Casting is today announced for the UK professional première at London’s Charing Cross Theatre of Amour, a musical fantasy about daring to dream and the power of self-belief, with music by multi award-winning Michel Legrand with English lyrics by Jeremy Sams (from the original French by Didier Van Cauwelaert).
Gary Tushaw (Tateh in Ragtime, Charing Cross Theatre; Joseph Taylor Jr in Allegro, Southwark Playhouse) will play Dusoleil and Anna O’Byrne (Laura Fairlie in The Woman In White, Charing Cross Theatre; Christine Daaé, Phantom Of The Opera and Love Never Dies, West End) will play Isabelle. Alasdair Harvey (Sunday In The Park With George, Mamma Mia! We Will Rock You, Sunset Boulevard, all West End) will play the Prosecutor, Isabelle’s controlling husband.
They will be joined by Elissa Churchill (Elephant Steps, Arcola); Claire Machin (Memphis, The Pyjama Game, West End; Flowers For Mrs Harris, Chichester; Titanic, Charing Cross Theatre & UK tour); Keith Ramsay (The Cereal Cafe, The Other Palace; and a cabaret artist, Black Cat Cabaret at Crazy Coqs, Wilton’s Music Hall and Spiegeltent at London Wonderground); Steven Serlin (The Wild Party, The Other Palace; Oklahoma!, Grange Park Opera; Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, West End); Alistair So (The King & I, West End; Jimmy Winter in Nice Work If You Can Get It, Upstairs At The Gatehouse); Daniel Stockton (Nicely Nicely Johnson in Guys & Dolls, Kilworth House); with understudies Laura Barnard and Jack Reitman.
Paris, 1950 – a shy, unassuming civil servant, Dusoleil, lives alone and works diligently in a dreary office. To pass the time, he writes letters to his mother and daydreams about the beautiful Isabelle, who is kept locked away by her controlling husband. When Dusoleil miraculously gains the ability to walk through walls, he not only begins to lead a double life, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor to right the wrongs of his war-impoverished Parisian neighbours, but also gains the self-confidence to woo Isabelle and, just for a while, live the life he has always longed for.
Adapted from a 1943 short story Le Passe-Muraille by Marcel Aymé, Amour opened on Broadway in 2002 and was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Michel Legrand, who sadly passed away, aged 86, on 26 January 2019, was predominantly a jazz musician and film composer with 200 film and television scores to his credit. In a prolific career he won three Oscars – Best Original Dramatic Score: Summer of ‘42, Best Original Song Score Yentl and Best Song The Windmills of Your Mind from The Thomas Crown Affair – and five Grammys.
He made his Broadway debut with Amour. Other West End musicals include The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg and Marguerite, with Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (creators of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon).
Producer Danielle Tarento said “Whilst I am so delighted to be producing this beautiful show, there is a tinge of sadness that Michel never got to see Amour in London, something that he
sorely wanted. I hope the production serves as a fitting tribute to this extraordinary man.”
Amour runs from Thursday 2 May – Saturday 20 July.
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