Full company for ”Local Hero” musical announced

Casting has been revealed for the upcoming staging of Local Hero, the musical based on the Bill Forsyth film, at Chichester Festival Theatre

The Tony Award-winning American actor Gabriel Ebert (the original Mr Wormwood in Matilda on Broadway) will make his UK stage debut as Mac in the show, which runs from 8 October to 19 November in the venue’s Minerva space.

Also set to appear are Lillie Flynn (as Stella), Paul Higgins (as Gordon), Hilton McRae (as Ben), Jay Villiers (as Happer), and Rodney Earl Clarke, Ali Craig, Julie Cullen, Liz Ewing, Murray Fraser, Craig Hunter, Rachael Kendall Brown, Joshua Manning, Jackie Morrison and Betty Valencia.

The show has book by David Greig, with music and lyrics by Mark Knopfler.

Director Daniel Evans said: “I came to Local Hero innocently; the film having passed me by in my childhood. However, the minute I read David Greig’s warm, witty book and heard Mark Knopfler’s seductive folk score, I fell hook, line and sinker.

“I then watched Bill Forsyth’s extraordinary film and appreciated its resonance immediately. It’s a story for our time where communities and corporations collide. It asks us to readdress how we look at the world by interrogating what we value.”

The show is to be designed by Frankie Bradshaw, with lighting design by Paule Constable with Ryan Day, sound design by Paul Arditti, musical direction by Richard John, movement direction by Sasha Milavic Davies and video design by Ash J Woodward. The music producer is Guy Fletcher, with orchestrations and arrangements by Dave Milligan, casting by Charlotte Sutton and US casting by Jim Carnahan.

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