Simon Friend Entertainment and Leeds Playhouse announce the full cast and creative team for the UK premiere of Here You Come Again. The show receives its UK premiere in Leeds this spring, where it runs from Saturday 11 May to Saturday 8 June ahead of a major UK tour.
Aidan Cutler (Backing Vocalist and Cover ‘Kevin’) and Charlotte Elisabeth Yorke (Backing Vocalist and Cover ‘Dolly’) join the cast alongside previously announced star and co-writer Tricia Paoluccio, who reprises her celebrated role as ‘Dolly’ following US acclaim and West End star Steven Webb (Oliver!, Book of Mormon) as ‘Kevin’, a 40-year-old, ‘has-been-who-never-was’ comedian in the new musical. Richard John is Musical Supervisor, Jordan Li-Smith is Musical Director, Kevin Oliver Jones joins the band on Bass, Alex Crawford on Guitar and Ben Scott on Drums.
Having enjoyed several successful runs across the United States, Here You Come Again was originally written by multi-Emmy award-winning comedy and songwriter Bruce Vilanch with Gabriel Barre (who also directs) and writer and actor Tricia Paoluccio (who co-writes and stars as Dolly). Acclaimed British TV and theatre writer Jonathan Harvey (Gimme, Gimme, Gimme and Coronation Street) provides additional material for the production’s UK run.
The wider creative team comprises Gabriel Barre as Director; Set and Costume Designer, Paul Wills; Choreographer, Lizzie Gee; Lighting Designer, Tim Deiling; Sound Designer, Tom Marshall; Associate Director/Assistant Choreographer, Teenie MacLeod; Illusion Designer, Richard Pinner; Orchestrator, Eugene Gwozdz; Orchestra Manager, Maurice Cambridge; Production Manager, Ben Arkell and Casting Director, Stuart Burt.
For the first time ever, all of Dolly Parton’s biggest hits are brought together in a rollicking and joyful new musical, fully authorised by Dolly herself. Packed with iconic songs like Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, I Will Always Love You, Here You Come Again and more, this lively and touching new musical tells the story of a diehard fan whose imagined version of international icon Dolly Parton gets him through trying times.
Kevin has just separated from his long-time boyfriend, Jeremy, an investment banker, and is in quarantine in the attic bedroom of his childhood home in Yorkshire. Surrounded by precious belongings from his youth, he is reunited with a much-loved old record player and his cherished Dolly albums. He remembers the hard times those songs helped him through in the past and counts on them to help him once again. With her wit, humour and charm, Dolly teaches him a whole lot about life, love and how to pull yourself up by your bootstraps… even if your bootstraps don’t have rhinestones!
After its UK premiere in Leeds, the tour then continues to: Curve Theatre, Leicester; Theatre Royal, Newcastle; Arts Theatre, Cambridge; Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury; Theatre Royal, Nottingham; Malvern Theatres, Malvern; Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen; Cliffs Pavilion, Southend; Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff; Theatre Royal, Brighton; Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham; Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield; Richmond Theatre, Richmond; King’s Theatre, Glasgow; Theatre Royal, Norwich; Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham; New Victoria Theatre, Woking; The Lowry, Salford; Theatre Royal, Bath; Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes; Grand Theatre, Blackpool Grand before concluding at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool.
