Mike Faist (Jack) and Lucas Hedges (Ennis) will make their West End stage debuts in the world premiere stage adaptation of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, which will play a limited season @sohoplace from 10 May to 12 August 2023.
The production will also star Eddi Reader as The Balladeer.
A new play with music, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is written by Ashley Robinson, based on Annie Proulx’s short story, and features songs by Dan Gillespie Sells. The production will be directed by Jonathan Butterell.
This is a play with original music by Dan Gillespie Sells, performed by the extraordinary singer, Eddi Reader, joined by her onstage Country and Western band: Sean Green (piano/MD), Meelie Traill (upright bass), Julian Jackson (chromatic harmonica), BJ Cole (pedal steel guitar).
Wyoming 1963: a wild landscape where people live in extreme rural poverty in tight, insular and conservative communities. When Ennis and Jack take jobs on the isolated Brokeback Mountain, all their certainties of life change forever as they flounder in unexpected emotional waters of increasing depth. Dan Gillespie-Sells beautiful Country and Western songs weave heartbreakingly through this intense tale of an unresistible and hidden love spanning twenty years and its tragic consequences.
Ashley Robinson said:
“I’m honoured to be entrusted by Annie Proulx to bring new life in new form to her timeless and universal story. A story that means so much to so many, and will surely mean as much to a whole new generation. Dan Gillespie Sells’ powerful and beautiful songs, sung by “The Balladeer,” give voice to the tumultuous inner landscape of our wannabe cowboys (both young men of few words), and provide the scope of our vast and brutal outer landscape, not to mention allowing Proulx’s poetic prose to literally sing. Grateful as all hell to reunite with Jonathan Butterell and to put this piece in his skilled and sensitive hands—what lucky actors, what a lucky team, and what a lucky production, all coming together under Nica Burns, in her marvel of a new space, @sohoplace. Let’s ride.”
The production sees Jonathan Butterell and Dan Gillespie Sells (The Feeling), creators of the hit musical and film Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, reuniting with Producer Nica Burns. The internationally renowned creative team includes: Tom Pye, set and costumes; David Finn, lighting; and Christopher Shutt, sound.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is the first world premiere play to be originated @sohoplace and the fourth production to open at the new venue, following Marvellous, As You Like It and Medea.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is produced by Nica Burns with Adam Blanshay Productions, Lambert Jackson Productions, and Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment.
