NOW OR NEVER Dedicated As Fundraiser For Christchurch Earthquake, 4/10

New Zealand actor Peter Land is to dedicate his new London show, NOW OR NEVER, as a fundraiser for the victims of the devastating Christchurch earthquake.

Peter was rehearsing back home when the second earthquake in months struck. "We were rehearsing in the Bay of Islands and at my first run-through we raised a considerable amount for the victims of this quake so I have decided to use this occasion to put my voice to work for good - and that's why I would like to repeat that thought on my first performance of NOW OR NEVER on March 20th in London.

NOW OR NEVER - a cabaret evening billed as an explosion of music and words, directed by Peter's wife, Gillian Lynne, the award-winning choreographer of the long-running Andrew Lloyd Webber hits, CATS and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - will be performed on four successive Sundays, March 20 & 27, April 3 &10 at London's Little Opera House at the King's Head Theatre in Islington.

Returning to London this week from the rehearsals in New Zealand, Peter said: "I went back home to say goodbye to my Mother - who died before Christmas while I was performing in MADAM BUTTERFLY (OR BANGKOK BUTTERFLY) at The King's Head Theatre. We should not have come, but I knew I had to grieve but who knew there would be so much more grieving...

"While we were many miles away from the quake's epicentre, that didn't make the pain of each loss any easier. New Zealand as a country has gone into emotional lock-down quite obviously with the hideous bad luck of the victims being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their fate was so randomly decided and it reminded us all of how fragile our existence on God's earth is. But this is a resolute country with a settler mentality and that will get it through the worst. This is the second major quake in five months and it has put a bad stain on Christchurch's immediate future but one only has to look at San Francisco to see that from horror a resilience can grow that makes the city in question special - difficult to see at this time but one must hope the best for Christchurch and all Cantabrians (Canterbury province)."

Peter Land is a versatile actor and singer whose career has spanned West End musicals, "Oh!?Calutta" to high opera - and everything in between!

Born in New Zealand, his West End musical debut was as Freddy in "My Fair Lady" followed by seasons at the Royal National Theatre in "Life of Galileo" with Sir Michael Gambon and the Royal Shakespeare Company in "The Winter's Tale" with Patrick Stewart, Proteus in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" and "All's Well That Ends Well" with Dame Peggy Ashcroft.

Equally at home in musicals with roles such as Cliff in "Cabaret", Andre in "The Phantom of the Opera", Snodgrass in "Pickwick", Savory in "One Touch of Venus" and in 2007 as Captain Hook in a new adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan - also at the King's?Head Theatre. In this production, he sang the first stage performance of "Captain Hook's Soliloquy", composed by Leonard Bernstein in 1950 and given its world premiere in concert by baritone Lawrence Tibbett. In the summer of 2008, he appeared as Rene Auberjonois's brother Beralde in Molière's "The Imaginary Invalid", the season's hit at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C. directed by Keith Baxter.

London's Little
Opera House
at the King's
Head Theatre
115 Upper Street
London
N1 1QN

Box office: 0207 478 0160
www.kingsheadtheatre.com

Performances:

Sunday March 20
Sunday March 27
Sunday April 3
Sunday April 10

at 10.00pm
(show runs 50 mins)

PRESS?NIGHT:?
Sunday March 20
at 10.00pm

Tickets:
£12.50
(£10.00 concessions)

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