For four days only, a brand new musical is soaring into London to make its West End premiere. From 1-4 August, Broken Wings will play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and today, the full cast has been announced.
Leading the cast as the iconic narrator, Gibran, is the show’s co-writer and West End star Nadim Naaman (The Phantom Of The Opera). Starring alongside him are Hiba Elchikhe (Princess Jasmine in the Australian production of Disney’s Aladdin) as Selma Karamy and Rob Houchen (Marius in the West End production of Les Misérables) as Gibran’s teenage self.
The rest of the cast features Adam Linstead (Cats) as Farris, Soophia Foroughi (Tiger Bay) as Mother, Nadeem Crowe (Sunset Boulevard) as Karim, Irvine Iqbal (Disney’s Aladdin) as Bishop Bulos Galib, and Sami Lamine (Laila: The Musical) as Mansour Bey Galib.
Broken Wings is an autobiographical tale of tragic love based on Lebanese-born poet Kahlil Gibran’s 1912 masterpiece.
Set in New York City in 1923, an ageing Gibran tells his story of discovery, love and traditions using poetry and music. The story begins two decades earlier and across continents transporting the audience to turn-of-the-century Beirut. An 18-year-old Gibran returns to The Middle East to complete his education and discover more of his heritage after living in America for five years. He meets and falls deeply in love with Selma Karamy – the daughter of local businessman, Farris Karamy. However, Selma becomes betrothed to Mansour Bey Galib – the nephew of Bishop Bulos Galib, who is after the Karamy family fortune. Gibran and Selma fight for their love while navigating the rules, traditions and expectations that society has.
The semi-staged production will have a nine-piece orchestra accompanying the cast while they perform original songs. You can hear one of them, Selma, via the video below:
Writer Kahlil Gibran, whose seminal work The Prophet was an international best-seller, remains the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi.
Broken Wing’s book, music and lyrics have been written by Nadim with music and lyrics from Dana Al Fardan, one of The Middle East’s leading contemporary composers.
Broken Wings is taking part in Kids Week. Kids Week goes on sale on 12 June at 10am. Check out the Kids Week page to find out more.