Curve Leicester: The Color Purple and Sunset Boulevard concerts casting and dates

Curve Leicester has announced re-opening plans with a trio of socially distanced productions.

The theatre, which has been closed since March, will resume performances in November with a new reconfigured auditorium.

The new in the round set up will welcome up to 533 audience members centred around a triple-revolve, donated by Sir Cameron Mackintosh.

The season will include:

Sunset Boulevard In Concert – 18 December to 9 January
Christmas will see the return of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical masterpiece Sunset Boulevard from 14 Dec to 3 Jan,. The concert performances will be directed by Nikolai Foster, with Ria Jones and Danny Mac reprising their roles as Norma Desmond and Joe Gillis. Molly Lynch will reprise her role as Betty Schaefer, Adam Pearce returns as Max Von Mayerling, Dougie Carter as Artie Green and Carl Sanderson as Cecil B DeMille.

The Sunset Boulevard company will also include Benjamin Chambers, Owen Chaponda, Joanna Goodwin, Kristoffer Hellström, James Meunier, Gemma Naylor, Joanna O’Hare, Jessica Paul, Sam Peggs and Barney Wilkinson. The performances will also feature a 16-piece orchestra.

Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual – 25 January to 6 February
Kicking off the new year from 25 Jan to 6 Feb 2021, Curve will revive its 2018 production of Memoirs Of An Asian Football Casual, winner of the Asian Media Award for Best Stage Production. Director Nikolai Foster will bring a stadium feel to the production while Hareet Deol will reprise his role as Suf Khan in Dougal Irvine’s drama based on the real life of reformed Leicester football hooligan Riaz Khan, who will also rejoin the cast.

The Color Purple In Concert – 1 to 13 March
The Color Purple will return to Curve in a concert staged by original production team members Director Tinuke Craig, Musical Director Alex Parker and Choreographer Mark Smith. T’Shan Williams (Celie) will return for the performances. KM Drew Boateng, Owen Chaponda, Perola Congo, Danielle Kassarate, Anelisa Lamola, Karen Mavundukure, Rosemary Annabella Nkrumah, Landi Oshinowo, Simon Anthony Rhoden and Jo Servi, will also return to Curve’s stage next year.

Tickets for Sunset Boulevard, Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual and The Color Purple at Curve are on sale now.

Both concert performances of The Color Purple and Sunset Boulevard at Curve will be staged thanks to the support of music licensing company PPL PRS Ltd. Full casting for all three productions will be revealed in due course, with The Color Purple and Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual casting by Curve Associate Kay Magson CDG, and Sunset Boulevard casting by David Grindrod CDG.

Curve’s reopening plans are only possible due to grant funding received from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund and the ongoing support of Arts Council England and Leicester City Council.

Additionally, Curve has also reaffirmed its commitment to developing new work. A group of local creatives and theatre makers across a variety of disciplines will take up residency at Curve in the new year. The full cohort of Curve Resident Creatives will be announced in the coming months.

And as the building reopens for performances, Curve will also welcome back its Curve Youth and Community Companies and local Curve Associate Artists and Groups who have continued to engage in classes with the theatre online whilst the building has been closed.

Photo credit: Ellie Kurttz