Sergei Rachmaninoff has it all; world-wide fame from a single composition by the age of 19, commissioned to write his first symphony at 20 and engaged to the love of his life, Natalya. But at 21 he is crippled with a depressive paranoia and anxiety. His world has imploded, his work has stopped, he cannot even lift a pencil to compose a simple melody. Such is the power of the men who sought to destroy him, who haunt his waking nightmares and poison his dreams. And when those men happen to be the greatest artists of their day, how do you come back, how do you escape the darkness and come into the light?
Based on a true story of Rachmaninoff’s sessions of hypnotherapy, Preludes is an extraordinary new musical by three-time Tony Award-nominee Dave Malloy. It examines the crippling debilitation and harm the world can do to people, and how the dramatic and musical process can be used as therapy to restore them back into the fullest of creative lives.
Using live piano and electronics, Malloy uses a hybrid of his own and Rachmaninoff’s compositions to create a dream-like world that takes us to the darkest recesses of Rachmaninoff’s mind.
Three-time Tony Award-nominated writer Dave Malloy is a composer and writer of some of the most exciting new music theatre works. His best-known piece, Natasha Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, based on War and Peace, started at Ars Nova in New York before transferring to Broadway’s Imperial Theatre where it played to huge critical and audience acclaim and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, the highest number of nominations in the 2017 awards season, including Best Musical.
The cast is Rebecca Caine, Norton James, Georgia Louise, Tom Noyes, Keith Ramsay and Tim Walton.
Rebecca Caine plays Dahl. Credits include originating the role of Cosette in Les Misérables, (RSC and West End), Phantom of the Opera (Canada), Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible) and Harold and Maude (Charing Cross Theatre). Norton James plays Chaliapin. Credits include Choir of Man (Australian tour), Spamalot (Mercury Theatre, Colchester) and Love Story (Union). Georgia Louise plays Natalya. Credits include Mamma Mia (Novello), Kinky Boots (Adelphi Theatre) and 13: The Musical (Apollo/NYMT). Tom Noyes plays Rachmaninoff. Preludes is Tom’s professional debut. Keith Ramsay plays Rach. Credits include Amour (Charing Cross Theatre), Lost in Yonkers (Watford Palace), Portia Coughlin (Old Red Lion) and Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe). Tim Walton plays The Master. Credits include City of Angels (Donmar Warehouse), Kiss Me Kate (Old Vic), Matilda (RSC/West End) and Mamma Mia! (Prince Edward Theatre).
Direction by Alex Sutton. Set and costume design by Rebecca Brower. Lighting design by Christopher Nairne. Sound design by Andrew Johnson. Choreography by Ste Clough. Musical direction by Jordan Li-Smith. Casting by Danielle Tarento.
Dave Malloy says: “I am so so thrilled and tickled to see Preludes be given new life in this London premiere. It’s a very personal piece for me, wrestling with all the things it is to be an artist and a human, and the score features my music entwined with Rachmaninoff’s work, some of the most romantic and rousing piano music I know. I cannot wait to come to Southwark Playhouse and see this show reimagined by this amazing new team.”
Preludes originally premiered at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York in 2015. It ran for three months in a production developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin.
“Along with Fun Home and the soaring, Broadway-bound Hamilton, this smashing production says that the American musical is not only not dead but also growing luxuriantly in places you never expected." Ben Brantley, The New York Times on Preludes at the Lincoln Center Theater
Dave Malloy is a composer, writer, performer and orchestrator. His shows include Octet, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (12 Tony nominations, including Best Musical, Score, Book, and Orchestrations), Ghost Quartet, Preludes, Black Wizard/Blue Wizard, Three Pianos, All Hands, Beardo, Beowulf - A Thousand Years of Baggage, The Sewers, Sandwich, Clown Bible and (The 99-cent) Miss Saigon. He is the winner of two Obie Awards, a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, a Theater World Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, an ASCAP New Horizons Award, and a Jonathan Larson Grant. Future projects include Moby-Dick, premiering at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA this December.
Director Alex Sutton was Resident Director at the National Theatre in 2017. Theatre as director and adaptor includes The Night Before Christmas (Southwark Playhouse), Our House (Curve, Leicester), Twelfth Night (Parkteatern, Stockholm), A Flea In Her Ear (Tabard), My Swordhand Is Singing (Festival Of Stories, London), The Crocodile, Orpheus And Euridice (Tête-à-Tête: The Opera Festival). He has developed several projects including new musicals and plays at the National Theatre New Work Department (including the 2019 Olivier Award winning Flesh & Bone) and assisted Simon McBurney, Peter Gill, Melly Still, Lonny Price and Laurent Pelly.
Producer Danielle Tarento is a freelance producer and casting director. She won Best Producer at the Off West End Awards 2012, was nominated Producer of the Year at the Stage Awards 2015 and was listed as one of the top 10 producers of Musical Theatre in 2016 in The Stage. She is co-founder of the Menier Chocolate Factory. Previously at Southwark Playhouse she has produced Grey Gardens, Titanic, Company, Parade, Victor/Victoria, Three Sisters, Gods and Monsters, Mother Courage and Her Children, Allegro, Dogfight, Mack and Mabel and Grand Hotel.
Southwark Playhouse
77-85 Newington Causeway
London SE1 6BD
Nearest Tube: Borough / Elephant and Castle
Performances
PRELUDES
Friday 6 September – Saturday 12 October 2019
Monday to Saturdays at 7.30pm
Tuesday and Saturday matinees at 3pm
See website for full schedule
Box Office
Online
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
24 HOURS/NO BOOKING FEES
By Telephone
020 7407 0234
NO BOOKING FEES
Ticket Prices
Previews 6, 7, 9, 10 September - all tickets £16
From 11 September: £27.50, £22 (conc.)
Concessions
Students, Under 16’s, Unwaged, Registered disabled, Over 65’s
Registered disabled patrons can bring one companion free of charge.
Keep up to date on Twitter
@swkplay @danielletarento #PreludesLDN
