Gerred And Janson Confirmed In ROOMS: A ROCK ROMANCE At Finborough From April

A Finborough Theatre commission, the European premiere of the hit Off-Broadway musical ROOMS - A Rock Romance, plays at the Finborough Theatre for a limited four-week season from Tuesday 23 April 2013, directed by multi-award-winning director Andrew Keates.

The two-person cast features Alexis Gerred and Cassidy Janson.

Gerred was recently seen in the lead role of Bobby in Dreamboats and Petticoats on National Tour and in the West End, won acclaim for his performance in the title role of Dirty White Boy: Tales of Soho at Trafalgar Studios, and was runner-up in Eurovision: Your Country Needs You for BBC TV.

Janson played Kate Monster/Lucy The Slut in Avenue Q, was standby and played Elphaba in the original London cast of Wicked, played Maggie Saunders in Lend Me a Tenor - The Musical at the Gielgud Theatre and starred in Tick Tick ...Boom! at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

ROOMS - A Rock Romance begins in late 1970s Glasgow at the very height of punk rock, where Monica, an ambitious Jewish singer-songwriter, meets Ian, a reclusive rocker. As the pair become quickly entangled - both creatively and romantically - their music together hurtles them from the dingy clubs of Scotland to the glitz of London and ultimately to New York City...

Featuring an astonishing score by award-winning composer Paul Scott Goodman and performed by a live rock band, ROOMS - A Rock Romance is both a thrilling musical journey and a poignant unconventional love story about two young artists, whose love for each other deepens whilst their desires tear them apart.

Andrew Keates will be directing his second production at the Finborough Theatre following last year's sell-out production of Passing By by Martin Sherman. Most recently, he directed and developed the award-winning professional world premiere of A Winter's Tale, written by Howard Goodall, Nick Stimson and himself. Andrew first came to attention after his acclaimed production of Bent in 2010 at the Landor Theatre, which then transferred to the Tabard Theatre for a further run. Recent productions include The Thing About Men and The Hired Man (both at the Landor Theatre), Conjugal Rites (Courtyard Theatre) and Just So (Tabard Theatre). His work has received many award nominations, including Best Director for Bent, Best Director forJust So, Best Entertainment for Just So and most recently, winning Best New Musical forA Winter's Tale and Best Musical Production for The Hired Man in the OffWestEnd Awards. Andrew is the founder and artistic director of Arion Productions Ltd.

Musical Director Mark Warman was Musical Director for The Rocky Horror Show (Royal Court Theatre), Pete Townsend's The Iron Man (The Young Vic), Metropolis (Piccadilly Theatre), Pacific Overtures (Donmar Warehouse - 2004 Olivier for Outstanding Musical Production), Sinatra (London Palladium), Chess In Concert (Royal Albert Hall), LES MISERABLES (Palace Theatre), Into the Woods (Donmar Warehouse), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Shaftesbury Theatre) and Sweeney Todd (Holland Park Opera). He was Conductor for Kiss Me Kate (Victoria Palace Theatre), Children of Eden (Prince Edward Theatre) and The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre). He was Musical Supervisor for two Sondheim world stage premières - Saturday Night (Bridewell Theatre) and Evening Primrose (Sadler's Wells) - and the European première of Adam Guettel's debut musicalFloyd Collins (Bridewell Theatre). Orchestrator for the London premiere of Nine (Donmar Warehouse), The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Wyndham's Theatre) and Hard Times(Theatre Royal Haymarket) and keyboard programmer on countless West End and touring shows including Spamalot, 9 To 5, Hairspray, Our House, Footloose, High School Musical and Fame. Mark was Musical Director and Arranger for rock legend Scott Walker on his last two albums (The Drift and Bish Bosch) and a three-day concert retrospective at the Barbican with Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn.

Choreographer Sam Spencer Lane is best known for her work at the Menier Chocolate Factory (where she choreographed Maltby and Shire's new musical Take Flight, They're Playing Our Song and The Invisible Man), working with Jason Robert Brown on the UK premiere of The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World. Other notable choreography credits include The Hired Man (Salisbury Playhouse), Personals and Rat Pack Confidential which enjoyed long runs in London's West End, Little Britain Live(Hammersmith Apollo and National Tour), Alice in Wonderland and Privates on Parade(West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Rep), Mr. Stink (National Tour), Company(Southwark Playhouse), Pal Joey (Nottingham Playhouse), Once Upon a Matress(Belfast), Tracey Beaker Gets Real (National Tour), The Demon Headmaster (National Tour), Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Bristol Old Vic), Honk! (Watermill Theatre, Newbury) and The Wizard of Oz (Theatr Clwyd Cymru). Sam was also Head of Musical Theatre, Dance and Movement at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts from 2002-2012.

Paul Scott Goodman (Book, Music and Lyrics) was born and raised in Glasgow. In 1984, he relocated to New York City after five years of performing in London and a year in Los Angeles. Paul was the first recipient of the Songwriters Hall of Fame Best New Songwriter Award, winner of the Backstage Bistro Award for Domestica (book, music and lyrics), first solo recipient of the Jonathan Larson Foundation Award, and winner of the Gilman Gonzalez-Falla Theater Foundation Commendation Award. Paul wrote the book, music and lyrics for Bright Lights, Big City which was presented at the New York Theater Workshop, The Guggenheim Museum, the Prince Music Theater, Philadelphia, and recently licensed worldwide by The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. ROOMS - A Rock Romance was originally produced at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2005. Paul's other produced musicals include Him and Her (Prince Music Theater, Philadelphia, and New York International Fringe Festival where it won the 'Best Performance' Award), Alive in the World (New York Musical Theatre Festival and an all-star benefit concert at The Zipper Factory) God Save the New Wave (Bottom Line, West Bank Theater), Metropolitan Music (Marymount Manhattan College) and Just East of Broadway (The Duplex). Paul has also performed as an opening act for John Cougar Mellencamp, Joan Armatrading, David Essex, and The Average White Band.

Miriam Gordon (Book) was born in Detroit, Michigan. Miriam wrote the book with Paul Scott Goodman and directed the musical Him and Her, Tiny Dancer and Domestica, which won a New York International Fringe Festival award, and was also produced at the Prince Music Theater, Philadelphia, Theater One, New York and Musical TheaterWorks, New York. She was book writer with Paul Scott Goodman and director of God Save the New Wave (Bottom Line and West Bank Theater, New York) and Marathon by Paul Scott Goodman (New York Theater Workshop). Miriam directed the short musical, I've Got To See You Again, by two-time Grammy Award winner Jesse Harris, whose title song was recorded on Norah Jones' Grammy Award winning album. Miriam is writer and lyricist with Wendy Federman for a new musical, Not For Better, and is the writer and director of a new musical, The Kid Who Ran For President, which received the Allan S. Gordon Foundation Performing Arts Program Award. Her other directing credits include Rooms (Theater One, New York), When Heaven and Earth (Circle Rep East, New York) and In Audela (Cherry Lane Theater, New York). She has also written, directed and produced political programming for New York television. Miriam is the recipient of a Stella Adler Talent Award, and also trained with Ms. Adler, at the London Academy of Dramatic Art, and with Anthony Hopkins, Alfred Molina, Wynn Handman, Austin Pendleton, and has performed in the Yiddish Theater.

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