Revel Horwood Hits Copacabana Ahead of Chess

As his take on Chess prepares to launch a nationwide tour from Newcastle in August, director-choreographer and Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood returns first to his home base at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Berkshire to launch another actor-musician production: a revival of Barry Manilow’s Copacabana, which runs from 21 July to 4 September 2010 (previews from 15 July).

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl… In Copacabana, a young songwriter has got a great tune but no lyrics, so he invents the character of Lola Lamar, a country lass from Tulsa who arrives in the Big Apple to search for fame as a showgirl. Lola is subject to all manner of adventures in the swinging 1940s nightclub scene.

Co-authored by Manilow, Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman, Copacabana was first seen as a made-for-TV movie musical in the US in 1985, when Manilow himself starred as Lola’s lover Tony. Following a shorter stage rendition in Las Vegas, it premiered as a full-length stage musical in 1994, running for more than a year at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre, preceded and followed by UK regional tours.

Horwood’s production will star Edward Baker Duly (South Pacific, Gone With the Wind as Stephen/Tony and Laura Pitt-Pulford (who starred in Horwood’s Sunset Boulevard) as Samantha/Lola. Also in the cast are: Basienka Blake, Adam C Booth, Robin Colyer, Julian Littman, Karen Mann, Neil MacDonald, Cassie Pearson, Sally Peerless, Antony Reed and Joe West.

Copacabana has musical supervision and arrangements Sarah Travis (who won a Tony Award for the Watermill production of Sweeney Todd) and design by Diego Pitarch, who also worked with Horwood on the Watermill revivals of Hot Mikado, Spend Spend Spend (which won a TMA Award) and Sunset Boulevard (which transferred to the West End).