The Chichester Festival Theatre Production of Irving Berlin’s Top Hat the Musical arrives in Salford in two weeks time.
The Chichester Festival Theatre Production of Irving Berlin’s Top Hat the Musical arrives in Salford in two weeks time.
The smash-hit production is at the Lowry from Tuesday 31st March to Saturday 4th April.
Phillip Attmore (So You Think You Can Dance) stars as Jerry Travers, Nicole-Lily Baisden (42nd Street) takes the role of Dale Tremont with Emma Williams (Half A Sixpence) featuring as as Madge Hardwick, James Hume as Horace Hardwick (Kiss Me Kate), James Clyde (Matilda the Musical) as Bates and Alex Gibson-Giorgio (Mamma Mia!) as Alberto Beddini.
Phillip Attmore is one of Broadway’s most exciting performers and winner of the Fred and Adele Astaire Award for Best Male Dancer for Shuffle Along and the Playbill Breakout Performance Award for On the 20th Century. He makes his UK debut as Jerry Travers. His US credits also include Hello, Dolly!, Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin in Hollywood and TV’s The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.
Nicole-Lily Baisden recently starred as Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street (Sadler’s Wells and UK Tour) for which she was nominated for Best Female Lead in a Musical at the Black British Theatre Awards. Other credits include Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes (Barbican Theatre and UK Tour), Nabulungi in The Book of Mormon and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End).
James Hume won the Toni Fell Competition and Hilda Deane Award for Outstanding Achievement. His theatre credits include Kiss Me Kate (Barbican), A Christmas Carol (Old Vic), The Phantom of the Opera (West End and UK/Ireland Tour).
Emma Williams made her West End debut as Truly Scrumptious in the original cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium winning the Arts Correspondents' Award for Best Newcomer. She has received four Laurence Olivier Award nominations for her work in Love Story, Zorro, Mrs Henderson Presents and Half a Sixpence, for which she also won the WhatsOnStage and West End Wilma Awards. She was also nominated for a Manchester Theatre Award for her portrayal of Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun (UK Tour).
James Clyde’s extensive theatre credits include Mr. Wormwood in Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, and various roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company including in King Lear, Cymbeline, Tamburlaine, Tartuffe, Timon of Athens, Romeo and Juliet, Days of Significance, Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night.
Alex Gibson-Giorgio’s theatre credits include Sinatra the Musical at the Birmingham Rep, Zorro The Musical at Charing Cross Theatre, Rags at the Park Theatre and Mamma Mia! Australia Tour, TV credits include: One Day for Netflix and Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits for Apple TV+.
The touring cast is completed by Lindsay Atherton, Rhiannon Bacchus, Freddie Clements, Pedro Donoso, Bethan Downing, Autumn Draper, Tilly Ducker, Zak Edwards, Maddie Harper, Stuart Hickey, Laura Hills, Connor Hughes, George Lyons, David McIntosh, Jordan Oliver, Emily Ann Potter, Joe Press, Molly Rees Howe, Kirsty Sparks and Toyan Thomas-Browne.
Top Hat opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre last summer, opening to rave reviews. The UK and Ireland tour opened on 18 September and has visited Woking, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Wimbledon, Canterbury, Liverpool, Cardiff, Sunderland, Manchester, Sheffield, Dublin, Glasgow, Eastbourne, Southend and Birmingham, with a five-week Christmas season at the South Bank Centre in London. Top Hat continues touring the UK until 11 April, visiting Aberdeen, Norwich, Salford and Southampton before transferring to Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, where it will play for three weeks.
Based on the classic 1935 film which starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the stage adaptation’s original West End production won the 2013 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and the Evening Standard Award for Best Night Out.
Based on the classic 1935 RKO movie starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Top Hat is a sparkling romantic cocktail laced with witty comedy, stunning choreography and tap-dancing brilliance, brought to life on stage with lavish sets and gorgeous costumes. Irving Berlin’s irresistible score includes some of Hollywood’s greatest songs, the immortal Cheek to Cheek, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, Top Hat White Tie and Tails and Puttin’ on the Ritz.
When Broadway star Jerry Travers arrives in London to open a new show, he crosses paths with model Dale Tremont, whose beauty sleep is rudely interrupted by Jerry tap dancing in the hotel suite above hers. Instantly smitten, Jerry vows to abandon his bachelor life to win her heart – but the path of true love never does run smooth. Especially since Dale has mistaken Jerry for his hapless producer Horace, who’s trying to avoid the wrath of his formidable wife Madge, and Dale’s own fiery Italian admirer is planning a trip to Venice for her to showcase his couture gowns.
Acclaimed American director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall stages this brand-new production. A nine-time Tony nominee and three-time winner for her choreography on the Broadway productions of Wonderful Town, The Pajama Game and Anything Goes, her most recent revival of Anything Goes – which played at London’s Barbican, on a UK tour, and was also televised – received nine Olivier Award nominations in 2022 and Kathleen herself received the award for Best Choreographer. She has worked on more than twenty Broadway shows and she is the first woman to have directed a play, directed a musical and choreographed a musical on Broadway.
With Music & Lyrics by Irving Berlin, Top Hat is adapted for the stage by Matthew White & Howard Jacques. Joining Director and Choreographer Kathleen Marshall on the creative team are Set Designer Peter McKintosh, Costume Designers Yvonne Milnes and Peter McKintosh, Musical Supervisor Gareth Valentine, Musical Director Stephen Ridley, Orchestrator & Arranger Chris Walker, Lighting Designer Tim Mitchell, Sound Designer Paul Groothuis, Casting Director Natalie Gallacher CDG for Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher Casting, Associate Director & Choreographer Carol Lee Meadows, Associate Director Cameron Wenn, Associate Set Designer Ben Davies, Associate Lighting Designer Imogen Clarke, Associate Sound Designer Rich Pomeroy, Original Musical Director Stephen Ridley, Musical Director Luke Holman and Resident Director & Choreographer Richard Pitt.
The UK and Ireland tour of Top Hat is produced by Kenny Wax and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions.