The concept album of the original new bilingual musical For Tonight, with a cast of West End musical theatre actors and a full Welsh ensemble, will be released on all digital platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon etc) on Friday 30 July 2021. Book, music, and lyrics are by Shenelle Salcido & Spencer Williams, and audio mixed and mastered by Joseph Purdue.
Through a riveting score, For Tonight, a new and original musical, blends traditional Welsh choral, indie-pop, folk, and Romani-inspired melodies and rhythms in an atmospheric soundscape. The musical is inspired by writer Spencer Williams’s three times great grandfather’s handwritten journal and begins in 1832, in a small town in northern Wales when a Roma family travels through, finding shelter on the Parry family farm.
Soon after the arrival of the Roma, the Parry parents die from an unknown disease and the Roma are forced to go into hiding, after being blamed for bringing ‘filth and death’ to Trelawnyd. The story then follows the three Parry children, Thomas, Haydon and Nettie, ten years later, in the aftermath of their parents’ death.
While the eldest brother, Thomas, struggles with guilt surrounding the Roma’s departure, and the pressure of caring for his younger siblings, Haydon runs off to Liverpool in search of a new life, leaving the youngest, Nettie, behind to deal with the overbearing Thomas. In Liverpool, Haydon falls in love with Mirela, a Roma woman, who poses a threat to his already strained family relationships.
Haydon quickly learns, however, that bias runs on both sides and that Mirela’s family will not accept a gadje (an outsider). When events call Haydon to return home, all three siblings must finally face both their past and their biggest fears. At its core, FOR TONIGHT is an exploration of the power and meaning of home.
The British cast is led by Simon Gordon as Haydon Parry, Amy Di Bartolomeo as Mirela, Dale Evans as Thomas Parry, Erin Caldwell as Henrietta (Nettie) Parry, Jade Davies as Molly Llewellyn, Luke McCall as Winn Lewis, Jake Halsey-Jones as Durriken, Soophia Foroughi as Syeira, Glain Rhys as Anne Parry and John Ieuan Jones as Joseph Parry, with Owen Jac as Young Thomas, Isaac Kreisky as Young Haydon and Alexis Wilson as Young Henrietta.
Also in the cast are Jordan Allan, Eva Chelsea, Joey Cornish, Sam Ebenezer, Sion Emlyn, Michelle Beth Herman, Hannah Qureshi, Samantha Thomas and Mared Williams.
The concept album of For Tonight has book, music, and lyrics by Shenelle Salcido and Spencer Williams, with additional book by Whitney Rhodes, orchestrations by Shenelle Salcido and Joseph Purdue and additional arrangements by Drew Wutke, audio production and mixing by Joseph Purdue, music ensemble direction by Iestyn Griffiths and Romani script consultancy by Raine Geoghegan.
The concept album is produced by Blair Russell (Slave Play, the immersive Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd).
