JERSEY BOYS Celebrates Oliver Award for Best Musical

"Jersey Boys", the award-winning Broadway musical which opened in London's West End at the Prince Edward Theatre on 18 March last year, has just triumphed at the Laurence Olivier Awards by winning the coveted ‘Best New Musical' Award. This adds to the rich haul of over seventeen major international awards that "Jersey Boys" has won since it first opened in 2006 on Broadway.

"Jersey Boys" in London recently won four Whatsonstage.com Awards, decided by public vote, for ‘Best New Musical', ‘Best Actor in a Musical' for Ryan Molloy, ‘Best Supporting Actor in a Musical' for Stephen Ashfield and ‘Best Set Designer' for Klara Zieglerova. "Jersey Boys" has also been voted ‘Best West End Show' at the 2008 Visit London People's Choice Awards.

"Jersey Boys" is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons - Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito - and how this group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American and International pop music sensations of all time. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were thirty. Their songs include ‘Sherry', ‘Walk Like A Man', ‘December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)', ‘Big Girls Don't Cry', ‘My Eyes Adored You', ‘Let's Hang On (To What We've Got)', ‘Bye Bye Baby', ‘Can't Take My Eyes Off You', ‘Working My Way Back to You', ‘Fallen Angel', ‘Rag Doll' and ‘Who Loves You'.

"Jersey Boys" will celebrate its first London Birthday on 18 March. At this time, Mark Carroll, Ashley Hale, Madeleine Harland and James Winter will join the cast to play Donnie/Knuckles, Lorraine, Francine and Hank respectively. Mark Carroll has played in West End productions of "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Oliver!" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and as a songwriter he has contributed to Ruthie Henshall's album ‘Pilgrim', which he also produced. Ashley Hale was recently in West End productions of "Guys & Dolls" and "Dirty Dancing" and partnered Adam Cooper on television's "Strictly Dance Fever". Madeleine Harland was in the Piccadilly Theatre production of "Guys & Dolls" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" at the London Palladium as well as seasons in "Cats" and "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" on tour. James Winter, who recently graduated from the Guildford School of Acting where he received the Musical Theatre Award, will be making his West End stage debut. Michelle Bishop, Ben Evans and Christopher Hunt will also join the cast.

The London cast is headed by Ryan Molloy as Frankie Valli, Stephen Ashfield as Bob Gaudio, Philip Bulcock as Nick Massi, Glenn Carter as Tommy DeVito and Scott Monello as the alternate Frankie Valli. They are joined by Simon Adkins as Bob Crewe, Suzy Bastone as Mary Delgado, Michelle Francis as Francine, Jye Frasca as Joe Pesci, Tee Jaye as Barry, Stuart Milligan as Gyp Decarlo and Joseph Prouse as Norm Waxman. Also in the cast are Lucinda Gill, Mark Isherwood, Kieran Jae, and Ben Wheeler.

"Jersey Boys" is written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe. The London production is staged by the entire original Broadway creative team, led by director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo. "Jersey Boys" has scenic design by Klara Zieglerova, costume design by Jess Goldstein, lighting by Howell Binkley, sound by Steve Canyon Kennedy and projections design by Michael Clark. The orchestrations are by Steve Orich and the music supervision and vocal arrangements by Ron Melrose.

"Jersey Boys" is produced by Dodger Theatricals, Joseph J. Grano, Tamara and Kevin Kinsella, Pelican Group, in association with Latitude Link and Rick Steiner, and a small group of UK colleagues.

Performance times at the Prince Edward Theatre are 7.30pm Mondays-Saturdays, with Tuesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets, priced from £20.00-£60.00, are available from the Prince Edward Theatre Box Office on 0844 482 5151 or online at www.jerseyboyslondon.com

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.