Spiro and Kind Join Tompsett In Phoenix West End Transfer Of GUYS AND DOLLS!

By: Feb. 16, 2016
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Following critical acclaim at the Savoy Theatre, the Chichester Festival Theatre revival of Guys and Dolls will be extending its run at the Phoenix Theatre from 19 March 2016. Casting for the West End extension includes multiple Olivier Award-winning actress Samantha Spiro (Hello Dolly) as Miss Adelaide, Richard Kind (Disney/Pixar's BAFTA award-wining Inside Out) as Nathan Detroit and Oliver Tompsett (Wicked) as Sky Masterson. Continuing in their roles from the Savoy to the Phoenix Theatre are Siubhan Harrison as Sarah Brown, and Gavin Spokes as Nicely Nicely Johnson.

Completing the new cast at the Phoenix are Billy Boyle as Arvide and Jason Pennycooke as Benny, with the rest of the cast transferring from the Savoy Theatre: Lucy Jane Adcock, Abigail Brodie, Cornelius Clarke, Momar Diagne, Lavinia Fitzpatrick, Lorna Gale, Nic Greenshields, Selina Hamilton, Frankie Jenna, Alec Mann, Jacob Maynard, Genevieve Nicole, William Oxborrow, Max Parker, Carl Patrick, James Revell, Giovanni Spano, Jonathan Stewart, Lucie Mae Sumner and Liam Wrate.

Nathan Detroit is desperate: he needs money for an illegal dice game, and he needs it fast. Not to mention a 14-year engagement with nightclub singer Miss Adelaide, whose patience is finally running out. Enter notorious gambler Sky Masterson, a guy who can never turn down a bet, and straight-laced missionary Sarah Brown, a doll with a heart of ice. Nathan's wager is that Sky has to romance Sarah by taking her to Havana for dinner and in return he'll provide a dozen 'sinners' for Sarah's mission. Surely this is one bet Nathan absolutely can't lose?

A joyous and vibrant celebration of Prohibition-era New York, Guys and Dolls first premiered on Broadway in 1950 and captured the optimism and energy of post-World War Two America. This hugely popular and multi award-winning musical, based on the colourful stories by American journalist Damon Runyon renowned for his vivid fictional depictions of the gamblers, hustlers and nightclub singers of New York, features some of Broadway's greatest musical numbers including 'My Time of Day', 'Luck be a Lady' and the show-stopping 'Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat'. Guys and Dolls is directed by Gordon Greenberg with choreography by Cuban dancer and former Royal Ballet star Carlos Acosta and Andrew Wrightwhose credits include Chichester Festival Theatre's Singin' in the Rain.

A separate production with a completely new cast will embark on a nationwide UK tour, opening at the Liverpool Empire on 16 March 2016. Further details to be announced.

Richard Kind plays Nathan Detroit. Theatre credits include Drama Desk Award Winner and Tony Nominee for the Broadway Hit, The Big Knife, The Producers (Broadway), The Tale of theAllergist's Wife, Candide, and Bounce, among others. Richard started his career in Chicago with the Practical Theatre Company, founded by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Hill and Gary Kroeger. Film credits include 2013 Academy Award Winning Best Picture Argo, critically acclaimed and multi-award winner Inside Out, Hereafter, A Serious Man, The Visitor, The Station Agent, A Bug's Life and Cars. Television credits include Spin City and Mad About You.

Samantha Spiro plays Miss Adelaide. Theatre credits include A Christmas Carol (Sonia Friedman Productions/Noël Coward Theatre), Di and Viv and Rose (Vaudeville Theatre), Kafka's Dick (Theatre Royal Bath), Macbeth (Shakespeare's Globe), The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare's Globe), Filumena (Almeida Theatre), Company (Sheffield Crucible), Nominee for the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress, and Best Actress In A Play Award, Whatsonstage.com Awards 2012 in Chicken Soup With Barley (Royal Court Theatre), Winner of Best Actress in a Musical, Olivier Awards 2010 in Hello Dolly (Regent's Park), Much Ado About Nothing (Regent's Park), Twelfth Night (Donmar Warehouse and The Wyndhams Warehouse),Funny Girl (Chichester Festival), The Family Plays (Royal Court Theatre), Two Thousand Years (Royal National Theatre), Winner of Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Joseph Jefferson Awards 2004 in A Little Night Music (Chicago Shakespeare's Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Crucible, Sheffield), Bedroom Farce (Aldwych Theatre), Winner of Best Actress in a Musical, Olivier Awards 2001 and Whatsonstage.com Awards 2001 in Merrily We Roll Along (Donmar Warehouse), As You Like It (Crucible/Lyric), Jumpers (Birmingham REP), Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick (Royal National Theatre), Roots (Watdord Palace/Oxford), As You Like It (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Bristol Old Vic), Teechers (Hull Truck/No 1 Tour), On the Piste (Hull Truck), How the Other Half Loves (Theatre Royal, Windsor), Glyn & 'IT' (Yvonne Arnaud/Tour), A Midsummer Night's Dream (London Stage Group, Middle East Tour), Tons of Money (Mercury Theatre, Colchester). Film credits include Me Before You, A Running Jump, Tomorrow La Scala!, From Hell, Cor Blimey and Beyond Bedlam. Televsion credits includePlebs Series 3 (ITV2), Tracey Ullman's Show (BBC), London Spy (BBC), The Wrong Mans Series 2 (BBC), Bad Education Series 2, Psychobitches (Sky Arts), Panto! (ITV), Rebecca Front's Little Cracker: Rainy Days and Mondays (Sky 1), Winner of Best Female Comedy Breakthrough Artists, British Comedy Awards in Grandma's House Series 1 & 2, Rock & Chips (BBC), After You've Gone (BBC), Coupling, M.I.T, Cold Feet, T.V Go Home (Channel 4), Noble & Silver (Channel 4) and The Bill (ITV).

Oliver Tompsett plays Sky Masterson. Theatre credits include Galileo in We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre), Drew Boley in the original London cast of Rock of Ages (Shaftesbury Theatre), Fiyero in Wicked (Apollo Victoria Theatre), White Christmas (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The World Goes Round (St James Theatre), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (Royal National Theatre), CATS (Cyprus), Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales Theatre), Our House (The Cambridge Theatre), Kismet (The Arcola Theatre), Over My Shoulder (The Wyndhams Theatre) and Tony in West Side Story (Canizzaro Park Festival). Film credits include The Hard Way.

Director Gordon Greenberg has directed plays and musicals at major theatres across America and Europe, written for television and stage, and runs the musical theatre program at The New Group in New York, where he is based. He directed the current revival of Guys And Dolls for Chichester Festival Theatre, which is now running in London's West End. He will direct his adaptation of Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn on Broadway in October, 2016 at Studio 54 for Roundabout Theatre Company and Universal Pictures Stage Productions. Other directing/writing includes the Drama Desk Award winning production of Working (which he adapted with Stephen Schwartz and Lin-Manuel Miranda) at 59 E 59 in New York, after productions at the Broadway Playhouse in Chicago, Asolo Rep and The Old Globe in San Diego. He directed and adapted the critically acclaimed New York revival of Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well... (Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Award noms), the new stage adaptation of Tangled for Disney, Johnny Baseball for Williamstown Theatre Festival, Pirates! Or Gilbert and Sullivan Plunder'd (created with Nell Benjamin, Paper Mill et al), the new production of Yentl, Band Geeks! (recipient of NEA and NAMT grants for production at Goodspeed), The Baker's Wife (revised with Stephen Schwartz for Goodspeed and Paper Mill), Disney Fantasy (with Neil Patrick Harris & Jerry Seinfeld), 1776 (Paper Mill), Floyd Collins(Signature), Jesus Christ Superstar (revised with Stephen Oremus), etc. Current projects include co-writing Emerald City Music, an original movie musical for Nickelodeon Television andScramble Band, an original movie for the Disney Channel, writing The Single Girls Guide (a new musical updating Jane Austen's Emma to 1964) for the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle (developed at Dallas Theatre Center), adapting and directing The Secret of My Success for Universal Pictures Stage Productions, and writing Point-A-Pitre, a NYSCA commission for The New Group, with Kirsten Childs. Born in Texas and raised in New York, Greenberg performed in his first Broadway show at age 12. He attended Stanford University and NYU Film Schoolbefore joining J. Walter Thompson Worldwide for a stint as a producer/director of commercials. He then moved back into theatre -- first performing on Broadway and on television and soon directing and writing. He is a member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, The Writers Guild of America, The Dramatists Guild, and the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab.

Choreographer Carlos Acosta trained at the National Ballet School of Cuba, and has danced as a principal with English National Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba and Houston Ballet. He is a Principal Guest Artist with The Royal Ballet and appears worldwide with companies including ABT, Paris Opera Ballet, Kirov, Bolshoi and Australian Ballet, and has created roles in contemporary ballets both with The Royal Ballet and internationally. Acosta was instrumental in taking The Royal Ballet on tour to Havana, and starred in the Company's performances of Romeo and Juliet at The O2 Arena dancing Romeo opposite Tamara Rojo as Juliet. He has staged several shows across Europe featuring both classical and contemporary repertory, including his own choreography and the work of choreographers from his native Cuba. Shows for Sadler's Wells include the semi-autobiographical Tocororo and Carlos Acosta with Guests from The Royal Ballet for which he won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for his performances. He recently staged a new production, Classical Selections, at the Coliseum, and produced and choreographed a new production of Don Quixote for the Royal Ballet. Screen credits as an actor include the feature films New York, I Love You andDay of the Flowers.

The music and lyrics are by Frank Loesser, whose credits include How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and the song 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'. The book is by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Burrows' credits include How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Swerling's credits include the seminal film It's A Wonderful Life.



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