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Legally Blonde confirms Park Open Air cast

As rehearsals get underway for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s upcoming 2022 season, the full cast of its production of Legally Blonde has been unveiled.

Joining Courtney Bowman, who will take the lead role as Elle, are Gabriela Benedetti, Lucca Chadwick-Patel, Jasmin Colangelo, Allie Daniel, Joe Foster, Dominic Lamb, Esme Laudat, Liam McEvoy, Billy Nevers, Ashley Rowe, Shakira Simpson, Biancha Szynal and Paulo Teixeira (also Dance Captain).

Other cast previously announced are Michael Ahomka-Lindsay (Emmett), Lauren Drew (Brooke), Vanessa Fisher (Vivienne), Isaac Hesketh (Margot), Nadine Higgin (Paulette), Alžbeta Matyšáková (Enid), Eugene McCoy (Callahan), Grace Mouat (Pilar), Alistair Toovey (Warner) and Hannah Yun Chamberlain (Serena).

When she is dumped by her Harvard Law School boyfriend, fashion merchandising major Elle Woods embarks on a drastic plan to win him back, only to discover that there is more to love – and definitely Elle Woods – than meets the eye.

Based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the MGM feature film starring Reese Witherspoon, the show is directed by Lucy Moss (Six). It is written by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin (music and lyrics) and Heather Hach (book).

Other creatives include Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong (dramaturg), Cat Beveridge (musical supervisor), Jean Chan (costume designer), Shanaé Chisholm (casting assistant), Natalie Gallacher CDG for Pippa Ailion Casting (casting director), Tony Gayle (sound designer), Phillip Gladwell (lighting designer), Ainsley Hall Ricketts (assistant choreographer), Laura Hopkins (set designer), Barbara Houseman (voice & text and season associate director), Majella Hurley (dialect coach), Ellen Kane (choreographer), Ingrid Mackinnon (season associate: intimacy support), Priya Patel Appleby (associate director), Chris Poon (associate musical director), Alexzandra Sarmiento (assistant choreographer), Amber Sinclair-Case (associate director) and Katharine Woolley (musical director).

Legally Blonde, which opens on May 13, marks the start of the Open Air Theatre’s 90th anniversary season. The line-up also includes 101 Dalmatians and Antigone.

Cast unveiled for The Breach

The cast for Naomi Wallace’s play The Breach, coming to Hampstead Theatre, has been set.

Charlie Beck (Masters Of The Air), Jasmine Blackborow (Shadow and Bone), Alfie Jones (Teenage Dick, Richard III), Tom Lewis (Gentleman Jack), Douggie McMeekin (Bach & Sons, Chernobyl), Stanley Morgan (The Sandman) and Shannon Tarbet (Yous Two, Killing Eve) will lead the show, which is directed by Sarah Frankcom (West Side Story, Light Falls).

The creative team also includes designer Naomi Dawson, lighting director Rick Fisher, sound designer Tingying Dong, voice director Michaela Kennen, movement director Jennifer Jackson, casting director Nadine Rennie and assistant director Tramaine Reindorf.

The story introduces the Diggs siblings, for whom love knows no limits. There’s nothing that 17-year-old Jude won’t do to keep her younger brother Acton safe. Growing up in the turbulence of 1970s America, Jude works nights and weekends to pay the bills, just so that they can stay together and with their mother. But when Acton’s troublesome pals form a club in their basement, a foolish game threatens to upend Jude’s plans, and derail their lives forever. How far will Jude go to protect her brother? And who will pay the eventual price of her doing so?

Wallace (One Flea Spare, Slaughter City) said: “The Breach is my first in a trilogy of plays focused on different communities in my home state of Kentucky. It tells a story of love and survival amongst a specific set of youths in 1970s America, shining light on the political landscape designed to fail them and the American Dream intended to fool them. I am thrilled that the play is receiving its UK premiere at Hampstead Theatre, and I am excited to see what director Sarah Frankcom and the fantastic ensemble of young actors bring to The Breach.”

The Breach will run at Hampstead from May 6 until June 4, 2022.