SONGS FOR NOBODIES
TRANSFERS TO THE WEST END
Garry McQuinn for RGM Productions and Daniel Sparrow Productions in association with
Bill Bowness, Robin Campbell, Ros Andrews and Andrew Buxton present
Songs For Nobodies
Written by Joanna Murray Smith
Directed by Simon Phillips
Performed by Bernadette Robinson
Ambassadors Theatre
7 January – 23 February 2019
RGM Productions & Daniel Sparrow Productions in association with Bill Bowness, Robin Campbell, Ros Andrews and Andrew Buxton today announce the West End transfer of Songs For Nobodies for a limited 7 week run. The production, written by Joanna Murray Smith specifically to showcase the extraordinary vocal ability of actress Bernadette Robinson, had its European première at Wilton’s Music Hall earlier this year and opened to wide critical and audience acclaim. This new play with songs is directed by Simon Phillips and features music from five iconic divas; Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Maria Callas and opens at the Ambassadors Theatre on 10 January, with previews from 7 January and running until 23 February.
The uniquely talented Australian singer and actor, Bernadette Robinson performs the critically acclaimed one-woman tour de force Songs For Nobodies.
Written by award-winning playwright Joanna Murray Smith – who with Switzerland at Theatre Royal Bath and the upcoming production of Honour at Park Theatre will have three productions produced in the UK over the past year – Songs For Nobodies showcases Robinson’s astonishing talent for recreating the great singers of the past. Commissioned and directed by Simon Phillips (Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical, Muriel’s Wedding, North By North West (Theatre Royal Bath) former Artistic Director of the Melbourne Theatre Company), her moving and uplifting performance has earned rave reviews across sold-out seasons, around the world.
On stage for 90 minutes accompanied by live musicians, her miraculous voice shifts from the smoky blues of Billie Holiday to the thrilling soprano of Maria Callas, via Garland, Cline and Piaf. With consummate ease, she breathes new life into the five legendary performers and the five ordinary women whose lives were changed by their brush with fame.
Joanna Murray Smith said today, “I am thrilled that Songs For Nobodies – which is so dear to my heart, will be making a West End transfer. It is testimony to Bernadette’s performance that audiences have come back over and over again to see the show because their reaction is so deeply felt and because they feel so uplifted. They laugh, cry and contemplate defining moments in their own lives, at the same time as being totally stunned by a single performer’s inspirational ability to resurrect beloved icons.”
Bernadette Robinson’s critically acclaimed performances in multiple sell-out seasons of the one-woman musical play Songs For Nobodies and Pennsylvania Avenue have confirmed her standing as one of Australia’s leading singers/actresses. Together with eventual winner Cate Blanchett, Bernadette was nominated for a Helpmann Award (Australia’s Olivier Awards) in 2012 as Best Female Actor in a Play. She played the role of Beatrice in Nick Enright and Terry Clarke’s The Venetian Twins, and has appeared in lead roles with Chamber Made Opera and Wellington City Opera. She is a familiar figure on Australian concert stages, having given sell out concerts at the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Festival Centre, the Melbourne Recital Centre and its neighbour, Hamer Hall, and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. In addition to her one-woman shows, she has had great success performing at high profile events for large corporates across Australia and (singing in English and in local languages) in Tokyo, Beijing (during the 2008 Olympic Games), Shanghai (during the 2010 World Expo), Hong Kong, Macau, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto.
Joanna Murray Smith’s plays have been produced and translated all over the world and have appeared on Broadway, the West End and the National Theatre in London. Her plays include American Song, Three Little Words, Switzerland, Pennsylvania Avenue, Fury, Day One – A Hotel – Evening, The Gift, Rockabye, The Female of the Species, Ninety, Bombshells, Rapture, Nightfall, Redemption, Flame, Love Child, Atlanta, Honour and Angry Young Penguins. She has also adapted Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage for Sir Trevor Nunn and Hedda Gabler. Most of her plays have been published by Currency Press or Dramatist’s Play Service (U.S.) or Nick Hern Books (UK). Several of her plays have been adapted for Australian radio and for the BBC. Her work and herself have been shortlisted and won many prizes. Her work includes three novels published by Penguin/Viking and two operas, Love in the Age of Therapy and The Divorce.
Simon Philips began his career in New Zealand before emigrating to Australia in 1984. He was appointed Artistic Director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia from 1990-94 and Artistic Director of the Melbourne Theatre Company from 2000-11.His directing credits range from contemporary and Shakespearean classics to musicals to opera. He has also directed the premières of many new works by leading Australian writers. Apart from Priscilla, Simon’s musical credits include Oliver!, Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret, High Society, Company, The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Urinetown the Musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and a new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies, which was released internationally on DVD. His production of Ladies in Black, a new Australian musical created with his wife, Carolyn Burns, and Tim Finn (of Split Enz fame) was an acclaimed success in Australia. His production of North By North West premièred at the Theatre Royal Bath and most recently, he directed the award-winning Muriel’s Wedding which premiered in Australia in 2017.
About RGM
RGM Productions is an independent theatre production company that brings together more than forty years industry knowledge and experience. Its objective is to discover, develop and introduce new and compelling productions to new audiences around the world. Established in 2012 by husband and wife team Garry McQuinn and Rina Gill, the company has an impressive portfolio of productions ranging from drama, music, dance and cabaret to children’s theatre and comedy. RGM Productions produced the world première of the stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s film Through A Glass Darkly with Ruth Wilson in London and Carey Mulligan in New York, and the UK Theatre Awards short-listed Two Worlds of Charlie F performed by and based on the stories of injured ex-soldiers. Most recently, RGM produced an adaptation of The Hunting of the Snark, a high-energy family musical that played at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne this past July after successful seasons on London’s West End and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. McQuinn is the lead producer and managing partner of the internationally acclaimed Broadway and West End hit Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the Musical which has now travelled to 135 cities and 30 countries around the world. RGM are the international bookers and managers of The Tap Pack and the cabaret musical Velvet; the West End Hit musical, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; and the international producer of Jean Paul Gaultier’s new musical Fashion Freakshow which opens in Paris this October. Current upcoming projects include a new Australian musical – Starstruck – based on Gillian Armstrong’s iconic 1982 film which is currently being work-shopped in Sydney with Australia’s national theatre school, NIDA.
About Daniel Sparrow Productions
Daniel Sparrow is an Olivier Award-winning West End producer and theatrical general manager, and has produced plays and musicals in London, the UK, Sydney and on Broadway.
London-based, but originally Australian, he developed and produced the award-winning West End stage adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother at The Old Vic (co-production with the Neal Street) in 2007, starring Dame Diana Rigg, Lesley Manville, Mark Gatiss, Colin Morgan and Joanne Froggatt. There has since been 23 different productions in 18 different languages internationally. Subsequent West End productions include: Three Days of Rain, starring James McAvoy; Holding the Man starring Australian TV comedy icon Jane Turner (Kath from Kath and Kim); Michel Legrand’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, directed by Emma Rice, in collaboration with Kneehigh Theatre; the Olivier Award-winning Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Street, starring Michael Ball; Stiles and Drewe’s musical Soho Cinders; the recent Palladium revival of A Chorus Line; and, on Broadway, Exit the King, starring Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon.
Current and upcoming projects include two new musicals: The (M)other Life by Amity Dry and Only the Brave by Matthew Brind.
Songs For Nobodies
Listings
Ambassadors Theatre
West Street, London, WC2H 9ND
7 January – 23 February 2019
Box Office: 020 7395 5405
www.theambassadorstheatre.co.uk
Tickets: £25 – £75
Previews: All tickets £25