NEW MUSICAL BY MICHEL LEGRAND/ALAIN BOUBLIL/CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHÖNBERG
AND HERBERT KRETZMER – A WORLD PREMIERE
The final production in Jonathan Kent’s Haymarket season will be the world premiere of Marguerite, a new musical with music by Michel Legrand, book by Alain Boublil and 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.
Ruthie Henshall, the award-winning West End and Broadway actress, returns to the London stage to play the title role. Marguerite will run for a limited season at the Haymarket from 6 May – 1 November, with press night on 20 May. Designs are by Paul Brown, with lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Paul Groothuis.
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 Camellias 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.
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 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 Miserables. As a recording artist, she has featured on numerous cast recordings and compilation CD’s. Her solo CD’s include Pilgrim, The Ruthie Henshall Album and Love is Here to Stay.
Oscar winning musical composer, arranger, conductor and pianist MICHEL LEGRAND has composed over 200 film and television scores as well as several musicals and has made well over a hundred albums. He has won three Oscars and five Grammys, and has been nominated for an Emmy. He was 22 when his first album, I Love Paris, became one of the best-selling instrumental albums ever released. Legrand has recorded over 100 albums with international musical stars (spanning the genres of jazz, variety and classical) working with musicians such as Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Jack Jones, Regine Velasquez, Ella Fitzgerald, Perry Como, Lena Horne, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, James Ingram, Johnny Mathis and Barbra Streisand.
ALAIN BOUBLIL 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 Grammy’s, 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 in 1944 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.
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