Due to popular demand, Jonathan Harvey’s Closer to Heaven, with original music by Pet Shop Boys, will be extending its run at the Turbine Theatre this summer, now playing until Saturday 27 July.
Full cast for this new production of this adored club musical, includes the Tony award winning, 1994 Eurovision Song Contest contestant Frances Ruffelle as Billie Trix.
Frances Ruffelle was the original Eponine in Les Miserables (West End & Broadway) for which she won the Tony, Helen Hayes, Theatre World, and Outer Critics Circle Awards.
She has recorded five solo albums and has performed in many shows in the U.K. including Piaf, Pippin, Chicago, Starlight Express & the U.K. Premiere of Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party. TV/Film includes the comedy Birds of a Feather, Secrets & Lies, Dream Team, P’tang Yang Kipperbang to name a few.
Writing has become an integral part of Frances’ life. Her play, Messy Bed (Working title -I Can Die Too) co-written with Alan Cumming & Sally George goes into a fully cast workshop this September, which has also been written as a full-length screenplay.
Frances is currently developing a screenplay about her mother, Sylvia Young, called Flyleaf charting Sylvia’s early life, growing up in East London in the 40’s and 50s. She is also heading to the Edinburgh Festival this August with Norman Bowman in their new show The Scot and the Showgirl.
She is joined by Courtney Bowman, recently seen as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde at Regent Park Open Air Theatre (for which she won a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Performer in a Musical), as Shell Christian, Glenn Adamson (Bat Out Of Hell) as Dave, Connor Carson (The Phantom Of The Opera) as Lee, Kurt Kansley (RENT) as Vic Christian, David Muscat (Billy Elliot) as Bob Saunders, Lewis Brown (Queenz) as Flynn with Beth Curnock, Jamie Tait and Cian Hughes as Babes. This production is directed by Simon Hardwick with choreography by Christopher Tendai with casting by Will Burton CDG.
Audiences will be able to step back in time as the theatre transforms into “Vic’s Club” for an evening that promises to be anything but old fashioned. With a book by one of Britain’s most celebrated writers, Jonathan Harvey, Closer to Heaven features an original club score by Pet Shop Boys and originally premiered at the Arts Theatre in 2001. The Pet Shop Boys are the UK’s most successful pop duo, having enjoyed 12 Top Ten studio albums and 40 Top Twenty singles.
Let us take you back to the Millennium for the night of your life… London’s club-land is thriving. Suddenly what was wrong seems right…