RB Manon casting prediction
Unfortunately, I have to do this before the promotions, joiners and leavers announcement, so I’m basing my predictions on the current roster. This is an objective prediction, I’m guessing the most likely casting scenario, not what I’ll do if I’m in charge, the purpose is to have fun and manage expectations. Honestly, I’m not confident with this, there are multiple versions and what you’re seeing is what I believed in when I clicked post, maybe tomorrow I’ll change my mind. I'm ready to be extremely wrong when casting comes out.
The last run was 17 shows with nine pairs of Manon/Des Grieux (one cast had one show, the rest had two). This time there will be 22 shows, so I’m expecting 11 pairs. As of time of writing, there are 10 full-time female principals and 11 male.
In no particular order, Manon and Des Grieux:
- Marianela Nuñez / Patricio Revé
- Natalia Osipova / Reece Clarke
- Sarah Lamb / Steven McRae
- Francesca Hayward / *Cesar Corrales
- Akane Takada / *Joseph Sissens
- Yasmine Nagdhi / Matthew Ball
- Fumi Kaneko / Vadim Muntagirov
- Melissa Hamilton / Ryoichi Hirano
- *Mayara Magri / Calvin Richardson
- *Anna Rose O’Sullivan / Marcelino Sambé
- Lauren Cuthbertson / William Bracewell
For the titular role, Nagdhi has already confirmed she’ll be back by then. The longer run means there is room for debuts. Magri and O’Sullivan, who were the two most junior female principals in the 23/24 season, were not cast as Manon in the last run. Both danced the Bedroom PDD at the Jacob’s Pillow in 2024, and they’re almost guaranteed to be debuting this time. As you can see above, I predicted Cuthbertson for the eleventh spot. The last run was between the birth of her second child and becoming principal guest. She didn’t dance the last two MacMillan full-lengths, and she appears to be more interested in new roles. However, Manon seems more suited to her at this point than Juliet and Mary Vetsera, and she'll dance the Bedroom PDD at RB’s tour to Singapore, which doesn't exactly mean she's dancing the full-length but I'm taking it as a sign. Two other leading candidates for that slot (and in earlier versions I predicted them) are Mariko Sasaki and Marianna Tsembenhoi. Sasaki seems to be next in line for principal promotion, having already debuted O/O and Giselle but yet to take on a major MacMillan or Ashton role. Tsembenhoi just had an acclaimed Giselle debut and Manon can be a good follow-up, plus she’s just announced to be dancing a long-lost MacMillan PDD at the Spring Gala which shows the powers that be’s confidence in her dancing MacMillan. Long-shot candidates I thought of are Leticia Dias, Sae Maeda, Annette Buvoli, Viola Pantuso and Ella Newton Severgnini.
We don’t know the extent of McRae’s current injury, but I’m assuming if there’s a slim chance he can make it on stage in time, he’ll try (and we know he’s dancing at the Linbury in September). Revé had already danced Des Grieux with Queensland Ballet, and I doubt RB will cast someone else over him. Two male principals have not danced the role, Sissens and Corrales, the latter was injured during the 23/24 season. They’ll likely debut. Roberto Bolle guested in the last run, but it’s very unlikely that he’ll return because 1) even though he still looks like a Greek god, he’s 51 and 2) there’s just no room. Barring any personnel changes or injuries, I do not see any non-principal Des Grieux. If any of the principals isn’t dancing, I think the most obvious candidates are Lukas B. Brændsrød (I probably would’ve predicted him if Revé isn't joining RB) and Leo Dixon.
If I’m wrong about Cuthbertson, I’m probably extremely wrong about the pairings as well. It’s a lot more complicated than previous years for one reason, Patricio Revé, who’s joining the company as a preferred partner of both Osipova and Nuñez (sooner or later RB has to try him with someone else). From a casting predictions perspective, he has disrupted equilibrium - often when I have to make one change, it causes a domino effect and I end up making multiple changes. His hiring impacts the casting for six other dancers: Nuñez, Osipova, Muntagirov, Clarke, Kaneko and Bracewell, with an odd man out. Since I’m predicting Cuthbertson will dance, I went with her and Bracewell, platonic friends Kaneko and Muntagirov, then I went with Nuñez/Revé and Osipova/Clarke, but they can easily go the other way. The latter pair danced almost everything together for several years but not much recently. Per this interview Osipova did in April 2025 (days after she first met Revé btw), “they’ve (Osipova and Clarke) had such good times on the stage but after five years of dancing together it’s good to give him space to be with different partners and maybe next year they’ll be together again”. Welp a year later she’s dancing most things with Revé but at least the Clarke partnership isn’t over.
Cinema relay: usually the cast for the cinema relay is someone who had danced the role prior and never been filmed. Nuñez, Muntagirov, Lamb, Osipova and Clarke have been filmed. I think it will be either Hayward or Hamilton, both debuted the role back in 2014 and both considered the finest MacMillan interpreters. The photo the ROH’s is using on the website is Hayward and Sambé, but that’s not really a sign that they’ll dance the relay (for Fille they used O’Sullivan’s photo but Hayward danced the relay).
I’ve decided not to do full on predictions for Lescaut and Mistress, instead just list some possibilities.
Lescaut: Hirano only got to debut Des Grieux in 2024 following McRae’s ACL injury, and he strikes me as someone who enjoys Lescaut more than Des Grieux, so there's a good chance that he'll dance both roles. However, I don’t think Sissens will reprise this role. James Hay, Luca Acri and Valentino Zucchetti danced the last run so I expect them to be back. Possibilities for debut: Lukas B Brændsrød, Leo Dixon, Joonhyuk Jun, Harris Bell, Liam Boswell, Téo Dubreuil, Daichi Ikarashi, Joshua Junker, Taisuke Nakao, Francisco Serrano, Marco Masciari.
Mistress: Magri and O’Sullivan were Mistresses in the last run, but with their almost guaranteed Manon debuts, I don’t think they’re reprising this role. Claire Calvert, Yuhui Choe, Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Leticia Dias had previously danced this role. Debut candidates: Annette Buvoli, Sae Maeda, Mariko Sasaki, Mica Bradbury, Hannah Grennell, Chisato Katsura, Viola Pantuso, Julia Roscoe, Amelia Townsend, Charlotte Tonkinson, Marianna Tsembenhoi.
The advanced casting usually includes Monsieur G.M.. The role was performed by principal character artists in the last run, but this time there are five more shows and one fewer character artist, so I won't be surprised if there's a debut.
Thank you all for reading and putting up with me, let me know how wrong I am below.