Fifteen years after his death, Gregory Isaacs will ‘return’ to the London stage.
Cool Ruler: A Musical Tribute to Gregory Isaacs, a stage production based on his career, opens on May 25 at Hackney Empire in the British capital.
The project, which celebrates the singer’s 75th birthday on July 15, is a joint effort between his wife June and British promoter John “Bagga John” Farquarson.
Terence Wallen, a British artiste of Jamaican heritage, will play Isaacs who died in London in October 2010 at age 60.
Wallen is known in music circles for his portrayal of Isaacs, whose easy-listening songs earned him the nickname, The Cool Ruler.
In A Musical Tribute to Gregory Isaacs he will be backed by the five-piece Delroy Murray Band.
Farquarson told the Jamaica Observer that rehearsals for the production are scheduled to start in January. June Isaacs and Copeland Forbes, Isaacs’ former manager, will select songs for the theatre-style shows which also take place at Fairfield Halls in Croydon on May 31, and on June 1 at O2 Academy in Birmingham.
He disclosed that more dates will be announced soon.
Isaacs had a massive following in the United Kingdom, through songs like All I Have Is Love, Soon Forward, Tune In, Night Nurse, and Love me With Feeling. He toured the country frequently in the 1980s and 1990s, packing venues such as the Brixton Academy and Hammersmith Palais.
Like Wallen, Farquarson was born in London to Jamaican parents but spent some of his youth in Jamaica. He has promoted shows in the UK featuring Isaacs and other major acts such as Dennis Brown, Freddie McGregor, Beres Hammond, Buju Banton, Marcia Griffiths, and Frankie Paul.
— Howard Campbell