A Royal and Derngate, Northampton and China Plate co-production in partnership with English Touring Theatre.
Gin Craze!
A new musical
By April De Angelis and Lucy Rivers
July 2021
A booze soaked love ballad from the women of Gin Lane.
Two lovers, each with hidden secrets, struggle to prosper as gin hawkers. At a time in the 18th century when the average Briton drank 1.5 litres of gin every day, women were being locked up in cells to sober up and disorder was breaking out on every street corner, panic spreads among the upper classes who look to the magistrates, the Church and even their tipsy Queen to restore sobriety.
This raucous satire invites you down to the gin dive! Come on a journey through the joyous excesses of Hogarth’s Britain in this anarchic, ingenious and irreverent new musical.
Book and Lyrics: April De Angelis
Music and Lyrics: Lucy Rivers
Director: Michael Oakley
Designer: Hayley Grindle
Music Supervisor/arranger: Tamara Saringer
Choreographer: Paul Isles
Lighting Designer : Jack Knowles
Sound Designer: Tony Gayle
Assistant Director: Tian Brown-Sampson
Fight Director: Alison De Burgh
Casting Director: Matilda James
Dramaturg: Victoria Saxton
Cast:
Moll & Queen Caroline:Debbie Chazen Suki / Betsy: Rosalind Ford / Mary: Aruhan Galieva / Evelyn & Mistress: Paula James / Henry Fielding & Jekyll: Alex Mugnaioni / John Fielding & Bartholomew: Peter Pearson / Lydia: Paksie Vernon / Sarah Fielding& Informer: Rachel Winters
Photography – Ellie Kurttz
Featured in both The Guardian and Beyond The Curtain’s Best Theatre of 2021, as well as What’s On Stage’s shows they want to see return in 2022.
“A booze-soaked love ballad from the women of Gin Lane” – think Cabaret relocated to Hogarth’s 18th-century London, with added vim and sharper bite.
The Observer
★★★★★
“An intoxicating show that leaves your head spinning, your spirit soaring and a fire in your belly.”
The Times ★★★★
“Bawdy Riot of a musical”
“Both the suffering and sweetness of the “gin craze” are bundled into this soulful, folksy show about life and love amid the defiant ranks of gin-peddlers and tarts. Gin Craze! combines melancholy ballads with jubilant jigs, all performed by eight actor-musicians.”
The Telegraph ★★★★ Dominic Cavendish
Gin Craze! review – “a bawdy feminist history lesson with anarchic spirit”
The Guardian – Arifa Akbar ★★★★
“Great Music, fantastic performances…a brilliant and bawdy trip to the Gin Dive”
Beyond The Curtain ★★★★
