Leicester's Curve theatre has announced the full cast and creative team for its production of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, a celebratory reopening concert featuring songs from the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Ria Jones, who is no stranger to Curve fans after playing Norman Desmond in the 2020 production of Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, returns along with Karen Mavundukure who was Sofia in The Color Purple at Curve earlier in 2021 and Jessica Daley who played Lynette in Curve’s 2018 production of An Officer and a Gentleman.
The cast also includes Madalena Alberto who took the lead in Evita at London’s Dominion Theatre in 2014, Tim Howar who was The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in 2018, Shem Omari James and Tim Rogers. Andrew Lloyd Webber will guide audiences through the performance in pre-recorded scenes filmed at Curve and around Leicester.
Curve’s artistic director Nikolai Foster will direct. Matthew Spencer-Smith will lead a band of eight musicians as musical director and Colin Richmond will provide design for Curve's specially adapted in-the-round auditorium.
Curve associate artists Mel Knott (movement director), Ben Cracknell (lighting designer) and Kay Magson (casting director) join the production team, with sound design by Tom Marshall. Completing the company are production manager Sam Paterson, Birkbeck trainee director Jennifer Lane Baker, company stage manager James Hayden-Harler and deputy stage manager Lisa Lewis.
Foster and Curve's chief executive Chris Stafford said, "Andrew's thrilling music and the incredible characters and stories he has brought to life alongside some of our greatest lyricists ensures this concert will be the perfect celebration to mark Curve's reopening.
"We’re proud to be joined by an astonishingly talented company of actors, musicians and creatives to mark this unique occasion in our theatre's history.”
The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber will run from Monday 7 until Saturday 19 June as part of the theatre’s socially distanced season.