Cast Set For JERRY'S GIRLS at Menier Chocolate Factory

The Menier Chocolate Factory has announced full casting for the revival of Jerry Herman’s JERRY’S GIRLS. Hannah Chissick directs Cassidy Janson, Lyn Paul and Julie Yammanee. 

The show will feature choreography by Matt Cole, set and costume design by Paul Farnsworth, lighting design by Philip Gladwell, musical supervision and arrangements by Sarah Travis, and an all-female band. This new production opens on 22 May, with previews from 18 May, and plays a strictly limited season until 29 June.

JERRY’S GIRLS celebrates the life and legacy of legendary award-winning Broadway composer Jerry Herman.

Featuring songs from such timeless musicals as Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Mack and Mabel, Dear World and La Cage Aux Folles, JERRY’S GIRLS comes to the Menier Chocolate Factory for 6 weeks only.

JERRY’S GIRLS was created by Herman and collaborator Larry Alford in 1981, opened Off-Broadway to critical acclaim and resulted in a hit National Tour and a Tony-nominated run on Broadway, directed and choreographed by Wayne Cilento.

Jerry Herman’s list of awards and honours is seemingly endless – it includes multiple Tony, Grammy, Olivier and Drama Desk Awards, the Johnny Mercer Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, the Oscar Hammerstein Award and an entry into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Cassidy Janson returns to the Chocolate Factory, having previously appeared in Candide and Tick, Tick…Boom!.  Her other theatre credits include Bare (The London Palladium), & Juliet (for which she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical), playing Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Aldwych Theatre), Aldonza in Man of La Mancha (London Coliseum) Elphaba in Wicked (Apollo Victoria), Chess (London Coliseum), The Mousetrap (St Martin’s Theatre), Avenue Q (Gielgud Theatre) and Once (Tokyo).

Lyn Paul’s theatre credits include Calendar Girls – The Musical (UK tour), Blood Brothers (Phoenix Theatre, UK tour), Cabaret, Footloose (UK tour) and Taboo (Leicester Square Theatre).  Her television credits include Emmerdale (as series regular Freda Danby).  She was a member of pop group The New Seekers, who were a runner-up in the Eurovision Song Contest and whose song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” was a number 1 hit in the UK and the US.

Julie Yammanee previously appeared at the Chocolate Factory in Spamilton. Her other theatre credits include Bonnie and Clyde (Garrick Theatre), Clueless (Churchill Theatre, Bromley), Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Hope Mill Theatre), Gatsby (Southwark Playhouse), Lazarus (King’s Cross Theatre), Here Lives Love (National Theatre),Carousel (Kilworth House Theatre), Priscilla Queen of the Desert (UK & international tour) and Avenue Q (UK tour).  Her film credits include Matilda and A Christmas Story Christmas.

Hannah Chissick returns to the Menier to direct – she previously directed Pack of Lies for the company. Her most recent work includes Eugenius (Turbine Theatre – Best Director, The Offies), Treason the Musical (West End and Alexandra Palace Theatre), The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair (NYMT), Mother Courage and Her Childrenand the UK professional première of the musical Side Show (Southwark Playhouse), Down the Dock Road (Liverpool Royal Court), for the NYMT - Brass (Hackney Empire) and Sunday in the Park With George (The Other Palace), Rags, Amour (Royal Academy of Music), Marry Me a Little (St James Studio) and Teechers (John Godber Theatre Company). She was Assistant Director to Matthew Warchus on the play Art in London and New York and was Associate Director on his acclaimed production of Boeing Boeing, directing casts in London, on Broadway and in Melbourne. In 2003, she became the youngest women to become an Artistic Director in the UK, when Harrogate Theatre appointed her at the age of 25. Other credits include the critically-acclaimed revival of Side by Side by Sondheim (The Venue, London), Abigail's Party (Northcott Theatre Exeter), a tour ofGrumpy Old Women Live, the world première of Horrid Henry - Live (tour and West End), and the world premiere of Pushing Up Poppies (Theatre503).

Matt Cole returns to the Menier, where he previously worked on Fiddler on the Roof (and its transfer to the Playhouse; Olivier Award nomination for Best Choreography). His recent credits include Police Cops (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Roman Holiday (Bath Theatre Royal), Newsies (Director and Choreographer – Olivier Award and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Choreography), Identical (Nottingham Playhouse), Fisherman’s Friends, The Night Pirates (UK tours), Taboo (in concert at the Palladium Theatre London), Berlin Berlin (Germany), Lovesick (Theatre J, Washington DC), Parade, The Beautiful Game (NYMT), Oklahoma! (Chichester Festival Theatre), Amour (Charing Cross Theatre),Flashdance, Footloose, Little Shop of Horrors (UK and international tours), The Sweet Smell of Success (Royal Academy of Music), and The Producers (China and Asian Tour).

Sarah Travis won a Tony and Drama Desk Award for her Orchestrations on The Watermill Theatre Production of Sweeney Todd – directed by John Doyle, which transferred to Trafalgar Studios and the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, Broadway. Her theatre credits include Grease (Dominion Theatre, Curve and UK tour), 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Late Toy Show (Dublin), The Magician’s Elephant (Orchestrator – RSC), Talent (Sheffield Theatres), West Side Story (Curve – Music Supervisor only), Curtains, Sister Act, Fiddler on the Roof, Chess (UK tours), Miss Littlewood (RSC), Sweet Charity, A Little Night Music (The Watermill Theatre), An Officer And A Gentleman (UK Tour – Music Supervisor only), Legally Blonde (Curve), The Hired Man (NYMT), The A to Z of Mrs P (Southwark Playhouse), Jungle Book (Glasgow Citizens Theatre), Dear World(Charing Cross Theatre), Copacabana, Spend Spend Spend (Winner 2009 Regional Theatre Award for Best Musical), and Sunset Boulevard (Comedy Theatre). As a composer her work for theatre and radio includes Extraordinary Women, The Lost Toy’s Big Adventure, The Secret Garden, The Marriage of Figaro, A Star Danced, The Last Fattybottypuss in The World, Tales My Lover Told Me and A Womb with a View.

 

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