Vertigo Announce UK First With DIE MOMMIE DIE and DON'T ASK DON'T TELL

Vertigo Theatre Productions are gearing up for an impressive new season of shows during the next 12 months that looks set to be their biggest year to date.

Named one of ‘Manchester’s Premier Fringe Theatre Companies’ they have already scored hits with ‘M’, Rage and OUT amongst others.

Putting Vertigo on the map however was their UK Premiere production of Bert V. Royal’s award winning Off Broadway play ‘Dog Sees God; Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead’, the company enjoyed 2 sell out runs at Taurus and The Lowry where they scored rave reviews and worldwide press. Now the team have scored an incredible SECOND UK first.

 

From March 21^st at Taurus, Vertigo will present Tony Nominated writer Charles Busch’s cult Off Broadway smash ‘Die Mommie Die’. Busch is a huge Broadway and Off Broadway writer and actor thanks to his genre parodies and cross dressing leading lady status including Psycho Beach Party, Vampire Lesbians Of Sodom and The Lady in Question to name a few as well as his Broadway work including the Tony Nominated ‘The Allergists Wife’ and his work on the Broadway musical Taboo as book writer. As well as theatre Busch has also written the screenplays for the movie versions of his Stage shows Die Mommie Die and Psycho Beach Party, and his directing debut with A Very Serious Person.

Heading up the UK cast as Angela Arden will be Dale Vicker stepping in to the iconic role made famous on stage and Screen by Busch himself. Joining Vicker will be Emma Willcox as Edith and Richard Allen as Lance with more casting to be announced soon. The show will be directed by Craig Hepworth and Adele Stanhope.

Die Mommie Die tells the story of Angela Arden, a fallen pop diva trapped in a hateful marriage to film producer Sol Sussman. Desperate to find happiness with her younger lover, Angela gruesomely murders her husband with the aid of a poisoned suppository, leaving her two children to avenge their father's death. The show is part spoof and part homage to the time that gave us the domineering female lead roles such as Bette Davies (Dead Ringer), Lana Turner (Portrait in Black) and of course Joan Crawford (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane).

It’s a camp classic with a huge cult following.

Vertigo also have a new original play taking to the stage in 2011 with the now lottery funded Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.   Written by Craig Hepworth and Adele Stanhope and starring Dale Vicker, Rick Carter, Benn Rayner, Christopher Faith, Richard Allen and Adele Stanhope (more casting to be announced soon) it tells the true life story of a private in the American army and his death at the hands of his fellow soldiers due to the relationship he was having with a transgender showgirl. The show is a heartbreaking look at a love that could have been and also delves inside the minds of the people responsible for the young soldier’s death.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell will present a workshop production/reading of the show in November 2010 at AXM before bringing the full scale production of the play to a large venue (to be announced very soon) in July 2011. This promises to be the biggest production the company have ever staged to date.

“DADT is a play I’m very proud of,” says Vertigo co-owner Craig Hepworth. “It’s such an important story and I think myself and my writing partner Adele Stanhope have captured something very special, I’m thrilled that the National Lottery/Arts Council agree and can’t wait to bring this show to a large stage, it’s a very exciting time here at Vertigo.”

 

 

 

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