Anna Mackmin has announced her cast for the Christmas revival of Me and My Girl at the Sheffield Crucible, opening on 2 December.
Jemima Rooper will star as Sally and Daniel Crossley as Bill in the new version of Noel Gay’s classic show, alongside Miriam Margolyes as the Duchess.
Anna Mackmin, who recently directed Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing at the Old Vic, will be directing her first musical. She is working with scriptwriter Stephen Russell to give the book of the show, which was rewritten by Stephen Fry for the successful 1980s West End production, a bit more sparkle. Choreography will be by Stephen Mear and design by Peter McKintosh.
Jemima Rooper came to prominence in Channel Four drama As If and has had numerous screen and stage roles including her current performance in All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre alongside Zoe Wanamaker and David Suchet.
Daniel Crossley, who is the partner of Sheffield artistic director Daniel Evans, is an accomplished musicals actor having appeared in high-profile shows including Mary Poppins, Chicago, Fosse and last summer’s Hello Dolly! at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park.
The show is widely tipped to head to the West End after its Sheffield run given that it has been 17 years since the Leicester Haymarket Theatre’s production left the Adelphi Theatre in London after 8 years, 3,303 performances and lots of Lambeth walking by the likes of Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson. The production made a lot of money for all concerned so it’s a canny Daniel Evans, Sheffield’s artistic director, who’s resurrecting it.
LINKS
Me and My Girl – Sheffield Theatres
CREDITS
Daniel Crossley: theatre credits include Bert in Mary Poppins (UK tour), A Chours Line (Sheffield Crucible) Anything Goes and Love’s Labour’s Lost (National Theatre) Twelfth Night (West Yorkshire Playhouse) Chicago (Adelphi Theatre) Kiss of the Spider Woman (Hull Truck) and at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Hello Dolly, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oh What a Lovely War.
Miriam Margolyes: stage credits include Madame Morrible in both the London & Broadway productions of Wicked, Blithe Spirit (Melbourne Theatre Company) The Importance of Being Earnest (Bath Theatre Royal and US tour), The Vagina Monologues, Sir Peter Hall’s Los Angeles production of Romeo & Juliet and The Killing of Sister George and The Threepenny Opera . Most recently, she starred in Theatre du Complicite’s West End production of Beckett’s Endgame, playing Nell, for which she won the Whatsonstage.com award for Best Supporting Actress for the second time. As well as her famed cameos in the Blackadder series, her television work includes Inconceivable, Wallis & Edward and Fall of the House of Windsor; and for film, The Age of Innocence (for which she won a Bafta for best supporting actress), How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (she will reprise the role of Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), Ladies in Lavender, Being Julia, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and James and the Giant Peach.
Jemima Rooper: currently performing in All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre on the West End. Her other theatre credits include The Power of Yes and Her Naked Skin (National Theatre), We Live (Royal Court) Now is the Time (Tricycle Theatre). For television Lost in Austen, Silent Witness, The Railway Children and as series regular in As I, she is also about to star in new ITV drama A Bouquet of Barbed Wire. For film, her credits include Black Dahlia, Kinky Boots and A Sound of Thunder.
Anna Mackmin, director: Mackmin was previously an Associate Director for the company, where her credits included Cloud Nine, The Crucible, Iphigenia, Teeth ‘n’ Smiles and The Arbor. She also formed and ran the literary department at Sheffield Theatres during her tenure. Mackmin’s production of The Real Thing opened recently at The Old Vic to critical acclaim. Her other directing credits include Really Old, Like Forty Five (National Theatre), Dancing at Lughnasa (Old Vic), Hedda Gabler (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Under the Blue Sky, In Celebration (Duke of York’s Theatre), Intolerance – Shoot Get Treasure Repeat, Citizenship/Chatroom/Burn (National Theatre, national & international tour) and Dying for It (Almeida Theatre). Mackmin has also worked for theatre companies including The Gate, Donmar Warehouse, The Bush, Young Vic, Royal Court and Battersea Arts Centre.
