Danielle Tarento, producer and casting director
Michael Bradley, musical director
Colleen Morris-Glennon, costume designer
Andrew Exeter, set and lighting designer

The Bodyguard  is a 2012 musical based on the eponymous 1992 thriller starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. It tells the story of Rachel Marron, a pop star who becomes the target of a dangerous stalker, and Frank Farmer, a former secret agent who is deeply devoted to his duty but haunted by the past, when he failed to prevent the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. The musical and film feature music made famous by Whitney Houston, including such hits as I Will Always Love You, I Have Nothing  and I Wanna Dance With Somebody.  The musical is directed and choreographed by Mykal Rand, a renowned British artist and a regular guest of the summer festival, and will be performed on the festival stage in Ljubljana’s Križanke. Rand began his career as a performer, then progressed to supervising dancers and making sure everything was perfect, then became resident director and later choreographer and director of his own shows. He has previously staged several very popular musicals in Ljubljana, including Hair (2011), the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar (2012), Grease (2013), Evita (2014), Chicago (2021) and West Side Story  (2022).

The musical will be in English with Slovenian surtitles.

• the song I Will Always Love You  was written in 1973 by Dolly Parton, who hoped that Elvis Presley would sing it
• I Will Always Love You  is not a song about a romantic break-up; Parton actually wrote it for her performing partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, from whom she was separating professionally
• Lawrence Kasdan wrote The Bodyguard  in the mid-1970s – before making his name as the co-writer of the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back  and Return of the Jedi  and writer of the first Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark  – but many years would pass before his script made it into production
• Warner Bros bought Kasdan’s script (after numerous other studios had turned it down) in the 1970s with the intention of casting Diana Ross and Steve McQueen in the starring roles