Ramin Karimloo stars with Nadim Naaman in new musical Rumi

Ramin Karimloo will star alongside Nadim Naaman in a new show by Naaman and Dana Al Fardan, Rumi: The Musical.

The piece marks the second collaboration between Dana Al Fardan and Naaman – their previous show Broken Wings premiered at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2018 before touring the Middle East.

Rumi, which is based on a story about the 13th century philosopher and poet Rumi by Evren Sharma, will debut as a full-length concept album later this spring.

Ramin Karimloo (as Shams Tabrizi) and Nadim Naaman (Rumi) lead the album cast as the central protagonists.

Naaman's recent credits include A Little Night Music (Opera Holland Park) and The Phantom of The Opera, while Karimloo is also known for Phantom as well as Les Miserables and Love Never Dies.

They are joined by Casey Al-Shaqsy (as Kimya), Soophia Foroughi (Kara), Sharif Afifi (Sultan Valed), Ahmed Hamad (Aladdin), Irvine Iqbal (Husam) and Alim Jayda (Sayyed).

Completing the company are Roshani Abbey, Amira Al Shanti, Eva-Theresa Chokarian, Maëva Feitelson, Sasha Ghoshal, James Hameed, Blythe Jandoo and Aliza Vakil.

Rumi is orchestrated and arranged by Joe Davison, with vocal arrangements by Nikki Davison and Middle Eastern musical supervision by Maias Alyamani. The album is produced, edited and mixed by Joe and Nikki Davison for Auburn Jam
Music.

Nadim Naaman said: "Nearly three years after writing the first song, we are excited to share Rumi with the world. The journey has not been what we anticipated, but I am most proud that we have created and recorded this piece in spite of the adversity of Covid-19, working remotely across continents."