Benj Pasek & Justin Paul to Attend European Premiere of DOGFIGHT in London, 13 August

Tony-nominated songwriters Benj Pasek & Justin Paul and book writer Peter Duchan are to attend the European première of their acclaimed musical Dogfight at Southwark Playhouse on Wednesday 13 August.

They will then take part in an aftershow Q & A, hosted by critic Matt Wolf, London theatre critic of The International New York Times and London correspondent for broadway.com, following the performance of Dogfight on Thursday 14 August.

Benj Pasek & Justin Paul and book writer Peter Duchan are available for interview in London.

Dogfight, based on the 1991 movie of the same name starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, premièred Off-Broadway in 2012, winning the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and it was also nominated for five Outer Critics Circle and two Drama Desk Awards.

November 21, 1963. The night before their deployment to Vietnam, three young Marines set out for one final boys' night of debauchery. But when Corporal Eddie Birdlace meets Rose, the unassuming and idealistic waitress he enlists to win a cruel bet, she rewrites the rules of the game and opens his eyes to what really matters in life.

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have been a composing team since meeting in college. In 2007 they were the youngest ever recipients of the Jonathan Larson Award - named after the late Rent composer - that honours achievement by composers, lyricists and librettists. Pasek and Paul (as they are affectionately known) made their Broadway debut last year with A Christmas Story, which received three Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score. The holiday musical was named one of the Top 10 Shows of 2012 by Time Magazine, shared recognition as the No1 Musical of 2012 in USA Today and received Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Outstanding New Broadway Musical. Benj and Justin's score for the show also received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Music.

Their other stage musicals include Edges and James and the Giant Peach. They composed several original songs for the second season of the Broadway TV drama, Smash, which charted in the Top 25 on the iTunes Pop Charts.

Heading the London cast in the central roles of Eddie and Rose are Jamie Muscato and Laura Jane Matthewson. Jamie Muscato was in the world premiere of The Light Princess at the National Theatre. Recently he was in the development workshops of the musicals Bend It Like Beckham and Blitz! and has just finished filming the TV biopic, Cilla. Laura Jane Matthewson won The Ronald Wlliam White Prize for Acting Through Song at The Royal Academy of Music. Dogfight is her London stage debut in a starring role.

The rest of the cast are: Emily Olive Boyd; Cellen Chugg Jones; Nicholas Corre (West End Men, Vaudeville Theatre); Matthew Cutts (Greaseball, Starlight Express, Monty, Saturday Night Fever; Kenicke, Grease); Joshua Dowen (Cool Rider, Duchess Theatre); Ciaran Joyce (LES MISERABLES in the West End but best known for playing Lol in three series of the BBC drama, The Story of Tracy Beaker); Amanda Minihan (West End credits include the multi award-winning Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter, Sister Act, The Producers); Rebecca Trehearn (played Molly, the lead in Ghost on tour; West End credits include Love Story, Duchess, Dirty Dancing, Aldwych, We Will Rock You, Dominon, and for Trevor Nunn at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Aspects of Love); Samuel J. Weir (Frankie Epps in Parade at Southwark Playhouse, Carnival of the Animals, Riverside, the world premiere of Monkee Business at Manchester Opera House and the LES MISERABLES feature film).

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