Great balls of fire! Look who's in Return to the Forbidden Planet revival

A slightly belated present for #ShakespearesBirthday. Casting is announced for this summer's fringe revival of Olivier Award-winning RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET, with nods to the bard's The Tempest, coming to Upstairs at the Gatehouse in May...

The Ovation production of Return to the Forbidden Planet is directed by John Plews and runs at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate, north London, from 12 May to 17 June 2018, with a press night on 16 May.

Winner of the 1990 Olivier Award for Best New Musical, Return to the Forbidden Planet is a rockin’ rollercoaster ride into the future bursting with red-hot hits, including Great Balls of Fire, Good Vibrations, Teenager in Love, The Young Ones and The Monster Mash. Join Captain Tempest and the crew of the Intergalactic Starship Albatross as they travel deep into hyperspace. What’s waiting for them?……a mad scientist, a secret formula, a scary monster and D’illyria – a planet not marked on their cosmic charts.

This long-running West End hit is loosely based on the 1950s sci-fi film ‘Forbidden Planet’ (which itself was based on ‘The Tempest’). Author Bob Carlton created a riotous mix of Shakespeare, B movie Science Fiction and some of the biggest pop hits from the fifties and sixties. So fasten your seatbelts, set your ray guns to stun and get ready for a cosmic adventure of meteoric proportions!

The cast for this brand-new production are: 

• Alex Fobbester – Captain Tempest
• Emma Fraser  - Navigation Officer
• Guy Freeman   - Bosun
• Stephanie Hockley – Miranda
• Edward Hole – Cookie
• Rhiannon Hopkins – Penny Scyllen
• Christopher Killik – Prospero
• Ellie Ann Lowe – Science Officer
• Simon Oskarsson – Ariel
• David Persiva – Mike Roechip
• Lewys Taylor – Bud Visor

Return to the Forbidden Planet is choreographed by Grant Murphy and designed by Amy Yardley, with lighting by Sam Waddington, sound by Nico Menghini, costumes by May Clyne and casting by Debbie O'Brien. Musical supervision is by Marcus Adams. The revival is produced by Katie Plews for Ovation.