Identical is based on the novel ‘The Parent Trap’ by Erich Kästner, which inspired the hugely successful Disney films featuring Hayley Mills in 1961 and Lindsay Lohan in 1998.
Destined for the West End, it will open at Nottingham Playhouse 26 July – 14 August 2022, then transfer to Salford’s The Lowry 19 August – 3 September 2022.
Identical, directed by Olivier and Tony award-winning Trevor Nunn (responsible for some of the greatest hits in the world, including ‘Les Miserables’, ‘Starlight Express’, ‘Cats’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’), tells the story of Lottie and Lisa, twin girls separated at birth, reunited by chance at a summer camp 10 years later. In an attempt to get to know their other parent, they decide to swap identities.
Joining the previously announced three sets of identical twins, who will share the central roles of Lottie and Lisa, are Emily Tierney (Glinda in ‘Wicked’, Molly in ‘Ghost’, Carrie Carter/Super Hot Lady in ‘Eugenius!’), James Darch (Brad in ‘The Rocky Horror Show’, Sky in ‘Mamma Mia!’), Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson (Fastrada, ‘Pippin’, Maisie in ‘The Boy Friend’), Louise Gold (Yente in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, Mazeppa in ‘Gypsy’), Michael Smith-Stewart (‘The Lion King’, ‘Rent’, ‘The Full Monty’).
The ensemble features Rico Bakker (‘Hairspray’, ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’), David Bardsley (‘The Grinning Man’, ‘Billy Elliot’), Hannah Cauchi (Frenchie in ‘Cabaret’, ‘Top Hat’), Paige Fenlon (lead female role of Luisa in ‘Zorro’, ‘Pretty Woman’), Rosie Glossop (Pat in ‘Kinky Boots’, Diva 3/Shirley in ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’), Dominic Adam Griffin (Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cinderella’, ‘Evita’), Jordan Isaac (‘Bring It On’, ‘Mary Poppins’), Rutendo Mushonga (Zoonation’s ‘Message in a Bottle’, ‘The Lion King’), Ellie Nunn (Ida in ‘Honk!’, Minnie in ‘The Daughter in Law’).
Identical twins Kyla and Nicole Fox, aged 12, from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, Emme and Eden Patrick, 12 from Waltham Abbey and Sienna and Savannah Robinson, 12 from Bromley, were cast following a five-year casting search and multiple auditions across the UK.
Playing the other children are Winter Jarrett Glasspool, Daisy Jeffcoate, Isabelle Larrey, Saffia Layla, Parrine Long, Helena Middleton, Kirsten Muzvuru and Poppy Pawson.
The show also introduces two new dog stars, Cairn Terrier Ness, and West Highland Terrier Louby, who will share the role of Pepi.
‘Identical’ has Music and Lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, (the multi award-winning writers of the Olivier award-winning National Theatre hit ‘Honk!’, who also created a new score for the international smash-hit Cameron Mackintosh/Disney production of ‘Mary Poppins’) with a Book by Stuart Paterson, whose drama ‘Prisoner C33’ about Oscar Wilde (Toby Stephens) in Reading Gaol, directed by Trevor Nunn, premiered earlier this month on BBC4.
Creative team: Director Trevor Nunn, Choreographer Matt Cole, Set Design Rob Jones, Costume Design Jonathan Lipman, Video Design Douglas O’Connell, Lighting Design Johanna Town, Sound Design Paul Gatehouse, Musical Supervisor Caroline Humphris, Musical Director Tamara Saringer, Orchestrator Tom Curran, Associate Director (with special responsibility for the children) Martha Geelan, Associate Choreographer Jane McMurtrie, Casting Director Anne Vosser, Children’s Casting and Administration Jo Hawes, Wig and Hair Designer Richard Mawbey, Production Manager Digby Robinson, General Management & Marketing Kenny Wax Ltd.
FULL CAST
Emily Tierney LISALOTTE
James Darch JOHAN
Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson MISS GERLACH
Louise Gold ROZA/MISS MUTHESIUS
Michael Smith-Stewart DR STROBL
Rico Bakker ENSEMBLE
David Bardsley FRANZ/MR BERNAU
Hannah Cauchi COVER MISS ULRIKE/MIZZI/ENSEMBLE
Paige Fenlon COVER MISS GERLACH/ENSEMBLE
Rosie Glossop COVER ROZA/MISS MUTHESIUS/ENSEMBLE
Dominic Adam Griffin HANDSOME CLIMBER/ DANCER
Jordan Isaac COVER HANDSOME CLIMBER/ENSEMBLE
Rutendo Mushonga ENSEMBLE
Ellie Nunn MISS ULRIKE / MIZZI
Kyla & Nicole Fox, Emme & Eden Patrick, Sienna & Savannah Robinson IDENTICAL TWINS - LISA & LOTTIE
CHILD ENSEMBLE
Winter Jarrett Glasspool
Daisy Jeffcoate
Isabelle Larrey
Saffia Layla
Parrine Long
Helena Middleton
Kirsten Muzvuru
Poppy Pawson
Ness & Louby PEPI (The Dog)
IDENTICAL is produced by Kenny Wax Ltd, Gavin Kalin, Playing Field (Theatre) Limited, Kevin McCollum and Stewart F. Lane Bonnie Comley. It is co-produced with Nottingham Playhouse.
STILES AND DREWE are a multi award-winning musical theatre writing partnership. Their scores include the international smash-hit Cameron Mackintosh/Disney production of ‘Mary Poppins’, the Olivier Award-winning ‘Honk!’, and the recent West End productions of ‘Half A Sixpence’ and ‘The Wind in the Willows’. Their other shows are ‘Soho Cinders’, ‘Betty Blue Eyes’, ‘Travels With My Aunt’, ‘Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure’, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’, ‘The Three Little Pigs’, ‘Just So’ and ‘Tutankhamen’. Current projects include ‘Becoming Nancy’ which premieres this autumn at the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta ahead of Broadway. They recognise new musical theatre writing via the annual Stiles and Drewe Prize for Best New Song, now in its 13th year, and their Mentorship Award supported by Music Theatre International (Europe).
STUART PATERSON is a Scottish playwright with a significant and wide-ranging body of work. He has had particular success as a family theatre writer with titles including ‘The Jungle Book’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Merlin The Magnificent’ which were first produced at The Glasgow Citizens Theatre, The Edinburgh Lyceum Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre and have since been staged throughout the UK and worldwide, most recently in the USA, Finland, Holland, Sweden and by Den Nationale Scene in Norway, and by Theater Der Jugend in Vienna. His versions of ‘Hansel & Gretel’ and Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ were both nominated for the TMA Best Children’s Production of the Year Award.
TREVOR NUNN was the Artistic Director of the RSC for 18 years, directing much of the Shakespeare canon (including ‘Macbeth’ with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench) and new works including ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ and ‘Les Miserables’ (now the longest running musical in the world). He was later Director of the National Theatre, where award-winning productions included ‘The Merchant of Venice’, ‘Summerfolk’, ‘Oklahoma!’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. He has directed the world premieres of Tom Stoppard’s ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’, ‘Arcadia’, ‘The Coast of Utopia Trilogy’ and ‘Rock n Roll’; and of ‘Cats’, ‘Starlight Express’, ‘Aspects of Love’, ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and ‘The Woman in White’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other West End theatre includes ‘Hamlet’, ‘Richard II’, ‘Inherit the Wind’ and ‘Kiss Me Kate’ (Old Vic), ‘A Little Night Music’, ‘Flare Path’, ‘The Tempest’, ‘Love in Idleness’, ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ and most recently ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. Work for television includes ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (BAFTA Award), ‘The Comedy of Errors’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘Three Sisters’, ‘Othello’, ‘King Lear’ and ‘The Merchant of Venice’, as well as ‘Porgy and Bess’, and the Emmy Award winning ‘Oklahoma!’ He also directed the films ‘Hedda’ (Oscar nominated for Best Actress), ‘Lady Jane’, ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘Red Joan’ and ‘Pale Sister’. With his 2016 production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, he has now directed all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays.
ERICH KÄSTNER (23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist. He was a pacifist who wrote for children because he believed in empowering them. He was interrogated by the Gestapo several times during the war and under the personal instruction of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis burned his books as ‘contrary to the German spirit’ in May 1933 – an act of vandalism which he watched first hand. He is perhaps best known for his children’s books ‘Emil and the Detectives’ which sold two million copies in Germany alone as well as being translated into 59 languages and ‘Lottie and Lisa’ (now published under the title ‘The Parent Trap’). He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1960 for his autobiography ‘Als ich ein kleiner Junge war’ which started with a lament for Dresden, the city where he was born and which was totally destroyed by the allied bombings. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.
KENNY WAX (Producer)
Kenny is the Vice President of the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) - the trade organisation for the West End Theatre industry – after a three-and-a-half-year term as President.
In 2022, Kenny is opening three family musicals: ‘Identical’, based on the book ‘The Parent Trap’ by Erich Kastner - a story of twins separated at birth and brought back together, directed by Trevor Nunn; ‘Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World’, based on the book of the same name by Kate Pankhurst - a pop-fuelled celebration of some of history’s incredible women and their stories; and the first ever UK tour of ‘Bugsy Malone’ – the acclaimed Lyric Hammersmith production, based on the world-famous movie by Alan Parker. This summer, Kenny is also collaborating with New Vic Theatre Stoke, to tell the legendary story of The Great Escape in their new production ‘Tom, Dick & Harry’.
His current success is ‘SIX’ which is playing to sold out audiences in the West End; on Broadway; on tour in the UK, US and Australia; and on Norwegian Cruise Lines. The show is set to perform at Hampton Court Palace this summer and soon the show will begin two tours across America, with an international tour also in the works. The studio album received ‘gold’ status last year and is consistently in the album charts. The original Broadway cast album was released in May 2022.
Kenny has so far produced six shows with Mischief Theatre: including ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’
(winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy), which reopened in the West End at the Duchess Theatre and is currently on a UK tour; ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ has played the West End twice; ‘The Comedy About A Bank Robbery’ ran for nearly four years at the Criterion Theatre; ‘Mischief Movie Night’ gained Mischief their fourth consecutive Olivier nomination and was streamed for the first time all over the world in December 2020; ‘Groan Ups’ played at the Vaudeville in autumn 2019 and later toured the UK; ‘Magic Goes Wrong’ was made in collaboration with notorious magicians Penn & Teller and toured the UK after a wonderful run at the Apollo Theatre. Recently, Kenny set up Mischief Screen with Mischief Theatre, having been the Executive Producer of two Christmas television specials on BBC 1: ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ and ‘A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong’. In Spring 2020, Mischief hit the airwaves again with a comedy series commissioned by BBC1, ‘The Goes Wrong Show’, now available on DVD and to stream. The second series aired in autumn 2021 and is available on iPlayer.
Notable productions include the world première of ‘Top Hat’, which won three Olivier Awards including Best New Musical (2013). ‘Once on This Island’ also won the same award in 1995. In 2020, his production of ‘The Worst Witch’ won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Family Show and his production of Julia Donaldson’s much-loved book ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ was nominated in the same category for the 2021 ceremony.
Kenny is renowned for producing some of the best family theatre both in the West End and on tour. Productions include ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, ‘80 Days Around The World’, ‘Mr Popper’s Penguins’, ‘Oi Frog & Friends!’ and the Olivier Award nominated stage adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson’s ‘Hetty Feather.’
NOTTINGHAM PLAYHOUSE
Wellington Circus,
Nottingham NG1 5AF
Tuesday 26 July - Sunday 14 August, 2022
Evenings: at 7pm
Matinees: at 2.30pm
Wednesday 10 August
Thursday 4 & 11 August
Saturday 30 July, 6 & 13 August
Sunday 31 July, 7 & 14 August
Access performances:
Audio Described performance
Thursday 4 August, 7pm
Saturday 6 August, 2:30pm
BSL interpreted performance
Friday 5 August, 7pm
Captioned Performance
Saturday 13 August, 2:30pm
Press night: Tuesday 2 August at 7pm
Ticket prices: £35.00 - £10.50
Age guidance: 8+
Box office: 0115 941 9419
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
THE LOWRY
Pier 8 The Quays,
Salford, M50 3AZ
Friday 19 August - Saturday 3 September
Evenings: at 7.30pm
Matinees: at 2pm
Saturday 20 & 27 August & 3 September
Sunday 21 & 28 August
Thursday 25 August & 1 September
Access performances:
Saturday 27 August at 2pm
Audio Described by Caroline Burn
Touch Tour at 1pm
Sunday 28 August at 2pm
BSL by Emma Jane Heap
Press night:
Tuesday 23 August at 7.30pm
Ticket prices: from £21.00
Box office: 0343 208 6000
www.thelowry.com
