Ruffelle Heads London Cast of Finn's 'Make Me a Song'

London's New Player's Theatre will play host to the UK premiere of the recent Off-Broadway show, Make Me a Song - a "songfest" of numbers from the inspirational pen of Tony Award winning composer/lyricist, William Finn.

Make Me a Song is the brain-child of director Rob Ruggiero, which premiered in Hartford Connecticut in the spring of 2006 and played 54 performances in New York in November/December 2007. The score is an eclectic mix of songs drawn from Finn's musical theatre body of work.

In addition to the recent Broadway hit, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Finn wrote music and lyrics for A New Brain and a trilogy of one act musicals, In Trousers, March Of The Fallsettos and Falsettoland (the two latter parts later being merged to form the Broadway musical Falsettos, which won Finn the Tony Award for Best Music and Lyrics in 1992.) Finn also wrote Elegies: A Song Cycle (staged at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre at New York's Lincoln Centre in 2003) and is currently working on a new show aimed for The Great White Way, The Royal Family Of Broadway.

The London production of Make Me A Song will be directed by Andrew McBean, aided by musical director Matt Bind and designer Ben M. Rogers. The performers will consist of: Tony Award winner, Frances Ruffelle (the original Eponine in Les Miserables in both London and New York), Louise Dearman (Sarah Brown in the West End's recent Guys and Dolls), Gareth Snook (of the Donmar's Company and Assassins), Simon Thomas (who will appear in the new Michel Legrand musical Marguerite in the West End in May) and Ian H. Watkins (formerly of the pop group Steps).

Ghostlight Records will release Make Me a Song's live Off-Broadway cast album in March and the production at The New Players Theatre will open on March 6 (following previews from March 3) and run until April 6.