Northern Ireland Opera Reveals Full Cast And Creative Team For FOLLIES

Northern Ireland Opera has announced the complete cast and creative team for its historic revival of Follies, running September 13–20, 2025, at the Grand Opera House in Belfast.

Directed by Artistic Director Cameron Menzies with musical direction by Greg Arrowsmith, the production marks the first-ever staging of the Stephen Sondheim–James Goldman musical in Northern Ireland. Tickets, priced from £17.50 to £60, are available at goh.co.uk or by calling 028 9024 1919.

The thirty-two-strong cast includes Brigid Shine, Anna Violet, Chris Kane, and Reece McGowan as the 1940s counterparts to West End stars Anna-Jane Casey (Sally Durant Plummer), Annette McLaughlin (Phyllis Rogers Stone), Alasdair Harvey (Benjamin Stone), and Mark Dugdale (Buddy Plummer). Petra Wells appears as young Heidi Schiller opposite Lesley Garrett CBE, with Rachel Stanley as Solange La Fitte, Pippa Winslow as Stella Deems, Darren Franklin as Roscoe, Christina Nelson and Richard Croxford as Emily and Theodore Whitman, Marty Maguire as Dimitri Weismann, Colette Lennon Dougal as Dee Dee West, and Orla Mullan as Sandra Crane. Twelve additional Northern Ireland-based singers make up the ensemble.

The previously announced company features acclaimed British soprano Lesley Garrett, music theatre veteran Jacqueline Dankworth MBE as Carlotta Campion, West End stars Anna-Jane Casey and Annette McLaughlin, Belfast’s Mark Dugdale, and Alasdair Harvey. Allison Harding plays Hattie Walker, delivering the showstopping number “Broadway Baby.”

The production will feature the Orchestra of Northern Ireland Opera, a 35-piece ensemble, under the baton of Greg Arrowsmith. The creative team includes choreographer Jennifer Rooney, set designer Niall McKeever, costume co-designer Gillian Lennox, lighting designer Jake Wiltshire, sound designer Andy Graham, hair and make-up designer Nuala Campbell, and repetiteur Fraser Hickland.