Rebecca Lucy Taylor will play Maggie, a role originated by Helen Mirren, in a ‘landmark’ 50th anniversary production in London in March
Fifty years after Helen Mirren originated the role, Rebecca Lucy Taylor AKA Self Esteem is to play a raging rock star in a West End revival of Teeth ’n’ Smiles by David Hare.
It will take Taylor back to the Duke of York’s theatre, where she performed a four-night “theatrical presentation” of her third album, A Complicated Woman, in April. In Hare’s 1975 play she takes the lead role of a singer, Maggie, in an imploding band who put on a concert for a Cambridge University May ball at the end of the 1960s. The mood is summed up by the band’s closing number, Last Orders on the Titanic. Taylor will contribute additional music and lyrics to original song by the brothers Nick and Tony Bicât respectively.
Daniel Raggett will direct the production, which opens in March and runs for 12 weeks. Tickets will go on sale in October. “I’m deeply honoured to be bringing Teeth ’n’ Smiles back for its 50th anniversary,” said Taylor. “I love to challenge myself in new forms and I can’t wait to slap you round the face with Maggie. I am a huge fan of Daniel and David’s work, and the chance to collaborate with them on such a landmark production is something I am insanely excited about.”
