Cast and creative team announced for Message In A Bottle
Sadler's Wells and Universal Music UK have announced their cast and creative team for their upcoming new dance theatre co-production with Kate Prince entitled Message In A Bottle, which is set to the greatest hits by 17-time Grammy Award-winning new wave musician Sting. The highly-anticipated new show is set to make its world premiere on Thursday, 6 February at the Peacock Theatre in London's West End where it will run until 21 March 2020 before embarking on a UK nationwide and international tour. Press night is slated for Tuesday, 18 February 2019. The show marks the first collaboration between Universal Music and Sadler's Wells.
Set to put on their dancing shoes in the production are the spectacular dancers from Zoo Nation: The Kate Prince Company, who come from all over the world (UK, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Sweden, The Netherlands, and Japan). Starring in featured roles for the production will be the 2013 winner of Sky 1's Got to Dance Lukas McFarlane, Strictly Come Dancing and Blak Whyte Gray (Boy Blue) performer Natasha Gooden as Tana, and Tommy Franzen as Mati who is best known for appearing in the BBC One’s 2010 series of So You Think You Can Dance and who will be appearing in the upcoming 2019 winter film of CATS directed by Tom Hooper.
Also appearing in Message In A Bottle will be Alesha's Street Dance Stars finalist and judge Lizzie Gough.
Franzen, Gooden, and Gough are all highly-acclaimed dancers of ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company and are currently dancing in the touring production of Some Like It Hip Hop, which is set to run at Sadler's Wells' Peacock Theatre from Wednesday, 23 October until Saturday, 9 November 2019.
Also set to star in the cast of Message In A Bottle are Some Like It Hop Hop dancers Aaron Nuttall, Delano Spenrath, Kino McHugh, and Michael Naylor. Remaining cast members include Annie Edwards (Into the Hoods), Gavin L Vincent (Soul Mavericks Crew), and Nestor Garcia Gonzalez (Strictly Come Dancing), all three of whom are experienced performers within the company. Set to make their ZooNation debuts with Message In A Bottle are Ajani Johnson-Goffe, Anna Holmström, Daniel Phung, Daniella May, Emma 'Shortbread' Houston, Hannah Sandilands, Onyemachi Ejimofor, and Samuel Baxter. They will be joined by Sisters Grimm (INALA) and Alesandra Seutin (Boy Breaking Glass) alongside the winner of BBC One's 2017 series of BBC Young Dancer, Nafisah Baba, who also recently performed in Windrush: Movement of the People for Pheonix Dance Theatre.
What is the Message In A Bottle dance theatre production about?
Message In A Bottle chronicles the story of a village that is alive with jovial celebrations before suddenly coming under siege. Leto, Mati, and Tana, three siblings living in the village, become separated from their parents in the midst of all the chaos. The set forth on a treacherous adventure into a new world where they experience a series of pitfalls and danger along the way. The dance production features such hit Sting songs as 'Roxanne', 'Every Breath You Take', 'Walking On The Moon', 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', 'Shape Of My Heart', 'Fields of Gold', and 'Englishman in New York'.
Message In A Bottle creative team
Aside from Kate Prince's fantastic choreographer, Message In A Bottle boasts a multi-award-winning team of creatives that features Music Supervisor Alex Lacamoire, who provides new arrangments to the piece and is perhaps best known for winning Grammy and Tony Awards for his work on such smash-hit musicals as Dear Evan Hansen (2017), Hamilton (2016), In The Heights (2008), The Greatest Showman (2017), and Carmen La Cubana (2016), and he has also won an Emmy Award for his work on Fosse/Verdon (2019). Additional musical arrangements and production are provided by multi-Grammy Award-winning Swedish record producer Martin Terefe, who has written and produced songs for KT Tunstall ('Black Horse And The Cherry Tree'), Tom Odell, Train, Shawn Mendes ('Treat You Better'), and Jason Mraz.
Message In A Bottle also features Ben Stones as set designer — MEN 2011 Award winner for Best Design for the Royal Exchange's Doctor Faustus, Andrzej Goulding inaugural Theatre and Technology Award winner for Creative Innovation in Video Design for 2017's Room, Anna Fleischle as costume designer — 2016 Olivier Award winner for work on Hangmen, Natasha Chivers as lighting designer — 2007 Olivier Award winner for Sunday in the Park with George, David McEwan as sound designer — 2011 winner of the Music Producers Guild Award, Grammy Award winner Oskar Winberg providing music co-production and mixing, Lolita Chakrabarti as dramaturgist — who wrote the acclaimed stage adaptation of Life of Pi and the 2012 Olivier Award-nominated Red Velvet, and Lukas McFarlane as associate choreographer — who worked on Strictly Come Dancing.
Also on the creative team are Resident Director and Choreographer Robia Milliner Brown and Assistant Choreographers Lizzie Gough and Tommy Franzen.
Kate Prince's choreography credits include the London musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie for Jonathan Butterell (for both the Sheffield Crucible and West End Apollo Theatre productions), Ballyturk at the National Theatre, and I Can't Sing! The X-Factor Musical at the London Palladium, just to name a few.
Sadler's Wells Message In A Bottle Peacock Theatre tickets available from £17 and up!
Don't miss one of the biggest dance productions on in the West End this winter. Book your tickets for Message In A Bottle today before the waves carry them away. London dance theatre tickets for Message In A Bottle are on sale now from just £17 and up!