Tickets on sale for musical Pal Joey - a first for Scarborough stage

Booking has opened for the latest production by UK Foundation for Dance – Pal Joey - the first time the musical has been done in Scarborough
Tom AstburyTom Astbury
Tom Astbury

.The Rodgers and Hart’s bitter-sweet 1940 Broadway musical gave Singing in the Rain star Gene Kelly his first leading role and launched him on the path to Hollywood stardom.

The rarely-seen musical is set around a 1930s Chicago nightclub, and follows the doings of a charmingly hopeless singer, Joey Evans, who finds the women he meets every bit as irresistible as they find him.

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“It’s a hugely entertaining musical for grown-ups,” said director Tim Tubbs.

It is cynical, sophisticated, intimate, stylish and brash, with a terrific score of great songs,” he said.

They include the standards Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered and I Could Write A Book.

Also in the score is You Mustn’t Kick It Around, Plant You Now, Dig You Later, What Is a Man? In Our Little Den (of Iniquity), and Take Him.

“We’ve a fantastic cast and production team,” said Tim.

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The show will introduce a new leading man to Scarborough audiences.

Tom Astbury plays in the key role of Joey, a charmer the women cannot resist, whether it’s nightclub chanteuse Gladys, married socialite Vera, dewy-eyed typist Linda or seen-it-all columnist Melba.”

Under the expert musical direction of Alex Weatherhill, Pal Joey is directed by Tim Tubbs and choreographed by Katrina Flynn.

The show’s cast includes:

Tom Astbury – Joey

Georgie Samuels – Vera

Rebecca Kelly-Evans – Gladys

Pippa Mundey – Linda

Sarah Cox – Melba

Claire Edwards – Valerie

Nathan Mundey – Victor

Keagan Lee Jones – Mike

Andrew Clay – Louis

Robin Newman – Ernest

Chris Curtis – Ludlow

Dave Blaker – Jack

There will also be six dancers and nine singers.

Pal Joey was last staged in London at what was then the Albery, now the Noel Coward Theatre, in 1980.

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It starred Dame Sian Phillips in her first singing role as Vera and Denis Lawson, now known for New Tricks, as Joey.

The low-key affair transferred into the West End from the Half Moon, now a restaurant.

Both Phillips and Lawson went on to star in other musicals: Phillips in Peg and Gigi and Lawson in the lead role of Mr Cinders.

The film version – which bared little resemblance to the stage musical – starred Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak.

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The Lady is a Tramp and I Didn’t Know What Time it Was are in the film – but not the stage

show.

The UK Foundation for Dance production of Pal will be staged at the YMCA Theatre, St Thomas Street, Scarborough, from Thursday October 3 to Saturday October 5, daily at 7.30pm, and on Sunday October 6 at 3pm.

Tickets: £12 (seniors £10, under-18s £7.50.

Groups: one free with every 10 purchased.

Tickets: 01723 506750 or www.ymcascarborough.uk