Star of Game of Thrones and Netflix Sex Education Hannah Waddingham is the latest principal cast member to be annouced for a star-studded charity gala performance of Boublil And Schönberg’s The Pirate Queen at The London Coliseum on Sunday 23 February, 2020.
Waddinghams 20-year theatre highlights include Kiss Me Kate, A Little Night Music, Monty Python’s Spamalot and The Wizard of Oz). She will take on the role of Queen Elizabeth I and will join the previously announced Rachel Tucker (Olivier nominee for Come From Away, Wicked), Britain’s Got Talent winner Jai McDowall and Matthew Pagan from Collabro.
Based on the real-life story of history’s Grace O’Malley – an Irish Chieftain and notorious pirate, The Pirate Queen is an adventure chronicling the compelling, inspiring heroine who led an extraordinary life as a rogue, lover and mother in 16th-century Ireland. To protect her people and save her one true love, O’Malley must confront the one woman more powerful than her — her fierce rival, Queen Elizabeth I of England.
From the writers of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, the show combines classic storytelling and a sweeping score, with the powerful, vibrant traditions of Irish dance and song, to create a modern musical event that is both historic romance and a timeless epic. It opened on Broadway in 2007. This concert production marks its London debut.’Performing at the London Coliseum brings back so many memories, I grew up here’ says Waddingham. ‘My dear mum was in the chorus of the English National Opera and I spent my childhood running around the stalls and sitting in the dressing rooms. So to be here for the first time in my career as a performer is a very special moment’.
All proceeds from this concert are going to Leukaemia UK.
Creative team:
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Lyrics by Alain Boublil, Richard Maltby, Jr., John Dempsey
Book by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Richard Maltby, Jr.
Based on the novel ‘Grania – She King of the Irish Seas’ by Morgan Llewelyn
Director Drew Baker
Designer Ben M Rogers
Associate Director Max Reynolds
Principal Casting Consultant Harry Blumenau
Producer Tom Gribby
Jem Girl at the Piano 