LMTO to present a fully orchestrated score of State Fair at Cadogan Hall
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
RODGERS and Hammerstein’s State Fair will be performed for the first time on the London stage as a symphonic concert by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra under award-winning director and Evening Standard Awards nominee Thom Southerland.
In a double first for the LMTO, this is also the first full scale public performance by the company which debuted its inaugural gala in June of this year, to a packed house at Bishopsgate Institute where the orchestra is in residence.
The performance of State Fair will take place at Cadogan Hall on November 6, 2016.
The 32-piece orchestra, conducted by LMTO’s founder Freddie Tapner, will bring to life the rich music of the 1996 Broadway production about the Frake family and their trip to the Iowa State Fair. The score features favourites including It Might as Well Be Spring, You Never Had It So Good and The Man I Used to Be.
The cast includes Wendi Peters (as Melissa Frake), Richard Fleeshman (Pat), Emma Hatton (Emily), Oliver Savile (Wayne) and Celinde Schoenmaker (Margy).
Wendi Peters has worked extensively on both stage and screen, and is probably best known for her role as Cilla Battersby Brown in Coronation Street and as Cook Jenkins in Hetty Feather (BBC).
Her theatre credits include Hatched ‘n’ Dispatched (Park Theatre); Oh What a Lovely War (National Tour); Martha Watson in White Christmas (Dominion Theatre, West End, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh and Lowry, Manchester); Rutherford & Son (National Tour); Our House (Savoy Theatre); The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Arts Theatre); April in Paris directed by John Godber (Hull Truck, National Tour) and Follies in Concert (London Palladium). Next year, she will headline the National Tour of Wonderland.
Richard Fleeshman’s theatre credits include Bobby Strong in Urinetown (St James Theatre), Sam in Ghost The Musical (West End and Broadway, WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Musical) and Warner in Legally Blonde The Musical (Savoy Theatre). On television, he has appeared in Call the Midwife, Moving On, Midsomer Murders, All the Small Things, Bedtime Stories, Monday Monday, Blue Murder, Coronation Street and An Angel for May.
Emma Hatton has just finished playing the lead role of Elphaba in the West End production of Wicked. Her other theatre credits include We Will Rock You (West End) and Dreamboats and Petticoats (West End and UK Tour). Hatton is also a celebrated jazz singer with a Number 1 EP and residences at esteemed venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and Pizza Express jazz club. Most recently, she performed her one-woman show Songbird to sell-out audiences at Zedel’s.
Oliver Savile is currently starring in the West End as Fiyero in Wicked. His previous theatre credits include Rum Tum Tugger in Cats, (UK Tour); and Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, Enjolras In Les Miserables and Sky in Mamma Mia! (International tour).
Born in the Netherlands, Celinde Schoenmaker graduated from Fontys Conservatoire in Music Theatre in Tilburg with Edward Hoepelman as her singing teacher. She made her West End debut playing Fantine in Les Misérables (Queens Theatre) and recently returned to London to reprise the role. She can currently be seen in the role of Christine in the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre).
Other roles within State Fair will be played by the London Musical Theatre Chorus.
Tickets: £75 (premium seats), £50, £36, £28, £24. To book, call 020 7730 4500 or visit www.cadoganhall.com/event/rodgers-and-hammerstein-state-fair.
NB: 100 tickets at £15 will be released on Thursday, October 13 at 8pm.
Time: 6.30pm.
Image: Caissie Levy (Molly) and Richard Fleeshman (Sam) in Ghost The Musical. Photo credit: Sean Ebsworth Barnes.