Hadyn Gwynne, Jerome Pradon and Anna Skellern Join Tamsin Greig in West End's WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Hadyn Gwynne, Jerome Pradon and Anna Skellern join Tamsin Greig in the UK premiere of David Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane's new musical adaptation of Pedro Almodovar'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.

Originally based by Almodovar 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 (Tamsin Greig), Candela (Anna Skellern) and Lucia (Hadyn Gwynne) 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.

Tamsin Greig plays Pepa. 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, The 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 Drewe for 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.

Hadyn Gwynne plays Lucia. On stage she has most recently starred as Margaret Thatcher in The Audience alongside Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre. Hadyn's other theatre credits include Richard III opposite Kevin Spacey as part of The Old Vic's Bridge Project (and international tour), Billy Elliot the Musical for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award, Becky Shaw for the Almeida, Company for the Donmar Warehouse and Merry Wives of Windsor, Peer Gynt, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the RSC. Gwynne also boasts an extensive list of television credits, including Death in Paradise, Law & Order, Lewis, Consenting Adults, Poirot, Dangerfield. Film credits include Hunky Dory, These Foolish Things and Remember Me.

Jerome Pradon plays Ivan. He most recently appeared in the French production of Mamma Mia! and has starred in numerous productions in the UK and abroad including Whistle Down the Wind at Aldwych Theatre, Les Mise?rables both in the West End and Paris, Miss Saigon, Martin Guerre, The Lord of the Rings and Pacific Overtures for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award, with the show winning Best Musical. Jerome's film credits include, Vatel, The Dancer and The Aristocrats. Jerome also played the palaeontologist narrator in the hugely successful Walking With Dinosaurs.

Anna Skellern plays Candela. Anna's theatre work includes Holding the Man at Trafalgar Studios, One Night in November at the Belgrade Theatre (Coventry) and Maddie in The Vegemite Tales at The Venue (Leicester Square). On television Anna played Lady Bobbie in Parade's End, as well as appearing in The Interceptor, The Musketeers, Outnumbered, Poriot, Spy and Jack Whitehall's Secret. Anna also has numerous film credits including Sophia Grace & Rosie's Royal Adventure, I Give It A Year, Gambit, Solitary, Blood Moon, Incident Sans Asylum, 7 Lives, W.E., A Night in the Woods, Siren and The Descent 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.

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Ave, London, WC2N 5DE

For more information, visit www.WomenOnTheVergeMusical.com and follow on Twitter: @WomenVergeUK

Booking Number: 0844 871 7631

Ticket Prices: £24.50 - £59.50 (Premium Tickets available)

Runs 18 December 2014 to 9 May 2015 - Monday to Saturday at 7:30pm; Wednesday (from 24 December) and Saturday (from 27 December) at 2:30pm; Press Night: Monday 12 January 2015 at 7:00pm.

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