Top tunes and top talent in Top Hat on Nottingham stage

​Top Hat tells of Broadway star Jerry Travers, who arrives in London to open a new show when he crosses paths with model Dale Tremont. Her beauty sleep is rudely interrupted by Jerry tap dancing in the hotel suite above hers.

Instantly smitten, Jerry vows to abandon his bachelor life to win her heart – but the path of true love never does run smooth. Especially since Dale has mistaken Jerry for his hapless producer Horace, who’s trying to avoid the wrath of his formidable wife Madge, and Dale’s own fiery Italian admirer is planning a trip to Venice for her to showcase his couture gowns.

Irving Berlin’s irresistible score includes some of Hollywood’s greatest songs: Cheek to Cheek, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, Top Hat White Tie and Tails and Puttin’ on the Ritz.

The new production is staged by the acclaimed American director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall. A nine-time Tony nominee and three-time winner for her choreography on the Broadway productions of Wonderful Town, The Pajama Game and Anything Goes, her most recent revival of Anything Goes – which played at London’s Barbican, on a UK tour, and was also televised – received nine Olivier Award nominations in 2022 and Kathleen herself received the award for Best Choreographer. She has worked on more than 20 Broadway shows and she is the first woman to have directed a play, directed a musical and choreographed a musical on Broadway.

Reprising their roles from the run at Chichester Festival Theatre, where the production was widely acclaimed, are Phillip Attmore as Jerry Travers, Sally Ann Triplett as Madge Hardwick, James Clyde as Bates and Alex Gibson-Giorgio as Alberto Beddini.

Phillip Attmore is a star on Broadway himself, and winner of the Fred and Adele Astaire Award for Best Male Dancer and the Playbill Breakout Performance Award. He makes his UK debut as Jerry Travers.

Amara Okereke (My Fair Lady) joins the cast as Dale Tremont and James Hume (Kiss Me Kate) as Horace Hardwick.

Amara Okereke won the 2018 Stage Debut Award for her role as Cosette in Les Misérables. Further theatre credits include Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady at London Coliseum, Oklahoma! at Chichester Festival Theatre, A Streetcar Named Desire at Sheffield Crucible and Spring Awakening at the Almeida Theatre.

James Hume won the Toni Fell Competition and Hilda Deane Award for Outstanding Achievement. His theatre credits include Kiss Me Kate (Barbican), A Christmas Carol (Old Vic) and The Phantom of the Opera (West End). Sally Ann Triplett has enjoyed many distinguished London roles including Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club in London, Gran in The Witches and Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes for which she won a WhatsOnStage Award. James Clyde’s extensive theatre credits include Mr Wormwood in Matilda the Musical, and various roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Top Hat runs at the Theatre Royal from Tuesday October 7 to Saturday October 11. Visit trch.co.uk or call 0115 989 5555 to book.