Anne-Marie Duff will lead the cast in Donmar Warehouse’s artistic director Josie Rourke’s farewell production, Sweet Charity, opposite Arthur Darvill making his Donmar Warehouse debut as Oscar. The musical will run from 6 April to 8 June 2019 (press night is 17 April).
Duff will star as Charity, reuniting with Rourke after the Donmar’s acclaimed production of Berenice in 2012, while world-renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor teams up once again with the director after working on her debut film Mary Queen of Scots.
Rourke returns to the music of Cy Coleman who wrote the score for her Olivier Award-winning production of City of Angels. The book is by Neil Simon and lyrics by Dorothy Fields.
For Rourke’s farewell production, all tickets at every Friday performance of Sweet Charity between 19 April and 31 May will be free to those aged 25 and under. Sweet Fridays free tickets will be allocated by ballot. As part of Sweet Fridays, the Donmar will invite schools from every London borough to see Sweet Charity for free.
Josie Rourke said:
“Part of my mission as the Donmar’s artistic director has been to create cheap and free access for audiences, particularly young people. Through the generosity of Susie Sainsbury and The Backstage Trust, I’m able to finish my time at the Donmar on the happiest of notes, with something I really care about – great theatre for all young people.
“I’m so happy to be joined in my final production as Donmar artistic director by the luminous Anne-Marie Duff, making her musical theatre debut, and the great Wayne McGregor. They are two of the finest people, and collaborators I’ve worked with, and this reunion with them, and the music of Cy Coleman is a joyous way to end a dozen years as an artistic director from the Bush to the Donmar.”
Also in the creative team are designer Robert Jones, musical supervisor Gareth Valentine, lighting designer Mark Henderson, sound designer Nick Lidster for Autograph, orchestrators Larry Blank and Mark Cumberland, original orchestrator Ralph Burns, video designer Finn Ross and casting director David Grindrod.
Bios
Anne-Marie Duff (Charity) returns to the Donmar Warehouse after previously starring in the productions of Berenice in 2012 directed by Josie Rourke and Days of Wine and Roses in 2005. An award-winning actress on both stage and screen, Duff is known for her roles in Shameless, The Virgin Queen and Nowhere Boy. In 2018 Duff starred in Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle and returned to the National Theatre as Lady Macbeth, a role she previously undertook on Broadway opposite Ethan Hawke. Additional theatre credits include War and Peace (West End), Cause Celebre (the Old Vic), The Daughter in Law, The Soldier’s Fortune (Young Vic), Oil (Almeida), Common, Husbands & Sons, Strange Interlude, Collected Stories, King Lear and Saint Joan (National Theatre).
Arthur Darvill (Oscar) makes his Donmar Warehouse debut in Sweet Charity. His theatre credits include Genesis Inc. (Hampstead), Elevenses/Beginning to End/TBCTV (Somerset House Studios), Hir (Bush), Treasure Island (National Theatre), Once (Broadway/West End), Our Boys (Duchess), Doctor Faustus (Shakespeare’s Globe), Is Everyone Ok? (Nabokov), Swimming with Sharks (Vaudeville), Terre Haute (UK Tour/Trafalgar), Stacey (Arcola) and Terre Haute (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh).
