Images from the rehearsal room have been released today for The Secret Garden – The Musical, ahead of the production opening at York Theatre Royal this March.
The production, performed by a company of actor-musicians, has book and lyrics by Marsha Norman, music by Lucy Simon, and direction and design by Tony Award-winner John Doyle.
As previously announced the cast is led by Catrin Mai Edwards (Martha), Joanna Hickman (Lily), Henry Jenkinson (Archibald), Elliot Mackenzie (Dickon), Ann Marcuson (Mrs Winthrop), Elizabeth Marsh (Mrs Medlock), André Refig (Neville), and Steve Simmonds (Ben), with Estella Evans and Poppy Jason sharing the role of Mary Lennox, and Cristian Buttaci and Dexter Pulling sharing the role of Colin. The ensemble is completed by Stephanie Cremona, Matthew James Hinchliffe, Lara Lewis, and Melinda Orengo.
Completing the creative team are Catherine Jayes (Musical Supervisor and Orchestrator), David L Arsenault (Co-Designer), Gabrielle Dalton (Costume Designer), Johanna Town (Lighting Designer), Tom Marshall (Sound Designer), and Ginny Schiller CDG (Casting Director).
The production opens at York Theatre Royal on 19 March, with previews from 17 March, and runs until 4 April 2026.
The Secret Garden – The Musical (Photo by Marc Brenner)
York Theatre Royal presents
THE SECRET GARDEN – THE MUSICAL
Book and Lyrics by Marsha Norman
Music by Lucy Simon
Cast: Catrin Mai Edwards (Martha), Joanna Hickman (Lily), Henry Jenkinson (Archibald), Elliot Mackenzie (Dickon), Ann Marcuson (Mrs Winthrop), Elizabeth Marsh (Mrs Medlock), André Refig (Neville), and Steve Simmonds (Ben). As Mary Lennox – Estella Evans and Poppy Jason; and as Colin – Cristian Buttaci and Dexter Pulling. Making up the ensemble are Stephanie Cremona, Matthew James Hinchliffe, Lara Lewis, and Melinda Orengo.
Director and Designer: John Doyle; Musical Supervisor and Orchestrator: Catherine Jayes; Co-Designer: David L Arsenault; Costume Designer: Gabrielle Dalton; Lighting Designer: Johanna Town; Sound Designer: Tom Marshall; Casting Director: Ginny Schiller CDG
North Yorkshire, 1906.
Newly orphaned, Mary Lennox is sent to the moors to live with her widower uncle. Arriving at the secluded Misselthwaite Manor, Mary finds the house inhabited by memories and spirits from the past.
When she discovers her Aunt Lily’s mysterious, neglected garden, Mary is determined to breathe new life into it. With the help of her new friends, she learns the power of connection and the restorative magic of nature.
Directed by Tony Award-winner John Doyle and brought to life by a cast of actor-musicians, this is a moving and timeless story of love, loss, healing and hope.
The Secret Garden – The Musical (Photo by Marc Brenner)
Marsha Norman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. She won the Tony Award for The Secret Garden and received a Tony nomination for The Color Purple. Her other playwriting credits include Getting Out (winner of the John Gassner Playwriting Medallion and the Newsday Oppenheimer Award), The Laundromat, The Pool Hall, Loving Daniel Boone, Trudy Blue, and Last Dance. Norman is co-chair of Playwriting at the Julliard School and currently serves as Vice President of The Dramatists Guild of America.
Lucy Simon (1940 – 2022) was a Tony and Grammy-Award winning composer. She made her Broadway debut with The Secret Garden – The Musical, for which she received a Tony-nomination for Best Original Score and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music. Her further composition credits for theatre included A… My Name is Alice and Doctor Zhivago. Simon received two Grammy Awards for In Harmony/A Sesame Street Record and Harmony 2 in the Best Recording for Children category.
Cristian Buttaci plays Colin. His theatre credits include The Witches (National Theatre), Starlight Express (Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre), and A Knight’s Tale (Manchester Opera House).
Stephanie Cremona’s theatre credits include Cinderella: A Fairytale (The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), A Toast Fae The Lassies, Sunshine on Leith, The 39 Steps (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Grease (Pitlochry Festival Theatre/Blackpool Grand Theatre), Jack and The Beanstalk (Leeds City Varieties), A Christmas Carol, Cinderella (Dundee Rep), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, and Me and The Girls (UK tours).
Catrin Mai Edwards plays Martha. Her theatre credits include 12 (New Wimbledon Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Sherman Theatre), Mae Gen Ti Ddreigiau/You’ve Got Dragons, Jemima (Welsh tour), The True Adventures of Marian and Robin Hood (Barn Theatre), and Curtain Up (Theatr Clwyd).
Estella Evans plays Mary Lennox. Her theatre credits include The Book Thief (Prince of Wales Theatre) and Matilda (Cambridge Theatre).
Joanna Hickman plays Lily. Her theatre credits include The Nutcracker (Reading Rep), Harold and Maude, Ragtime (Charing Cross Theatre), The Elephant Man, Boeing! Boeing! (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), The Witches of Eastwick, The Marriage of Figaro, Merrily We Roll Along (Watermill Theatre), Angels and Insects (York Theatre Royal), As You Like It (Southwark Playhouse), Arabian Nights (Sherman Theatre), Sleeping Beauty (Birmingham Rep), A Christmas Carol (Trafalgar Theatre), The Browning Version (Theatre Royal Bath), Saturday Night (Jermyn Street Theatre/Arts Theatre), Dorian Gray (Leicester Square Theatre), Dracula (White Bear Theatre), By Jeeves, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (UK tours), and Peter Pan (Oxford Playhouse).
The Secret Garden – The Musical (Photo by Marc Brenner)
Matthew James Hinchliffe’s stage credits include The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Gillian Lynne Theatre/UK tour), Amélie (Criterion Theatre), Dirty Dancing (Phoenix Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Leeds Playhouse), As Long As We Are Breathing (Arcola Theatre), The Sound of Music (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Dirty Dancing, Crazy For You, Singin’ in the Rain, Calamity Jane, Fiddler on the Roof, Chess, Assassins, and West Side Story (UK tours).
Poppy Jason plays Mary Lennox. Her stage credits include Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre).
Henry Jenkinson plays Archibald. His theatre credits include Last Days (Royal Opera House), Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe), Player Kings (Noël Coward Theatre/UK tour), Into the Woods (Theatre Royal Bath), Bad News I was there… (NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts), Native Son and Measure for Measure (The Duke Theatre on 42nd Street, NYC).
Lara Lewis’s theatre credits include Calamity Jane, Me and the Girls (UK tours), With Courage (The Other Palace), Brief Encounter (Theatre by the Lake/Stephen Joseph Theatre), Snow White (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds), The Mozart Question (Barn Theatre), Cinderella (Greenwich Theatre), and The Hired Man (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch/Hull Truck/Oldham Coliseum).
Elliot Mackenzie plays Dickon. His stage credits include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Ambassadors Theatre), Lord of the Rings, Whistle Down the Wind (Watermill Theatre), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (UK tour), Million Dollar Quartet (UK tour/India tour), The Misadventures Of Pinocchio, Dick Whittington, Aladdin (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), Zog (Rose Theatre Kingston/UK tour), and A Christmas Carol (Rose Theatre Kingston).
Ann Marcuson plays Mrs Winthrop. Her theatre credits include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Southwark Playhouse/Ambassadors Theatre), These Demons (Theatre503), Two Ladies (Bridge Theatre), The Mighty Walzer (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre/Gielgud Theatre), The Family Reunion (Donmar Warehouse), I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls (Watermill Theatre/Tricycle Theatre), Bloodhound, The Glass Slipper (Northern Stage), Little Wolf’s Book of Badness, and Hard Love (Hampstead Theatre).
Elizabeth Marsh plays Mrs Medlock. Her theatre credits include The Threepenny Opera (National Theatre/UK tour), Afterlife (National Theatre), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Playhouse Theatre), Road Show (Menier Chocolate Factory), Vaudevillains (Charing Cross Theatre), Gondoliers (Apollo Theatre), Phantom of the Opera, Secret Adversary, A Life of Galileo, Lark Rise to Candleford (UK tours), Blonde Bombshells of 1943 (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Hampstead Theatre), Silence (Birmingham Rep), Iron, Elektra (Theatre by the Lake), Merrily We Roll Along (Watermill Theatre), Abigail’s Party (New Vic Theatre), Into the Woods, Twelfth Night (York Theatre Royal), Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in the Squares).
The Secret Garden – The Musical (Photo by Marc Brenner)
Melinda Orengo’s theatre credits include Precipice (New Diorama Theatre), Julie: The Musical (The Other Palace), Police Cops: The Musical (Southwark Playhouse/Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Cinderella (Storyhouse Theatre, Chester), and The Tales of Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck (Wilton’s Music Hall).
Dexter Pulling plays Colin. His theatre credits include Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre/UK tour/ International Arena tour), Mary Page Marlowe (The Old Vic), A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story (Alexandra Palace), and Winnie The Pooh (UK tour).
André Refig plays Neville. His theatre credits include The Hypochondriac (Sheffield Theatres), Cabaret (Playhouse Theatre); Can’t Wait for Christmas! (Orange Tree Theatre), Zeraffa Giraffa (Little Angel Theatre/Omnibus Theatre), Road Show (Union Theatre), Patience (Harrogate Royal Hall), HMS Pinafore, Gondoliers, The Mikado, Iolanthe, and The Pirates of Penzance (UK tours).
Steve Simmonds plays Ben. His theatre credits include Cinderella (Theatre Clwyd), Alice in Wonderland (Liverpool Playhouse/Plymouth Theatre Royal), Operation Julie (Theatr na nÓg), Adrian Mole (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), Assassins (Watermill Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse), Grandma Saves the Day, Goldilocks, The Snow Queen, Cinderella, Guys And Dolls, Never Lost at Home, The Who’s Tommy (New Wolsey Theatre), The Threepenny Opera (Octagon Theatre Bolton), and The Lady in the Van (Theatre Royal Bath).
John Doyle is an award-winning director of theatre, film and opera. He has served as Artistic Director of five major theatre companies in the UK and the US, including York Theatre Royal from 1993 to 1997. His extensive stage credits include the world premiere of Alfred Hitchcock Presents at Theatre Royal Bath, Sweeney Todd (Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical), Company (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical), The Visit (Tony Award nomination for Best Musical, Drama Desk nomination for Best Director), The Color Purple (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director, Grammy Award), Pacific Overtures (Drama Desk nomination for Best Musical Revival), Carmen Jones (Audelco Award for Best Musical Revival, Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Director), Mahagonny (Los Angeles Opera, two Grammy Awards), Passion (Drama Desk nomination for Best Director), Road Show, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Kiss Me Kate and Assassins (Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Musical Revival, Best Director). In addition to numerous credits in London’s West End, John has also directed at Grange Park Opera, Sydney Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, La Fenice in Venice, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Second Stage Theatre, Princeton McCarter Theatre and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
The production is sponsored by BHP Chartered Accountants and Myth Drinks.
THE SECRET GARDEN – THE MUSICAL plays at York Theatre Royal 17 March – 4 April 2026. Tickets are available here.
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