doran, designed by Robert Jones, Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

This show featured Jackson Laing as Dennis, Arjun Singh Khakh as Darvesh, Asha Banks as Lisa James, Zachary Loonie as John.
© RSC, photo by Manuel Harlan

WhatsOnStage has an exclusive first listen to The Boy in the Dress cast album ahead of its release tomorrow.

The RSC will unveil the show on Friday 4 December, while also preparing for a live-streamed concert featuring stars from the show, which will take place on Saturday 5 December. Tickets for the concert are on sale now via the RSC website.

The Boy in the Dress is David Walliams' debut children's book, which follows 12 year-old Dennis, who is his football team's striker and wants to wear a dress to school.

The musical is adapted by Mark Ravenhill, with music by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers, musical supervision and arrangements by Bruce O'Neil and musical direction and arrangements by Alan Williams. Tom Deering and Chambers also provided orchestrations.

You can have a first listen here:

The Boy in the Dress official cast album will be available to pre-order on CD and iTunes from 16 November and available to purchase on CD, iTunes, Spotify and YouTube Music from 4 December.

During the 5 December event, Walliams will take to the stage at the RSC to read from his book, while Chambers and members of the cast will join him with a variety of performances to officially launch the recording.

Playing on the main stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (where it picked up the full five stars from WhatsOnStage's Sarah Crompton), the titular role of Dennis in The Boy in the Dress was played by Oliver Crouch, Jackson Laing, Tom Lomas and Toby Mocrei. Darvesh, Dennis' best friend, is played by Ethan Dattani, Shivain Kara-Patel, Kassian Shae Ahktar and Arjun Singh Khakh. Asha Banks, Tabitha Knowles and Miriam Nyarko played Lisa James, Dennis' fashion-savvy friend, while Alfie Jukes and Zachary Loonie played his older brother John.

Rufus Hound played Dennis' dad, Irvine Iqbal played Raj, the shopkeeper, Natasha Lewis played Dennis' best friend Darvesh's mum, and Forbes Masson played Mr Hawtrey, the headmaster from Dennis' school. Charlotte Wakefield played the French teacher Miss Windsor.

Other cast includes David Birch (Maudlin Street Captain), Hannah Fairclough (ensemble), Max Gill (Big Mac), Ahmed Hamad (ensemble), Ryan Heenan (Rory), Charlotte Jaconelli (Lorna), Alim Jayda (ensemble), Christina Modestou (Miss Bresslaw), Alexander Moneypenny (Gareth), Clancy Ryan (ensemble), Cilla Silvia (ensemble), Jack Anthony Smart (swing), Ben Thompson (Oddbod), Jamie Tyler (St Kenneth's Captain), Georgie Westall (swing) and Grace Wylde (Louise).

Aletta Collins choreographs the show, which has design by Robert Jones, lighting by Mark Henderson, puppetry direction by Laura Cubitt, dramaturgy by Pippa Hill and sound by Paul Groothius and Tom Marshall.