Southwark Playhouse announces new live stream show, Dave Malloy’s Preludes – which will be streamed live from The Little on 7 and 8 May 2021
Preludes previously ran in The Large in autumn 2019 to critical acclaim. This production is a concert version featuring the same cast. It’s directed by Alex Sutton and produced by Danielle Tarento. The cast is Rebecca Caine, Norton James, Georgia Louise, Tom Noyes, Keith Ramsay and Steven Serlin
Three-time Tony Award-nominated composer Dave Malloy has written a brand new song, which will receive its world premiere performance in this concert production
Danielle Tarento presents the live stream premiere of
PRELUDES THE CONCERT
A MUSICAL FANTASIA SET IN THE HYPNOTISED MIND OF SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
Music, lyrics, book and orchestrations by Dave Malloy. Directed by Alex Sutton.
Live stream production credits:
Lighting design by Andrew Exeter. Sound design by Andrew Johnson.
Musical direction by Jordan Li-Smith. Live stream operation by Bartek Podkowa.
Original production credits:
Set and costume design by Rebecca Brower. Lighting design by Christopher Nairne.
Sound design by Andrew Johnson. Choreography by Ste Clough. Musical direction by Jordan Li-Smith.
Cast: Rebecca Caine, Norton James, Georgia Louise, Tom Noyes, Keith Ramsay and Steven Serlin.
Dates: Friday 7 May at 7.45pm, Saturday 8 May at 3.15pm and 7.45pm
Preludes is a musical based on the life of legendary composer Sergei Rachmaninoff by three-time Tony Award nominee Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Ghost Quartet, Moby Dick).
Sergei Rachmaninoff has it all; world-wide fame from a single composition by the age of 19, commissioned to write his first symphony at 20 and engaged to the love of his life, Natalya. But at 21 he is crippled with a depressive paranoia and anxiety. His world has imploded, his work has stopped, he cannot even lift a pencil to compose a simple melody. Such is the power of the men who sought to destroy him, who haunt his waking nightmares and poison his dreams. And when those men happen to be the greatest artists of their day, how do you come back, how do you escape the darkness and come into the light?
Based on a true story of Rachmaninoff’s sessions of hypnotherapy, Preludes is an extraordinary new musical by three-time Tony Award-nominee Dave Malloy. It examines the crippling debilitation and harm the world can do to people, and how the dramatic and musical process can be used as therapy to restore them back into the fullest of creative lives.
Using live piano and electronics, Malloy uses a hybrid of his own and Rachmaninoff’s compositions to create a dream-like world that takes us to the darkest recesses of Rachmaninoff’s mind.
Three-time Tony Award-nominated writer Dave Malloy is a composer and writer of some of the most exciting new music theatre works. His best-known piece, Natasha Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, based on War and Peace, started at Ars Nova in New York before transferring to Broadway’s Imperial Theatre where it played to huge critical and audience acclaim and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, the highest number of nominations in the 2017 awards season, including Best Musical.
The 3.15pm performance on Saturday, 8 May will be captioned. Full details on the website link here: https://www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/show-whats-on/preludes-in-concert/
Press reviews for Preludes at Southwark Playhouse, autumn 2019:
«««« “Hypnotic and dazzling.” The Stage
«««« “An utterly unique experience.” Time Out
«««« “An experimental formally elusive trance-like experience.” WhatsOnStage
«««« “Extraordinarily and exceptionally powerful.” The Arts Desk
««««« “Superb” British Theatre
««««« “A spectacular assault on the senses that transcends space and time.” Musical Theatre Review
Rebecca Caine plays Dahl. Credits include originating the role of Cosette in Les Misérables, (RSC and West End), Phantom of the Opera (Canada), Flowers for Mrs Harris (Sheffield Crucible) and Harold and Maude (Charing Cross Theatre). Norton James plays Chaliapin. Credits include Choir of Man (Australian tour), Spamalot (Mercury Theatre, Colchester) and Love Story (Union). Georgia Louise plays Natalya. Credits include Mamma Mia (Novello), Kinky Boots (Adelphi Theatre) and 13: The Musical (Apollo/NYMT). Tom Noyes plays Rachmaninoff. Preludes was Tom’s professional debut. Keith Ramsay plays Rach. Credits include Amour (Charing Cross Theatre), Lost in Yonkers (Watford Palace), Portia Coughlin (Old Red Lion) and Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe). Steven Serlin plays The Master. Credits include Amour (Charing Cross Theatre), Oklahoma (Grange Park Opera) and The Wild Party (The Other Palace).