THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA Roars Back into the West End Tonight
By: BWW News Desk Nov. 25, 2015
Adapted and directed by David Wood OBE, Judith Kerr's ferociously popular tale THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA is a grrreat musical play and if you've never had a Tiger arrive for tea before, then this loveable production is the perfect way to show the whole family how to behave the next time one rings the doorbell.
When Sophie and her mummy welcome the hungry Tiger to tea, he proceeds to eat all the sandwiches, buns, biscuits and more. He even manages to drink all the water in the tap! What will Sophie's Daddy say when he gets home? THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA is the perfect slice of teatime mayhem with sing-a-long songs, oodles of magic and interactive fun for children ages 3 plus and their families.
David Wood is undisputedly the country's leading writer and director of plays and musicals for children, whose many successes include: The Gingerbread Man, eight Roald Dahl adaptations, including West End hits The BFG, The Witches and George's Marvellous Medicine; and the Olivier Award winning Goodnight Mister Tom.
The doorbell rings just as Sophie and her mummy are sitting down to tea. Who could it possibly be? What they certainly don't expect to see at the door is a big furry, stripy tiger!
A musical play adapted and directed by David Wood, based on the book by Judith Kerr, designed by Susie Caulcutt and movement director Emma Clayton. THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA features performances from Abbey Norman (Sophie), Jenanne Redman (Mummy), Benjamin Wells (Daddy/Milkman/Postman/Tiger), Stephanie Summers (Understudy/ASM) and Harry Howle (Understudy/ASM).
Watch the trailer below, and visit www.thetigerwhocametotealive.com for more about the production!
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA is a musical adaptation of the classic picture book by Judith Kerr. Although the tiger in the book speaks, the Tiger in the show does not, preferring to cause mayhem through physical comedy and movement. The show contains magical illusions -- see how many you can spot!
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA was first performed at the Bloomsbury Theatre in 2008, prior to a national UK tour. The production has since gone on to tour nationally and internationally, playing three smash-hit summer seasons in the West End, Christmas seasons at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Arts Centre, as well as sell-out dates in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Bahrain.
David Wood has been writing plays for children and families for almost fifty years and his productions are seen all over the world. Visit his website www.davidwood.org.uk.
The book, published in 1968, has been read by several generations and tells the story of a tiger who invites himself to tea and eats and drinks all the food and water in Sophie's house. Author Judith Kerr celebrated her 92nd birthday this year. In 2008, Judith Kerr approached Seven Stories (The National Centre for Children's Books) to house her archive, her work is exhibited nationally. This extraordinary archive, the most significant collection of artwork by a single illustrator in the Seven Stories Collection, spans 70 years, and includes childhood paintings, drawings from her student days, and finished artwork for most of her published books, including THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA."
ABOUT THE CAST/CREATIVE TEAM:
Abbey Norman plays Sophie. Her family and children's theatre experience includes Maisy's Treasure Hunt, The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr Benn and Robin Hood (Nuffield Theatre Southampton), The Book of the Banshee (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford & tour), Dick Whittington (Harrogate Theatre) and Guess How Much I Love You, The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child (West End, international tour). Other theatre includes Pygmalion, The Importance of Being Earnest, Charlie's Aunt, The Maintenance Man, A Murder is Announced and The Chair Women (Riverside Studios & European tour); and for film, Traveller, the forthcoming feature film starring David Essex. Abbey also sings in the vintage three part harmony group 'Some Swell Sisters'.
Jenanne Redman plays Mummy. Jenanne has been part of THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA team since 2011 and has performed in the Olivier award nominated show for three West End seasons, a UK tour and further afield in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and more recently at Australia's Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne. Her extensive family theatre credits include Hetty Feather (UK tour, Dubai and West End), Spot's Birthday Party (UK tour) and The Plotters of Cabbage Patch Corner and The Twits (The Brentwood Theatre). Other credits include The Underwater Realm, Showgirl, Traveller, The Winter's Tale and Speaking in Tongues. Jenanne also sings bass in the close part vintage harmony trio 'Some Swell Sisters'.
Benjamin Wells plays Daddy/Milkman/Postman/Tiger. His theatre credits include Jack and the Beanstalk (The Camberley Theatre), Spot's Birthday Party (UK tour), Merlin's Banquet (The Stage and Production House/Centre Parcs UK Tour), Romeo & Juliet/Macbeth (Young Shakespeare Company UK Tour), Importance of Being Earnest (Oxford Shakespeare Company), Comedy of Errors (Oxford Shakespeare Company), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Young Shakespeare Company UK Tour) and Twelfth Night (The Young Shakespeare Company). Benjamin was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in 2007 whilst training, and in 2008 was winner of the Sir John Gielgud Award.
Stephanie Summers (Understudy Mummy and Sophie/Wardrobe Mistress). The Tiger Who Came To Tea marked her first professional debut. This year she has continued to develop having featured in Channel 5 documentary Inside Holloway and 2 short films.
Harry Howle (Male Understudy/ASM). His theatre credits include Cinderella (Middleton Arena, Theatre Royal Margate, Princes Theatre Clacton), Flight (New Diorama), Don Giovanni (Sadlers Wells & The Lowry), Sergeant of Police (Edinburgh Festival ) and The Glass Menagerie (European Tour). Television credits include Derren Brown's Hero at 35,000 feet; and for film, Fever.
Pete Foster (Company Stage Manager). Pete trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. He has worked and toured extensively throughout the UK and internationally. Recent credits include THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA, We're Going on a Bear Hunt and Mr Stink (KW & NB Ltd), The Snail and The Whale (Tall Stories), Hetty Feather (Kenny Wax Ltd), Aliens Love Underpants (Big Wooden Horse), Spot's Birthday Party (PW Productions), Peter Pan and Pinter/Beckett (Bristol Old Vic),The Day the Waters Came (Theatre Centre), Bob the Man on the Moon (Sixth Sense Theatre for Young People), Mother Savage, Papa Please Get The Moon for Me, Clown, Shadowplay, Lenny and The Ugly Duckling (Travelling Light Theatre Company), Old Times, The Double Inconstancy, Abigail's Party, Humble Boy and The Caretaker (London Classic Theatre), Through the Wire and The House of Letitia Smith (Myrtle Theatre/Tobacco Factory), Hamlet (Wales Theatre Company), Master Harold... and the Boys and 1000 Yards (Southwark Playhouse).
Emma Clayton (Assistant Director/Choreographer). Emma trained at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Choreographic credits include Aliens Love Underpants (UK Tour and West End 2014), THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA (Arts Depot, UK tour & West End), Santa Claus (Arts Depot, USA & UK tour), The Way Back Home (Chelsea Theatre & UK tour), Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late (USA & UK tour), Guess How Much I Love You (UK tour & Dubai/Abu Dhabi), Fantastic Mr Fox and Babe, The Sheep Pig (Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park), Hansel & Gretel (Fringe), Mickey Spatz (Arcola), The Worst Witch (UK Tour), The Hobbit, Watership Down (Redgrave Theatre, Farnham), Those Magical Musicals, Celebrations (Old Vic), God Knows (Riverside Studios, Hammersmith), Stuck (UK Tour), The Night Before Christmas (Epsom, Croydon & Guildford); and for film Handle With Care. As Director, Aladdin (Eden Court, Inverness) and The Shagaround (Birmingham). As Associate Director, The Witches (UK Tour & West End with Ruby Wax). As Supernumerary director, The Witches (original UK Tour, West End); and as children's director Babe, The Sheep-Pig.
Susie Caulcutt (Set and Costume Designer). Amongst her many West End design credits are Personals, Play It Again Sam, The Constant Wife, Dandy Dick, The Scent of Flowers, The Good Doctor, The Owl and Pussycat went to Sea... (Chichester Festival Theatre), Charley's Aunt and The Last of Mrs Cheyney. Opera credits include Down By The Greenwood Side, Noye's Fludde and Betjemania. Among her many designs for David Wood are The Gingerbread Man, The Old Man of Lochnagar, The Selfish Shellfish, Nutcracker Sweet, The Plotters of Cabbage Patch Corner, The See Saw Tree, The Witches, The BFG and recently Guess How Much I Love You and the Dance Extravaganza Shaun's Big Show. Susie designed the Rupert Festival for the V&A's Museum of Childhood, which also exhibited her costumes and scale set models. She has designed sets for the Magic Circle Centenary and was the costume designer for the BBC's Party at the Palace to celebrate the Queen's 80th Birthday. Her BFG Giant was filmed in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace. Susie recently designed the London premiere of Gyles Brandreth and Julian Slade's Now We Are Sixty, a play with music exploring the life and works of A.A. Milne.
Peter Pontzen (Musical Director and Arranger). His extensive work as Musical Director includes Under Milk Wood (Royal National Theatre) and numerous RSC productions in Stratford and London, most recently A New Way to Please You and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He was a regular Play School pianist for BBC TV and his long association with David Wood has been predominantly in children's theatre. Peter wrote the music for David's adaptations of The Witches and The BFG, seen all over the country and in the West End. He also composed for David's recent productions of Guess How Much I Love You (national tour), Fantastic Mr Fox and Babe, the Sheep-Pig (Air Theatre, Regent's Park). He has written original music for several recent pantomimes and for a variety of other theatre, radio and television productions including the ITV animation series The Gingerbread Man and the BBC Watch series.
Tony Simpson (Lighting Designer). His UK work has included productions from the National Theatre; RSC; Royal Court; Welsh National Opera; West Yorkshire Playhouse; Old Vic; Watford Palace; Mercury Theatre, Colchester; Royal Theatre, Northampton; Rose Theatre, Kingston; Exeter Northcott; Plymouth Theatre Royal; Chichester Festival Theatre and numerous designs in the West End, London fringe and on tour. He has been associate lighting designer on Woman in Black and An Inspector Calls for 13 years collectively for PW Productions, and took several designs into London prisons for Synergy Theatre Project. Tony served as chairman on the Equity Theatre Designers Committee for 8 years, and he's currently based at English National Opera.
Jollygoodtunes (Sound Designer). Jon Fiber and Andy Shaw of Jollygoodtunes have composed and recorded songs and sound effects for theatre since 1997. Current show highlights include Emily Brown and The Thing (UK Tour), What the Ladybird Heard (UK and international tour), The Gruffalo (UK and international tours), The Gruffalo's Child (UK and international tour), Mr Benn (UK tour), William's Monster (UK and international tour), My Brother the Robot (UK tour), Them with Frozen Tails (UK tour), Something Else (UK tour), The Snow Dragon (UK and international tour), How the Giraffe Got Its Neck (UK tour), Twinkle Twonkle (UK Tour), The Night Before Christmas (UK tour), Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late (UK and US tour), The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (UK and US tour) and sound design for THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA (UK tour) and Spot's Birthday Party (UK tour).
Scott Penrose (Magic Advisor). Scott is a Gold Star member of the Inner Magic Circle and is a past recipient of the Stage Magician of the Year award. Apart from his skills as a performer, he is in demand for designing magic and illusions for film, TV and theatre. Most notably he was a co-creator for Cirque du Soleil's world touring show Kooza, creating magic and special effects, and more recently created illusions for Ladykillers and Spamalot in the West End. He has also taught magic to the likes of Sir Michael Caine, Woody Allen and Catherine Zeta Jones. For THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA, Scott was thrilled to be invited to be part of the Creative Team and use his magic to help the hungry tiger eat and drink the family out of house and home!
David Wood (Adapter & Director). David's seventy plus plays for children are performed worldwide, and he was dubbed 'the national children's dramatist' by The Times. 2013 saw his adaptation of Michelle Magorian's Goodnight Mister Tom win the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and Family, for which his adaptation of Judith Kerr's THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA was nominated the previous year. There were also tours of his adaptation of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach and Eric Hill's Spot's Birthday Party. Last year his adaptation of Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden toured and his adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger opened in the USA His adult musical, based on L P Hartley's The Go-Between, co-written with Richard Taylor, also toured in 2011 and won Best Musical Production (Theatre Awards UK). In 2006, to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday, he wrote The Queen's Handbag, performed in Buckingham Palace Gardens and seen by 8,000,000 BBC1 viewers. In 2004 he was awarded the OBE for services to drama and literature. Visit his website at www.davidwood.org.uk.
Nick Brooke Ltd (Producer). Nick Brooke has been a theatre producer for over twenty years an established Nick Brooke Limited, with Philip Noel, in 2002. The company specialises in drama and children's theatre and its productions have played across the UK, in the West End and elsewhere. Past and current productions include The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA, Angelina Ballerina - The Mousical, Aliens Love Underpants and Erth's Dinosaur Zoo. The latter two productions are touring the UK and both have West End this Summer. For more information visit www.nickbrooke.com.
Kenny Wax (Producer). Kenny Wax is the Producer of the multi-Olivier award winning hit Top Hat currently on a UK tour and The Play That Goes Wrong running in the West End. For the family entertainment division he is very proud to have produced Jacqueline Wilson's Hetty Feather which is coming back to the West End in the summer together with stage adaptations of The Gruffalo, THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Room on the Broom and What the Ladybird Heard. Current Productions on tour include Dear Lupin starring veteran actor James Fox and Peter Pan Goes Wrong by Mischief Theatre. This winter, his brand new family musical Mr Popper's Penguins will tour the UK with a Christmas season at the Salford Lowry. For more information visit www.kennywax.com.
Judith Kerr was born on 14th June 1923 in Berlin but escaped from Hitler's Germany with her parents and brother in 1933 when she was nine years old. Her father was a drama critic and a distinguished writer whose books were burned by the Nazis. The family passed through Switzerland and France before arriving finally in England in 1936. Judith went to eleven different schools, worked in the Red Cross during the war, and won a scholarship to the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1945. Since then she has worked as an artist, a BBC television scriptwriter and, for the past thirty years, as an author and illustrator of children's books. Her three autobiographical novels are based on her early wandering years (which against all the odds she greatly enjoyed), her adolescence in London during the war, and finally on a brief return to Berlin as a young married woman. The stories have been internationally acclaimed and have done particularly well in Germany where they are sometimes used as an easy introduction to a difficult period of German history. Judith has a daughter who is an artist and a son who is a novelist. She lives in London. Her books include THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Twinkles, Arthur and Puss, Mog the Forgetful Cat, Goose in a Hole, Bombs on Aunt Dainty, BirdIe Hallelujah, How Mrs Monkey Missed the Ark and A Small Person Far Away. Her latest book is The Crocodile Under the Bed published in September 2014 by Harper Collins Children's Books.
IF YOU GO:
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA
WEDNESDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2015 -
SUNDAY 10 JANUARY 2016
Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 7ES
Box Office: 0330 333 4812
OR visit www.nimaxtheatres.com
Ticket Prices: STANDARD - £18.50 / £14.50; PREMIUM - £22.50 (includes free show postergramme); FAMILY - £65 (admits four) Applies to £18.50 tickets only; SCHOOLS & GROUPS 10+: £10 plus 11th ticket free! Call Groups on 0330 333 4817 or email groups@nimaxtheatres.com
A booking fee of up to £1 applies for phone & online bookings No booking fee for tickets, purchased in person at the Box Office. All tickets include a 50p restoration levy
Running time: 55 minutes - no interval
Suitable for ages 3+
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