Rehearsals have started at York Theatre Royal for the world premiere production of Gus Gowland’s new musical Mayflies, which runs from April 28 to May 13. A brand new track from the show ‘Running on Empty’ has also been released – performed by Rumi Sutton with music and lyrics by Gus Gowland and musical direction, orchestration, arrangement by Joseph Church. Full video here:
This is the second full-length musical from Gus whose first musical Pieces of String was named The Stage’s Best Regional Musical of the Year and nominated for the UK Theatre Best Musical Production award. Gus won The Stage Debut Award for Best Composer/Lyricist, and nominated for the inaugural Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting.
Directing Mayflies is Tania Azevedo, who specialises in bringing new musicals to the stage and received Best Director nominations for Off West End Awards and Broadway World Awards for her work on the world premiere of But Im a Cheerleader.
Mayflies tells the story of a contemporary relationship from its first flourish to its final goodbye. Gus, who lives in York and is a resident artist at York Theatre Royal, says: “It is about the versions of ourselves that we become throughout our relationships, about how we change over time. It’s also about love.”
The cast of Nuno Queimado (Alternate Hamilton in the London West End production of Hamilton, Jesus Christ Superstar), Rumi Sutton (Hex, Heathers) and Emma Thornett (War Horse, Bedknobs and Broomsticks) – will alternate the roles of May and Fly in three different pairings. Each pairing brings a different perspective to the story. A full list of which pair can be seen at each performance is on the York Theatre Royal website.
Gus said: “I wanted to write something that could be played by any combination of people, regardless of age, race, gender, sexuality or disability. Having a rotating cast allows us to show the material in a new way with each pairing, which is really exciting. Each pairing will bring their own unique spin on the material.”
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