“A brave young woman in a strange land, she has elected to tackle a subject most would choose to forget–early onset Alzheimer’s, conveyed through a…daring, beautiful…imagined stage appearance by Rita Hayworth.”
Paul Meltzer, Plays To See, New York

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Considered by many to be the most beautiful woman of her day,

Fred Astaire’s all-time favorite dance partner, and the bride Orson Welles wanted more than any other woman in the world, there is only one Rita Hayworth.

Crowned the “Love Goddess” by her adoring fans, Rita Hayworth thrilled studio executives, servicemen, and movie audiences alike, generating big box office in 1940s/50s Hollywood. Yet she struggled to identify with the bombshell image projected of her, marrying and divorcing five different men in her search for a partner who loved her for who she truly was. As Hayworth’s story unfolds, we meet Orson Welles, Fred Astaire, Harry Cohn and other extraordinary figures in her life, all presented through the fractured prism of her deteriorating memory due to a then unknown cause: Alzheimer’s.

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Almog Pail  |  Rita Hayworth

Almog is an Israeli born, New York based performer. Stage credits include NYC:

Odile (lead) in Swan LakeRock Opera, Chelsea Music Hall, Hillary Clinton in Fuel by Joseph Beck, Abingdon Theatre. Karen in Speed the Plow, National Theatre of Malta. TV & film credits include: Bianca Kade in the new Sci-Fi show ‘Salvage Marines’, Rabbi Esther (lead) in the new feature ‘Circumcision’, (Director: Yuri Zeltser), Edna in the acclaimed series ‘State of Siege 26/11’, Mickey in ‘Ran Quadruplet’, ‘Devil’s Five’ (winner, Hell’s Kitchen Film Festival). Almog was commissioned to develop the original version of Love Goddess; the solo play Me, Myself and Rita, for the Mediterranean Institute Theatre Program in Malta. She performed the show Off-Broadway (Theatre Row); at New York City’s Feinstein’s 54 Below, and in London in 2017 and 2021 (Canal Café Theatre). Almog cowrote the full-length Love Goddess, The Rita Hayworth Musical with Stephen Garvey and composer-lyricist Logan Medland.

Stephen Garvey  |  Co-writer

Recent productions include The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady at The

Mercury Theater in Chicago and Off-Broadway (Theatre at St. Cement’s), Cut Me Down and Dead

Fathers. Stephen’s musical Plunge is in development with Skyward Productions, D.C. His short film

Boy-Next-Door premiered at HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival and has screened at over a dozen

festivals, and screenplay Chasing Disasters is currently under option. Stephen is a graduate of NYU’s Dramatic Writing Program and a proud member of Dramatists Guild of America.

Logan Medland  |  Composer-Lyricist & Musical Director

Broadway: A Bronx Tale, Dr. Zhivago, Off B-way: Christmas in Hell, Writer/Composer: Fingers and Toes. As Music Director and Conductor Logan’s national and international tours include: Cats (North and South American tour), Crazy for You (National tour), Chicago (National tour), Jersey Boys (U.S. national tour and Toronto production), and A Christmas Story (Music Supervisor). Composer and writer, Fingers and Toes, a 30’s era musical (NY Musical Theatre Festival, 2010), and three regional productions.

Musical Director-Arranger, NY Fringe/ Off-Broadway hit The Bardy Bunch.

Simon Kane  |  Orson Welles / Harry Cohn

Theatre credits include: Bleak Expectations (Watermill); The Hound of the Baskervilles (Octagon Theatre, Bolton); Money, Dance Bear Dance, Tropicana, Amato Saltone, The Tennis Show, The Boy Who Climbed Out Of His Face (Shunt); Contains Violence, Monument, Ring

(David Rosenberg); The Al- Hamlet Summit, Melting the Ice, Kalila Wa Dimna (Sulayman Al-Bassam); An Execution (Gemma Brockis);

Copenhagen (Northern Lights); Diary of a Nobody (The Mighty Fin); John Finnemore’s Flying Visit (Tour); Yellow Longhair (The Focus Group); and his own shows Jonah Non Grata, Princess Plimsole, Iago’s Little Book of Calm, Najinsky Karaoke. Television credits include: ‘EastEnders’, ‘Ghosts’, ‘Trying’. Radio credits include: ‘John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme’, ‘John Finnemore’s Double Acts’, ‘Angstrom’, ‘Agendum’, ‘North by Northamptonshire’, ‘ Occupied’, and his own show ‘Time Spanner’.

Imogen Kinglsey-Smith   |  Young Rita

Imogen trained at Sylvia Young Theatre School and Laine Theatre Arts. Stage credits include: Sleeping Beauty (Churchill Theatre), Live at the Palladium, Matilda the Musical (Cambridge Theatre), Billy Elliot the Musical (Victoria Palace Theatre). TV/Film credits include: Voiceover for COP26: 'In Your Hands' (Sky Television), Back to School commercial (Marks & Spencer), 'Matilda the Musical': 'Surprise Surprise' (ITV Studios), 'Billy Elliot: The Musical Live' (Universal Pictures), 'Robbie Williams: One Night At The Palladium' (TV & DVD).

Jane Quinn   |  Jules Graham / Volga Cansino

Jane trained at The Royal Academy of Music and Royal Holloway, University of London. Theatre includes: Private Lives (Nigel Havers Theatre Company UK tour); Wonderful Town (Sir Simon Rattle & LSO - Barbican); Cats (London Palladium & Blackpool Opera House); The Nightingales, God of Carnage (Theatre Royal, Bath); Lend Me A Tenor (Gielgud, West End / Plymouth Theatre Royal); The Go-Between (Apollo, West End); Across The Wall (The Other Palace); The Pirates of Penzance (Gielgud, West End & UK/USA tours); Rags (Hope Mill Theatre); Business As Usual (Cheltenham Everyman); The Sound of Music (RUG UK tour); My Fair Lady (Esplanade Singapore); The Merry Widow, Lakme (Opera Holland Park). Grease (No.1 UK tour); Eloquent Protest (Trafalgar Studios); La Cage Aux Folles (No.1 UK tour); Fanny (Sadler’s Wells); Oh! What A Lovely War (Clwyd). Film/Television includes: De-Lovely (MGM); Enduring Love (Paramount); Y Factor (Sky);

Anti-Crime (Home Office Campaign). Radio includes Obla Air & Middleton Hall (British Council).

Joey Simon  |  Fred Astaire / Eduardo Cansino

Cansino Hailing from New York City, Joey is thrilled to be making his London stage debut here at The Cockpit. Joey received his BFA in Musical Theatre from Western Michigan University and his MA in Musical Theatre at Mountview. Previous credits include: Singing in the Rain (Theatre by the Sea), An American in Paris and Anything Goes (Westchester Broadway Theatre), Spamalot (Arkansas Rep) and Cabaret (Farmers Alley) among others. He would like to thank his friends, family, and agent for all of their support.

Laura Lundy  |  Blue Panther Productions

Broadway: ‘Children of a Lesser God’, 2018 revival, Associate Producer. Off-Broadway: ‘The Brothers Khan: An American Story’, Creative Producer. New York: ‘AROUSAL’, ‘The Singularity’ (NY premieres).

London: ‘Me, Myself and Rita’, ‘What They Said About Love’, ‘Colette Uncensored’. San Francisco Bay Area, Director: ‘Angels in America, Millennium Approaches’, 20th anniversary production. Director/Producer:’ A Taste of Honey’ with Brigette Lundy-Paine, ‘Candide’, and ‘Threepenny Opera’.

www.bluepantherproductions.com