Anika Noni Rose, the Tony Award-winning actress who most recently leant her voice to hit Disney film The Princess And The Frog, will make her West End debut alongside fellow Tony winner Jason Robert Brown in September.
The two stars will team up at the Garrick theatre on 24 and 25 September to perform a concert of Brown’s work, blending new songs with tunes from his hit musicals. Brown’s band, The Caucasian Rhythm Kings, will provide support, along with a four-string French horn section.
Noni Rose, who voiced Princess Tiana in Disney’s most recent animated adventure, is also known to TV viewers for playing Grace Makutsi in the hit BBC Sunday night drama The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. She played Lorrell Robinson in the film Dreamgirls, won a Tony Award for her performance in Caroline, Or Change, and was most recently seen on Broadway starring opposite James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.
Brown, who makes his West End concert debut in this production, is at the forefront of contemporary US musical theatre, with four major musicals as a composer and lyricist to his name, including Songs For A New World, 13, Parade – which was staged at the Donmar Warehouse in 2007 – and The Last 5 Years.
This concert is the latest to join the line up produced by Speckulation Entertainment at the Garrick theatre this autumn. Former Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter performs songs from her new album At Last on 17 and 18 September, while star of stage and screen Caroline O’Connor treats West End audiences to her show The Showgirl Within for a week from 27 September to 3 October.
MA