A new musical based on Oscar Wilde’s classic fairy tale will be presented in three showcase performances at The Place from 3 – 4 May 2019. The Happy Prince stars Janie Dee as Mrs Bentley, Phil Daniels as The Mayor, Sophia Hurdley as The Swallow and Sam Archer as The Prince. This heart-rending story about a Swallow's faithful love for the golden statue of a Prince is told through a seamless fusion of dance and song.
The rest of the cast includes David Burt, Louis Gaunt, Sammy Graham, Jessica Pardoe, Edwin Ray, Ronald Samm, Cilla Silvia, Gemma Wardle and Alfie Wickham.
Hal Cazalet said: “The Happy Prince is a fairy tale for today and as Oscar Wilde intended, for both adults and children alike. I can’t help but feel that the Wildean themes of greed and corruption set against the redeeming power of love and sacrifice are every bit as relevant and urgent in our present world, as when Wilde wrote the story in 1888.”
This modern musical adaptation is set in an unpleasant 1920's Laundry House from which the potent technicolour world of the fairy tale evolves. Dark humour, greed and corruption are at work as the malevolent designs of a despot Mayor drive a town into bankruptcy and ruin. Drawing parallels to the world today, walls are being built to divide societies, so the Statue of a Prince, trapped behind the walls of his own palace, must win over the heart of a Swallow to save his people.
Although outwardly beautiful, the omniscient Prince is troubled by the poverty and suffering surrounding him. He persuades the Swallow to become his messenger and distribute his treasures to the townspeople who are most in need. In a race against time, and as the Swallow gradually removes his sapphire eyes and his gold leaf, outwardly the statue looks dull and shabby but the Prince is inwardly renewed and freed of his torment.
Phil Daniels is an iconic actor who rose to fame through his roles in Quadrophenia and Scum (1979). Acclaimed television performances include Moonfleet, Holding On, Outlaws, Eastenders, Rock and Chips and guest leads in New Tricks and Poirot. His extensive theatre credits include Anthony and Cleopatra and The Knight of the Burning Pestle at Shakespeare’s Globe, Monsieur Thénardier in Les Misérables (West End), This House (National Theatre, Garrick Theatre), Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (tour), and King Lear (Chichester Festival Theatre). Recent credits include the feature film The Hatton Garden Job, Zapped (Dave) and Endeavor (ITV). Most recently Phil starred alongside Jim Broadbent in A Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre).
Janie Dee is an award-winning actress, singer and musical theatre performer characterised by her extraordinary versatility in acclaimed work on stage, film, television and radio. Best known for her performance as Jacie Triplethree in Comic Potential (1998) and as Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel (1993) at the National Theatre, her most recent theatre credits include Phyllis Rogers Stone in Follies at the National Theatre (2017). Janie has won three of the most prestigious awards in British Theatre; the Olivier Award, the Evening Standard Award and Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Play.
Sam Archer is best known for his performances as a principal dancer in Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, including creating the title role in Edward Scissorhands (2005). Sam has also performed in a number of musicals and plays in the West End and internationally, most recently in Emma Rice’s Wise Children.
Sophia Hurdley is in Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures company and dances leading roles in his repertoire. Her film credits include Cinderella and The Phantom of the Opera.
The creative team includes Hal Cazalet (Direction, Music and Lyrics), Michael Barry (Book and Movement Director), David Howe (Lighting), Sophia Hurdley (Choreography) and Sam Archer (Choreography). The original workshop for the production was developed alongside Maria Friedman and Drew McOnie.
The Happy Prince
Friday 3rd May 7:30pm
Saturday 4th May 3pm and 7:30pm
The Place Theatre
17 Duke's Road
London
UK
WC1H 9PY
Box Office:
Tel. 020 7121 1100
E. boxoffice@theplace.org.uk
www.theplace.org.uk
Tickets are £30 concession rate £20 for full-time students, under 18's, senior citizens, the unwaged, members of Equity and BECTU. We area also offering a discounted rate for those with access needs and a complimentary +1 for essential companions.
Biographies:
Hal Cazalet
Hal Cazalet makes his directing debut for these 3 Showcase performances of The Happy Prince.
As a Singer and Composer, Hal is a keen advocate of new works which seek to converge multiple art forms into a more singular and immersive style of theatre. He studied composition at the GSMD in London under Francis Shaw and at The Juilliard School, NYC under Robert Beaser, where he won the Shoshana Foundation Award. His musical First Night was presented at the Aspen Music Festival and directed by Frank Corsaro at The Juilliard. His choral works have been performed at The Santa Fe Music Festival and on BBC Radio 3.
As a performer, Hal has created leading roles for world premiere operas including; Nicholas in Tod Machover’s Pulitzer Prize nominated Death and the Powers (Monte Carlo Opera, Boston's Majestic Theatre, Chicago Opera Theatre, The Dallas Opera – Live Simulcast), Gerard in Philip Glass’s Les Enfants Terribles (BAM, New York, Teatro Olimpico, Rome, Herod Atticus Amphitheatre, Athens and USA Tour - recording Nonesuch records), Charles in Roxanna Panufnik's The Music Programme (Polish National Opera and The Linbury Studio, ROH), Heracles Heracles (Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall).
Other highlights include; Richard Dauntless Ruddigore for Opera North (Grand Theatre Leeds, Barbican Theatre, UK Tour – Radio 3 live broadcast), Cascada The Merry Widow (ENO) Albert Albert Herring (Glyndebourne Touring Opera) and title roles for English Touring Opera including Orfeo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Belmonte Il Seraglio, Macheath The Beggars Opera, Tobias Tobias and the Angel (Young Vic/ETO) and as The Prince in The love for Three Oranges, at The Rose Theatre, NYC, directed and designed by his two mentors, Frank Corsaro and Maurice Sendak.
In New York, Hal made his Lincoln Centre debut performing the world premiere of L’Infnito by Tristan Keuris (WNYC live broadcast) and performed at the Kennedy Centre, Washington DC under Christopher Hogwood and the NSO as Mr Angel in Mozart’s The Impresario. Hal has toured Europe, Japan, Canary Islands, with the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, with UK appearances at The ROH, Covent Garden and the Albert Hall, BBC Proms (recordings Phillips & Deutche Grammophon labels).
During his numerous collaborations with American pianist Steven Blier, Hal has composed and performed for The New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), a concert series founded by Leonard Bernstein which champions new song writers. For NYFOS, Hal has performed at the Library of Congress, DC with Sylvia McNair in The Land Where The Good Songs Go, a show based around the songs of Wodehouse, Kern and Gershwin. Further performances followed at The Danny Kaye Playhouse, NYC and at The Wigmore Hall, London. The album The Land Where The Good Songs Go was released on Harbinger Records. Hal also starred in Topsy Turvey alongside David Hyde Pierce at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall and in Rodgers, Rodgers and Guettel at The Kaufmann Centre, New York City.
Hal has also made appearances on BBC TV and Radio: A Portrait of Wodehouse, Loose Ends, BBC Proms, In Tune, LBC Pete Murray Show and on WNYC radio, NYC. As visiting faculty, Hal has worked at the GSMD and at the Juilliard School. At The Crazy Coqs (Live @ Zedel), Hal has recently appeared twice in cabaret in his one-man-show Play on Words (directed by Hugh Wooldridge), in homage to the great Wordsmiths of Broadway, and to his step great grandfather, the author and Broadway's the first great lyricist, P G Wodehouse.
Michael Barry
Michael Barry trained at Birmingham University and Central School. Gaining an MPhil in directing and dramaturgy. He began theatrical life as a dancer and toured extensively in plays and musicals, performing with artists as diverse as John Hanson and Paul Jones. As a director Michael has worked with extremely large casts - Carmen, with a cast of three hundred and the premieres of two works by Michael Morpurgo with over seven hundred school children, to very small casts - a one-man Hamlet for Edinburgh and Adelaide arts festivals and La Voix Humaine for Dijon.
Since 2001 Michael has been director of theatre studies for Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and has directed and choreographed Albert Herring, Il Nozze di Figaro, Fairy Queen, English Eccentrics, Psyche, Magic Flute, Cunning Little Vixen, Dido and Aeneas, Godspell, Merrily We Roll Along, West Side story, Street Scene, Dialogues Des Carmélites, the world premiere of Ava’s Wedding by Michael Wolters, A Little Night Music and Jekyll and Hyde. For the CBSO he staged Tosca and Carmen. At MAC he directed Dido and Aeneas, Joey Boy and Suzannah. At RNCM Sweeney Todd and L’Enfant et les Sortileges. For Buxton Opera Festival, Noye’s Fludde, Tobias and the Angel, Savitri, Wandering Scholar and Riders to the Sea. For the Royal Opera he was choreographer and movement director for The Ring Cycle and Otello. the award winning Merchant of Venice, Peter Pan for Komische Oper Berlin and Movement director/choreographer for Notorious for Gothenborg, The Great Gatsby Semper Oper Dresden. Vanessa for Glyndebourne, Marco Polo for Guangzhou and Beijing and a revival of The Ring Cycle for Covent Garden.
He was acting tutor for the BA Hons. Music Theatre Course at The Arden School of Theatre in Manchester, where he directed Graduate Showcases, Is There Life After High School?, Cowardy Custard and The Hot Mikado. In 2011 he became an associate director to Keith Warner for Andrea Chenier at Bregenz, and subsequently choreographer/movement director for The Merchant of Venice for Bregenz and The Polish State Opera. Electra for Prague and San Francisco. Michael is much in demand as an acting and dialogue coach, working with individuals and companies such as Diva Opera and The Royal Ballet. Michael has his own theatre company Hôtel Teatro who have twice appeared at Festival de Almagro and have co-produced productions with Birmingham Rep – most recently Hamlets – an adaptation which took the audience on an exploration of Birmingham’s new library.
