Full cast announced for World Premiere Musical KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MURDER! at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022

Francesca Moody Productions and Kater Gordon have announced the full cast for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 world premiere of KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MURDER! The five-strong cast features real-life best friends Bronté Barbé (Kathy) and Rebekah Hinds (Stella) in the title roles, playing Hull's least successful true crime podcasters Kathy Baxter and Stella Carmichael. Bronté's credits include 'Carole King' in the first UK tour of the musical Beautiful and BBC One series Years and Years. Rebekah's credits include Oklahoma! at the Young Vic and What's New Pussycat at Birmingham Rep. The cast is complemented by West-End favourite Jodie Jacobs (Rock of Ages - West-End) as World renowned true crime author Felicia Taylor, TJ Lloyd (Guys and Dolls - Sheffield Crucible) as friendly morgue technician Justin Norris and Imelda Warren-Green (Doctor Who Time Fracture - BBC) as Kathy and Stella superfan Erica Knott.

Murder obsessed BFFs Kathy and Stella host Hull's least successful true-crime podcast. When their favourite author is killed, they are thrust into a thrilling whodunnit of their own! Can they crack the case (and become global podcast superstars) before the killer strikes again...?

This laugh-out-loud musical reunites the writing and musical talents of Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones (Frisky and Mannish) who last collaborated on the critically acclaimed, Fringe First award-winning A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad). Jon Brittain and Francesca Moody also team up again following double award wins (Fringe First 2019, Olivier Award 2020) for Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer. The creative team's individual successes include Rotterdam, Fleabag and Edinburgh Fringe smash-hits Square Go, Angry Alan, Frisky and Mannish and Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho.

Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones said of KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MURDER!: "During the first lockdown we started a musicals club where we did synchronised watches of everything from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Legally Blonde. At the same time we were bingeing every true crime documentary and podcast the internet had to offer. It wasn't long before we decided to mash up our lockdown hobbies - and KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MUDER! was born! A heart-warming musical about a cold-blooded killing. Serial or Making a Murderer by way of Victoria Wood, Hairspray and Scooby Doo. It's a story about true crime, the influence storytellers can have on the stories they're telling, and most of all it's about two misfit best friends, the world's least likely detectives, who set out to find a killer... and along the way find themselves."

Francesca Moody of Francesca Moody Productions said: "I'm thrilled to be collaborating with the brilliant Jon and Matthew on FMP's first ever musical. KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MURDER! is going to be a joyful, funny, irreverent and above all entertaining show, which, after the last two years of the pandemic is exactly what I think we all need - a chance for people to come back together and laugh. And where better to do it than our spiritual home, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I can't wait for FMP to return with live shows to Edinburgh after a two-year hiatus. KATHY AND STELLA WILL SOLVE A MURDER! will be late-night entertainment that has real bite and I so excited to share it with audiences."

Francesca Moody Productions are also presenting FEELING AFRAID AS IF SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN at the Paines Plough's Roundabout @ Summerhall from 3 until 28 August 2022.

Jon Brittain (Book and Lyrics) is a playwright, comedy writer and director. His critically acclaimed play Rotterdam won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre in 2017, he went on to direct Richard Gadd's debut play Baby Reindeer, which won the same award in 2020. His other work includes the cult hit shows Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho and Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows, the Fringe First Award-winning A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad), and the UK Theatre Award-winning Billionaire Boy: The Musical. He directed both of John Kearns's Fosters Award winning shows Sight Gags for Perverts and Shtick as well as shows for Tom Allen, Mat Ewins, Tom Rosenthal and others. He co-wrote a dozen episodes of Cartoon Network's The Amazing World of Gumball and was a staff writer on seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown.

Matthew Floyd Jones (Music and Lyrics) is known as one half of comedy duo Frisky & Mannish, the "undisputed hit of the Edinburgh Fringe" (Herald) and "global phenomenon" (Times). Finalists for the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year prize in 2010, their appearances have included solo gigs at Shepherd's Bush Empire and Sydney Opera House, headlining in the West End, multiple UK tours, dozens of international festivals, several performances on BBC Radio 1, and a featured slot on BBC2's The Culture Show. His solo show Richard Carpenter is Close to You won the Buxton Fringe New Writing Award, sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe, transferred to London, and toured to Australia. He composed the score for Jon Brittain's Fringe First Award-winning play A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad). Other composing/arranging work includes 2012: An Olympic Vaudeville (Greenwich Theatre), and several immersive events for the Gingerline Group. He has musically directed work for the Young Vic, CAST Doncaster, Jermyn St Theatre and the Oxford Playhouse. His acting credits include Miss Nightingale (Hippodrome), Camera Lucida (Barbican), Heels of Glory (Chelsea Theatre), Punch (Underbelly), The Secret Garden (King's Head) and Oklahoma! (Sadler's Wells).

Company Information

Director and book writer Jon Brittain

Composer and lyricist Matthew Floyd Jones

Company Stage Manager (on book) Vikki Chandler

Designer Cecilia Carey

Lighting designer Peter Small

Associate Lighting Designer Bethany Gupwell

Sound Designer Tingying Dong

Choreographer Fabian Aloise

Production Manager Ed Borgnis

Sound Designer Tingying Dong

Dramaturgy Gillian Greer

Executive Producer Francesca Moody

Producer Harriet Bolwell

Performed by Bronté Barbé (Kathy), Rebekah Hinds (Stella), Jodie Jacobs (Felicia+), TJ Lloyd (Justin+) and Imelda Warren-Green (Erica+)

Francesca Moody Productions commissions, develops and presents brave, entertaining and compelling new theatre. They work with the UK's leading playwrights and discover and nurture new talent to produce bold, award-winning shows with universal appeal and commercial potential. Since launching in 2018 the company has been awarded an Olivier, three Scotsman Fringe First's and produced seven world-premieres across London, New York, nationally on tour and at the Edinburgh Festival. FMP's production of Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer was the Bush Theatre's fastest selling show in history and was due to transfer to the West-End in 2020 in co-production with Sonia Friedman Productions. In 2022 FMP will premiere two new shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder and Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen, both in Roundabout at Summerhall. In 2020 FMP conceived and produced Shedinburgh Fringe Festival, an online live-streamed festival of theatre, comedy and music in lieu of the Edinburgh Fringe, selling over 4500 tickets and raising over £30,000 towards a fund to support the next generation of artists to make it to the Fringe. Shedinburgh returned in 2021. FMP is led by Francesca Moody MBE who is best known as the original producer of the multi-award-winning Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, which she has produced globally on behalf of DryWrite, most recently in London's West-End at the Wyndhams Theatre, when it was also recorded and broadcast by NT Live, playing in cinemas throughout the world. In 2020 Francesca led and coordinated the Fleabag for Charity campaign and later the Theatre Community Fund with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Olivia Colman, raising over £2million to support theatrical artists and professionals whose livelihoods and creative futures have been threatened in the wake of Covid-19.

Having worked in many aspects of theatre, television, and film, Kater Gordon now champions artists and storytellers as a producer. She began her career in costumes at Williamstown Theatre Festival and later went on to win an Emmy and two WGA awards for her writing on AMC's television show Mad Men. Recent shows include Newsies (Troubador Wembley Park Theatre), 2:22 - A Ghost Story (Noël Coward Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, Criterion Theatre), The Windsors: Endgame (Prince of Wales Theatre), Mum (Soho Theatre), and Leopards (Rose Theatre Kingston).

Bronté Barbé's (Kathy) work in theatre includes 'Mary' in What's New Pussycat (Birmingham Rep), 'Ado Annie' in Oklahoma at Chichester, starring as 'Carole King' in the first UK tour of the musical Beautiful, 'Jane' in the concert version of Girlfriends at the Bishopsgate Institute, 'Nadine' in Drew McOnie's production of The Wild Party at The Other Palace, 'Little Match Girl' in Striking 12 at the Union Theatre, 'Helen/Vinnie' in The Donkey Show (Proud London) and 'Princess Fiona' in the UK tour of Shrek, and 'Little Red Riding Hood'. She started performing at a very young age in her hometown of Macclesfield and in 2010 she was selected as one of the final 10 in Andrew Lloyd Webber's search for Dorothy - Over the Rainbow. Following this, Bronté attended Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts where she gained the Gyearbuor Asante prize for Acting and graduated with First Class Honours.After finishing Mountview she made her professional debut as 'Odette' in Carnival of the Animals (Riverside Studios).

Other credits include: Years & Years (BBC), Call the Midwife (BBC), 'Sharon' in Cool Rider - The Grease 2 concert (Lyric Theatre, West End) and cast recording, Momentous Musicals UK Tour, 'Penny Pingleton' in Hairspray (Kuala Lumpur/Singapore) and the role of 'Megan' in the But I'm a Cheerleader workshop directed by Jerry Mitchell.

Rebekah Hinds (Stella) trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Theatre includes: Oklahoma! (Young Vic); What's New Pussycat? (Birmingham Rep); Paradise (Hampstead Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Watford Palace); Grotty (The Bunker); Humble Boy (Orange Tree Theatre); Anita & Me (UK Tour); The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep/Ramps on the Moon UK Tour - Olivier Award Nominated); Billy Liar (Royal Exchange); Around the World (Sadler's Wells & Mint Theater, New York); The Little Prince - Concert (Savoy); Sondheim Prom (Royal Albert Hall).

TV includes: Scarborough, Inside No. 9, The Syndicate (BBC) Trollied (Sky1); Shameless (Channel 4); Aunties, Stains of Staines (Pilot). Film includes: Who Fired That Cannon? (Collab Films); Shandyland (Northern Stage); The Public Benefits (Zoom Films); Woman 4ft he Night (Badgerboy Productions). Radio includes: I Heart Amy, Omega (Wireless); Animal Instinct (Audible); The Phlebotomist (BBC Radio 3). Rebekah won the Audience Favourite Award in the Musical Comedy Awards 2019 as half of comedy duo Maris Piper.

Jodie Jacobs' (Felicia+) theatre credits include: Last Easter (Orange Tree Theatre), Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Cadogan Hall), Rock of Ages (Original West End Cast - Broadway World Award for Best Supporting Actress), We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre), Fame (Aldwych Theatre), Evita (Adelphi Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (The Duke of York's Theatre), Oliver! (Grange Park Opera), Lizzie (London and Denmark - Off West End Award nomination and West End Wilma Award nomination), Footloose (UK and Ireland Tour), The Wedding Singer (UK and Ireland Tour), A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It (both Shakespeare in the Squares), Cinderella and Dick Whittington (Lyric Hammersmith), Myth (The Other Palace), Disaster - The Musical (Charing Cross Theatre), Carrie (Southwark Playhouse), Unexpected Joy (Southwark Playhouse) and several others.

TV and Audio Credits Include: Abyzou (Millennium Media), Talk Sport, The Amazing World of Gumball (Cartoon Network) and Drop Zone (BBC).

TJ Lloyd (Justin+) trained at The BRIT School. Theatre credits include; Nicely Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible), PC Pong in Aladdin (New Brighton), William Barfee in Spelling Bee (Drayton Arms), Chief O'Reilly in Bananaman The Musical (Southwark Playhouse), Charley Kringas in Merrily We Roll Along (Edinburgh Fringe 2017), Ray in Elegies for Angels, Punks & Raging Queens (OBIE Theatre).

Imelda Warren-Green (Erica+) graduated from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts with a first-class honours degree in Musical Theatre.

Theatre credits include: Celeste Amorea in Doctor Who: Time Fracture (BBC); Kris in Spitfire (Charing Cross Theatre); Miss California in Little Miss Sunshine (UK tour); Cinderella the Musical (Nuffield Southampton Theatres); Support Artist for Tom Jones (Hampton Court Palace Festival); Support Artist for Lionel Ritchie (Hampton Court Palace Festival); Tiger in The Little Mermaid (Liverpool Everyman); Young Beth in As The Crow Flies (Salisbury Playhouse & UK tour); Jamie Pack in Out There (Union Theatre); Denny in Bad Girls (Union Theatre); Stepsister in Cinderella (Chiswick House and Gardens); Miriam in Nativity Blues (Eastern Angles); Nan in Whistle Down the Wind (Union Theatre); Soloist in Ladies Who Lunch (Battersea Barge).

Television credits include: Young Leaf in Golden Oldies (Nickelodeon).

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