Josie Rourke fulfills seven-year pledge in giving musical role to 'extraordinary' Anne-Marie Duff

1/10
Robert Dex @RobDexES18 April 2019

Josie Rourke chose to end her seven-year reign at the Donmar Warehouse with Broadway classic Sweet Charity to give “an amazing part to an extraordinary woman”.

The outgoing artistic director of the Covent Garden theatre said she first promised Anne-Marie Duff a musical role when they worked together on one of her earliest productions at the theatre in 2012.

She said: “During my time at the Donmar, Anne-Marie has been one of the most incredible women I’ve worked with and I wanted to find an amazing part for an extraordinary woman.

“She just took the most unbelievably courageous step in doing a musical for the first time... and that felt like the best expression of what the Donmar is.”

Rourke said the idea for the revival of the classic show, about a New York nightclub dancer looking for love, started after they worked together on a play called Berenice.

She said: “We went out for lunch after the run and I said, ‘What do you want to do next?’ and she said ‘I’ve always wanted to do a comedic role, because people don’t often ask me to do comedic roles, in an American musical’.

“It’s taken me a while to get round to it. I actually have a series of unfinished promises from my time as an artistic director but I’ve managed to finish this one.”

Rourke, who previously ran the Bush Theatre in west London, is succeeded by Michael Longhurst.

Sweet Charity at the Donmar Warehouse - in pictures

1/25

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in