Experience Zorro The Musical, with music by the Gypsy Kings

Zorro, with original music by the Gipsy Kings, will have its London Premiere at the Garrick Theatre on 15 July, following previews from 30 June. Directed by Christopher Renshaw, whose recent UK and Broadway credits include The King and I and We Will Rock You, the show will have choreography by internationally renowned Spanish choreographer and flamenco dancer Rafael Amargo.

The show has just completed a successful national tour, opening at the Eastbourne Congress Theatre on 4 March, before ending its run in Milton Keynes on 12 April.

Featuring an incredible new score by Latin music sensations the Gipsy Kings, and also including some of their biggest smash hits Bamboleo, Baila Me and Djobi Djoba, this spectacular, epic new production stars Matt Rawle. The cast of 30 will include a host of the West End’s leading musical theatre performers who will be joined on stage by some of the world’s leading Flamenco dancers.

Christopher Renshaw leads a multi award-winning creative team which includes RSC associate stage designer Tom Piper, co-composer and musical arranger John Cameron (Les Miserables) and Olivier award-winning author Stephen Clark (Martin Guerre, The Far Pavilions).

This legendary story of good versus evil has been a source of enduring fascination and has been the subject of a best selling novel by producer Isabel Allende and several major motion pictures. This new musical promises to retell the dramatic tale of a romantic hero with extraordinary aerial acrobatics, spectacular sword-fighting and incredible magic – all set to the famous red-hot Gipsy King beat brought to the UK stage with the authentic colours of traditional Flamenco.

Created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley, the iconic character Zorro has been featured in film, live action and animated television series, books, comics and even in a soon to be released Nintendo Wii game. Zorro is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega, a fictional wealthy caballero and master swordsman living in Spanish California, who defends the people of the land against injustice.

Zorro’s adventures reached a broad audience with the Disney’s television series which began in the late 1950s. The Mask of Zorro with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones was a 1998 blockbuster and was followed by The Legend of Zorro in 2005. The Spanish language telenovela, Zorro: la Espada y la Rosa (Zorro: The Sword and the Rose) aired in 2007 on the U.S. Spanish-language TV network Telemundo. The series consists of 122 one hour episodes which is currently airing internationally.

Isabel Allende’s 2005 bestseller Zorro: A Novel is the classic tale of the origins of the Zorro legend and reveals how the young Diego de la Vega became Zorro. Her imaginative tale weaves together Spanish and Californian history, mythic folk tales, pirate adventures and Native American legend.

Zorro producer and New York Times-best selling author Isabel Allende has sold more than 52 million novels in 30 languages. Allende was born in Chile in 1942 and began her career as a journalist and television presenter in Chile and Venezuela. Her novels - The House of the Spirits, Eva Luna, Of Love and Shadows, Daughter of Fortune, Paula, The Infinite Plan, Ines of My Soul, My Invented Country – have been translated into more than 27 languages and have been bestsellers in Europe, the US, Latin America and Australia.

Her 1982 ‘magic realist’ novel The House of the Spirits propelled her to international fame and was adapted into a film with Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave and Jeremy Irons. Isabel has been honoured at several US universities as a Doctor of Letters and she has received countless international academic, humanitarian and literary awards including Ambassador to the Hans Christian Andersen Bicentenary in 2004. Allende’s latest book The Sum of Our Days has just been published in hardback and has received rave reviews internationally.

The Gipsy Kings are that rare thing – an international household name famous solely for their music. This most successful Flamenco musical group is popular from Brazil to Iran honoured at The Alamo in Texas and celebrated in China.

The Grammy Award-winning The Gipsy Kings consist of two bands of brothers: the Reyes (Nicolas, Canut, Paul, Patchaï, André) and the Baliardos (Tonino, Paco, Diego). The band was formed when the teenage Reyes boys began backing their father Jose.

Jose Reyes, singing alongside guitarist Manitas de Plata, did much to popularise flamenco internationally and John Steinbeck, Charlie Chaplin, Pablo Picasso, Miles Davis and Salvador Dali were amongst the duo's admirers. Jose's death was devasting yet led to a fortuitous encounter with the Baliardos on the St Marie de la Mer Gitan pilgrimage. That night they passed round a guitar, shared songs and wine and agreed to work together.

Initially, the Reyes and Baliardos busked on the streets of Cannes and played weddings and parties; young men mixing flamenco with Western pop and Latin rhythms. When an American admirer told the band their name Los Reyes meant "The Kings" in English they realised they were born to be Gipsy Kings.

In 1987 The Gipsy Kings’ self titled debut album introduced the world to 'rumba Gitano', the sound of South America's rumba rhythm married to flamenco guitars. With Bamboleo the Gipsy Kings scored a huge international hit and since then the Kings have never stopped singing to the world. Their total album sales worldwide now exceed 18 million and on their new album, Pasajero, the Gipsy Kings continue their epic musical journey. The Gipsy Kings are touring the UK in Summer 2008.

Rafael Amargo is one of the most famous Spanish flamenco dancers. A graduate of the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York his career has been supported by the Spanish artists Luis Gordillo and Esperanza D´Ors and he has been photographed by Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz and Christopher Makos.

In 2002, he was awarded the Positano Leonide Massine Prize in recognition of his work as a choreographer and a dancer, an award previously given to Rudolf Nureyev, Maurice Bejart and Lindsay Kemp. El País awarded Rafael Best dance show of 2000 for his show Amargo, and he won again in 2002. He has also won four Max Awards (the most important performing arts awards in Spain), three as Best Dancer and one for the Best Dance Show of the year.

Zorro has lighting design by Ben Ormerod, sound design by Mick Potter with Mike Dixon as Musical Supervisor and Terry King as Fight Director.

For more information, visit Zorrothemusical.com.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm
Thursday & Saturday at 3pm
Garrick Theatre