Baker Mukasa and Hannah Azuonye lead cast of musical Brief Encounter at Royal Exchange Theatre

Baker Mukasa and Hannah Azuonye will star in a new musical production of Brief Encounter.

Emma Rice’s smash hit stage adaptation of Noël Coward’s iconic original will run at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.

The production, helmed by Sarah Frankcom, will feature musical numbers drawn from Coward’s songbook performed by live Jazz on stage.

It marks the 50th anniversary since the playwright’s death and showcases his remarkable talent as a writer, composer and songwriter.

In a busy railway station, where everyone is simply passing through, Laura and Alec find each other. Falling passionately and wildly in love in a few stolen moments they live and breathe a lifetime of epic emotions, reawakening everything they buried deep inside. Together they find themselves in a bittersweet, hopelessly romantic, elegantly awkward love affair.

Hannah Azuonye and Baker Mukasa star as Laura and Alec respectively, joined on the cast by Matthew Allen, Georgia Frost, Richard Glaves, Christina Modestou and Ida Regan.

The production has design by Rose Revitt, lighting design by Simeon Miller, sound design by Russ Ditchfield, orchestrations, musical supervision and direction by Matthew Malone, movement direction by Sundeep Saini, casting direction by Hannah Miller CDG and Birkbeck assistant director Amara Heyland.

Director Sarah Frankcom said: “Remembering Noël Coward in this 50th anniversary year allows us to really foreground his mastery as a remarkable songwriter responsible for delivering and performing some of the most iconic songs of the last 100 years. I’m really looking forward to creating a production that allows these enduring characters to inhabit the world of the song and lets us understand the inside of their hearts.”

For more information and tickets, visit royalexchange.co.uk