Ray Davies, the former front man of band The Kinks, is not content with writing the music, lyrics and book for new musical Come Dancing, he will also lead the show’s cast at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.
The 13-strong cast, which will be accompanied by a live band, also includes Alasdair Harvey, Anthony Flaum, Bradley Clarkson, Delroy Atkinson, Gemma Salter, Katey Munroe, Katherine James, Marcus Ellard, Martin George, Samantha Hughes, Stephen Lloyd and Wendy Mae Brown.
Davies plays narrator Terry in Come Dancing, which has grown out of the Kinks song of the same name and is loosely based on Davies’s own childhood when he watched his sisters go out with their latest boyfriends to dances on a Saturday night.
Set in the 1950s, around the Ilford Palais ballroom, Come Dancing tells a tale of love triumphing over adversity in the era when the big band sound dominated the music scene and rock and pop were yet to explode onto the scene.
Davies is best known as the lead singer/songwriter of the Kinks, for whom he penned hits including Waterloo Sunset, You Really Got Me and Lola. The musician has been aided in his writing duties by Paul Sirett (The Big Life, Rat Pack Confidential) and Terry Johnson (Dead Funny, Hitchcock Blonde).
Come Dancing is directed by Stratford East’s Artistic Director Kerry Michael, whose previous credits include current West End hit The Harder They Come.
MA