Olly Novello and Scarlett Ayers Will Lead the World Premiere of THE VERGE OF FOREVER at The Other Palace

Olly Novello and Scarlett Ayers are to star in the world premiere of ‘The Verge of Forever’, an exciting new song cycle that follows the love story of Leo and Marie, two talented teenagers who share a passion for theatre, as they embark on their journey through the challenging world of drama school auditions.

Performances run 8 - 20 August at the Other Palace.

As Leo and Marie strive for success and work tirelessly to hone their craft, they are forced to make difficult choices that threaten to tear them apart...

‘The Verge of Forever’ with Music, Lyrics & Orchestrations by Olly Novello, directed by Gerry Tebbutt, combines soaring music and powerful storytelling.

Olly Novello studied piano and performance art from the age of 5 and won various accolades for his performance work such as All England S&D champion and TDCI British senior S&D champion. Olly won a music scholarship to study under Craig Laszkowicz and also studied for a brief time under Robert J Sherman. He attended the Guildford School of Acting where he staged two workshops of his first show - Mayflower The Musical (Yvonne Arnaud Mill & Theatre Café). He has since written the music and lyrics for ‘The Journey to Paradise’, which is to receive a workshop at the end of the year, been commissioned to write the music for another new musical and wrote and produced the workshop of ‘The Verge of Forever’ which was workshopped in March at The Other Palace Studio. Olly has worked on shows and material for P&O, Cunard and Marella cruises and has provided music for TV shows including ‘Youth of Today’ (Showcase), ‘Fab Song’ (Showcase) and ‘Help for Italy - From Me To You’ (Showcase).

Scarlett Ayers is a student of the London School of Musical Theatre, making her professional debut.

Understudies are Finlay McKillop and Natalia Jacques.

Creative team
Director: Gerry Tebbutt
Musical Director: Niall Casserly
Producer: Louise H.Beard
Co-produced by Conor Dye

Gerry Tebbutt - Director
Gerry Tebbutt has directed, choreographed or appeared in over 300 productions. He began his career as an actor in weekly rep at Shanklin Theatre performing in 17 plays in 18 weeks and followed this working with repertory theatres up and down the country before embarking on a career in musical theatre.  For 20 years he appeared in many long running West End productions such as ‘The Canterbury Tales’ (Phoenix) ‘Annie’ (Victoria Palace) ‘Billy’ (Drury Lane) ‘Irene’ (Adelphi) ‘Strike A Light’ (Piccadilly) ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (Victoria Palace) ‘Gypsy’ (Piccadilly) ‘Mack & Mabel In Concert’ (Drury Lane) ‘The Wombles’ (Shaftesbury) and two Royal Variety Performances from The London Palladium. Gerry was Associate Director for the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich for 10 years where he directed and choreographed more than 80 main house productions. He was Overseas Director for the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi where he directed multi-racial companies in ‘West Side Story’, ‘Godspell’, ‘Stepping Out’ and many others. He has directed and choreographed musicals such as ‘Grease’, ‘How To Succeed...’ and ‘West Side Story’ for the Academy for Performing Arts at the Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong and has directed in Hungary and Vienna (‘The Rocky Horror Show’), Holland (‘Godspell’), Norway (‘Winnie the Pooh’), Jordan (Old Tyme Musical Hall), America (‘Darling Of The Gods’), and Israel (British Week). Apart from directing he still performs and was recently appeared in the musical ‘Ballroom’ at Waterloo East Theatre. Gerry was Head of Performance and Musical Theatre at Guildford School of Acting for 16 years and recently returned as Head of Musical Theatre Foundation Course

Louise H. Beard - Producer
Louise H. Beard is a Broadway and film producer from Birmingham, Alabama. She has a Tony Award for producing ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ in 2013 and the Olivier-winning 2019 production of ‘Company’. Other Tony-nominated shows she produced on include ‘Death of a Salesmam’, ‘Company’, ‘A Christmas Story, The Musical’ and ‘Dames at Sea’.

Conor Dye - Producer
Conor Dye recently produced the national tour of ‘JULIE: The Musical’ and the off-West End run of ‘Nul Points!’.

Trigger Warnings: This production contains haze, loud noises, flashing lights, strong language, and mature themes including violence and drug   misuse. Audience discretion is advised.