Olivier nominee Caroline O'Connor, who currently plays Countess Lily in Broadway's Anastasia, will star in the upcoming London revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's The Rink. Directed by Adam Lenson, the production will play a limited engagement at the Southwark Playhouse May 25–June 23.
O'Connor, who understudied the role of Angel in the 1988 London production of The Rink, has been cast in the role of Anna, the part created on Broadway by Tony winner Chita Rivera. Additional casting will be announced at a later time.
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O'Connor played Nini in Baz Luhrmann's Oscar-winning film Moulin Rouge, Velma Kelly in Chicago on Broadway and in Australia, and Mabel in Mack and Mabel in the West End, for which she received a 1996 Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Her other theatre roles include Bombshells (for which she received her second Olivier Award nomination), Hildy in On The Town (London Coliseum), End of the Rainbow (Sydney Opera House), and Edith Piaf in Piaf (Melbourne and Sydney).
The Rink, which premiered on Broadway in 1984 starting Rivera and Liza Minnelli, has a book by Tony winner Terrence McNally. This new production will be choreographed by Fabian Aloise and musically directed by Joe Bunker; casting is by Jacob Sparrow.
In the musical, Anna, an Italian housewife who runs a roller-skating rink on the Eastern seaboard, is about to sell it to developers until her estranged daughter Angel returns after a long absence, hoping to save the rink and patch things up with her mother.
The Rink is produced by Jack Maple and Brian Zeilinger.
