10 June – 1 July Read our 21st June
ROMAN HOLIDAY is set to open in the Roman city of Bath as the new Cole Porter musical, based on the Academy Award-winning film, receives its UK Premiere at the Theatre Royal.
The multi-award-winning film classic, which made a worldwide star of Audrey Hepburn, has been transformed into a thrilling stage musical. West End and Broadway star Michael D. Xavier and Rebecca Collingwood lead an eighteen-strong cast in the stage show, which combines Italian chic and European glamour with the timeless music of the legendary Cole Porter, including the songs Easy to Love, You Do Something to Me, In the Still of the Night, Just One of those Things and Night and Day.
Roman Holiday follows a youthful princess and an American journalist on a twenty-four-hour adventure through the delights of the Italian capital. Visiting Rome on a goodwill tour, Ann escapes from the watchful eye of her chaperone and meets Joe who offers to show her around the city. Meanwhile, Joe’s editor has demanded a story about a missing princess. Through the course of one charming day and eventful night in Rome, Ann and Joe grow closer, but will true romance blossom before Ann has to return to her royal duties?
BAFTA and Ivor Novello Award-winning Jeremy Sams directs, with sensational choreography by the 2023 Olivier Award winner for Best Theatre Choreographer – Matt Cole and Jane McMurtrie, the team behind the current London smash hit, Disney’s Newsies. The beloved film comedy has been adapted for the stage by Kirsten Guenther and Paul Blake, who co-wrote the stage version of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.
Michael D. Xavier stars as Joe. Amongst the many highlights in his career-to-date, Michael starred in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway opposite Glenn Close, reprising the role he played at English National Opera’s Coliseum a year earlier, for which he won the Broadway World Award for Best Actor in a Musical. In New York, he also starred in Hal Prince’s hit show Prince of Broadway. Last year on UK tour, Michael played the lead role of Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. In the West End, his numerous starring roles range from Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera to Sir Galahad in Monty Python’s Spamalot. He played Sky in the original international touring cast of Mamma Mia! He was Olivier Award nominated for Into the Woods at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Love Story in the West End, where he also starred in The Pajama Game, Love Story and Soho Cinders, receiving Broadway World Award nominations. Michael’s television roles include DCI Elliot Wallace in Grantchester for the past two years. He also played Martin Broom in Grace; Dr Steph Belcombe in Gentleman Jack; Patrick Thompson in The Chelsea Detective and Lieutenant Knox in Outlander, for Amazon, and Christopher Miles in The Blacklist for NBC.
Rebecca Collingwood stars as Ann. Her theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing for the Royal Shakespeare Company; Love’s Labour’s Lost at Chichester Festival Theatre and in the West End; Widower’s Houses, for which she received an Ian Charleston Award nomination, Precious Little Talent, While the Sun Shines and Arms and the Man at the Orange Tree Theatre; and the UK tours of The Hartlepool Monkey for Gyre & Gimble and Wise Children’s Malory Towers.
Richenda Carey, who plays the role of the Countess, was last seen at the Theatre Royal in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in 2022. Tim Frances who plays Hennessy, is marking his sixth production in Bath, having last appeared at the Theatre Royal in Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 2016. Adrian der Gregorian plays Irving and Tania Mathurin appears as Francesca. The cast also features Gabrielle Cocca, Francis Dee, Maya de Faria, Joshua Gibbons, Bethany Huckle, Heather Jackson, Ediz Mahmut, Max Mirza, Mia Mullarkey, Josh Patel-Foster, George Renshaw and Ollie Selwood.
Roman Holiday is directed by double Olivier Award and Tony Award nominee Jeremy Sams, who is a theatre director, lyricist, translator of plays and opera libretti, as well as a composer, orchestrator and musical director. His previous credits include the West End and Broadway revival of Noises Off; Jason Robert Brown’s Broadway musical 13; the international tour of The Sound of Music and the West End musical Spend, Spend, Spend. Jeremy has written, arranged and directed music for some fifty theatre productions. He translated Amour on Broadway and wrote the script for the West End staging of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. His film composing credits include Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, for which he won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Score for a Feature Film, and the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Music.
The romantic film comedy, Roman Holiday, which famously starred Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, was released in 1953. Directed by William Wyler, it won multiple Academy Awards and has remained a firm favourite ever since. The UK premiere stage musical of Roman Holiday is produced by Theatre Royal Bath Productions, by arrangement with Paul Blake and BFI Productions.
Roman Holiday appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Saturday 10th June to Saturday 1st July. To book tickets contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Photo credit: Seamus Ryan
