UK Hit 'GIRLS NIGHT' Musical Plays at Sofia's Downstairs Cabaret Starting 6/2

Entertainment Event Productions will present the Off-Broadway premiere of the smash UK hit GIRLS NIGHT: THE MUSICAL, written by Louise Roche and directed by Jack Randle. Performances will begin June 2nd, for an Opening Night on June 4th at the Downstairs Cabaret Theatre at Sofia's (227 West 46th Street, next to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre). Featured in the cast are Sonya Carter, Renee Colvert, Laurie Gardner, Justine Hall, and Carly Sakalove. This limited engagement runs through July 26th.

Girls Night: The Musical has earned rave reviews playing packed houses throughout the United Kingdom since 2003. It premiered in the US in May 2007 and has toured across the country since then. It has been described as "'Desperate Housewives' meets Mamma Mia!" (Applause Magazine), "a boisterous, bust-out, bawdy musical revue" (Wisconsin State Journal), "An infectious, exhilarating sense of intoxication!" (Hollywood Reporter) and "As funny and outrageous as Sex and the City!" (The Advocate).

Hilarious and touching, Girls Night: The Musical follows five friends in their 30s and 40s during a wild and outrageous girls night out at a karaoke bar. Friends since their teens, they have all had their fair share of heartache and tragedy, joy and success. Among the characters are Carol the party girl, blunt Anita who tells it like it is, Liza with her marital (and eating) issues, boring Kate the designated driver and Sharon, the not-so-angelic angel who just couldn't resist tagging along. Together, they reminisce about their younger days, celebrate their current lives and look to the future, all the while belting out an array of classic anthems such as "I Will Survive," "Lady Marmalade," "It's Raining Men," "Man I Feel Like a Woman," and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

The Off-Broadway premiere marks the latest chapter in Girls Night's meteoric rise from an idea in a Milton Keynes' mom's kitchen, through a community production, medium scale tour and culminating in 2006 in an extensive National Tour starring Lucy Speed ("EastEnders") and Gwyneth Strong ("Only Fools and Horses"). The story behind Girls Night is an inspiration to any writer still waiting for their big break. One night, four years ago, Louise Roche, a mother of three children under five, went out with a group of friends to see a musical. She looked around the theatre, saw that the audience was mostly women and thought "I could do this...I could write a show that lots of women will enjoy watching." So she did. She went home and wrote her first play, Girls Night, a musical comedy about a group of friends who relive the past on a wild night out at a karaoke club! She put it on with some of her friends at the local community theatre. Five old friends from school did the acting. She got a woman that she met at her daughter's playgroup to design the posters and the set. Her mom did the costumes and she dressed the auditorium up like a nightclub herself. It sold out its entire run and gained legendary status in the area. One audience member claimed that it made her laugh so hard that her Tampax fell out! Bolstered by this success, she hired the much bigger Milton Keynes Theatre to mount a spectacular performance of Girls Night. Not one to do things by halves, our heroic housewife put her money where her mouth was and ploughed her life savings of £10,000.00 into the show. Every one of the fourteen hundred seats in the building sold and she made back just over £10,000.00. Since then, Girls Night has gone from success to success.

Louise Roche has written and produced six plays: Girls Night (UK Tours 2003, 2004 and 2006), Bobby and Johnny (UK Tour 2005), Girls Behind (UK Tour 2005), Checkout Girls (Milton Keynes 2005), Lucky Balls (Milton Keynes 2002) and Milton Keynes The Musical (Milton Keynes 2002). Her writing for television includes "Where the Heart Is" and "Doctors." She also has a novel, Glutton for Punishment, published in paperback by Pan Books. Previously, she worked in television production as a researcher and producer of factual programs. Credits include "Where There's Life," "First Tuesday" and the drama documentary "Shoot To Kill." Three more plays, True Love, Happy Christmas Shirley and Finding Daddy are in development. Louise became co-director of Goodnights Entertainment in 2003.

Jack Randle studied Drama at Exeter University. On graduating, he took acting roles with Leda Theatre, Nottingham; Theatre of Fact, Milton Keynes; New Victoria Theatre, Stoke; Theatre Alibi, Exeter; Forced Entertainment, Sheffield and M6 Theatre Company, Rochdale. He also played Dylan in the UK Tour of The Magic Roundabout for David Graham. He more recently starred as Bobby D'Angelo in Bobby and Johnny (Milton Keynes, 2003). Television has included "EastEnders," "Emmerdale," "Cracker," "Out Of The Blue," "Hetty Wainthrop Investigates," and a series of commercials for Draught Bass. His directing credits include Girls Night (UK Tours 2003, 2004, 2006), Bobby and Johnny (UK Tour 2005), Girls Behind (UK Tour 2005), Lucky Balls (2002) and Frankie's Game (1999). He became co-director of Goodnights Entertainment in 2003.

Performances, which begin June 2nd, will be Tuesday at 7 PM, Wednesday through Friday evenings at 8PM, Saturday at 5 PM, and Sunday at 3 PM. Tickets for all performances will be $55 and may be purchased online at www.girlsnightthemusical.com or by phone at 212/947-9300.

 

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