News
The Gambler cast album is available to download / purchase here.
The song 'Golden Key' from the musical is included on the 'Eric Woolfson sings The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was' album.
The Story
GAMBLER is a story of passion, addiction and seduction. A casino boss, a young man, a showgirl and a countess are the main characters, whose fates are intimately linked by an obsession with the mysterious secret of the cards.
A young man walks into the Peking Palace Casino for the first time. Intrigued by the glamour of the place but with no urge to gamble, he is approached by the casino boss who encourages him to watch one of the many Casino attractions, the sexy Peking Palace showgirls. Seeing the young man’s interest in one of the showgirls, the casino boss tempts the man to gamble by telling him she is only interested in big winners.
To encourage the showgirl to respond to the young man’s interest, the casino boss misleads her into believing that he is with a major film company, powerful bait for an ambitious young girl eager for limelight and stardom. Naturally, the young man and showgirl are powerfully attracted to each other.
The showgirl is the protégé of a countess who, it is alleged, knows the secret of the cards - the golden key to untold riches. The young man persuades the showgirl to find out the secret of the golden key which he presumes will unlock the door to his dreams.
But the destructive and obsessive forces of gambling have already taken hold of the young man and he becomes locked into a game which spirals to a dramatic conclusion.
Theatre Production History
The world premiere of GAMBLER took place in October 1996 in Monchengladbach, Germany where it ran for 18 months.
In 1999 the leading Asian Theatre Production company Seensee premiered their first Korean language production of GAMBLER in Seoul, Korea. There have since been 5 further productions of the show, two of which toured Japan in 2002 and 2005 (the first time a Korean language production has been staged in this way) and the productions have also won several Korean Tony awards.
Following the huge success of GAMBLER in Asia, Seensee commissioned Eric to write a new musical ‘Dancing Shadows’ with the playwright Ariel Dorfman which had it's word-premiere in Seoul in 2007.