Southwark Playhouse Brings MACK AND MABEL Revival to London, Now thru Aug 25

The creative team behind last summer's sold-out, acclaimed Southwark Playhouse musical, Parade - long-listed for The Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical in the 2011 Evening Standard Awards - are returning to the venue for a major revival of the Jerry Herman/Michael Stewart Hollywood musical, Mack and Mabel.

Mack and Mabel, starring Norman Bowman as Mack and Laura Pitt-Pulford (who received rave reviews as Lucille Frank in Parade) as Mabel, directed by Thom Southerland and produced by Danielle Tarento, will run for an 8-week season at The Vault at Southwark Playhouse, from tonight July 5 - Saturday August 25.

Press night is Wednesday 11 July at 7.30pm.

Mack and Mabel is set in the early days of?motion pictures and follows the tumultuous, real-life romantic relationship between movie director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, who became one of the biggest screen stars in the world. Told in a series of flashbacks, Sennett relates the glory days of the Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two-reelers", through his creation of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops to Mabel's death from TB in 1930.

The original 1974 Broadway production of Mack and Mabel was nominated for 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Danielle Tarento in association with Southwark Playhouse presents Mack and Mabel, with book by Michael Stewart, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, revised by Francine Pascal and based on an idea by Leonard Spigelgass. Mack and Mabel is directed by Thom Southerland with musical director Michael Bradley, choreographer Lee Proud, set & costume designer Jason Denvir, lighting designer Howard Hudson, sound designer Andrew Johnson and producer & casting director Danielle Tarento.

Norman Bowman (Mack) was Micky Deans in the UK tour of Over the Rainbow. His major musical roles include Sky Masterson in Michael Grandage's West End production of Guys and Dolls, Tom Watson in the Donmar's Parade, Marius in Les Miserables, Sam in Mamma Mia!, Jack in George and Ira Gershwin's Lady Be Good at the Open Air Theatre, Regents Park, and Dany Zuko in Grease.

Laura Pitt-Pulford (Mabel) is currently starring as Charity in Sweet Charity (MAC, Belfast). Her other major roles include Snake in Nick Lloyd Webber's The Little Prince (Lyric, Belfast), Lucille Frank in Parade (Southwark Playhouse), Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls (Theatre Clwyd), Lola in Copacabana (Watermill) and Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard (Watermill and West End).

Director Thom Southerland was longlisted Best Newcomer in the 2011 Evening Standard Awards for Parade. He was named Best Director at the 2011 The Offies - Off West End Theatre Awards - for Me and Juliet at the Finborough. He directed the European premiere of I Sing!, Divorce Me, Darling!, Annie Get Your Gun, The Pajama Game and sold-out all-male adaptations of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore and The Mikado (Union); Noel and Gertie (Cockpit), the European premiere of The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Landor), Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam! (Upstairs at the Gatehouse) and the European premiere of State Fair (Finbourough and transfer to Trafalgar Studios).

Musical Director Michael Bradley's credits include Parade at Southwark Playhouse, Spring Awakening (UK?tour) and Godspell, Once Upon A Time at the Adelphi and Assassins (which won Best Production at the 2011 Offies) all at the Union.

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