Anita Dobson to star in The Carnival of the Animals at Riverside Studios

It has been announced that Anita Dobson will star in a new musical called The Carnival of the Animals. The musical will open at Riverside Studios on 4th July and run until 14th July 2013.

The French composer Camille Saint-Saens wrote his short orchestral suite The Carnival of the Animals as a work of fun for his friends, and did not permit a public performance during his lifetime. Since his death, the piece has become a firm family favourite in the concert hall, with many of its melodies, such as The Elephant, The Aquarium, Fossils and The Swan, achieving popular recognition. Composer Gavin Greenaway, lyricist Roger Hyams and book writer Andrew Marshall, along with director Thom Southerland and producer Brian Eastman, have now taken this music and worked it into a new stage musical, capturing the family appeal Saint-Saens first created.

The new musical is set in a quiet square in today's Paris, where The Carnival of the Animals is still being performed, over ninety years after its first outing. Under the patronage of the infamous fashion designer, Mademoiselle Parfait, played by Anita Dobson, the legacy of Saint-Saens only just survives. The animals that now make up the show have lost their enthusiasm for the daily performances and are at odds with each other over the updating the show clearly needs. However, the squabbling animals, led by Odette the Swan and Henri the Lion, are soon united by the arrival of four new animals, a Chimpanzee, Zebra, Parrot and Lioness, who are determined to revive the show and create Paris's newest musical sensation. No less disconcerted is Mademoiselle Parfait, who has a dark secret.

Anita Dobson, whose most recent theatre credits include playing Bette Davis in Bette and Joan at the Arts Theatre and on tour and Mistress Quickly in Merry Wives of Windsor for the Royal Shakespeare Company, leads a cast which includes Allyson Ava-Brown, Bronte Barbe. Alastair Brookshaw, David Burt, Jacob Chapman, Cassandra Compton, Liam Doyle, Jonny Fines, Matthew Gent and Stephen Webb, playing the roles of the various animals.

Please visit www.riversidestudios.co.uk for further information and to book tickets.

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