Gone With The Wind - casting announced
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
AMERICAN actress Jill Paice will take on the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Trevor Nunn’s musical adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gone With The Wind, which receives its world premiere at the New London Theatre on April 22, 2008 (previews from April 4).
Set in 1860’s Atlanta, Georgia, Gone With The Wind is the story of seventeen-year-old Scarlett O’Hara, the eldest of three daughters living a life of luxury on their father’s plantation. But then President Lincoln demands the end of slavery in the South and the Civil War begins.
Scarlett’s incredible journey through both the war and the peace is mirrored in her turbulent relationship with Rhett Butler, whose actions always defy prediction. Their story spans ten years and mingles romantic ecstasy with tragic grief, as the life these people once knew disappears – gone with the wind.
Paice made her West End debut in 2004 when she originated the role of Laura Fairlie in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Woman In White, which was also directed by Nunn. She subsequently reprised the role on Broadway. Her other US theatre credits include Les Misèrables, Mamma Mia! and Curtains.
Joining Paice in the cast of Gone With The Wind will be British actors Madeleine Worrall as Melanie Wilkes and Edward Baker-Duly as her husband Ashley.
Worrall’s London stage credits include The Anniversary, Three Sisters and The Villain’s Opera. She is currently playing the title role in Stephen Fry’s Cinderella at the Old Vic Theatre.
Baker-Duly’s theatre credits include the National Theatre’s production of South Pacific which was also directed by Nunn, Singin’ In The Rain, Side By Side By Sondheim and Salad Days. However, he is probably best known for his role in television’s Grange Hill (as Mr Malachay).
As yet, the role of Rhett Butler, famously played by Clark Gable in the 1939 film, remains unfilled.
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