FINAL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR
THE UK AND IRELAND TOUR OF
MOTHER GOOSE
THE NATION’S PANTOMIME
ANNA-JANE CASEY
TO JOIN
IAN McKELLEN AND JOHN BISHOP
OPENING AT THEATRE ROYAL BRIGHTON ON 3 DECEMBER 2022
BEFORE A SEASON IN THE WEST END AT
THE DUKE OF YORK’S THEATRE
FROM 15 DECEMBER 2022 TO 29 JANUARY 2023
Ambassador Theatre Group Productions are delighted to announce final casting for the UK and Ireland Tour of the pantomime MOTHER GOOSE. Anna-Jane Casey will join the show as Cilla The Goose with Mairi Barclay, Becca Francis, Shailan Gohil and Laura Tyrer also confirmed to join the company. www.mothergooseshow.co.uk
They join the previously announced Ian McKellen as Mother Goose, John Bishop as Vic Goose, Oscar Conlon-Morrey as Jack, Simbi Akande as Jill, Sharon Ballard as Good Fairy Encanta and Karen Mavundukure as Evil Fairy Malignia. The cast is completed by Adam Brown, Gabriel Fleary, Richard Leeming and Genevieve Nicole.
A West End star for over three decades, Anna-Jane Casey was most recently seen as Fraulein Kost in the award-winning production of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. Her many other West End credits include Velma Kelly in Chicago, Mrs Wilkinson in Billy Elliot, Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, Anita in West Side Story, Rizzo in Grease, Buffy, Dinah and Pearl in Starlight Express and Rumpleteazer in Cats. She played Dot in Sunday in the Park with George at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Mabel in Mack and Mabel at the Watermill Theatre, for which she won the TMA Award for Best Performance in a Musical and the title roles in Piaf and Sweet Charity and Violet Butterfield in Flowers for Mrs Harris, all at the Sheffield Crucible.
MOTHER GOOSE will play at the Theatre Royal Brighton from 3 – 11 December 2022, before a season at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End (15 December 2022 – 29 January 2023). It will then play Chichester Festival Theatre (7 – 11 February 2023), Sheffield Lyceum (14 – 18 February 2023), Wolverhampton Grand (22 – 26 February 2023), Liverpool Empire (28 February – 4 March 2023), Oxford New Theatre (7 – 11 March 2023), Bord Gais Energy Theatre Dublin (22 – 26 March 2023), and Wales Millennium Centre Cardiff (28 March – 1 April 2023) with further venues to be announced soon. This very special pantomime is the first of its kind to tour the country and play all the way to Easter!
It is written by Jonathan Harvey (Coronation Street, Gimme Gimme Gimme) and directed by award-winning director Cal McCrystal. Set and Costume design is by Liz Ascroft, Choreography by Lizzi Gee, Lighting design by Prema Mehta, Sound design by Ben Harrison andPuppet Design and Creation by Chris Barlow. Casting is by Anne Vosser and the Production Manager is Ben Arkell.
Mother Goose (McKellen) and her husband Vic (Bishop) run an Animal Sanctuary for waifs and strays and live a wholesome life inside an abandoned Debenhams. But when a goose (Casey) flies in, will fame and fortune get the better of them?! Will Ma’s feathers be seriously ruffled? Will Pa tell everyone to get stuffed?! And is their fair life about to turn fowl? Get ready for fairies with hefty vocal chords, puppets with tap dance qualifications and impeccably constructed mayhem that will quack up the whole family. This hilarious family-friendly mother of all pantos is the ultimate theatrical feast full of fun, farce and more than a couple of surprises that will make you honk out loud.
Mother Goose is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, Hunter Arnold, Seaview, Wessex Grove, Richard Winkler & Dawn Smalberg, Caiola Productions and George Waud for Groove International.
The Londoner is the official hotel partner of Mother Goose.