Grand Hotel - Southwark Playhouse
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THE TONY Award-winning Broadway musical Grand Hotel runs at Southwark Playhouse (The Large) from Friday, July 31 to Saturday, September 5, 2015.
The production reunites producer Danielle Tarento and director Thom Southerland, the team behind the multi award-winning production of Titanic, which played at Southwark Playhouse in Summer 2013.
Based on Vicki Baum’s Grand Hotel, by arrangement with Turner Broadcasting Co, owner of the motion picture of the same name, Grand Hotel has a book by Luther Davis, music and lyrics by George Forrest and Robert Wright, and additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston.
The Grand Hotel is bustling with eccentric and sometimes dubious guests: amongst them a fading prima ballerina being forced to dance again; a fatally ill Jewish bookkeeper who wants to spend his final days living in luxury; a young, handsome, but destitute Baron; a cynical doctor suffering from World War I wounds; an honest businessman going bad as he faces financial ruin and a typist dreaming of Hollywood stardom.
Over the course of a weekend, their extraordinary stories interweave with each other and the hotel’s hardworking staff.
Grand Hotel premièred on Broadway in 1989, ran for over 1,000 performances and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, winning five.
Thom Southerland, who was longlisted Best Newcomer in the 2011 Evening Standard Awards for Parade, was named Best Director at the 2011 The Off West End Awards for Me And Juliet at the Finborough.
His other directing credits include Victor/Victoria and Mack & Mabel (also at Southwark Playhouse); the European première of Jerry Herman’s The Grand Tour (Finborough Theatre); The Mikado (Charing Cross Theatre); Daisy Pulls It Off and Irving Berlin’s Call Me Madam! (Upstairs At The Gatehouse); the European première of I Sing!, Divorce Me, Darling!, Annie Get Your Gun, The Pajama Game and sold-out all-male adaptations of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore and The Mikado (Union Theatre); Noël And Gertie (Cockpit Theatre); the European première of The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Landor Theatre); and the European première of State Fair (Finborough Theatre/Trafalgar Studios).
Danielle Tarento (also Casting Director) was named Best Producer at the 2012 Off West End Awards and nominated Producer of the Year at the 2015 Stage awards. Her production of Titanic at Southwark Playhouse won Best Off West End Production at the 2014 Whatsonstage Awards and Best Musical Production at the 2014 Off West End Awards.
She has also produced Gods And Monsters, Dogfight, Victor/Victoria, Mack & Mabel, Parade, Company and Three Sisters at Southwark Playhouse; The Grand Tour (Finborough Theatre); Taboo (Brixton Clubhouse); The Pitchfork Disney (Arcola Theatre); Burlesque and Drowning On Dry Land (Jermyn Street Theatre); and Noël And Gertie (Cockpit Theatre). She is co-founder of the Menier Chocolate Factory.
Grand Hotel has musical supervision by Simon Lee, musical direction by Michael Bradley, choreography by Lee Proud, set and costume design by Lee Newby, lighting by Derek Anderson and sound by Andrew Johnson. Casting has still to be announced.
Tickets: £22, £18 concessions; all previews (July 31 to August 4) £12. To book, call the box office on 020 7407 0234 or visit www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/.
Times: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm; Saturday matinee at 3pm.
Also at Southwark Playhouse: the London premiere of Carrie: The Musical (until May 30) and the European premiere of Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow (July 1 to July 25, 2015).