Rodgers and Hart’s classic 1938 musical comedy adaptation of The Comedy of Errors returns to the London stage for the first time in over ten years in a madcap tale of mistaken identity, danger and romance in ancient Greece! Arguably Rodgers and Hart’s best, the score of The Boys From Syracuse includes the hit songs Falling in Love with Love, This Can’t Be Love and Sing for Your Supper.
Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio, arrive in Ephesus as part of a long search for their respective identical twins, from whom they were separated as children during a shipwreck. But citizens of Syracuse caught in Ephesus are subject to the death penalty. As fate has it, there’s another Antipholus who’s an established citizen of Ephesus, served by another Dromio. Confusions multiply as wives are baffled by husbands, one twin is wrongly jailed and Antipholus of Syracuse falls in love with his wife’s sister – or does he?
The cast is comprised of Caroline Kennedy (Sweeney Todd, The Lowry, Theatre Royal Bath; HMS Pinafore, National Gilbert and Sullivan Festival; The Barber of Seville, Regents Opera), Georgie Faith (Lead Vocalist on Viking Orion; Call Me Madam, Upstairs at the Gatehouse), Karen Wilkinson (Standing at the Sky’s Edge, West End and National Theatre; Phantom of the Opera, West End; Magic of the Musicals, Magic FM at The Royal Albert Hall), Bernadine Pritchett (Phantom of the Opera, West End; Carmen Jones, West End; The King and I, National Tour), John Faal (Sense and Sensibility: The Musical, Surrey Opera; Il Trovatore, Loire Valley Festival; BBC Dr Who Symphonic Spectacular, BBC UK Tour), Brendan Matthew (Gregorian-Pure Chants, USA Tour/Broadway; Guy-the Musical, UK Tour; The Boy Friend, West End), Simon de Deney (The Crown, Netflix; Emmerdale, ITV; The Importance of Being Earnest, Ambassadors Theatre Group) and Enzo Benvenuti (Romeo and Juliet, ADG Europe; Renegade Nell, Walt Disney Television).
Director Mark Giesser comments, I’ve always been a big fan of Lorenz Hart’s sophisticated, ironic and yet emotionally touching lyric writing, and I think his brilliant collaboration with Richard Rodgers is often overshadowed today by the enduring popularity of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s subsequent work. Rodgers and Hammerstein are credited with perfecting the classic American musical form, but the Rodgers and Hart partnership certainly laid the foundation for that success. Their work should be given every bit as much attention, and in particular, The Boys From Syracuse, combining the Rodgers and Hart genius with the book-writing finesse of the great George Abbott, is a show with which modern devotees of classic musicals should be more familiar.
Rodgers and Hart claimed that The Boys From Syracuse was the first musicalisation of a Shakespeare play, and legend has it that they were inspired by the uncanny resemblance between Lorenz Hart’s brother, actor Teddy Hart and a fellow actor. The musical was made into a Hollywood film in 1940, and has been revived continuously since its Broadway debut, mostly in the USA. It first came to the West End in 1963 following a major Off-Broadway revival, and was revived at Regents Open Air Theatre in 1991 in a production directed by Dame Judi Dench.
The Boys From Syracuse is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd.
