New musical adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover coming to the West End
A new musical adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover is to arrive on the West End in June.
The stage version of D.H. Lawrence’s infamous literary classic will hold its world premiere at the Shaftesbury Theatre for a limited run between 18 and 19 June 2021.
The show will be filmed to stream later in the year before future live performances.
The impassioned tale of female agency and Lady Chatterley’s pursuit of a life more than half lived changed the literary landscape of Britain. Banned as scandalous erotica when first published and subject of a watershed obscenity trial, Lawrence’s text caused outrage not just because of the expletives and explicit sexual relationship, but because it presented a physical relationship that traversed social class divides. This intense and fiery classic will find new frenzied power in its translation to the stage.
The musical features a score by John Robinson (Behind the Iron Mask, Duchess Theatre; Closer to the Sun, Harold Pinter Theatre) and book by Phil Willmott (Once Upon a Time At the Adelphi; Relativity: The Einstein Musical).
Georgia Lennon (One Enchanted Evening, Glastonbury Abbey; Beauty and the Beast, Grand Opera House, Belfast) will lead the cast in the role of Lady Chatterley.
Alongside her, the aloof and wonderfully sarcastic gamekeeper Mellors will be brought to life by Michael Pickering (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, London Palladium; Starlight Express, Germany).
Lennon and Pickering will be joined by Zoe Rogers (42nd Street, Theatre Royal Drury Lane) as Hilda, Jake Halsey-Jones (Hamilton, Victoria Palace Theatre) as Tommy, Sam Kipling (All-Male Pirates of Penzance, Palace Theatre) as war hero Sir Clifford and Emma Lindars (Groundhog Day, The Old Vic; Made in Dagenham, Adelphi Theatre) as Mrs Bolton, Clifford’s nurse.
The West End production will be directed by the award-winning Sasha Regan (Blondel, Union Theatre; The Last Five Years, St. James Theatre) with production design by Andrew Exeter (High Fidelity, Turbine Theatre; Scaramouche Jones, Stream.Theatre).
Orchestrations come from Bjorn Dobbelaere with lighting by Nic Farman, movement by Chris Whittaker and musical direction by Michael Bradley.
Composer John Robinson said: “I am thrilled to be back in the West End with my latest musical – it’s a project very close to my heart given my own roots in D.H. Lawrence country and I hope to give due justice to both the ground-breaking novel as well as the area in which it is set.
“By recording the show for streaming later this year we’re also guaranteeing it a fabulous future life to ensure more audiences.”
Tickets priced from £14.50 are available from shaftesburytheatre.com.
