Ethel Merman created the roles of Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, Sally Adams in Call Me Madam, and ‘Mama’ Rose Hovick in Gypsy on Broadway. She began her Broadway career in the Gershwins’ Girl Crazy in 1930 and ended it as the seventh Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! in 1970.
She has been described as “the First Lady of Broadway” and now, in the person of recording star and actress Nicki French, she will arrive in Newcastle in October.
French, who comes from Carlisle, will be joined by Tynemouth actor Christopher Strain as the MC.
Gee, But It’s Good to Be Here! – An Audience with Ethel Merman is a new play by writer Steve Burbridge which will run upstairs at The Trent House in Newcastle from 7th to 12th October (not Friday), with matinees on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Burbridge’s first play, Testing Times, played at The Trent House in April.