Independent Arts News Reporting Emma Rice's Romantics Anonymous Announces Live Cast Album
Reported on Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
Pictured Above: Carly Bawden as Angélique. Photo Credit: Steve Tanner.
NEWSROOM POST: NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Romantics Anonymous Live Cast Album will be available on February 14th on all streaming platforms
New York, NY – Wise Children and Plush Theatricals are excited to announce the release of the live cast album for the hit musical ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS. The recording, captured during its 2020 run at Bristol Old Vic, will be available on all streaming platforms starting on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.
Adapted from the film LES ÉMOTIFS ANONYMES, the musical features direction and book by Emma Rice, with music and lyrics by Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond. The production was originally set to tour the United States following the Bristol premiere, but the tour was halted due to the pandemic.
“We were all heartbroken when COVID forced us to cancel the American tour,” Emma Rice said. “But this glorious live album is the perfect way to preserve the brilliant performances and pure joy of our beloved Romantics Anonymous. We are delighted to be able to share this tender, delicious and magical musical with the world.”Funny, tender, and delightfully awkward, ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS is a delicious love story about breaking the mold and finding the courage to be happy. When Angelique, a gifted chocolate maker inhibited by social anxiety, takes a job in Jean-Rene’s struggling chocolate factory, a fragile love affair unfolds.
Pictured Above: Carly Bawden as Angélique. Photo Credit: Steve Tanner.
“We’re thrilled that the live album will allow even more people to discover this piece that we’re so incredibly proud of,” said Kooman and Dimond. “Romantics Anonymous has already touched so many hearts in the UK, and now it can continue to reach new audiences around the world. ”The show was hailed as “A sweetly funny, gorgeously tender musical romcom” by The Guardian, and “Truly delicious” by Time Out London.
The album features Marc Antolin as Jean-René, Carly Bawden as Angélique, Brett Brown as Salesman/Fred, Me’sha Bryan as Suzanne/Mimi, Harry Hepple as Ludo/Remi, Laura Jane Matthewson as Young Woman, Sandra Marvin as Magda/Brigitte/Dr. Maxim, Craig Pinder as Father/Pierre/Receptionist, and Gareth Snook as Mercier/Mumbler/Marini.
Pictured Above: Marc Antolin as Jean-René, Carly Bawden as Angélique. Photo Credit: Steve Tanner.
The orchestra includes Tom Brady (musical direction & piano), Sarah Bowler (cello), Sophie
Creaner (woodwind), and Mike Parkin (percussion), with musical supervision by Nigel Lilley.
Orchestrations are by Simon Hale, mixing by Simon Baker, and mastering by Fritz Meyers.
The world premiere of ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS was originally produced by Shakespeare’s Globe for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2017.
For more information, visit www.romanticsanonymous.com
ABOUT WISE CHILDREN Created and led by Emma Rice, Wise Children launched in April 2018 and is an Arts CouncilEngland National Portfolio Organisation. Based in the South West, we make ground-breaking work with exceptional artists, and tour across the world. Alongside our shows, we run a unique professional development programme, training a new and more diverse generation of theatre practitioners. We make work from our home The Lucky Chance, in Somerset, which is our creation space and a tiny theatre in which we welcome audiences of all shapes and sizes.
PLUSH THEATRICALS
Plush Theatricals, a New York-based theatrical production company, was founded by Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer Jason E. Grossman and Jessy Lynn Grossman. The company develops and co-produces both musicals and plays for the commercial stage, including the musical Romantics Anonymous and Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder (Bristol Old Vic, Edinburg). Jason has also co-produced other notable productions such as, Come From Away, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Peter and the Starcatcher, and The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway. For more information, visit www.plushtheatricals.com
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
EMMA RICE (book) is the Artistic Director of Wise Children and is an internationally respected theatre-maker and director. For Wise Children she has adapted and directed THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA, BLUE BEARD, THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL AND HAPPIER TALES, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, BAGDAD CAFÉ, ANGELA CARTER’S WISE CHILDREN, ENID BLYTON’S MALORY TOWERS and ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS. As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe: TWELFTH NIGHT, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL (AND OTHER HAPPIER TALES). Rice worked for Kneehigh as an actor, director and Artistic Director, creating critically acclaimed productions including: THE FLYING LOVERS OF VITEBSK, 946: THE AMAZING STORY OF ADOLPHUS TIPS, THE WILD BRIDE, THE RED SHOES, CYMBELINE (in association with RSC), A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (in association with National Theatre), BRIEF ENCOUNTER (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions), DON JOHN (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic), WAH! WAH! GIRLS (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages), and STEPTOE AND SON. She received the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre award at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards.
Michael Kooman (music) and Christopher Dimond (lyrics) are an Emmy-nominated writing team for the stage and screen. In addition to their work on ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS, they wrote more than 150 songs for VAMPIRINA, an animated musical TV series that airs on the Disney Channel and Disney Junior, reaching over 100 million viewers in 115 countries. Other television work includes RIDLEY JONES, DEAD END: PARANORMAL PARK, and SPIRIT RANGERS, all for Netflix.Their stage projects include THE NOTEWORTHY LIFE OF HOWARD BARNES (Village Theater), ORPHIE & THE BOOK OF HEROES (The Kennedy Center), THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF PERCIVAL VON SCHMOOTZ (commissioned by the Canadian Music Theatre Project), JUDGE JACKIE: DISORDER IN THE COURT (Pittsburgh CLO), DANI GIRL (Exit, Pursued by a Bear), GOLDEN GATE (Williamstown Theatre Festival), HOMEMADE FUSION (London’s Ambassadors Theater, Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and JUNIOR CLAUS (Orlando Repertory Theatre).
Awards and honors include the Fred Ebb Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, the Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award, the Samuel French Next Step Award, the Burton Lane Award, and the Harold Adamson Award. They are members of the Dramatists Guild and ASCAP, and are proud alumni of Carnegie Mellon University. Learn more at www.koomandimond.com.
