John Owen Jones and Earl Carpenter to play Phantom on Tour

The Phantom of the Opera Tour starts next February in Plymouth with John Owen Jones (who is currently playing the role in London's West End) and Earl Carpenter playing the role of the Phantom with Katie Hall playing Christine.

Tour dates so confirmed are: Theatre Royal Plymouth (27 February-31 March 2012), Manchester Palace (4 April-19 May), Bristol Hippodrome (22 May-30 June), Dublin Grand Canal (4 July-4 August), Leeds Grand (8 August-15 September), Edinburgh Playhouse (19 September-20 October), Milton Keynes Theatre (24 October-24 November), Cardiff Millennium Centre (4 December-12 January 2013) and Southampton Mayflower (22 January-16 February).

John Owen Jones will open the show at Plymouth and play venues up to   Edinburgh Playhouse until 29th September), after which Earl Carpenter will take over on 1st October.

Earl Carpenter recently played Javert in the West End production of Les Misérables and appeared in the 25th Anniversary tour of the show. He has already played The Phantom and Darryl Van Horne in The Witches of Eastwick in the West End. His touring credits include Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard and he is currently playing Khashoggi, in the tour of Queen’s musical We Will Rock You.

After appearing as a finalist in BBC’s search for Nancy in I’d Do Anything Katie Hall was cast to cover the role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre and is now the alternate Christine in the production. She  has also played the role of Cosette in Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre, on the 25th Anniversary tour and also at the O2 Concert

Cameron Mackintosh said ''After 25 phenomenal years and a glorious celebration of the show's success at the Royal Albert Hall at the start of this month, I'm delighted to announce that a spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's legendary musical will come to Southampton in January 2013. With an exciting new design and staging, retaining Maria Björnson's amazing costumes, be the first to surrender to the music of the night and fall in love with the Phantom in his new guise all over again''

The  new production is directed by Laurence Connor, with choreography by Scott Ambler, Set Design by Paul Brown, Costume Design by Maria Björnson, Lighting Design by Paule Constable and Sound Design by Mick Potter. The production is overseen by Cameron Mackintosh and Matthew Bourne.