Eio Heads Cast of SPRING AWAKENING UK tour

The role of Melchior Gabor in Sell A Door Theatre Company's upcoming UK tour of Spring Awakening will be played by versatile actor/singer/songwriter Jonathan Eio. Eio's many theatre credits include Tony in West Side Story at the Bridewell Theatre, the lead role of Danny in Toby Herschmann and Kelly Kingham's musical Jump at the Edinburgh Fringe, pianist Chad Theakston in Phil Nichol's highly acclaimed production Welcome To Crazytown at the Edinburgh Fringe and on tour, the lead role of Will in the Christopher J. Orton/Robert Gould musical Based On A True Story at the Jermyn Street Theatre, Man 1 in Jason Robert Brown's Songs For A New World at the New Players Theatre and Jack in Robert McWhir's sell-out production of Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods at the Landor Theatre.

Jonathan Eio is also a frequent cabaret performer and a singer-songwriter, whose second solo album of original songs - "New Beginnings" - was released in January 2011 and is currently on sale at Dress Circle, Amazon and iTunes. A Customer Review of the album on the Dress Circle website commented: "Every song is rich in melody combined with intelligent lyrics, exciting the ears with raw pop energy without sacrificing artistic integrity.......Eio is a singer/songwriter with serious talent" - while an iTunes review described the vocalist as having "the voice of an angel". He was featured in the recent Landor Theatre West End cabaret "Spotlight On.." season, performing songs from his album. He has since been busy with further promotional concerts for his album on the Isle Of Man and at King's Lynn, Norfolk and will soon launch a short tour of solo performances in Germany.

Now he will don his musical theatre "hat" once again to play one of the leading roles in Spring Awakening, an adaptation of Frank Wedekind's 1891 play, banned in Germany for many years due to its controversial sexual content. It relates the story of a group of German teenagers, desperately trying to come to terms with their sexual awakening in a society where adults rule with fear, violence and the misguided repression of sexual education. The musical, which has a rock score by composer Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater, won 8 Tony Awards, including the 2007 Award for Best Musical, while its West End production won 4 Olivier Awards, again including Best Musical.

The premiere UK tour of Spring Awakening, produced for Sell A Door by David Huntchinson and Philip Rowntree, will be directed by Pete Gallagher with musical direction by Michael Bradley and choreography by Cressida Carre. Joining Eio in the cast will be Jill Armour, James Benn, Dan Buckley, Billy Cullum (recently seen as Jesus in Godspell at the Union Theatre), Natalie Green, Jess Mack, Anna McGarahan, Zachary Morris, Dale Page, Victoria Serra and Jane Stanton.

The tour opens at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter on May 17^th and the show will play at the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, the MacRoberts Centre, Stirling, the Greenwich Theatre, London and the Lowry Theatre, Salford before concluding at the Norwich Playhouse.

http://www.jonathaneio.com

 http://www.selladoor.com/Sell_a_Door_Theatre_Co._Ltd/Spring_Cast.html

Robert Gould is a graduate of the University of Wales, Swansea, a former teacher, a writer of history books for schools (The French Revolution and European Nationalism, 1848-71) and the librettist and lyricist of a number of musicals. Collaborating with composer Ty Kroll, he has written the book and lyrics for the musicals, Lovers, Alone and Vocalize!. Concerts of songs from Lovers and Vocalize! were presented at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (in March 2002 and April 2003) and Alone received its world premiere staging in Madison, Wisconsin in April 2003. He has co-written the book & lyrics(with Jimmy Granstrom) for The Dying Game, a musical that speaks for the victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa (with music by Filip von Uexkull, Ty Kroll & Tristan Bons) - which received a showcase production at the Greenwich Musical Futures season in 2005. He wrote lyrics for the Tim Prottey-Jones albums More With Every Line and Surrounded By The Sounds and is currently developing the musical Roundabout with songwriter Joe Sterling and the musicals Based On A True Story, Elephant Juice, Grace Notes, Flop and My Land's Shore with composer Christopher J. Orton.

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