The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg Tickets

In 1964 French audiences first sat down to witness a musical film that would invite decades of legacy in the years following. The movie would star Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo, among others, and would eventually inspire a stage adaptation more than a decade later in 1979. Now the latter production makes a welcome appearance in the West End’s Gielgud Theatre with a run thanks to the acclaimed Kneehigh Theatre Company and their joint-Artistic Director Emma Rice. Its cast is set to include the stage actress Joanna Riding, “La Clique” star Meow Meow and Andrew Durand, plus further names to be announced.

Joanna Riding is likely to bring a lot of credibility to an already welcome and anticipated musical as she portrays Madame Emery onstage. The actress is the recipient of two Laurence Olivier Awards, which she earned a decade apart in 1993 and 2003, for both “Carousel” and “My Fair Lady”, whilst her career has seen her remain busy in a host of further London theatre shows. As such she arrives at the Gielgud on the back of credits such as “Guys and Dolls” at the National Theatre, “The Witches of Eastwick” at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and “Billy Elliot the Musical” at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

Onstage she plays Madame Emery, the mother of lead character Genevieve Emery, with whom they both sell umbrellas on a coastal town in Normandy. Genevieve is a seventeen-year-old girl and she is in love with Guy Fouchier, a twenty-year-old man that has been drafted to serve in combat in Algeria. They make a vow to remain together during his tour and upon his return, but when he is away events conspire against them so that ultimately Genevieve must make an important decision concerning her love for Guy and an altogether different offer.

Director Emma Rice is the joint-Artistic Director of the Kneehigh Theatre Company and she is best known for her revival of the classic “Brief Encounter”, which ran at the Haymarket Cinema back in 2008. Her other credits include “A Matter of Life and Death” at the National Theatre.

Those wishing to pick up theatre tickets to witness “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” can do so as its appears at the Gielgud Theatre from Tuesday 22nd March 2011 (previews from Saturday 5th March 2011) to Saturday 1st October 2011.