Thriller Live - final casting announced
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
FORMER 5 Star lead vocalist, songwriter and Brit Award-winner Denise Pearson and award-winning choreographer and dancer Ricko Baird will join Layton Williams, Sterling Williams and Kieran Alleyne in the cast of Thriller Live, which opens at the Lyric Theatre on January 21, 2009 (previews from January 2).
Thriller Live celebrates the career of Michael Jackson and features the hits I Want You Back, I’ll Be There, Show You the Way to Go, Can You Feel It, Rock with You, She’s Out of My Life, Thriller, Beat It, Ben, ABC, Man in the Mirror, Dirty Diana, Billie Jean, Earth Song and many more.
In 1983, Pearson formed British R&B group 5 Star – dubbed “the British Jackson 5” – with her four siblings, Stedman, Lorraine, Doris and Delroy.
She also wrote many of the group’s songs, including Stay Out of My Life (their only self-composed Top 10 hit), Hard Race, There’s a Brand New World, What About Me Baby, Live Giving Love, Let Me Be Yours, Feel Much Better, Funktafied, Don’t Let Me Be the Lonely One, Tell Me What You Want; I’m Still Waiting, Tienes Mi Amour, The Love You Bring To Me, Going With the Moment and Show Me.
She will be making her West End debut in Thriller Live.
Baird, from St Louis, Missouri, started dancing on street corners and by the age of 12, was adopted by a well-known and inspirational dance teacher. In 1996, he moved to Los Angeles where he went on to dance in concerts and videos with Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Tina Turner and Christina Agulliera, as well as many other top artists.
He has choreographed for Mya, winning a Best Choreography Award for the US Top 20 hit My Love is Like… Wo. The video, featuring Mýa acting as a one-woman circus and performing various circus tricks throughout the song, was nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards. He also choreographed Jennifer Lopez’s most recent tour.
Baird also co-choreographed Michael Jackson’s Number 1 hit You Rock My World, as well as doubling for him in the video. And on the Michael Jackson and Friends tour, he was lead dancer alongside Jackson on the award-winning Dangerous.
The cast will also include Roger Wright, who created the role of Simba in the original cast of The Lion King and played Marvin Gaye in the West End production of Dancing in the Streets; John Moabi (2008 Evening Standard Best Musical Street Scene); Ben Foster, Doody in the West End production of Grease; and Ashton Russell.
And completing the cast will be Kamilah Beckles, Ivan Blackstock, Jordan Darrell, Jo Dyce, Christabelle Fields, Elliott James, Earl Perkins, Danni Rothman, Emily Rumbles, Ross Sands, Sean Williams and Yasmin Yazdi.