Monarchy The Musical

Monarchy The Musical

Written & Directed by Music by
PAUL JENDEN GARETH FARR

A Fun-filled History of Royal Romance and Scandal

Amity, vanity, royal insanity … MONARCHY is another fabulous fun-packed musical from the team that brought you the hugely successful TROY!
MONARCHY The Musical has its World Premiere at Circa One on Saturday 21st July at 8pm and runs until 25th August.

A wickedly funny portrayal of the English Throne in song, MONARCHY The Musical unpicks the rich tapestry of royal history, laying bare the lives of all the great monarchs, and their famous - and infamous - consorts, lovers and rivals.

From 802AD to the present day they are all there - the Kings & Queens: Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, all the Henries, Edwards, Georges and both Elizabeths, and all of the famous females like Eleanor of Aquitaine, Mary Queen of Scots, Nell Gwyn and the infamous Mrs Simpson.

But as well, there are a few figures we don’t know so well: Emma of Normandy, crowned Queen a second time after marrying her son’s rival for the throne despite the fact that he was already married, or George the First’s two mistresses - Sophia Charlotte Kielmannsegg and Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, known as ‘The Maypole’ and ‘The Elephant’.
And then there’re the really silly ones - like Richard the Second who invented the handkerchief.

But like TROY, MONARCHY is mostly about extraordinary people - their passions and romances, their triumphs and their scandals.

With its stunningly sumptuous costumes, fabulously talented cast of 8 singers and actors, a live band, dancers and backing vocals plus the sparkling creativity of the prodigiously talented Paul Jenden and Gareth Farr, who have firmly put the comedy back into musical comedies –

MONARCHY The Musical is a royal appointment for an evening of laughter you don’t want to miss.
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STARRING: AIDAN BELL, CHRISTINA CUSIEL, JUDE GIBSON, JEFF KINGSFORD-BROWN, EMMA KINANE, LYNDEE-JANE RUTHERFORD, LOUIS SOLINO, JULIAN WILSON

MUSICAL DIRECTION – MICHAEL NICHOLAS WILLIAMS

BAND – MICHAEL WILLIAMS, TIM SOLLY, RICHARD WISE
BACKING VOCALS - JENNIFER FOUHY, ADAM KOVESKALI
DANCERS - SIOBHAN LYNCH, ZOE POOLE, ESTHER ROBINSON, MADELEINE SCHMIDT

MONARCHY
THE MUSICAL

Opens on SATURDAY 21st July at 8pm
and runs until 25th August 2007.

$20 SPECIALS - Sunday 22nd July – 4pm
- Tuesday 24th July – 6.30pm
o NB Extra $20 Special as Preview already SOLD OUT!

Performance times: Tues & Wed - 6.30pm; Thurs, Fri and Sat - 8pm; Sun - 4pm.

Prices: $35 Adults; $28 Students, Senior Citizens and Beneficiaries
$30 Groups 6+ $18 Student Standby - from 1 hour before the show

Proud sponsor

Monarchy The Musical is presented in association with Playmarket

BOOKINGS: CIRCA Theatre, 1 Taranaki Street, Wellington Phone 801 7992
www.circa.co.nz

For further information, interviews or photographs please contact:
Claire Treloar Ph 386 2930 Email claire-t@xtra.co.nz
PAUL JENDEN Notes

“With the ink barely dry on TROY which was a huge success, Circa was keen to have us write another light hearted show also based on history - so I came up with the scenario for MONARCHY, a complete history of the English Throne in song.

My script started out as a shopping list of Kings and Queens. The first job was to simply write who followed whom, then why and finally how. Then, having worked out how everyone was related to each other and how they had clawed and murdered their way to the throne, I began to wonder about the people themselves. There were so many younger brothers, never meant to inherit the Crown and certainly not prepared for it. So many disappointments and so many surprises.

And so many mistresses. Early on I had been worried that MONARCHY would require an overwhelmingly male cast, but that quickly changed. The women in these stories have been a pleasure to meet. From the bigamist Emma of Normandy to George the First’s two mistresses known as the Maypole and the Elephant, there were more than enough heroines to rival the Helens and Clytemnestras of Ancient Greece.

And of course the Royal line leads directly to our present monarch. As I researched the lives of her predecessors, I felt my respect for Elizabeth the Second grow. MONARCHY has really become her history of her family, from 802AD to the present.

MONARCHY has a totally new landscape from TROY and that gives the show a different dynamic and a different structure for Gareth and me to work with.

So it doesn’t feel like a sequel at all. Of course we are benefiting from hindsight, having leapt into TROY not really knowing where it would lead us, but at the same time we are trying to balance the need to produce fresh material without disappointing the audience who loved TROY and asked for more.

I can reassure everyone that when Gareth and I get together to write we still end up laughing more than we should, if we were grown up artists. I am convinced that the success of our collaborations is that they come from a shared joy in what we do, infantile humour aside, and that it is a great source of pleasure to us that others share our fun. And if it makes us laugh, what’s not to like?”

- Paul Jenden

Ends

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