Press release - Broadway leading man joins TESS album

BROADWAY LEADING MAN JOINS TESS ALBUM

Broadway and West End leading man Tam Mutu has signed up as one of three headline names on an album recording of new musical TESS.
 
Tam, who made his Broadway debut last year in the title role of Dr Zhivago (“utterly perfect” - Washington Times), is to sing the role of the villainous Alec d’Urberville in the new adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s much-loved novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

​Written by Michael Blore and Michael Davies, the show is to be recorded as an original album later this year, with a fully staged production expected to follow.

A multi-award-winning performer and West End favourite, Tam alternated the role of the Phantom in Love Never Dies  with Ramin Karimloo (Adelphi), starred as Anatoly in Chess (Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto) and won a clutch of awards as Javert in Les Miserables (Queen’s), including best performance in a long-running musical and best performance of a song for “Stars”.
 
His credits also include Love’s Labour’s Lost, Anything Goes, South Pacific and The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the National Theatre and a season with the RSC, where he played Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet and Edmund in King Lear. Other leading roles include Dinos Chapman in Rupert Goold’s Dr Faustus for Headlong.

Tam Mutu will sing Alec d'Urberville

On screen, Tam has appeared in TV’s Waking the Dead, Holby City, Doctors and Footballers Wives as well as the feature film The Butcher’s Shop. He’s also no stranger to radio, having appeared on the BBC’s Friday Night is Music Night,  Masked Heroes and A Celebration of the Western.
 
'Dreamland'
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Composer Michael Blore said: “To say it will be an honour to work with Tam is an understatement. He is dream casting and will bring not only his stunning talent but also an incredible wealth of West End and Broadway experience to the role of Alec d’Urberville. When we set out on planning an album of the show, it’s safe to say we never imagined that we could secure the services of so many truly wonderful performers. We really are in Dreamland.”
 
Two years in the writing, TESS is a fully sung-through new British musical. Recording is scheduled for the summer of 2016, with orchestrations by Blore and production by Sunim Koria. West End star Simon Bailey has already been announced to play Angel Clare, and the casting of the title role is due to be unveiled shortly.