Cast announced for RUTH THE MUSICAL at Wilton’s Music Hall
Casting has been announced for RUTH THE MUSICAL, which will receive its world premiere at Wilton’s Music Hall from 18-28 March.
It was a sensational case that shook conventional 1950s Britain to its core – the peroxide blonde nightclub hostess who shot and killed her violent upper-class lover and was sentenced to hang for the crime, making her the last woman to be executed in Britain.
The ensemble cast for the world premiere of this musical comprises Garth Bardsley (A Little Night Music; Into the Woods; Pacific Overtures, Leicester Haymarket) as Arthur and the judge; Paddy Duff (The Mousetrap, West End) as Howard, Roy & Policeman; John Faal (Sense and Sensibility :The Musical, Arcola Theatre/ UK tour) as Desmond Cussen; Sarah Lawn (Noises Off; Woman in Mind; Blithe Spirit, West End) as Berta and Jean; Connor Payne (Assassins; A Man of No Importance; The Seagull, Royal Academy of Music) as David Blakely; Alice Redmond (Cats, UK & European tour) as Conner and Susan; Bibi Simpson (professional debut) as Ruth Ellis; Hannah Traylen (Educating Rita, Frinton Summer Theatre) also as Ruth Ellis; Freddy Williams (Snakes and Ladders, Southwark Playhouse) as Saunders, John and Joe; Mei-Li Yap (professional debut) as Young Ruth and Mary, and Ian Puleston-Davies (A Passionate Woman, West End) as Albert Pierrepoint.
Told with noir visuals and an emotive score and set against the tawdry glamour of London’s vice clubs, the thrill of the racetrack and in the chilling finality of the condemned cell, RUTH traces Ellis’s relationships with the men who shaped her tragically short life – her abusive father Arthur, devoted Desmond, the volatile David, who was her obsession and her undoing, and finally one more man who was to play a key role in the 28 year-old’s fate. A mysterious stranger who visits her cell as the clock ticks ever closer to her end.
With music by John Cameron, Francis Rockliff & James Reader, and lyrics by Caroline Slocock and John Cameron, RUTH tells a compelling story that echoes loudly down the decades. Seventy-one years have passed since Ruth’s controversial hanging, but her experience still holds a powerful presence in many people’s minds. Her fateful tale, with themes of domestic violence, the sex industry and class divide, feels as relevant today as it ever did.
Director Andy Morahan said: “We have such a brilliant ensemble cast for RUTH. I’m really excited about bringing this extraordinary story to life at the iconic Wilton’s Music Hall. Viewed today, the Ruth Ellis story can be seen as a timely tale of a woman’s struggle in a patriarchal society. It’s a story that resonates deeply in the #MeToo era. The story is truly Shakespearean in its breadth of tragedy - a ‘fallen woman’, abused in both her childhood and her adult life, used by the Establishment when it suited them, then tossed aside and sent to her death by the very same class of men when she murdered one of their own.”
For more info on RUTH, click here