Casting news on Saturday Night Fever Tour

A new production of Saturday Night Fever kicks off  its  UK tour at the Theatre Royal Bath on 12th November and it has just been revealed that Danny Bayne, winner of ITV's Grease is the Word and  star of the musical in the West End and on tour is playing the iconic role of Tony Manero

Bayne has also starred in Hairspray on tour as Corny Collins.

The show is directed by Ryan McBryde, and choreographed by Andrew Wright. Wright won Best Choreographer at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2013 and was nominated for Best Choreographer at the 2012 Olivier Awards and Broadway World 2011 Awards for his choreography of Singin' in the Rain.

Saturday Night Fever is a co-production between Theatre Royal Bath Productions and the Robert Stigwood Organisation. I

Gareth Gates Mad About the Musicals Tour

Gareth Gates and Michael Courtney will head the cast of the 10th Anniversary Production of Mad About the Musicals tour which  kicks off  at the Palace Theatre Redditch on 1 October, 2015.


Gareth Gates rose to fame in Pop Idol TV show in 2001/2 and more recently  has appeared in Les Miserables, Legally Blonde and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  He has now joined a band and become part of the second series of the Big Reunion, in 5th Story, with Dane Bowers, Adam Rickitt, Kenzie and Kavana. This newly formed boy band will play arenas across the country this autumn with Blue, 5ive, Damage and 3T.  Then in November Gareth will taking a totally different show on the road, with his acoustic band set up, playing all the old hits together with new songs.

Michael Courtney has produced and directed the UK tours ofMad About The Musicals, Waterloo, Shakin All Over, Its D’Lovely, A Night Of Musicals, over 30 UK Pantomimes and was nominated as the UK Producer of The Year by Encore Magazine. He is currently on tour in his show, Love Changes Everything and will direct a new stage comedy in 2015, 69 Shades of Black, starring ex-Steps singer and actress Faye Tozer.

Dates for the tour include: 1 Oct Palace  Redditch/2 Oct Octagon Yeovil/3 Oct Stockport Plaza/4 Oct Beacon  Greenock/ 7 Oct The Playhouse Whitley/8 Oct Baths Hall Scunthorpe/9 Oct Grove  Dunstable/10 Oct Wyvern Swindon/11 Oct Hall For Cornwall, Truro/14 Oct Webster Theatre Arbroath/15 Oct Rothes Hall, Glenrothes/16 Oct Palace Theatre Kilmarnock/17 Oct Forum Billingham/18 Oct Marlowe, Canterbury/20 Oct Dg One Dumfries/21 Oct Opera House Buxton/22 Oct Hamilton Town House Theatre/23 Oct Lyceum, Crewe/24 Oct Fairfield Hall, Croydon/28 Oct Pomegranate Chesterfield/29 Oct Towngate  Basildon/30 Oct Lighthouse  Poole/31 Oct Forum Theatre, Malvern/1 Nov  Lpac, Lincoln/2 Nov Oldham Coliseum/4 Nov Grand Theatre Porthcawl/5 Nov Floral Pavilion, New Brighton/6 Nov Barbican, York/7 Nov St. Albans Arena/8 Nov The Roses Tewkesbury

Peter Pan and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in Regent's Park Open Air Theatre 2015 Season

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre has announced its summer season with J M Barrie's original stage play of Peter Pan opening  its 2015 season, running from 15th May to 14 June.  It will be co-directed by Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel.

This will be followed by  Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (16 July-29 August), which reunites the team behind the 2013 award-winning production of The Sound of Music including director Rachel Kavanaugh and choreographer Alistair David.

Timothy Sheader's production of William Golding's Lord of the Flies will then return to the Open Air Theatre for a short run from 3 to 12 September to conclude the 2015 season, prior to a major UK tour.

Full creative team and casting is to be announced. Public booking for the season opens on 9th December 2014.

Lucie Jones and Lauren Samuels Followspot Duets

West End on Sea Productions  are joined by TV and West End stars Lucie Jones and Lauren Samuels appearing in Proud Cabaret at 83 St George's Road Brighton on 2nd November (doors open at 7:00pm with the show at 8:00pm) and in London on 3rd November at Proud Cabaret City, 1 Mark Lane,EC3R7AH (Nearest Tube: Monument)

Lucie wowed The X Factor in Series 6 and has gone on to forge a successful career in theatre. She has played Cosette in Les Miserables (Queen’s Theatre), Victoria in American Psycho (Almeida Theatre) and Meat in We Will Rock You (World Arena Tour).

Lauren was a runner up on BBC’s Over The Rainbow programme, launching a career which has seen her play Scaramouche in We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre and World Arena Tour) and Sandy in Grease (Piccadilly Theatre). She has just finished playing the lead role of Jenny in Love Story.

BOTH VENUES ARE 18+

Tickets are £20 (plus booking fee) and are available at www.ticketweb.co.uk

Michael Flatley's Lord Of The Dance - Dangerous Games transferring to Dominion Theatre

Michael Flatley's Lord Of The Dance - Dangerous Games will transfer to the Dominion Theatre in London's West End from 9th March  to 5th  September 2015 ahead of a world tour. It will follow White Christmas starring Tom Chambers and Aled Jones which runs there from  12th November and  until 3rd January 2015.

The current production stars 40 young performers, alongside Michael Flatley and former Girls Aloud star Nadine Coyle. It is based on Irish folklore and  is the classic tale of Good versus Evil expressed through  dance. Little Spirit travels through time to help the Lord of the Dance protect his people from the challenge of the Dark Lord, Don Dorcha, . As his dark power challenges the hero, the adventure turns  into a mythical universe of love, danger, and desire, created by an orchestrated combination of precision dancing, state of the art lighting and pyrotechnics.

Lord Of The Dance - Dangerous Games features new staging including holographic-effect projections, new costumes and new choreography. The production is directed and choreographed by Michael Flatley, with new music by composer Gerard Fahy and combines the best of tradition with all the excitement of new music and dance.

The production will play its final performance at the London Palladium on 25 October 2014.

Tickets for Michael Flatley's Lord Of The Dance - Dangerous Games

Nathan Amzi, Julie Atherton, Gina Beck, Daniel Boys, Cynthia Erivo, Fra Fee, Nick Holder, Michael Matus, Jon Robyns and Jill Winternitz in West End Recast 2

West End Recast 2  is back in the West End  at the Phoenix Theatre on Sunday 9th November at 7:30pm.

Following a completely sold out premiere earlier this year, West End Recast returns with an  all new Musical  evening of  theatre madness where the Phantom might be female... Annie could be 65 years old... Grizabella might be a dog... and Sweeney Todd could be as nice as pie!

Directed by Adam Lenson with Musical Supervision & Arrangements by Daniel A. Weiss. Some of West End's biggest stars including Sabrina Aloueche, Nathan Amzi, Julie Atherton, Gina Beck, Daniel Boys, Rebecca Brewer, Cynthia Erivo, Fra Fee, Nick Holder, Cassidy Janson, Leon Lopez, Michael Matus, Jon Robyns, Katie Rowley Jones, Gareth Snook and Jill Winternitz have the unique opportunity to sing songs from roles they have always wanted to play but will NEVER be cast in presenting their unique renditions of songs from... Dreamgirls, Sweeney Todd, Gypsy, Little Shop of Horrors, Grease, Chicago, Oliver, Memphis, Matilda, RENT, Miss Saigon and many, many more.

Tickets for West End Recast 2

Tour of Oh What A Lovely War announced

Wendi Peters (Corrie's Cilla Battersby-Brown) is to join the ensemble cast of Oh What A Lovely War on its 2015 national tour. The show  will return to its spiritual home - Theatre Royal Stratford East - in January before embarking on its tour to  Richmond, Malvern, Manchester, Cambridge, Bath, Torquay, Guildford, Coventry, Brighton, Leicester, Aylesbury, Birmingham, Truro, Hull and Wimbledon theatres..

Peters' recent stage credits include White Christmas at the Lowry, Salford (which she is reprising at the Dominion Theatre ), The Mystery Of Edwin Drood at the Arts Theatre and Rutherford & Son for Northern Broadsides.

Oh What A Lovely War originally premiered at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1963 whenJoan Littlewood adapted the play from Charles Chilton's work for radio through her company Theatre Workshop. It, transferred to the West End in June 1963, opening on Broadway in 1964 and receiving four Tony Award nominations including Best Musical.

This revival opened at Theatre Royal Stratford East in February 2014 with a cast including Caroline Quentin.

Killian Donnelly, Alistair Brammer, Gerónimo Rauch, Nadim Naaman and Gina Beck MAD Christmas Album

Updated 4th December:  video featuring Killian Donnelly & the cast of Les Mis: 

 The West End Goes MAD For Christmas is  MAD Trust’s first official Christmas album produced by Auburn Jam Records due for  release on November 30th to coincide with Trust’s annual fundraiser, A West End Christmas at St Paul’s Actor’s Church, Covent Garden.

It is compilation album of Christmas songs by new writers performed bya host of West End stars.  The track listing is:

- Together We Can Make It written by Felix Hagan peformed by
–Killian Donnelly & the cast of Les Misérables
- Home - Alistair Brammer; written by Gus Gowland & Alistair Brammer
- I Love Christmas - Chloe Hart; from The Bakewell Bake Off written by The Baking Committee- -This Christmas - written & performed by Stuart Matthew Price
- Reindeer Wives - Harriet Thorpe, Christopher Howell & Sophie Isaacs; written by Anderson & Petty
-A Soldier's Christmas - Gerónimo Rauch & Nadim Naaman; written by Nadim Naaman
-Praying For You - Gina Beck; written by Alexander Bermange
 -The Little Match Girl - Janie Dee; written by Tim Connor

Nikki & Joe Davison are the husband & wife team behind Auburn Jam Music production

 CDs at £10, are available to pre-order now.

New Musical Mrs Henderson Presents to open at Bath next Summer

Theatre Royal Bath is to  host to a try-out run of the new musical Mr Henderson Presents from 14th August 2015.

Based on Stephen Frears' 2005 film, which starred Bob Hoskins, Will Young and  Judi Dench as 'Laura Henderson', who created a vaudeville show featuring all-nude young women at the Windmill Theatre in London during "a time of great censorship," says producer Michael Harrison.

The film's producer Norma Heyman is a backing the musical alongside John Reid and Harrison with  music by George Fenton and Simon Chamberlain with lyrics by Don Black and choreography by Andrew Wright. Terry Johnson will direct  from his own adaptation of Martin Sherman's screenplay.
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Alex Gaumond to replace Rufus Hound in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Actor and comedian  Rufus Hound has left  the production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy Theatre  with West End leading man Alex Gaumond  taking over the role of Freddy Benson from November 11th. In the meantime, an understudy will play the part. Gaumond has just finished playing Miss Trunchbull in Matilda

There is speculation about the reasons for Hound's sudden derparture. Hound (One Man Two Guv'nors, Celebrity Juice, and the winner of the recent Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special) is now reportedly working on a film. Prior to his departure, the actor was out of the show for a week due to illness, from which he has since recovered. But today the  Mail speculates Hound's absences and now permanent exit from the show have more to do with off-stage "chemistry" between him and his co-star Robert Lindsay.

Statements from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' producers and director "wish him all the best" as Hound goes on to "pursue other opportunities"..

A spokesperson for Hound said that the actor ‘has now completed his engagement and has started filming a movie’.

The show now stars Olivier, Tony and BAFTA award winning Robert Lindsay (Me And My Girl, Becket, Oliver!, My Family) as the conman Lawrence Jameson, competing with Freddy Benson (Alex Gaumond)  for the riches and the heart of the young impressionable heiress, Christine Colgate played by Katherine Kingsley (Singin' in the Rain), who was just nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Michael Grandage's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Bonnie Langford  plays Muriel Eubanks, a glamorous divorcee looking for love in Beaumont-sur-Mer on the French Riviera and Gary Wilmot  plays Andre Thibault, Beaumont-sur-Mer's Chief of Police.

Downton Abbey Christmas Album featuring Julian Ovenden

Uddated 7th November.  Listen to Julian Ovenden singing O Holy Night from the album 

The cast of Downton Abbey are  to release a double  Christmas album next month featuring Elizabeth McGovern and Julian Ovenden. Jim Carter, who plays butler Charles Carson, performs a spoken word version of T'was The Night Before Christmas.

It will feature a festive version of the period drama's theme tune along with choral versions of traditional hymns and carols.

Elizabeth McGovern, plays Cora Countess of  Graham and Julian Ovenden, who plays Charles Blake, will be the most featured on the album because they both have musical backgrounds. McGovern fronts a folk band called Sandie and the Hotheads while Ovenden is a well known and established  musical theatre star and singer  who has released albums. On the 45-track Downton album McGovern¡s  performances include It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, and she performs a duet  of The First Noe lwith Ovenden

Christmas at Downton Abbey is due for release on 10th November.  You can pre-order your copy here

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New Bend it Like Beckham musical confirmed to open at Phoenix next Spring

Updated 31st October: it has now been confirmed that Bend it Like Beckham will start previews at the Phoenix on May 15th, with an official first night on June 24th. It is booking  to 11th July 2015.

The  news today that Once the Musical is to close at the Phoenix Theatre at the end of Ronan Keating's engagement on 21st March, gives strength to the rumour is that Bend It Like Beckham the Musical is taking its place.

Based on the 2002 film starring Keira Knightley, the musical has David Beckham's blessing and will be directed by Gurinder Chadha, who also directed the film, with  music and lyrics by Howard Goodall and Charles Hart.

The film centres around 18-year-old daughter of Punjabi Sikhs in London. Infatuated with football but forbidden to play by her parents, she joins a local women's team, which makes its way to the top of the league.

Accordin to Baz Bamigboye a developmental workshop was held last   October with  Samantha Barks playing 'Jules' ( portrayed by Keira Knightley in the 2002 movie) alongside Tara Divina as 'Jess' (originated by Parminder Nagra on screen) in the starring role. Frances Ruffelle, Shobna Gulati, Preeya Kalidas, Jamie Muscato, and Richard Fleeshman were also part of various workshops. There have also been number of rehearsed readings and workshops  including a big one in May this year at the Dominion Theatre which Andrew Lloyd Webber and theatre critic Mark Shenton attended.

Booking opens on for Bend it Like Beckham the musical on  7 November 2014 at 10:00 am.

The Railway Children back in London over Christmas

The Olivier Award-winning production of Mike Kenny’s stage adaptation of E. Nesbit’s novel The Railway Children is  returning to London from  16th  December 2014  (press night on 14th January,) in a new venue at the  King’s Cross Theatre,on King’s Boulevard, behind King’s Cross Station, where a purpose built 1,000-seat theatre, complete with a railway track and platforms, and with a state of the art heating system, will be specially created.    

The York Theatre Royal production, which is in association with the National Railway Museum, will once again feature a live 60-tonne steam locomotive and Gentleman’s Carriage.Casting will be announced shortly.

Book tickets for the The Railway Children,  which is running until 1st March 2015. 

Details of Miss Saigon 25th Anniversary Radio 2 broadcasts tonight

At 8:00 pm on BBC Radio 2 tonight Claudia Winkleman is presenting  an Arts Show special, celebrating 25 years of Miss Saigon ahead of the Radio 2 recording of the Gala Performance, recorded live from The Prince Edward Theatre. Claudia will be featuring Sir Cameron Mackintosh, it's original stars Lea Salonga, Simon Bowman and Jonathan Pryce, plus its current stars Eva Noblezada and Alistair Brammer

This is followed at 9 :00 pm by Michael Ball who will be presenting footage from backstage plus there is a broadcast of the entire show with a spectacular celebratory finale as the cast of the current production are joined by members of the original company, all on stage at the Prince Edward Theatre. Finale footage to be available afterwards for 7 days.

Aaron Tveit to join cast of Assassins at Menier

Broadway star Aaron Tveit is to make his UK stage debut in Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Tony Award-winning musical Assassins at the Menier Chocolate Factory this Christmas.

He will play John Wilkes Booth (an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington) in the production which opens on 21st  November, joining Jamie Lloyd's  stellar cast members including  Carly Bawden as Squeaky Fromme, Simon Lipkin as The Proprietor, Mike McShane as Samuel Byck, Jamie Parker as Balladeer/Lee Harvey Oswald, Harry Morrison plays John Hinckley, Stewart Clarke as Giuseppe Zangara, Andy Nyman as Charles Guiteau, David Roberts as Czolgosz and Catherine Tate will be playing Sara Jane Moore until Sunday 8th February 2015 .Marc Akinfolarin, Greg Miller Burns and Melle Stewart have also been cast as Bystanders with more still to come.

Aaron Tveit originated roles in both Next to Normal and Catch Me If You Can on Broadway, and other stage credits include Rent, Wicked and Hairspray. He also played Enjolras in the 2012 film version of Les Misérables.