Costumes Required For Onstage Seating at London's Union Theatre's MOBY DICK!

Usually, when theatregoers purchase onstage seats for plays like EQUUS or the recent Ivo van Hove revival of A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, their job is to just sit and be quiet. In productions of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, a handful of patrons are invited to sit on stage for a bit of participation.

But in London's Union Theatre's fall production of Robert Longden and Hereward Kaye's MOBY DICK!, those sitting in the limited number of onstage seats will not only be actively participating in the show, but will be required to wear a school uniform.

Cameron Mackintosh produced the original 1992 production at Oxford's Old Fire Station Theatre, which eventually found its way to the West End. The campy, music hall style show is about the unruly students of St. Godley's Academy For Young Ladies, who present a fundraising performance of Herman Melville's classic novel to save their school from going under.

The Union's 25th Anniversary production, playing October 12th through November 12th, will be directed and choreographed by two-time Olivier Award nominee Andrew Wright.

Click here for the theatre's website, which quotes Mackintosh as saying, "I'm really delighted that Andrew Wright saw the show as a student in Oxford and has taken up his harpoon to bring Moby roaring back to the Union Theatre with a wonderful diverse young cast of school 'girls' to holler 'Thar She Blows'!!"