Rosemary Ashe & Richard Gibson star in Irving Berlin’s Call Me Madam
Olivier Award nominee Rosemary Ashe and ‘Allo ‘Allo!‘s Richard Gibson headline a rare revival of Irving Berlin’s 1950 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Call Me Madam, which runs for a limited season at London’s Upstairs at the Gatehouse from 9 September to 10 October 2021, with a press night on 14 September.
The new production returns director Mark Giesser to Upstairs at the Gatehouse after his recent smash hits with two other rarely-seen Broadway musicals: Strike Up the Band and Once Upon a Mattress.
In Call Me Madam, a comedy about love and diplomacy, Sally Adams (Rosemary Ashe) is the unconventional ‘queen of Washington society’ who is appointed US ambassador to the tiny Grand Duchy of Lichtenburg. She’s intent on refusing to shore up that country’s finances with American money.
That is, until she meets Cosmo Constantine (Richard Gibson), the Lichtenburg foreign minister, and finds his charms irresistible. Political chaos ensues, not helped by the budding romance between Sally’s aide, Kenneth, and Princess Maria, heiress to the Lichtenburg throne.
Irving Berlin’s score for Call Me Madam features the hit songs ‘It’s a Lovely Day Today’ and ‘You’re Just in Love’. And Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse’s book sparkles with political satire as pertinent today as it was when President Harry Truman ran the White House.
Can anyone’s career and romantic ambitions survive?
Ashe and Gibson are joined by Offie nominee Beth Burrows (Luck Be a Lady, White Bear Theatre; Once Upon a Mattress, Upstairs at the Gatehouse), Daniel Breakwell (Big Girls Don’t Cry, UK Tour), Kevin Walsh (Guys and Dolls, Prince of Wales Theatre), Zoë Ann Bown (Funny Girl, UK Tour and Sky Arts), Andrew Wheaton (Me and My Girl, Adelphi Theatre), Chrissie Perkins (Evita, Phoenix Theatre) and Georgie Faith (The Little Mermaid, UK Tour).
Mark Giesser has written, produced and directed numerous Equity Off-West End and Off-Broadway shows. His writing work includes satirical drama (Good Morning, Alamo!) and comedy (Code of the West and How To Build a Better Tulip), and he has directed myriad productions such as the UK premiere of Alan Alda‘s drama Radiance, and the 60th-anniversary revival of the original stage play of Gigi. His other recent credits include Sirens of the Silver Screen and The Lady With a Dog.