GIN CRAZE! Will Be Performed at Royal & Derngate Next Month

Royal & Derngate will present the premiere of April De Angelis and Lucy Rivers' ambitious new musical Gin Craze! A booze-soaked love ballad from the women of Gin Lane, Gin Craze! is a raucous satire exploring the joyous excesses of Hogarth's Britain in an ingenious and irreverent new musical.

Part of the Made in Northampton 2021 season, this Royal & Derngate, Northampton and China Plate co-production, in partnership with English Touring Theatre, takes to the Royal stage in Northampton from Saturday 17 to Saturday 31 July with an Opening Night on 21 July.

Two lovers, each with hidden secrets, struggle to prosper as gin hawkers. At a time in the 18th century when the average Briton drank 1.5 litres of gin every day, women were being locked up in cells to sober up and disorder was breaking out on every street corner, panic spreads among the upper classes who look to the magistrates, the Church and even their tipsy Queen to restore sobriety.

The production has been developed as part of a three-year project which has seen Royal & Derngate lead a national consortium of partners to support 150 artists in nurturing the creation of new musical theatre.

Book and lyrics are by April De Angelis (My Brilliant Friend, National Theatre; The Village, Theatre Royal Stratford East) and music and lyrics are by Lucy Rivers (The Bloody Ballad, Gagglebabble; Father Christmas, Lyric Hammersmith).

Gin Craze! is directed by Michael Oakley (Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe; The Life and Times of Fanny Hill, Bristol Old Vic) and the designer is Hayley Grindle (Iphigenia in Splott, Sherman Cymru and National Theatre), with Tamara Saringer (The Wizard of Oz, Leeds Playhouse) as Music Supervisor and Arranger and Paul Isles (Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe) as choreographer. Lighting design is by Jack Knowles (Barber Shop Chronicles, National Theatre) and sound design is by Tony Gayle (Lazarus, Kings Cross Theatre). The production is produced by Royal & Derngate's Musical Theatre producer Tess Dowdeswell.

The ensemble cast includes Debbie Chazen (The Girls, West End), Rosalind Ford (Once, UK Tour), Aruhan Galieva (King John, Royal & Derngate and Shakespeare's Globe), Paula James (The Snow Queen, Park Theatre), Alex Mugnaioni (Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Rose Theatre Kingston and West End), Peter Pearson (Welcome to the UK, The Bunker), Paksie Vernon (The Watsons, Chichester Festival Theatre/Menier Chocolate Factory) and Rachel Winters (A Christmas Carol, Royal Shakespeare Company).

Gin Craze! can be seen at Royal & Derngate from Saturday 17 to Saturday 31 July. Tickets priced from £13.50* can be booked by calling Box Office on 01604 624811 or online at www.royalandderngate.co.uk.

Royal & Derngate has been awarded UK Theatre and SOLT's See it Safely mark, an accreditation that acknowledges the venue is COVID-secure and will be following the latest government and performing arts guidelines in welcoming audiences.

The Made in Northampton season is sponsored locally by Michael Jones Jewellers.

* A charge of £3.50 applies for all transactions of £20 and over. Does not apply to Groups, Members or Disabled Patrons, and is per-transaction, not per-ticket.