When: 26th January 2016 at 7.30pm and 27th January 2016 at 7pm and 8.30pm
Where: Wilton’s Music Hall, Graces Alley, London, E1 8JB
£: Tickets cost £10 to £20, and £8 to £15 for concessions
What is it?
Artist Mel Brimfield is teaming up with composer Gwyneth Herbert to present a fictitious lost musical reconstructed in fragments, centered around the lives of critically acclaimed British sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Springtime for Henry (and Barbara) will be on at Wilton’s Music Hall in London on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th January 2016.
Sir Henry Moore straddled the globe like a mighty colossus of Modernism, hoisting the flag for a thrilling new muscular breed of British sculpture, to the universal and enduring rapture of critics and public alike. Barbara Hepworth went to college with him.
A stellar cast brings this extraordinary story to life in a multitude of unexpected ways. See the durable hero Henry throw off the shackles of his humble Yorkshire roots to conquer the world. Meet the plucky heroine Barbara, languishing in his long shadow; just a little woman chipping away at an impossible dream… to stand on the shoulders of giants and carve out a niche of her own.
Amidst a collage of behind-the-scenes ‘documentary’ footage, recontextualised archive material, and a live TV chat show, expect heart-wrenching power ballads, toe-tapping swing-alongs and jaw-dropping show-stoppers. Springtime for Henry (and Barbara) promises West End stars and world-class musicians, high-kicking chorus lines and breathtaking set design. Magic, mystery, and a rigorous historiographical interrogation of the modernist legacy.
Springtime for Henry (and Barbara) stars Tony Award-winner Frances Ruffelle (Les Miserables, Piaf) as Barbara Hepworth, Laurence Olivier nominee Andrew C. Wadsworth (Oklahoma, Kiss Me Kate) as Henry Moore, and Hugh Ross (Passion, Woman in Black) as The Critic. Featuring Gwyneth Herbert, her band and the Starling Arts Choirs.
Gwyneth Herbert is an award-winning composer and lyricist, strikingly original performer, passionate workshop facilitator and versatile musical adventurer who loves to make things.
Wilton’s Music Hall is a gem in the heart of the East-End and the best surviving example of the early music hall era. This prestigious Grade II listed venue has been carefully repaired after four years of building work with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, SITA Trust, Viridor Credits, The Loveday Charitable Trust, The Foundation for Sport and the Arts, Garfield Weston Foundation, Aldgate and Allhallows, The City Bridge Trust, The Foyle Foundation and numerous other Trusts and individuals. The building is a focus for theatrical East End history as well as a living theatre, concert hall, public bar and heritage site.
More info: wiltons.org.uk