RUTHIE HENSHALL, JULIAN OVENDEN AND ALEXANDER HANSON LEAD CAST IN WORLD PREMIERE OF MARGUERITE - A NEW MUSICAL BY MICHEL LEGRAND, ALAIN BOUBLIL, CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHÖNBERG AND HERBERT KRETZMER  FINAL PRODUCT ION FROM THE THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET COMPANY UNDER THE DIRECTION OF JONATHAN KENT

The final production in Jonathan Kent’s Theatre Royal Haymarket Season will be the world premiere of Marguerite, a new musical with music by Michel Legrand, book by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Jonathan Kent, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer from the original French lyrics by Alain Boublil and orchestrations and arrangements by Michel Legrand and Seann Alderking. Choreography is by Arthur Pita. Marguerite will run at the Haymarket from May 7 with press night on 20 May. Designs are by Paul Brown, with lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Paul Groothuis who have all collaborated with Kent throughout the season.

Marguerite is produced internationally by Marguerite Productions, The Theatre Royal Haymarket Company and Bob Boyett.

A love story set in Paris during the Second World War, Marguerite draws inspiration from one of the greatest of romantic novels, La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas. Marguerite is the beautiful and notorious mistress of a high-ranking German officer. Armand is a young musician half her age who falls obsessively in love with her. Their dangerous love story is played out against the background of Occupied Paris.

Ruthie Henshall, the award-winning West End and Broadway actress, returns to the London stage to play the title role alongside Julian Ovenden who will play Armand and Alexander Hanson who will play German officer, Otto.

The cast includes Annalene Beechey (Annette), Matt Cross (Pierrot), Don Gallagher (Georges), Alexander Hanson (Otto), Ruthie Henshall (Marguerite), Julian Ovenden (Armand) and Simon Thomas (Lucien), with Mark Carroll, Keiron Crook, James Doherty, Siubhan Harrison, Jon-Paul Hevey, Julia Nagle, Duncan Smith, Gay Soper, Phillip Sutton and Lucy Williamson.

In September last year the newly created Theatre Royal Haymarket Company presented their first season of productions under the direction of Jonathan Kent. The opening production - William Wycherley’s restoration comedy The Country Wife starring David Haig, Patricia Hodge and Toby Stephens – has been followed by Edward Bond’s The Sea. With a cast led by Eileen Atkins and David Haig, The Sea continues its run at the Haymarket until 19 April.

BIOGRAPHIES

CAST

Olivier award-winning RUTHIE HENSHALL , who has recently returned to the UK from Broadway,

will play the title role of Marguerite. After being plucked from the chorus and offered one of the

female leads in Boublil and Schönberg’s Miss Saigon, Henshall’s extensive musical theatre credits

on Broadway and in the West End include Stairway to Paradise, The Other Woman, Marion

Halcome in The Woman in White, Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart in Chicago, Fosse, the title role in

Peggy Sue Got Married, Putting It Together, Divorce Me Darling, Nancy in Oliver!, She Loves Me,

Crazy for You and Fantine in Les Misérables. As a recording artist, she has featured on numerous

cast recordings and compilation CDs. Her television work includes The Sound of Musicals, Hey

Mr Producer!, Law and Order and A Christmas Carol. Her solo CDs include Pilgrim, The Ruthie

Henshall Album and Love is Here to Stay and she has featured on many cast recordings

including Miss Saigon, Chicago, She Loves Me, Crazy For You and Les Misérables 10th

Anniversary Album. Ruthie Henshall can currently be seen on ITV1’s Dancing on Ice 2008 as the

new celebrity judge.

JULIAN OVENDEN’ s theatre credits include Baron Felix von Gaigern in Grand Hotel and

Franklin Sheppard in Merrily We Roll Along, both for the Donmar Warehouse, A Woman of No Importance for the Theatre Royal Haymarket, King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Butley at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. His television credits include Cashmere Mafia, Charmed, Related, Poirot, The Royal, The Forsyte Saga and Foyles War.

ALEXANDER HANSON most recently played Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music at the London Palladium. His many music theatre credits include We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre, Enter the Guardsman for the Donmar Warehouse, Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi, Aspects of Love for Chichester Festival Theatre and in the West End, Candide for the National Theatre and A Little Night Music at the Piccadilly Theatre. His other theatre credits include Copenhagen, Troilus and Cressida and The Merchant of Venice all for the National Theatre, Talking to Terrorists for the Royal Court, Arcadia for the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Cracked and The Memory of Water for Hampstead Theatre and Hay Fever, Translations and Robert and Elizabeth all for Chichester Festival Theatre. His film and television credits include Party Animals, The Last Detective II, Rosemary and Thyme and Heartbeat.

ANNALENE BEECHEY’s theatre credits include the National Theatre’s production of Carousel at the Shaftesbury Theatre, the alternate Christine in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Cosette in Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre, Johanna in the Anniversary production of Sweeney Todd at the Royal Festival Hall and Dorothy in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Her film and television work includes The Phantom of the Opera and The Bill.

MATT CROSS’ theatre credits include Days of Hope for the King’s Head, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Assassins for Sheffield Theatres and Our House for the Cambridge Theatre. His television credits include Shameless, Life on Mars, Doctors and Holby City and his film credits include Double Time, Jesus Christ Superstar and Monster.

DON GALLAGHER’s theatre credits include The Producers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, His Dark Materials and Stuff Happens for the National Theatre, Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre, Martin Guerre at the Prince Edward Theatre, as well as Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Richard III and The Winter’s Tale all for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His television credits include Hancock and Joan, Ballet Shoes, Where the Heart Is, The Last Detective and Sea of Souls.

SIMON THOMAS’ theatre credits include Cymbeline, Twelfth Night and HMS Pinafore for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Days of Hope for the King’s Head Theatre. Thomas will be making his West End musical debut as Lucien in Marguerite.

CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar winning composer, arranger, conductor and pianist MICHEL LEGRAND has composed over 200 film scores including The Thomas Crown Affair (The Windmills of Your Mind) and Summer of 42 as well as several musicals including Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Yentl which have won him three Oscars and five Grammys. He was 22 when his first album, I Love Paris, became one of the best-selling instrumental albums ever released. His albums now number over 100 spanning jazz, musical theatre, variety and classical styles on which he has worked with Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Jack Jones, Regine Velasquez, Ella Fitzgerald, Perry Como, Lena Horne, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, James Ingram, Johnny Mathis, Barbara Streisand and many other leading musicians.

ALAIN BOUBL IL is the author of librettos and lyrics for La Révolution Française (1973), Les Misérables (1980), Miss Saigon (1989), Martin Guerre (1996) and The Pirate Queen (2006) - all in collaboration with Claude-Michel Schönberg. Boublil is the recipient of two Tony awards (Best Score and Best Book), two Grammys, two Victoire de la Musique Awards and a Molière Award for Les Misérables. He has also received an Evening Standard Drama Award for Miss Saigon and a Laurence Olivier Award for Martin Guerre. He is author/librettist of Abbacadabra, with songs by Abba (1984), author of the play The Diary of Adam and Eve (based upon short stories by Mark Twain), and the prize-winning French novel, Les dessous de soi. Boublil wrote, with Michel Legrand, the stage adaptation of Jacques Demy’s film Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (2003).

CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHÖNBERG was born of Hungarian parents and began his career as a singer, writer and producer of popular songs. He wrote the musical scores for La Révolution Française, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre. He has also supervised overseas productions of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon and co-produced several international cast albums of his shows. In 2001 Schönberg composed his first ballet score, Wuthering Heights, which was created by the Northern Ballet Theatre in September 2002. The Pirate Queen, his recent collaboration with Alain Boublil, was his sixth complete score.

Lyricist HERBERT KRETZMER has previously collaborated with Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg on the multi award-winning Les Misérables. His theatre work includes book and lyrics for Our Man Crichton at the Shaftesbury Theatre and lyrics for The Four Musketeers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. His award-winning lyrics include Goodness Gracious Me, recorded by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren for which he won the Ivor Novello Award and Yesterday When I was Young and She, both recorded by Charles Aznavour. As a lyricist he regularly contributed songs to That Was the Week That Was, ABC of Britain and BBC-3. Kretzmer was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1988.

Director JONATHAN KENT established the Almeida Theatre as a full-time producing house with Ian McDiarmid in 1990. He was joint artistic director for 12 years. His productions included Ibsen’s When We Dead Awaken, Dryden’s All for Love, Euripides’ Medea (also West End and Broadway), Anthony Burgess’ new version of Griboyedov’s Chatsky, Bernhard’s The Showman, Moliere’s The School for Wives, Louis Mellis and David Scinto’s Gangster No. 1, Moliere’s Tartuffe, David Hare’s versions of The Life of Galileo, The Rules of the Game, Ivanov, John Byrne’s version of Gogol’s The Government Inspector, Nicholas Wright’s version of Pirandello’s Naked and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. His production of Hamlet also opened at the Hackney Empire, before transferring to Broadway. Kent directed Richard II and Coriolanus in repertoire for the Almeida at Gainsborough Studios. The two productions toured to New York and Tokyo. In 1998 he opened a season for the Almeida at the Albery Theatre in the West End with two Racine tragedies in repertoire – Phèdre (in a new version by Ted Hughes) and Britannicus, both of which toured to New York. He closed the season with his revival of David Hare’s Plenty. The Almeida at Kings Cross season opened in 2001 with Kent’s production of Lulu by Frank Wedekind, (also Kennedy Centre, Washington DC). Other Kings Cross productions included David Hare’s new version of Chekhov’s Platonov, Faith Healer by Brian Friel and King Lear.

Other theatre credits include Corneille’s Le Cid, David Hare’s new version of Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children and Martin Crimp’s new version of Marivaux’s The False Servant, all for the National Theatre. Kent directed Man of La Mancha on Broadway in 2002, Hamlet in Japan and London in 2003, Hecuba at the Donmar Warehouse in 2004, Edward Bond’s Lear at the Sheffield Crucible in 2005 and Hugh Whitemore’s new version of Pirandello’s As You Desire Me in the West End 2005/6 and Brian Friel’s Faith Healer on Broadway in 2006.

His opera work includes Katya Kabanova, Lucio Silla and Tom Ades’s The Tempest all for Santa Fe Opera, A Child of our Time for English National Opera, Tosca for the Royal Opera House, Elektra for the Mariinsky, St Petersburg and The Turn of the Screw for Glyndebourne.

Future projects include The Marriage of Figaro (2008) and the world premiere of Paul Moravec and Terry Teachout’s new opera The Letter (2009) both for Sante Fe Opera, Oedipus for the National Theatre and The Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne, also Paris and New York.

THE THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET COMPANY

From September 2007, under the leadership of Chairman Arnold Crook, the theatre embarked on an unprecedented new initiative, launching the first Theatre Royal Haymarket Company, under the direction of Jonathan Kent.

Working closely with Kent and in a unique development to coincide with their tenth anniversary, the Haymarket’s pioneering Masterclass programme has created and run a new apprentice training scheme for actors, directors and designers working within the company, giving a vital first opportunity in the industry for talented young people.

The historic Theatre Royal Haymarket, a Grade 1 listed building built in 1821 by John Nash, was erected on The Haymarket a short distance from the original site which dates back to 1720.

More recently, in 1994, under the direction of Arnold Crook and the Board of Directors, a £1.3 million investment saw a major overhaul and refurbishment of the theatre, restoring the building to its original glory as well as the modernisation of facilities for both theatregoers and theatre practitioners alike.  May 2008