Last Updated on 2 June 2021 by Showcall Editorial Team
Theatre company Ruby in the Dust has found a new Dorian Gray for its online production of Dorian A Rock Musical streaming in July
Rising star and Offie Award-winning actor Bart Lambert has been cast in the title role of an “edgy” new glam rock musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
He will lead the cast of Dorian A Rock Musical which will be streamed online from 16 July to 12 August via Stream.theatre, developed by theatre company Ruby in the Dust.
Lambert is replacing Keith Ramsay who is no longer available. He joins the previously announced cast of John Addison, Fia Houston-Hamilton, Robert Grose, Lewis Rae, Johanna Stanton, Sophie Jugé and Tristan Pegg.
Lambert won the Offie award for best male performance in a musical last year for Thrill Me: The Leopold And Loeb Story at London’s Hope Theatre. His other credits include The House of Yes, also at The Hope Theatre, for which he received an Offie nomination.
He said: “I’m so excited to be part of this project. It’s always a pleasure to shed a new light on a classic story, and the evocative world of Dorian Gray is the most pleasurable of them all. After the year we’ve had I think we can all do with a bit of rock ‘n’ roll right now!”
Ruby in the Dust previously produced Gatsby A Musical based on F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The new show features music and lyrics by Joe Evans and a book by Linnie Reedman, who is also directing. It is described as an epic, modern twist on Wilde’s story with a newly composed score that sears through the action, propelled by influences from Bowie to Brecht.
A rock star, trapped in eternal adolescence, wants to change the course of his life and discover love. But can you find love if you’ve sold your soul to the Devil? While sitting for the eccentric society painter, Basil Hallward, Dorian is discovered by the influential Lord Henry and is soon under the spell of this dangerous, charismatic music impresario. Dorian, the secret child of love and death, is suddenly thrust into a confusing world where love dare not speak its name.
The show began life as a reading at London’s Cafe Royal, in the room where Wilde used to stage his own readings, and was then scheduled to run at The Other Palace before being cancelled just two days before opening night because of the first lockdown in March 2020.
