Previews begin at the end of this week for the world premiere musical makeover of Indecent Proposal, the novel made famous by the 1993 Hollywood film. What’s been happening in rehearsals? Check out our behind-the-scenes video and photo gallery. Time to get booking!
Indecent Proposal, which has book and lyrics by Michael Conley with music by Dylan Schlosberg, has a strictly limited season at London’s Southwark Playhouse, running from 22 October to 27 November 2021, with a press night on 2 November.
The premiere production is directed by Charlotte Westenra and stars Norman Bowman, Lizzy Connolly and Ako Mitchell as the central love-and-lust triangle, along with Jacqui Dankworth and newcomer Eve de Leon Allen.
What would you do for a million dollars?
Atlantic City. 1988: Jonny (Norman Bowman) and Rebecca (Lizzy Connolly) are very much in love and very much in debt. Jonny’s a struggling singer-songwriter who spends most of his time playing backup for Annie, a singer at the Oasis Casino Hotel Resort. Rebecca’s working two jobs as they struggle to make ends meet. But they’re happy and that’s enough. Or is it?
When wealthy stranger Larry Harris (Ako Mitchell) arrives in town and offers Rebecca a million dollars to spend a night with him, will the lure of money outweigh their promise of fidelity? Will Rebecca accept Larry’s indecent proposal? Will their marriage survive if she doesn’t? Will their marriage survive if she does?
Indecent Proposal is inspired by the Jack Engelhard book which sparked a worldwide debate and was later adapted into the 1993 hit film starring Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson and Robert Redford.
The new chamber musical stays true to the book’s setting of Atlantic City in the 1980s whilst reimagining the work through the lens of the current social and political climate, allowing audiences to consider what they would do in a similar situation, whilst they watch this couple grapple with the fallout from a stranger’s proposition.
Director Charlotte Westenra is joined in the Indecent Proposal creative team by musical directors John Reddel and Connor Going, set and costume designer Anna Kelsey, lighting designer Hartley T A Kemp, sound designer Leigh Davies, choreographer Jane McMurtrie and assistant director Jamie Buller. The new musical is produced by Neil Marcus for 10 to 4 Productions.
Rehearsal photos
Photography by Pamela Raith.
Rehearsal video