Greig To Star In WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN: THE MUSICAL, From Dec 2014

Olivier Award-winner Tamsin Greig makes her musical theatre debut in the UK premiere of David Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane's new musical adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's Oscar-nominated film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Directed by Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher, and following two full-scale development workshops with actors, musicians and the creative team, the production will open in a limited run for 20 weeks only at The Playhouse Theatre on 12 January 2015, with previews from 20 December 2014.

Tamsin Greig said, "I am excited, thrilled and terrified to have been invited to collaborate with artists of the calibre of Pedro Almodóvar, Bart Sher, David Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane to perform in a musical. If it's true that you are only as good as the company you keep, then I am in very safe hands. And I feel very fortunate to have been encouraged - well, bullied - by my agent to have singing lessons, to learn new skills and to experience other creative mediums. I have also run out of excuses why I can't do it!"

Capturing the sexy and colourful spirit of Pedro Almodóvar's Madrid, Pepa (Tamsin Greig) and her friends juggle their everyday lives and extraordinary moments in a surprising, heart-breaking and rebellious musical comedy.

Originally based by Almodóvar on Jean Cocteau's The Human Voice, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was Pedro's first international hit. It captured a liberated Spain, placing women at the centre of their own experience. Pepa, Candela and Lucia became iconic, showing women struggling for power over their own lives, and with enormous humour and style. It also marked the breakout of one of our most important and unique international film directors.

Director Bartlett Sher said, "I keep returning to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown because Pedro's vision of the world and women, his humour and his style, seem more important now than at any time since the film premiered. It's a joy to return to Pedro's world."

Pedro Almodóvar, who has been involved in the development workshops, said "I love that my 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' resists the passing of time. Twenty-six years after having been created, they're still alive. This time, with the very talented Bart Sher in command, they're taking London, a city that's always been to me the paradigm of freedom, pleasure and modernity. I wish them a long and funny stay!"

Writers David Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane - currently represented in the West End by the hit musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels starring Robert Lindsay - said, "We're thrilled to have the opportunity to re-imagine and present this show that has meant so much to us and particularly excited to be working with an actress as intelligent, brilliantly funny and right for the part as Tamsin."

Tamsin Greig has received much critical acclaim for her work on stage. She won a Laurence Olivier and Critics Award for Best Actress in Much Ado About Nothing and was nominated again for her role in The Little Dog Laughed. Other theatre credits include Jumpy at the Royal Court and at Duke of York's theatre, God of Carnage at the Gielgud, Gethsemane for the National, and King John for the RSC. Greig is also known for her many comedic roles on television including Beverley Lincoln in the transatlantic sitcom Episodes with Stephen Mangan and Matt LeBlanc, Dr Caroline Todd in Green Wing for which she won an award for Best Comedy Performance at the 2005 Royal Television Society Awards, Jackie in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner, Alice Chenery in Love Soup and Fran Katzenjammer in Black Books.

Among Greig's other notable television characters are Miss Bates in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, Beth in White Heat and most recently DCI Maggie Brand in The Guilty. On film she starred with Richard E. Grant in Cuckoo, Roger Allam and Gemma Arterton in Tamara Drewefor which she received a BIFA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also made a short cameo appearance in the 2004 comedy Shaun of the Dead. Greig has just finished filming the feature Breaking The Bank opposite Kelsey Grammar, directed by Vadim Jean and recently The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2.

Bartlett Sher (Director), Resident Director of the Lincoln Center Theater, has received national and international recognition for his work as a director, including the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Direction of a Musical for South Pacific. This stunning and revelatory production was subsequently presented at the Barbican in London. He has also received Tony nominations for The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing!, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and his recent production of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy received 8 Tony Award nominations. Sher served as Associate Artistic Director at Hartford Stage (Hartford, Connecticut) and Company Director at the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis, Minnesota) where he worked with Garland Wright, who was a mentor as was Robert Woodruff. Sher has directed, taught and led workshops across the country and internationally. He was Artistic Director at Intiman Theatre in Seattle and in 2008 was named Resident Director at Lincoln Center Theatre in New York City where he will direct a new production of The King and I in the spring of 2015.

David Yazbek (Music & Lyrics) has most notably written the music and lyrics to the musical adaptations of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which has recently opened at The Savoy Theatre and The Full Monty. Both scores have earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics. Yazbek was also a contributing lyricist for the musical Bombay Dreams and is also part of the creative team developing a stage musical version of the film Tootsie.

Jeffrey Lane (Book) has collaborated previously with David Yazbek on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Lane is perhaps best known for writing such television programs as Mad About You and Bette (which he also produced), Ryan's Hope, Lou Grant, Cagney & Lacey, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and the mini-series The Murder of Mary Phagan. He has been the recipient of many accolades including five Emmy Awards, three Writers Guild Awards, two Peabody Awards, a Golden Globe and the Christopher Award. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a funny and moving musical, is produced in the West End by Howard Panter for The Ambassador Theatre Group.

To be the first to receive exclusive information including the on sale date of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, please go to www.WomenOnTheVergeMusical.com to register your details.

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