The Cast
Kyle Ramar Freeman
Usher
Kyle Ramar Freeman is overjoyed to be joining the London company of ASL.
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Kyle has been singing and acting from an early age. Now based in Harlem, New York,
Kyle made his New York debut in the original Broadway cast of A Strange Loop. Kyle’s credits also include Asaka in the first national tour of Once on This Island. Kyle is a graduate of AMDA. He sends an abundance of love to God, family, friends, and Gregg Baker Management. National tour: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Calypso)
IG: iamkylefreeman
Sharlene Hector
Thought 1
Sharlene has been one of the UK’s top Soul, RnB and Pop vocalists for many years. She is well known for being a lead vocalist for British band Basement Jaxx.
Featured vocalist credits include: ‘Step It Up’ with Riva Starr and Armand Van Helden, ‘Saviour’ with Dimension, ‘Throw Your Soul Down’ by DJ Will Clarke and ‘Therapy’ by Duke Dumont.
Sharlene has provided backing vocals for artists such as Alicia Keys, Muse, Emeli Sandé, Sam Sparro, Primal Scream, Rebecca Ferguson, Lala Hathaway, Tinie Tempah, Josh Groban and Michael Bublé.
Theatre includes: Lorraine/cover Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray (London Coliseum), Effie White (Alternate) in Dreamgirls (UK Tour).
Television includes: Derren Brown’s ‘Showman’, Alan Carr’s Epic Game Show – Name That Tune, The X Factor, Top of the Pops, and Later with Jools Holland.
Other work includes: appearances at Glastonbury, V Festival, Bestival and Wireless, and the ‘I Wish’ campaign for Coca-Cola.
Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea
Thought 2
Theatre includes: Women Beware the Devil (Almeida) Spring Awakening (Almeida) Hamlet; Faith, Hope and Charity; Tartuffe (National Theatre); The 306 Dawn (National Theatre of Scotland); Her Naked Skin (Salisbury Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet (Exeter Northcott Theatre); Vernon God Little (The Space); Homo Sacer (The Old Vic 12).
Film includes: In Darkness; Hunting Sublime; Oegs.
Television includes: The Witcher; Doctors; Doctor Who.
As a writer, Nathan is co-writing his first television series, a black-comedy, in development
at Drama Republic.
Yeukayi Ushe
Thought 3
Training: Brunel University and Art’s Centre
Theatre: The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre), Kinky Boots (UK Tour), The Crucible, A Little Night Music (Storyhouse, Chester), Motown the Musical (Shaftesbury Theatre), Wonderland (UK Tour), The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales Theatre), Avenue Q (UK Tour), Kisses on a Postcard (North Devon Theatres), Fame the Musical (Italian tour) and Crazy for You (London Palladium).
Television: West Side Story: the Making of a Classic (BBC).
Tendai Humphrey Sitima
Thought 4
Theatre credits include:
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG (Kenny Wax Productions), MALINDADZIMU (Hampstead Theatre), HOARDING (Sheep Soup), IMMERSIVE GREAT GATSBY (Immersive Everywhere), THE TALES OF BEATRIX POTTER (Gobbledigook), NEVERLAND (Guild of Misrule) and TITUS ANDRONICUS (Time Zone Theatre).
TV credits include:
DOGHOUSE (MADE Television Network & Mr. Left Productions).
Tendai trained at RADA.
Alongside his professional credits, Tendai is also an accomplished recording artist, multi-instrumentalist and composer.
Danny Bailey
Thought 5
Danny Bailey is a multidisciplinary artist/filmmaker.
Theatre at the Barbican includes Jesus Christ Superstar. Other theatre includes The Pride (ATG/The Fortune Theatre), Get Up, Stand Up! (Lyric), Girl From the North Country (Runaway Entertainment), The Wizard of Oz (Pitlochry Festival), King (Hackney Empire), Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), Hair, Motown the Musical, Lion King (Lyceum), South Pacific (ATG), Flahooley (Sadler’s Wells), One Love, Gertie, Are You As Nervous As I Am? (Simon Spencer Productions) and Dino Story (The Other Palace).
Danny wrote and directed short documentary Black Exodus, which has been shown at the V&A. He is an Associate Artist of Brixton House.
Eddie Elliott
Thought 6
Eddie was mostly recently seen in Blues for an Alabama Sky at The National.
West End theatre credits include The Lion King and Motown The Musical (Original Cast).
Other productions include: Assassins at the Watermill and Nottingham Playhouse; Drive Ride Walk at Greenwich; Dry Cleaned for Intermission Theatre; Puss in Boots at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds; The Music Man at Chichester Festival Theatre; A Chorus Line and The Buddy Holly Story at The Gaiety Theatre, Isle of Man; Five Guys Named Moe at Theatre at the Mill, Belfast; Spamilton at the Menier Chocolate Factory; South Pacific at the Barbican and UK tour; We Will Rock You on Original UK tour; Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater Concert at The Other Palace.
TV credits include: Riches, Doctors and Eastenders:E20
Eddie is also a comedy-drama screenwriter and is currently working on 2 pilot projects.
Kyle Birch
Usher cover
Training: London College of Music, BA (Hons) Musical Theatre.
Credits include: Bobby/Buster/Preacher/Ensemble (1st Guard) in The Color Purple (UK Tour), King in Jack and the Beanstalk (Future Spotlight Productions), Austyn in In Pieces – Live! (Musical Film & Workshop), Generations Soloist & Understudy Father/Adam in Children of Eden (30th Anniversary Concert), Agwe in Once On This Island (Southwark Playhouse).
Credits whilst training include: Moonface Martin in Anything Goes.
Workshops include: Jubilee (The Old Vic), Robert/Ensemble in For Tonight, Smythe in Tinkerbell, Ensemble in The Mourning After.
Commercials include: DFS and TK Maxx.
Kyle is represented by Russell Smith Associates Ltd and is thrilled to be joining the cast of A Strange Loop. He wishes to thank his friends and family for all of their love and support.
Rebecca Bernice Amissah
Understudy Thought 1
Theatre includes: Daddy (Almeida Theatre); Guys and Dolls (The Mill at Sonning); King in Concert (Hackney Empire); Suffrageddon (Barbican/ Roundhouse/ West End); Aladdin (Bristol Hippodrome); National Anthem singer for We Are Amused: Prince Charles’s 70th Birthday Celebration (London Palladium); Into the Woods(Chelsea Theatre).
Television includes: Sing: Ultimate A Cappella; Naked Choir.
Concerts include: A Night with Stratford East Singers; Havering Mayor Variety Show; Sona Jobarteh Fasiah Tour; For the Music (solo show).
Momar Diagne
Understudy Thought 2, 3, 4
Theatre: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie ( Apollo Theatre), Kinky Boots (Adelphi Theatre), Guys & Dolls (Savoy Theatre & Phoenix Theatre), Memphis; Original London Cast (Shaftesbury Theatre), Saturday Night Fever (English Theatre Frankfurt).
Television: Atlanta (FX), Bad Education
Film: Mary Poppins Returns, Matilda, The Greatest Days
Concert: Sunset Boulevard (Alexandra Palace Theatre)
Commercial: Burberry Festive Film, Booking.com
Recording: Memphis The Musical; London Cast
Jean-Luke Worrell
Understudy Thought 5, 6
Jean-Luke most recently played the role of Wadsworth in the UK premiere of Cluedo (UK Tour)
West End Theatre credits include: Warren Slax & Neil Cooper in The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Criterion Theatre)
Other Theatre credits include: Cinderella (Greenwich Theatre); Yarico (London Theatre Workshop); Robinson Crusoe and The Pirate Queen (The Theatre Chipping Norton).
Workshops include: Adder in The Animals of Farthing Wood and Paris/Ensemble in Rhesus
Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Twitter: @jeanlukeworrell
Instagram: @jeanlukeworrell
The Creatives
Michael R. Jackson
Playwright, Composer, Lyricist
The 2020 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics’ Circle–winning A Strange Loop (which had its 2019 world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions) was called “a full-on laparoscopy of the heart, soul, and loins” and a “gutsy, jubilantly anguished musical with infectious melodies” by Ben Brantley for The New York Times. In The New Yorker, Vinson Cunningham wrote, “To watch this show is to enter, by some urgent, bawdy magic, an ecstatic and infinitely more colorful version of the famous surreal lithograph by M. C. Escher: the hand that lifts from the page, becoming almost real, then draws another hand, which returns the favor.” In addition to A Strange Loop, he wrote book, music, and lyrics for White Girl in Danger. Awards and associations include a New Professional Theatre Festival Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a Whiting Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award, an Antonyo Award, a Fred Ebb Award, a Windham-Campbell Prize, and a Dramatists Guild Fellowship. He is an alum of Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group
Raja Feather Kelly
Choreographer
Raja is a choreographer and director, and the Artistic Director of the feath3r theory, a dance theater and media company based out of Brooklyn. He is a three-time Princess Grace Award winner (2017, 2018, 2019), a 2020 Obie Award winner, and an Outer Critics Circle Award honoree for choreography for the Pulitzer-winning musical A Strange Loop. Raja was also the 2019–2021 Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts, an inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and a 2019 Creative Capital Award recipient. His choreography has also garnered a 2018 Breakout Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) and the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography (2016), and he was Dance Magazine’s inaugural Harkness Promise Award (2018). He is the 2019 SDCF Joe A. Callaway Award finalist for outstanding choreography of Fairview (Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, TFANA, and winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama). Frequent collaborators include Lileana Blain-Cruz, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Sarah Benson, and Michael R. Jackson. Over the past decade, he has created 16 evening-length premieres with his company the feath3r theory, the most recent premiere being WEDNESDAY at New York Live Arts. He also directs and choreographs extensively for Off-Broadway theater in New York City. Recent works include We’re Gonna Die at Second Stage Theater, MacBeth in Stride at A.R.T., and A Strange Loop at Woolly Mammoth. Upcoming Projects include On Sugarland at New York Theatre Workshop, SUFFS at The Public Theater, and Lempicka at La Jolla Playhouse.
Stephen Brackett
Director
Broadway: The Lightning Thief (Longacre Theater), Be More Chill (Lyceum Theatre). Off-Broadway: A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons/Page 73, Woolly Mammoth, Obie and Drama Desk Awards), Be More Chill (Signature and Two River Theaters), The Lightning Thief (TheaterWorks USA/National Tour), Buyer & Cellar (Rattlestick and Barrow Street Theaters/National Tour), The Mad Ones (Prospect Theater), Ultimate Beauty Bible (Page 73), Wringer (NYCCT), Carnival Kids (Lesser America), The Correspondent (Rattlestick), After (Partial Comfort), The Material World (Dixon Place), Be a Good Little Widow (Ars Nova), and The Tenant (Woodshed Collective). Regional: Fall Springs (Barrington Stage), Significant Other (Geffen Playhouse), I Now Pronounce (Humana Festival), Le Switch (About Face), The Great Pretender (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). London: Be More Chill (The Shaftsbury Theater and The Other Palace) and Buyer & Cellar (Menier Chocolate Factory). Upcoming: AD 16 (The Olney Theater), To My Girls (Second Stage), and Radiant Baby (Two River).
Rona Siddiqui
Music Supervisor
Obie Award–winning Music Director for the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of A Strange Loop. (Off-Broadway): Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons), Who’s Your Baghdaddy: Or How I Started the Iraq War (St. Luke’s). Composer/Lyricist: Recipient of a Larson Grant and a Ziegfeld award. Musicals: Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan, One Good Day, Hip Hop Cinderella. Orchestrations: An Untitled New Play by Justin Timberlake (Pittsburgh CLO), Halfghan on a Mission (Kennedy Center), Like They Do It in the Movies (Broadway Records).
Charlie Rosen
Orchestrations
Charlie Rosen is a Tony Award–winning and Grammy-nominated composer and orchestrator whose music has been heard on stages and screens around the world. Recent Broadway credits include Some Like It Hot (Orchestrations); Be More Chill (Music Sup./Orchestrations); Moulin Rouge! (Orchestrations, Tony Award); Prince of Broadway (Orchestrations); American Psycho (Assoc. MD/Keys); The Visit (Guitar/Zither); Honeymoon in Vegas (Orchestrations); Cyrano de Bergerac (Composer); One Man, Two Guv’nors (Music Director, Bass); 13 The Musical (Guitars, Bass, Keys), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Assoc. MD, Bass, addl. Orch.).
Arnulfo Maldonado
Scenic Design
Broadway: Trouble in Mind (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Shhhh (Atlantic); one in two (The New Group); Nollywood Dreams, School Girls… (MCC); Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC, Lucille Lortel Award); A Strange Loop (Special Citation Obie), Selling Kabul, Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons); To My Girls (Second Stage); Fires in the Mirror (Signature). Regional: Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, CTG, Guthrie, Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth. International Tour: The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir. 2020 Obie Sustained Excellence in Set Design, Princess Grace Fabergé Theater Award, Henry Hewes Design Award nominee. For Brian. arnulfomaldonado.com
Montana Levi Blanco
Costume Design
Broadway: The Skin of Our Teeth. Select Off-Broadway: Ain’t No Mo’, Fairview, Is God Is, The House That Will Not Stand, Fefu and Her Friends, ‘Daddy’, The Death of the Last Black Man, He Brought Her Heart in a Box, Fabulation, In the Blood, Red Speedo, Pipeline, O, Earth, and WAR. Winner of the Special Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, two Henry Hewes Design Awards, and two OBIE Awards. Education: Oberlin College & Conservatory of Music, Brown University, and the Yale School of Drama.
Jen Schriever
Lighting Design
Broadway: Birthday Candles, Lackawanna Blues, Grand Horizons, What the Constitution Means to Me, Lifespan of a Fact, Eclipsed, Ghetto Klown. Off-Broadway work has been seen at Second Stage, The Atlantic, Playwrights Horizons, Signature, MCC, Roundabout, MTC, New York Theatre Workshop, The Public, The Vineyard, Women’s Project, Playwrights Realm, Primary Stages. Current: Blue Man Group National Tour. Opera: Fledermaus, Pearl Fishers (Metropolitan); Faust, Midsummer, Traviata (Mariinsky, Russia). Adjunct: Purchase. Mom: Henry. jenschriever.com
Drew Levy
Sound Design
(he/him) Broadway: Oklahoma! (Tony nom., Drama Desk nom.), Honeymoon in Vegas (Drama Desk nom.), Chaplin (Drama Desk Award), The Winslow Boy, The Importance of Being Earnest, Present Laughter. Off-Broadway: Judgment Day (Park Avenue Armory), Oklahoma! (St. Ann’s), Cleopatra, One Day the Musical, The Weir, Why Torture Is Wrong…, Emergence-See!, Rainbow Kiss, Dutchman (AUDELCO Viv nom.). Regional: The Old Globe, “Heartbreak Hotel” (Chicago), ART, Williamstown, Huntington, Westport Country Playhouse, Two River Theater, McCarter Theater, Arena Stage, Long Wharf.
