A new musical comes to the Donmar Warehouse in Summer 2017
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
A NEW musical entitled The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall’s Relationship with Kids Company comes to the Donmar Warehouse in Summer 2017.
With music by Tom Deering and book and lyrics by Hadley Fraser and Josie Rourke (edited from the transcript of a House of Commons Select Committee evidence session on Whitehall’s Relationship with Kids Company), it runs from July 3 (previews from June 24) to August 12, 2017.
The objective of this session is not to conduct a show trial. We want to learn some lessons.
What happens when something goes wrong? Who holds us accountable? On October 15, 2015, as part of an inquiry into ‘The collapse of Kids Company’, Camila Batmanghelidjh and Alan Yentob gave evidence to The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. Hadley Fraser, Josie Rourke and composer Tom Deering have transformed that evidence session into a new musical.
This production has not been authorised by any participant or Parliament. It is being presented to audiences – the public – to consider how civic life in the UK is really governed.
Tom Deering makes his Donmar Warehouse debut as composer for The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall’s Relationship with Kids Company. His recent theatre work as Music Supervisor includes The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic), Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park), and the Oliver Award winning In the Heights (King’s Cross Theatre). He was named as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in the 2016 honours list.
Hadley Fraser returns to the Donmar having appeared in James Graham’s play for stage and television The Vote, and Josie Rourke’s productions of Saint Joan, City of Angels and Coriolanus. He also appeared in The Machine, also directed by Rourke, for the Donmar co-production with the Manchester International Festival and Park Avenue Armory, New York.
His theatre credits elsewhere include A Long Days Journey into Night (Bristol Old Vic), The Winter’s Tale and Harlequinade (The Kenneth Branagh Company at the Garrick Theatre), Marius and, later, Javert in the West End production of Les Misérables (he also appeared in Tom Hooper’s acclaimed film adaptation) and Raoul in the 25th Anniversary Concert of The Phantom of the Opera, which was broadcast around the world.
Together with Ramin Karimloo, Fraser writes, records and performs music as SHEYTOONS and recently released his first solo recording, Just Let Go.
Josie Rourke is the Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse where she is currently directing Saint Joan. Her other credits at the venue include the world premiere of Nick Payne’s new play Elegy; Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which was broadcast live in cinemas around the world in partnership with National Theatre Live, nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Revival and is currently running at the Booth Theatre, New York, until January 2017; The Vote, which was broadcast live nationwide on television on the night of the 2015 UK election to an audience of half a million and nominated for a BAFTA; and City of Angels, which received the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival.
The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall’s Relationship with Kids Company is directed by Adam Penford and designed by Robert Jones, with sound design by Nick Lidster.
Also at the Domar Warehouse in 2017: Limehouse, a new play by Steve Waters (March 2 to April 15) and a revival of Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, with Lenny Henry in the title role (April 21 to June 17).