PRESS RELEASE – Thursday 5 September 2019 Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / website #ZorroMusicalUK Aria Entertainment and John Gertz present ZORRO THE MUSICAL ▪ A NEW PRODUCTION OF ZORRO THE MUSICAL WILL PREMIERE AT HOPE MILL THEATRE IN MANCHESTER, PRODUCED BY KATY LIPSON FOR ARIA ENTERTAINMENT AND JOHN GERTZ IN ASSOCIATION WITH ZORRO USA, LLC. ▪ DIRECTED BY CHRISTIAN DURHAM, THIS RE-IMAGINED, IMMERSIVE PRODUCTION WILL RUN FROM 14 MARCH – 18 APRIL 2020 ▪ TICKETS NOW ON SALE FROM WWW.HOPEMILLTHEATRE.CO.UK/EVENTS/ZORRO/ ▪ IMAGE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD HERE Katy Lipson and John Gertz are thrilled to announce a new production of Zorro The Musical which will run at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester from 14 March – 18 April 2020. The production will place audiences at the heart of this legendary adventure as they are invited to take part in flamenco dancing and sample tapas on offer during the evening. Audiences will be taken on a journey into this iconic story of good vs. evil, love vs. hate, by an energetic and talented company of actor-musicians, directed by Christian Durham. With music by the Gipsy Kings and John Cameron, lyrics by Stephen Clark and a book by Stephen Clark and Helen Edmundson, Zorro is inspired by the 2005 fictional biography of the same name written by Isabel Allende. Zorro the Musical retells the dramatic tale of a romantic hero in an immersive new production featuring original music by the Gypsy Kings alongside their international hits including Bamboleo, Baila Me and Djobi Djoba. Casting and full creative team will be announced in due course. Christian Durham, Director, said: “Our new immersive production will see the action spread from the stage through the audience as they become part of the story and witness the thrills and spills of our famous masked hero. We’ll be bringing the flavour and passion of Spain and 19th Century California to the Hope Mill with heart-thumping flamenco choreography, Cante jondo singing, magic, ‘get-up-and-dance’ music by The Gypsy Kings and of course, the thrill of sword fights.” Katy Lipson, Producer of Aria Entertainment, said: “I have always held the Gipsy King’s music close to my heart and being a huge fan of making ambitious shows in small spaces Zorro felt like a fitting addition to my programme of work. I am truly excited to be working with John Gertz and Christian Durham on this re-imagining and hope we can bring a lot of sunshine, tapas and flamenco to the Hope Mill Theatre next spring.” Tickets are now on sale at www.hopemilltheatre.co.uk/events/zorro/ -ENDS- For further information please contact The Corner Shop PR on 020 7831 7657 Su-Ann Chow-Seegoolam | Chloe Pritchard-Gordon | LISTINGS ZORRO THE MUSICAL Directed by Christian Durham Book and Lyrics by Stephen Clark Music by Gipsy Kings Original Story by Stephen Clark and Helen Edmundson Co-Composer and Adapter: John Cameron Hope Mill Theatre 113 Pollard Street, Manchester M4 7JA First Performance: Saturday 14 March 2020 Press Night: Wednesday 18 March 2020 Final Performance: Saturday 18 April 2020 Performances: Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2:30pm, Sunday at 3pm Box Office details Website: www.hopemilltheatre.co.uk/events/zorro/ Tel: 0333 012 4963 Prices from £16 Twitter: @ZorroMusicalUK Facebook: /ZorroMusicalUK Instagram: /ZorroMusicalUK # ZorroMusicalUK NOTES TO EDITORS BIOGRAPHIES CHRISTIAN DURHAM Christian is currently directing Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking The Code at the Salisbury Playhouse. The story of the national hero, Alan Turing who broke the Enigma codes in World War II but was then found guilty by the law of being a homosexual. He then starts working on the National Tour of the Christmas tale of The Grinch. Christian's other work includes the new jazz musical Café Society Swing at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, highlighting the story of the first racially-desegregated jazz club in NY, which helped launch the careers of singers like Billie Holliday and Lena Horne. The revival of Quaint Honour, at the Finborough, won rave reviews, sold out and was nominated for an OFFIE Award. At the Union Theatre, Christian directed the story of Viv Nicholson and her tragic pools win, Spend Spend Spend, and staged the first professional revival in the UK of Stephen Schwartz’s Children Of Eden. Further credits include creating and staging the new musical Dusty Springfield for Carnival Cruise lines, directing the National Tour of Boy George’s Taboo, which won the Manchester Evening News Best Musical Award and the porn musical Debbie Does Dallas at Oxford Fire Station & The Udderbelly, Edinburgh (Nominated Best Musical Production) plus various development workshops of new writing including Finding The Burnett Heart with Michael Pennington, Just A Man & This Is England for Page To Stage and Nobody’s Business for the Charing Cross Theatre. Productions at Drama Colleges include Pippin & Spring Awakening for Guildford School of Acting, Penelopiad for Mountview, Curtains at Arts Educational, Just So & Animus at MTA and Liolà & Cloud 9 for Drama Studio London. Christian is also an experienced Dramaturg and does confidential show doctoring on plays and musicals. ARIA ENTERTAINMENT Aria Entertainment was founded in 2012 by Katy Lipson. In 2017, Katy was awarded the Best Producer award by the Off-West End Awards and is a recipient of the Stage One Bursary and Start Up Award. She made The Stage 100 in 2018 and 2019 with Joe Houston and William Whelton for their work at Hope Mill Theatre. She has also been selected for the first ever US/UK Producer exchange with Columbia University Katy co-produced the UK Tour of The Addams Family and the 50th Anniversary production of HAIR at the London Vaults, which she originally co-produced with Hope Mill Theatre in 2016, where she is Producing Artistic Director for in-house productions. HAIR won the award for Best Off-West End Production at the 2018 Whatsonstage Awards and has recently completed a major UK Tour. Their transfer of Pippin which played in February at Southwark was nominated for a record number of Off West End Awards. Their production of Spring Awakening also won Best Regional show at the 2019 WOS awards. She also produced the London transfer of new musical The Toxic Avenger at the Arts Theatre, West End following a run at The Edinburgh Festival’s Pleasance Theatre. Other recent productions include: Night of the Living Dead – Live (Pleasance, London); Unexpected Joy (Southwark Playhouse and York Theatre, Off-Broadway); It’s Only Life (Union Theatre); Rags the Musical; Putting it Together; The Return of the Soldier, Aspects of Love, Little Women, The ToyBoy Diaries, Yank!, Parade and Hair (Hope Mill Theatre); the London transfers of Pippin and Aspects Of Love (Southwark Playhouse) and Yank! (Charing Cross Theatre); tick, tick...BOOM! (Park Theatre); Promises, Promises and The Toxic Avenger (Southwark Playhouse); Vanities The Musical (Trafalgar Studios); See What I Wanna See and The Return Of The Soldier (Jermyn Street Theatre); Bar Mitzvah Boy (Upstairs at the Gatehouse); The Adventures of Pinocchio, Lizzie and The Who’s Tommy (Greenwich Theatre); The House of Mirrors & Hearts, Supported By Grant For The Arts (Arcola Theatre) and Marry Me A Little, Jerry’s Girls and Forever Plaid (St. James Studio). Other current projects include: Mame starring double Olivier Award-winner Tracie Bennett and Harriet Thorpe and The Astonishing Times of Timothy Cratchit (Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester). Twitter: @AriaEnts www.aria-entertainment.com JOHN GERTZ JOHN GERTZ is the President and CEO of Zorro Productions, Inc. He has produced four Zorro motion pictures, including The Mask of Zorro (1998) and its sequel, The Legend of Zorro, with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. During his tenure, 12 different TV versions of Zorro have been produced, as well as more than 75 stage productions. In 2005, together with world-renowned author Isabel Allende, he released the best-selling novel about the genesis of Zorro. He teamed up with Quentin Tarantino to create the graphic novel, Django/Zorro, currently being developed into a motion picture by SONY. Gertz is the worldwide lead producer of Zorro: The Musical, with a score by the Gipsy Kings, which premiered on London’s West End and has been produced throughout the world. Gertz is an astronomer, a classical pianist, a beekeeper, a mycologist, and an organic vegetable gardener. He has served on ten nonprofit boards, including three terms as chairman of the world-famous SETI Institute. He currently publishes in peer reviewed astronomical journals in the field of SETI. .