It’s murder in the West End as award-winning musical comedy Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! transfers to the Ambassadors Theatre for a strictly limited season from 25 May – 14 September. From the Olivier Award-winning producers of ‘Fleabag’ and ‘Baby Reindeer’, with Book, Lyrics and Co-Direction by Olivier Award winner Jon Brittain (Rotterdam), Music and Lyrics by Matthew Floyd Jones (Frisky & Mannish) and Co-Direction and Choreography by Fabian Aloise (Sunset Boulevard). This joyful new British musical played to packed houses for two seasons at the Edinburgh Festival and last autumn at Bristol Old Vic and HOME Manchester.
Tickets for the West End go on-sale on Wednesday 7 February at 10am at www.kathyandstella.com with over 5000 tickets for under £25.
Bronté Barbé (Newsies, Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre) and Rebekah Hinds (Oklahoma! Young Vic/ West End) will reprise their roles as Kathy and Stella alongside Imelda Warren-Green (Doctor Who: Time Fracture, Immersive LDN) who will once again play Erica. Further casting is to be announced.
Originally brought to the stage by Francesca Moody Productions (Fleabag, Olivier Award winner Baby Reindeer, Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons) and Kater Gordon (2:22, Vanya) Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder! won Musical Theatre Review’s Best Musical Award at the Edinburgh Festival 2022. The production reunites the writing and musical talents of Jon Brittain – Book and Lyrics / Co-Director (Olivier Award winner Rotterdam) and Matthew Floyd Jones – Music and Lyrics (Frisky and Mannish) who previously collaborated on the critically acclaimed, Fringe First award-winning A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad). Fabian Aloise (who was nominated for an Olivier Award, WhatsOnStage Award and Stage Debut Award for Jamie Lloyd’s Evita) Co Directs and Choreographs fresh from his success as choreographer on Lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard (West End).
BFFs Kathy and Stella host Hull’s least successful true crime podcast. When their favourite author is killed they are thrust into a thrilling whodunnit of their own! This big-hearted, laugh out loud musical follows the unlikely crime-fighting duo as they put their friendship on the line to become part of the story. Can they crack the case, (and become global podcast superstars) before the killer strikes again…?
Company Information
Produced by Francesca Moody Productions, Kater Gordon, Wessex Grove and Fiery Angel.
Creative Team
Book & Lyrics / Co-Director: Jon Brittain
Music & Lyrics: Matthew Floyd Jones
Co-Director & Choreographer: Fabian Aloise
Set & Costume Designer: Cecilia Carey
Co-Sound Designer: Tingying Dong
Co-Sound Designer: Dan Samson
Lighting Designer: Peter Small
Musical Supervisor and Orchestrator: Charlie Ingles
Associate Director: Charlie Martin
Dramaturge: Gillian Greer
Casting Director: Annelie Powell
CDG Casting Assistant: Alice Walters
Biographies
Francesca Moody Productions
Francesca Moody Productions is an Olivier Award-winning and Tony nominated production company. Upcoming productions include: Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! (Ambassadors Theatre), An Oak Tree (Bergen International Festival). Recent productions include: Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen (Bush Theatre), Nutcracker (Southbank Centre), Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder (Underbelly Edinburgh, Bristol Old Vic, HOME Manchester, Roundabout), An Oak Tree (Festival d’Avignon, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith), A Doll’s House (Hudson Theatre, New York), A Streetcar Named Desire (Phoenix Theatre), Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Harold Pinter Theatre), Berlusconi: A New Musical (Southwark Playhouse Elephant), Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen (Roundabout), Mum (Soho Theatre), Leopards (Rose Theatre), Baby Reindeer (Bush Theatre, Roundabout). FMP are also the creators of Shedinburgh Fringe Festival an online live-streamed festival of theatre, comedy and music created in lieu of the Edinburgh Fringe in 2020. Since its launch the festival has raised over £40,000 towards a fund to support the next generation of artists to make it to the Fringe. FMP is led by Francesca Moody MBE who is best known as the original producer of the multi-award-winning Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, which she has produced globally on behalf on DryWrite, most recently at the Wyndhams Theatre, when it was also recorded and broadcast by NT Live, playing in cinemas throughout the world. In 2020 Francesca led and coordinated the Fleabag for Charity for campaign and later the Theatre Community Fund with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Olivia Colman, raising over £2million to support theatrical artists and professionals whose livelihoods and creative futures have been threatened in the wake of Covid-19. Development Producer: Christabel Holmes Associate Producer: Grace Dickson Finance Manager: Charlotte Lines Production Assistant: Elly Roberts
Kater Gordon
Kater is an Emmy-Award winning writer (Mad Men) and an independent theatre producer. Current projects include the Olivier Award Nominated 2:22 — A Ghost Story (Noël Coward Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, Criterion Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Apollo Theatre, Ahmanson Theatre, Her Majesty’s Theatre Melbourne, UK Tour), Macbeth (Dock X), and Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder (Ambassadors Theatre, Roundabout, Underbelly, Bristol Old Vic, Manchester HOME). Other notable credits include Tony Award Nominated A Doll’s House (Hudson Theatre, New York), One Woman Show (Greenwich House Theatre), Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons (Harold Pinter Theatre), Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen (Bush) and Disney’s Newsies (Troubadour Wembley Theatre).
Wessex Grove
Wessex Grove is a theatrical production company set up by Benjamin Lowy and Emily Vaughan-Barratt in 2020. Current and upcoming productions include: A site-specific, touring production of Macbeth with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma (Liverpool, Edinburgh, London & Washington D.C.); Ivo van Hove & Rufus Wainwright’s new musical Opening Night with Sheridan Smith (Gielgud Theatre); Thomas Ostermeier’s An Enemy of the People with Matt Smith (Duke of York’s Theatre); and Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Playhouse Theatre and August Wilson Theatre, Broadway. Recent productions include: Simon Stephen’s Vanya starring Andrew Scott (The Duke of York’s Theatre); Quiz UK Tour; The Old Man & The Pool (Wyndham’s Theatre); Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life directed by Ivo van Hove (Harold Pinter Theatre & Savoy Theatre); One Woman Show (Greenwich House Theater, New York & Ambassadors Theatre, West End); Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Harold Pinter Theatre & UK Tour); Best of Enemies (Noël Coward Theatre); Constellations (Vaudeville Theatre, winner of the Olivier Award for Best Revival); Sunset Boulevard (Savoy Theatre); Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! (Edinburgh Fringe, Bristol Old Vic & HOME, Manchester); A Strange Loop (Barbican Theatre); A Doll’s House (Hudson Theatre, New York); A Streetcar Named Desire (Phoenix Theatre); Mother Goose (Duke of York’s Theatre & UK Tour); The Doctor (Duke of York’s Theatre); Mad House (Ambassadors Theatre); The Seagull (Harold Pinter Theatre); Cyrano de Bergerac (Harold Pinter Theatre, Glasgow Theatre Royal & Brooklyn Academy of Music); and The New Tomorrow Festival (Young Vic). Producers: Benjamin Lowy & Emily Vaughan-Barratt General Manager: Tom Powis Production Coordinator: Jack Sterne Production Coordinator: Hugh Summers Production Coordinator: Sarah Alford-Smith Administrator: Eloise Kenny-Ryder Executive & Production Assistant: Max Hoffman Office & Production Assistant: Lily Ford
Fiery Angel
Headed by Edward Snape and Marilyn Eardley, Fiery Angel is an award-winning international production company based in London’s West End. Recent productions include: Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder! (West End and UK Tour), The 39 Steps (UK Tour), King Lear (West End), And Then There Were None (UK and Ireland Tour), Unexpected Twist (UK Tour), Animal Farm (UK Tour), The Good Life (UK Tour), Hairspray (West End), Touching the Void (West End), The Son (West End), The Night of the Iguana (West End), Fleabag (West End), Home, I’m Darling (West End and UK Tour), Long Day’s Journey into Night (West End, New York and Los Angeles), Mary Stuart (West End and UK Tour), Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (West End), Love From A Stranger (UK Tour), Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company; The Winter’s Tale, All On Her Own/Harlequinade, Red Velvet, The Painkiller, Romeo and Juliet, The Entertainer (West End), Ben Hur (Tricycle Theatre), The 39 Steps (9 years in the West End, 3 UK Tours, 3 years on Broadway and presented in over 40 territories worldwide including Olivier, Tony and Moliere award wins), To Kill a Mockingbird (Barbican Theatre and UK Tour), The Scottsboro Boys (West End), The Ladykillers (West End and UK Tour), Ghost Stories (West End), Dial M for Murder (UK Tour). Fiery Angel has acted as a co-producer alongside The National Theatre on its West End productions of Nine Night, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Lehman Trilogy. As part of Fiery Angel Entertainment: Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Tubular Bells (Royal Festival Hall), Rob Brydon (UK Tour), Circus 1903 (Royal Festival Hall, Eventim Apollo), Guys and Dolls (Royal Albert Hall), Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret (Barbican Theatre) and Our Finest Hour (UK Tour). As part of The Children’s Theatre Partnership: The Boy at the Back of the Class (UK Tour), Unexpected Twist (UK Tour), Animal Farm (UK Tour), Holes (UK Tour), The Jungle Book (UK Tour), Running Wild (UK Tour), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (UK Tour), Goodnight Mister Tom (West End and 3 UK Tours, Olivier Award winner) and Swallows and Amazons (West End and UK Tour). As part of Fierylight Productions: Smartest Giant in Town (UK Tour and West End), Peppa Pig Live! (West End, UK Tour, US Tour and Australian Tour), Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom (UK Tour) and Octonauts & The Deep Sea Volcano Adventure (UK Tour and US Tour).
