Miss Saigon the movie and tour!

During his curtain speech at Miss Saigon's final West End performance last night Cameron Mackintosh  revealed that the 25th anniversary gala performance of Miss Saigon, which took place September 24 2015, was filmed with the intent to screen the musical in cinemas in the autumn. Talks are still underway for a full-fledged film adaptation of the  "Sooner or later maybe the movie won't just be in my mind". 

There are also plans for a UK tour later this year! with dates to follow soon.

Beautiful celebrates first anniversary and extends booking period

After triumphantly celebrating its first birthday in the front of a celebrity audience in the West End last night, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical  has now extended its booking period at the  Aldwych by six months to 18th  February 2017.

Commenting on the extension, Carole King said: "I had the great pleasure of seeing the West End production of Beautiful on opening night with my dear friends Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. We were all so moved that we joined the company onstage after the show in singing "You've Got a Friend" and of course we couldn't help but think of Gerry Goffin, who passed away in 2014. "I know that Gerry would join Barry, Cynthia, and me in expressing gratitude not only to the company but to audience members, many of whom are coming to see the show not just once but twice or thrice. London is one of my favourite cities. Here's to another brilliant year. Cheers!"

(photo courtesy Dan Wooller)

David Burt & Simon Dylan-Kane join Lauren Samuels and George Maguire in The Buskers Opera

Updated 3rd April:  David Burt –the original  Enjolras in Les Misérables in 1985 joins the cast as Jeremiah Peachum, alongside comedian Simon Dylan-Kane (best known for regular appearances on Radio 4’s John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme), who will play Mayor Lockitt.

Lauren Samuels will join Olivier Award winner George Maguire in the cast of the world premiere production of new musical The Buskers Opera which will open at the Park Theatre on 28th April and play until 4th June (press night 5th May)

The  Buskers Opera is a a brand new musical by  Dougal Irvine (Departure Lounge, The Snow Queen, Britain’s Got Bhangra) which will be directed by Lotte Wakeham (Matilda, Sweet Charity, The Other School by Dougal Irvine), with musical direction by Sean Green, lighting design is by Christopher Nairne and sound design by Andy Graham, musical staging and choreography by Lucie Pankhurst.

It is set in London, 2012: the night before the Opening Ceremony. A group of street performers called 'the 99percenters,' gather in protest against the over-priced, corporate games. Among them is Macheath, satirist and ladies' man, whose razor sharp wit is slashing chunks out of the Mayor's reputation. Powerful figures are watching. With the ever influential media 24/7 capital punishment has found a new method of delivery

Olivier Award-winning George Maguire (Best Supporting Actor in a Musical Award for his performance as Dave Davies in The Kinks’ musical Sunny Afternoon) plays  Macheath, and Lauren Samuels (Bend it Like Beckham, Grease, We Will Rock You) is Polly Peachum.  Other cast members include Natasha Cotriall (Into The Woods, Future Conditional) as Lucy Lockitt, John McCrea as Flitch, Maimuna Memon as Jenny Diver / Dissenter / Beggar and Giovanna Ryan as Susan / Beggar / Dissenter.

Tickets for the Buskers Opera 

Michael Ball hosting Olivier Awards in April

Michael Ball is to host this year's Olivier Awards which are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year and will be held at London's Royal Opera House on 3rd April. He will also be hosting the nominations announcement, taking place at noon on 29th February. The announcement will be streamed live at www.olivierawards.com

The West End singer and presenter was made an OBE last month, previously co-hosted the awards in 2011 and 2012 has previously won two Oliviers - for best actor in a musical in 2008 for Hairspray and in 2013 for Sweeney Todd.

The 16 shows in the running for the award are: Beautiful - The Carole King Musical; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Jersey Boys; Disney's The Lion King; Mamma Mia!; Matilda the Musical; Les Miserables; The Mousetrap; The Phantom of the Opera; The Railway Children; Stomp; Sunny Afternoon; The Play that Goes Wrong; The Woman in Black and Thriller Live.

Last year's big winners were Kinks-inspired musical Sunny Afternoon and drama A View From the Bridge, with Dame Angela Lansbury winning her first Olivier Award for her role as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, her first West End role in nearly 40 years.

Voting opened on Tuesday for the Magic Radio Audience Award, the only Olivier voted on by the public.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to close in London next year followed by Broadway transfer and UK tour

The award-winning West End production of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is in its fourth and final year at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane. (Currently booking until 7th  January 2017)

It is one of the West End’s most popular and successful stage musicals, breaking house records at  Drury Lane where it has been seen by over 1.8 million people since it opened in June 2013. It is up there with  Miss Saigon and 42nd Street in the top three longest-running productions of the last 50 years at one of London’s largest theatres.

The show will close in London early next year with a Broadway production due to open in  2016-2017  and tickets for a 2017 UK tour  due to go on sale.

The cast currently includes Jonathan Slinger, as Willy Wonka with Barry James as Grandpa Joe, Ross Dawes as Mr Salt, Josefina Gabrielle as Mrs Teavee, Jasna Ivir as Mrs Gloop, Paul J Medford as Mr Beauregarde, Claire Carrie as Grandma Josephine, Lara Denning as Mrs Bucket, Myra Sands as Grandma Georgina and Kraig Thornber as Grandpa George. Chris Grahamson joins the cast as Mr Bucket.

Remaining in the ensemble are: Andy Brady, Georgia Carling, Andrew Carthy, Sam Lathwood, Lucinda Lawrence, Steven Serlin, Robert Tregoning, Tara Verloop, Michelle White who will be joined by new members Alexander Bartles, Lisa Bridge, Melanie Brown, Helen Colby, Ashley Cooper, Alastair Crosswell, Katrina Dix, Ryan Gover, Rebecca Hodge, Peter Houston, Thomas Inge, Mikey Jay-Heath, Joanne McShane, Ben Redfern, Ainsley Hall Ricketts, Johnathan Tweedie.


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is directed by Sam Mendes. Featuring ingenious stagecraft, the wonder of the original story that has captivated the world for almost 50 years is brought to life with music by Marc Shaiman, and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, a book by award-winning playwright and adaptor David Greig, set and costume designs by Mark Thompson and choreography by Peter Darling.

Kelsey Grammer to join Alfie Boe & Sally Ann Triplett in Finding Neverland on Broadway

Updated 5th March:  Kelsey Grammer, who originated the role of Charles Frohman in Finding Neverland is to remain with the show to join Alfie Boe who is  playing J M Barrie in Finding Neverland on Broadway.

He is currently playing Jean Valjean in the US version of Les Miserables which he leaves on February 28th (when John Owen-Jones takes over until the show closes).  He will begin performances as Barrie on March 29th  at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, taking over the role from Tony Yazbeck who took over from Glee star Matthew Morrison in January. After Sandy Duncan's brief stint  as Madame du Maurier, Sally Ann Triplett will assume the role from  March 1st to  May 1st.

Directed by Diane Paulus and featuring a score by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy and a book by James Graham, Finding Neverland follows the story of J.M. Barrie and his relationship with the family of widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. Llewelyn Davies' children eventually became Barrie's inspiration to write Peter Pan.

The cast also currently includes Kelsey Grammer as Charles Frohman, Laura Michelle Kelly as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and as Mary Barrie. Kristy Cates and Courtney Balan will alternate playing the role of Madame du Maurier until Triplett's run begins.

Boe made his Broadway debut as Rodolfo in Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme, for which he and his co-stars received a special Tony Award in 2003. He played Valjean in the 25th Anniversary Concert at London’s O2 Arena in October, 2010 and went on to lead the original West End production of LesMis.  His live opera appearances include The Pearl Fishers at the English National Opera and Romeo ET Juliette at the Royal Opera House.

Triplett was most recently seen  in Sting's  The Last Ship.  West End theatre credits include The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Follies, Chess, Grease, Jolson The Musical, Cats, Anything Goes, Guys and Dolls, Acorn Antiques:The Musical!, Chicago, Mamma Mia! and Viva Forever.

No information yet on the speculation that Boe will lead the London transfer scheduled for the end of this year.

Casting for new dance thriller Jekyll & Hyde at Old Vic

Casting has been announced for the new dance thriller based on Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, which runs at the Old Vic from 21st - 28th May.

Devised, directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, with music by Grant Olding, the production will feature Daniel Collins (Show Boat, Crucible) as Dr Jekyll, Tim Hodges (The Car Man, Sadler's Wells) as Mr Hyde and Rachel Muldoon (Wicked, West End) as Dahlia.

The cast also includes Ashley Andrews, Joao Carolino, Carrie Taylor Johnson, Anabel Kutay, Ebony Molina, Fraya Rowley, Alexzandra Sarmiento, Barnaby Thompson and Jason Winter.

McOnie's recent credits include Oklahoma! (UK tour), Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith) and In the Heights (Southwark Playhouse & King's Cross Theatre). It has just  been announced that he will direct and choreograph Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom at the West Yorkshire Playhouse later this year.

Tickets for Jekyll and Hyde

Full cast for Leicester's Production of Legally Blonde

The Leicester Curve Production of Legally Blonde directed by Nikolai Foster opens on 14th April (previews from 11th April) and runs until 14th May.

The strong cast  includes Lucie Jones as Elle Woods, Ian Kelsey as Callahan, Tupele Dorgu as Paulette,  Jon Robyns as Emmett, Danny Mac as Warner, Natalie Hope as Brooke, Phoebe Street as Vivienne and Francesca Hoffman as Margot with  Jack Harrison-Cooper (Harrison), Cristina Hoey (Serena), Darren Bennett (Dad), Jamal Andreas (Sundeep Padamann), Natalie Woods (Enid), Rachel Stanley (Mum), Rebecca-Jayne Davies (Kate), Martin McCarthy (Carlos), Genesis Lynea (Pilar) and Lawrence Robb (Aaron). 

Lucie Jones has played Cosette in Les Misérables (West End and O2 Arena), Meatloaf in We Will Rock You (international tour) and The X Factor Arena Tour.

Ian Kelsey theatre credits include Danny in Grease (West End and tour), Same Next Year (Theatre Royal Windsor) and Kes (West Yorkshire Playhouse).

Tupele Dorgu / Educating Rita (Garrick Theatre), Chicago (UK tour); Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales Theatre), Teechers (Wakefield Theatre), Noises Off (Liverpool Royal Court); Three Minute Heroes (Belgrade Theatre) and La Cage Aux Folles (English Theatre Frankfurt).

Danny Mac / Apollo Victoria 80th Birthday Gala Performance (West End), Fly With The Stars (West End), West End At Home (Mayflower Theatre, Southampton) and Gavroche in Les Misérables (West End and UK tour).

Jon Robyns / Enjolras in Les Misérables (WestEnd and UK tour), Spamalot (West End), Memphis (West End), Avenue Q (West End), Dessa Rose (Trafalgar Studios), Road Show (Menier Chocolate Factory), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Last Five Years (Greenwich Theatre), Rent (English Theatre Frankfurt) and Miss Saigon (UK tour)

Full cast announced for Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard started rehearsals today as the full cast was announced.  Joining the previously announced Glenn Close as Norma  Desmond , Michael Xavier as Joe Gillis, Fred Johanson as Max von Mayerling with Siobhan Dillon as script editor Betty Schaefer are Anna Woodside as Hedda Hopper and Emily Bull as Hedy Lamarr,  Julian Forsyth as Cecil B DeMille, Mark Goldthorp as Sheldrake, Fenton Gray as Manfred, Haydn Oakley as Artie Green and James Paterson as Jonesy.

Further company members include Carly Anderson, Michelle Bishop, Jacob Chapman, Nadeem Crowe, Cornelia Farnsworth, Ria Jones, Katie Kerr, Aaron Lee Lambert, Matthew McKenna, Jo Morris, Tanya Robb, Ashley Robinson, Vicki Lee Taylor, Gary Tushaw, Adam Vaughan and Stuart Winter.

NORMAN PACE joins tour of ROCKY HORROR SHOW as Narrator

Comedian Norman Pace will be joining the musical Rocky Horror Show tour next month. Joining  fellow comedian Steve Punt and Coronation Street star Charlie Condou in sharing  the role of The Narrator on the UK tour.  

 

Steve Punt will reprise the role in Cardiff, Sunderland, Southampton, Wimbledon, York, Aylesbury, Nottingham, Richmond, Malvern and Stoke. In Bradford - back by popular demand - following his hilarious performance in Manchester, Charlie Condou will be slipping his suspenders back on for two performances on Friday 18^th March.

Norman Pace will make his Rocky Horror Show debut in Torquay, and will then perform in Bradford, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dartford, Wolverhampton, Sheffield, Woking, Leicester, Watford, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Canterbury, Glasgow, Southend and Bournemouth. 

Norman Pace, one half of comedy duo Hale and Pace, has appeared guest lead roles in BBC’s Casualty and ITV’s The Last Detective.  He made his West End debut as ‘Amos Hart’ in Chicago in 1999 and has since gone on to perform in the UK tours of Honk, A Slice Of Saturday Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Satin ‘N’ Steel, Breakfast With Johnny Wilkinson, Donkeys Ears, Our Man In Havana, Dry Rot, Charley’s Aunt, Annie Get Your Gun and most recently One Man Two Guvnors.

 

More casting for Chichester Musical Travels with my Aunt starring Steven Pacey & Patricia Hodge

Updated 26th February:   Matilda's Haley Flaherty has now joined the cast of the new musical TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT at Chichester this spring playing  Tooley, who is  described by the Mail as "an American hippie."

She  recently finished her run as 'Janet Weiss' in the West End's THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW and played 'Miss Honey' for more than three years in MATILDA. Other London stage credits include  LOVE NEVER DIES,  MAMMA MIA!, CHICAGO and GREASE on tour in the UK, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE in London, FOLLIES at Royal & Derngate,THE TAMING OF THE SHREW and THE BOYFRIEND at the Open Air Theatre.

 The new Musical Travels with my Aunt starring Steven Pacey and Patricia Hodge is being presented at Chichester's Minerva from 18 April – 4 June (press night 26th April).Patricia Hodge plays Aunt Augusta and  Steven Pacey returns to Chichester to play Henry Pulling.

Based on the novel by Graham Greene’s , this new musical written by Emmy Award-winners Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman (Betty Blue Eyes) has a witty score by the Olivier Award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (Mary Poppins, Honk! and Half A Sixpence for Festival 2016). Christopher Luscombe  directs.  His previous work includes The Merry Wives of Windsor for Shakespeare’s Globe and Nell Gwynn in the West End.

Retired bank manager Henry Pulling is happy alone with his dahlias. Until, at his mother’s funeral, he meets his only living relative, the decidedly bohemian Aunt Augusta. After she’s rattled the family skeletons, she suggests the pair flee to Europe. Henry is reluctant, but Aunt Augusta is nothing if not persuasive.Through Paris and Istanbul and on to South America, Henry soon finds himself in a luxurious whirl of glamorous flight attendants, chic hotel suites and a particularly fine couchette on the Orient Express. But alongside the romance and first-class thrills, there’s still a lot Henry doesn’t know about his aunt. Particularly how she’s paying for the high life, and why she has so many grateful men dotted around the globe.

Tickets for Travels with My Aunt

Half A Sixpence Confirmed at Chichester this summer

As previously mentioned Half A Sixpence will be presented at the Chichester Festival Theatre this summer from 14th July – 3rd  September (press night 26th July). It is the  British musical adaptation of H GWells’s  autobiographical novel Kipps: The Story Of A Simple Soul, based on the author’s unhappy apprenticeship as a draper at Hyde’s Drapery Emporium in Southsea. This new stage version of the novel is a new adaptation by Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes with George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. They have written a score that is inspired by and features several of composer David Heneker’s memorable songs from the original production, which he co-wrote with Beverley Cross, including the show-stopping Flash Bang Wallop, Money To Burn and the irresistible Half A Sixpence.


The only casting announced so far is Bryan Dick in the lead role. He has worked chiefly in television, including as the younger version of Phil Davis's character, Archie, in tWhite Teeth,  Blackpool in 2004, playing sidekick to David Tennant's police detective and one of the leads in the Simon Curtis series 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, based on the trilogy by Patrick Hamilton, .More recent TV roles include Thomas Wyatt in the 2005 The Virgin Queen and Prince Turveydrop in the award-winning BBC version of Charles Dickens's Bleak House. He returned to Dickens in 2007 as Freddie Trent in The Old Curiosity Shop and in the same year was cast as Danny in the new ITV comedy drama, Sold. He also appeared in Ordeal By Innocence in the Agatha Christie Agatha Christie's Marple series alongside Geraldine McEwan. In 2008 he appeared as the character Adam in an episode of the same name in the BBC sci-fi series Torchwood. He also appeared in the popular television show Shameless as Jack Wyatt and Ian Bateley in the BBC drama Excluded.

Film  roles include Joseph Nagle opposite Russell Crowe in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) and the werewolf Rafe in  Blood and Chocolate (2007). Other films include Brothers of the Head (2005) and Colour Me Kubrick (2006).

On stage, he has appeared in Plasticine and Sliding With Suzanne at the Royal Court, in Edward Bond's Lear at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield and School Play at the Soho Theatre. In 2006, he appeared in two plays at the National Theatre in London, as Andrea Sarti in Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Galileo and as Dapper in The Alchemist. In 2007, he played the lead role of Mozart in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus  at the Crucible Theatre, with Gerard Murphy as Salieri

Arthur Kipps, an orphan, is an over-worked draper’s assistant at Shalford’s Bazaar, Folkestone, at the turn of the last century. He is a charming but ordinary young man who, along with his fellow apprentices, dreams of a better and more fulfilling world, but he likes his fun just like any other, except not quite.

When Kipps unexpectedly inherits a fortune that propels him into high society, it confuses everything he thought he knew about life. Watching him wrestle with his new identity is his childhood companion and not-quite girlfriend, Ann Pornick, who sees with dismay how Arthur is being made over in a new image by the beautiful and classy Helen Walsingham. She is always there with helpful hints on how Arthur could improve himself and make his life richer and more meaningful, if only he would believe in himself, and listen to her. Both of these young women love Arthur – there is no doubt about that – but which should he listen to? With the help of his friends, Arthur learns that if you want to have the chance of living the right life, you need to make the right choices.

Director Rachel Kavanaugh’s previous work at Chichester includes The Music Man (2008), Love Story (2010) and more recently Single Spies (2016). Bryan Dick’s previous work includes Ernie Wise in the acclaimed television drama Eric and Ernie, The Life of Galileo and The Alchemist at the National Theatre, and Mozart in Amadeus at Sheffield Theatres.

Online Priority booking for Friends for Festival 2016 opens on 22 February
Phone and counter Priority booking for Friends for Festival 2016 opens on 29 February

Richard Fleeshman, Maxwell Caulfield.Louise Dearman and Anna O’Byrne cast in tour of Guys & Dolls

Chichester's production of  Guys and Dolls is currently playing at the Savoy Theatre before it extends its run at the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End.  It is also due to go out on  short tour staring on 19th March at Liverpool.

It has just been announced today that the impressive  line-up for the tour will include Richard Fleeshman as Sky Masterson, Maxwell Caulfield as Nathan Detroit, Louise Dearman  as Miss Adelaide (at Liverpool, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Sheffield and Dublin) and Anna O’Byrne as Sarah Brown.

Completing the cast are Jack Edwards as Nicely Nicely Johnson, Peter Harding as Arvide Abernathy, Anthony McGill as Lt Brannigan, Mark Sangster as Benny Southstreet, Melanie Marshall as General Cartwright, Craig Pinder as Harry the Horse/Joey Biltmore, Cameron Johnson as Big Julie, Christopher Howell as Rusty Charlie. The ensemble includesEamonn Cox, Jamal Crawford, Jonny Godbold, Ross Lee Fowkes, Aron Wild, Kiel Payton, Matthew Whennell-Clark,Ruthie Stephens, Bethany Linsdell, Hannah Cauchi, Chloe Chambers, Danielle Stephen, Abigayle Honeywill and Lucy Ashenden.

Samantha Spiro, Richard Kind & Oiver Tompsett cast in Guys & Dolls at Phoenix Theatre

The Chichester Festival Theatre's  critically acclaimed production of Guys and Dolls is extending its run in the West End transferring from the Savoy Theatre where it is currently running until 12th March to the Phoenix Theatre for a limited season from 19th March to 30th October 2016. It is also due to go on a short UK tour from 16th March-30th July. Casting for  the transfer has just been announced with Samantha  Spiro taking over the role of Miss Adelaide from Sophie Thomson:Richard Kind taking over  Nathan Detroit from David Haig: Oliver Tompsett is Sky Masterson (currently Jamie Parker). Siubhan Harrison will continue as Sarah Brown.

Continuing in his role from the Savoy to the Phoenix Theatre is Gavin Spokes as Nicely Nicely Johnson. Completing the new cast at the Phoenix are Billy Boyle as Arvide and Jason Pennycooke as Benny, with the rest of the cast transferring from the Savoy Theatre: Lucy Jane Adcock, Abigail Brodie, Cornelius Clarke, Momar Diagne, Lavinia Fitzpatrick, Lorna Gale, Nic Greenshields, Selina Hamilton, Frankie Jenna, Alec Mann, Jacob Maynard, Genevieve Nicole, William Oxborrow, Max Parker, Carl Patrick, James Revell, Giovanni Spano, Jonathan Stewart, Lucie Mae Sumner and Liam Wrate.

Alfie Boe to lead in Finding Neverland on Broadway and West End opening?

Alfie Boe will end his run on Broadway as Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables” this month with John Owen/Jones taking over the role.  According to the New York Post,  he will be stepping into the starring role of Finding Neverland, playing  Peter Pan creator J M Barrie, replacing Tony Yazbeck. Glee star Matthew Morrison played  Barrie until  January, when Yazbeck took over. Kelsey Grammer is in the show to March 26th  playing  Captain Hook. Boe would also open the show in London’s West End in January next year. This has yet to be officially confirmed.

Boe, made his Broadway debut in Baz Luhrmann's “La Bohème” in 2002, and has played Valjean at London’s O2 Arena and in the West End production.

Matthew Rickson to join HairsprayTour as Edna Turnblad from March

Matthew Rickson will join the cast of the UK tour of Hairspray as Edna Turnblad on 15th  March 2016 at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking for the remainder of the tour when it ends at Southend on  21st May.

His recent theatre credits include The Producers (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Royal Shakespeare Company), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London Palladium), Cinderella (Richmond Theatre), Casa Valentina (Southwark Playhouse), The Ladykillers (New Vic Theatre & UK Tour), Around The World in 80 Days (New Vic & Royal Exchange Theatre), Aladdin (Wimbledon Theatre), See How They Run (York Theatre Royal), The Legend of King Arthur (York Theatre Royal), Aladdin (Theatre at the O2 Arena) and The Governess (UK Tour).

The remainder of the cast remains unchanged.

Lee Brennan to play Willard at some Footloose dates

 911 and The Big Reunion star Lee Brennan makes his musical theatre debut when he joins the cast of Footloose: The Musical, playing the role of Willard from Tuesday 19 April to Saturday 18 June 2016. He will join the UK tour for dates in Oxford, Weston Super Mare, Wimbledon, Liverpool, Belfast, Derry, Torquay and Glasgow.


As previously announced, Gareth Gates will continue in the role of Willard until 16 April, returning to the show from 20 June 2016.

 Lee Brennan is widely recognised as one third of multi-million selling pop group 911. One of the biggest pop acts of the 90’s, 911 were one of only five acts in the decade to achieve ten consecutive UK Top Ten Hit Singles, selling over 10 million records around the world and touring the UK four times. Lee returned to 911 in 2013, when the band reformed for ITV’s smash hit series The Big Reunion. An arena tour followed, where they played to over 200,000 fans alongside acts including Five and Blue.Lee said today: “I am unbelievably excited about joining the amazing cast of Footloose! It has always been a dream of mine to perform in a musical and I cannot wait to get started in my role as Willard. I loved the film and have seen the current stage version and it blew me away!”

Motown the Musical extends booking to February 2017

Previews for Motown the Musical started last night at the Shaftesbury Theatre as they announced an extension of the booking period to 18th  February 2017 with 200,000 new tickets are now on sale. Press night is scheduled  for 8 March 2016.

Baz Lurhmann's Strictly Ballroom heading to UK

Baz Lurhmann's STRICTLY BALLROOM is finally heading to the UK with choreographer Drew McOnie directing  the stage musical at West Yorkshire Playhouse in a co-production with Global Creatures,  from Wednesday 30thNovember 2016, playing through until Saturday 21st January 2017 (Press Night: Tuesday 6th  December at 7.30pm). The production is based on the original Australian musical created by Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin. Terry Johnson joins the creative team to adapt the original book. Casting  begins next week.

Luhrmann told the Mail: The child's been born!But if we were to wait for the parents to be available to bring it up, it would have moved on, gone to college and retired!  On hiring McOnie he said : There's something about his energy that reminds me of when you're at an early place in your career and you've got that killer enthusiasm.

After originating onstage in 1984 in Sydney, hitting the big screen in 1992 and revived in Sydney   a couple years ago, STRICTLY BALLROOM is getting a new life and a "fresh perspective" in the UK while Luhrmann is busy working on THE GET DOWN for Netflix.

McOnie, who runs his own dance company, choreographed London's IN THE HEIGHTS and the UK tour of OKLAHOMA! Othre  recent credits include  CHICAGO (Curve, Leicester), WEST SIDE STORY (NYMT), BRITISH STYLE (Collaboration with Matthew Bourne for the BBC, Buckingham Palace), JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (UK Tour) and 13 (Apollo Theatre, London).

New Jimmy Osmond tour - A Tribute to Andy Williams – Moon River and Me

Jimmy Osmond, celebrates his 50th anniversary in the music business in 2016, and is returning to the UK in he  autumn with a brand new live show - A Tribute to Andy Williams – Moon River and Me.  Packed with award-winning music, nostalgic footage and Jimmy’s own personal memories of Andy Williams. The 27 date  tour will begin on 26th September and run through to 30 October with tickets going on sale on 14th February - dates and booking  links here.

 Jimmy made his performance debut at the age of three on television on the Andy Williams Show and will perform many of the romantic songs that made the legendary singer so popular including  Music To Watch Girls By, Happy Heart, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Almost There, May Each Day, Days of Wine and Roses and Moon River.

Michael Xavier & Gary Wilmot join Ruthie Henshall & Lesley Garrett Some Enchanted Evening Concert

Updated 9th June;  Michael Xavier and Gary Wilmot will now be joining Ruthie Henshall and Lesley Garrett at this concert.

At the Cadogan Hall from Thursday 18 August - Saturday 20 August 2016 Lesley Garrett, Ruthie Henshall, with special guests and an ensemble from ArtsEd  special guests perform Some Enchanted Evening celebration of the Hits of Broadway Legend Richard Rodgers featuring classic songs including The Lady is a Tramp, My Funny Valentine, Climb Every Mountain, You’ll Never Walk Alone, Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’, Edelweiss, Shall We Dance?, There is Nothing Like a Dame, Do-Re-Mi, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered … from his great musicals  Oklahoma!, The Sound Of Music, Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific, Babes In Arms, Cinderella, State Fair, Pal Joey, On Your Toes.  They will be  accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted  by Richard Balcombe

Tickets for Some Enchanted Evening





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The Railway Children starring Shaun Williamson extends booking to October

The Olivier Award-winning production of Mike Kenny’s stage adaptation of E Nesbit’s novel The Railway Children – Live on Stage has just extended its run for he fourth time at the King’s Cross Theatre to 30th October 2016.

The current cast of The Railway Children includes Shaun Williamson as Mr Perks, Caroline Harker as Mother, Sophie Ablett as Bobbie, Matt Jessup as Peter, Beth Lilly as Phyllis, Lindsay Allen as Mrs Perks, Peter Gardiner as Doctor/Butler, Mark Hawkins as Jim/District Super, Connie Hyde as Mrs Viney, Blair Plant as Father/Schepansky, and Moray Treadwell as the Old Gentleman, with Helen Brampton, Rebecca Brierley, Timothy George and Daniel Griffin, plus a children’s ensemble made up of three teams of ten children aged between 9 and 15.

 Buy tickets for The Railway Children

Michael Crawford back in the West End

Legendary performer Michael Crawford is due to return to the West End  this spring in a new musical.  He last appeared in the title role of the Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium in 2011/12.

He will star in a new musical, The Go-Between, based on the 1953 novel by L P Hartley. The production will begin performances on May 27th at the Apollo Theatre for a limited season until Saturday 15th  October

The Go-Between  has been adapted several times for stage and screen.  The musical's creative team includes composer Richard Taylor, writer David Wood and producers Joseph Smith and Bill Kenwright.

The story begins with the reminiscences of Leo Colston, an elderly man looking back on his childhood. Looking through his old things. He c omes across  a battered old red  box containing a diary from 1900 -  the year of his thirteenth birthday. He slowly pieces together his memory as he looks through the diary back to Brandham Hall, the luxurious country home of his school friend Marcus Maudsley where he spent the summer of 1900 as the guest of wealthy school friend, Marcus Maudsley. On his journey he recalls the events surrounding his original visit,  and became besotted with his friend’s older sister Marian, whose family hoped that she would marry local aristocrat Viscount Trimingham.. The young Leo,is a poor boy among the wealthy upper class with his comparatively humble background obvious to all and he does not really fit in there. His hosts do their best to make him feel welcome, treating him with kindness and indulgence and when Marcus falls ill, Leo becomes a secret "go-between" for Marian Maudsley, and nearby tenant farmer Ted Burgess. At first, Leo is happy to help Marian because she is kind to him and he has a crush on her. But he   eventually realises their significance and gets caught up in a sequence of events that he cannot not comprehend or control.   As an older man, everything that happened that summer become clearer. In a final twist to the story, 52 years later, Leo returns to Brandham. There he meets Marian's grandson and finds Marian  living in a cottage – the place she had always told people she was going when she was really having clandestine meetings with Ted.  Brandham Hall has been let out to a girls' school. Lord Trimingham married Marian, but died in 1910, and Marcus and his brother Denys were killed in the First World War. In the end, an elderly Marian Maudsley persuades Leo to act as a go-between for her once more.

The  first production was mounted in 2011 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, at the Derby Live! Theatre , E and at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton. It production was awarded Best Musical Production at the 2012 Theatre Management Association's UK Theatre Awards, held at the Guildhall in the City of London.

Book tickets for The Go-Between

Cast Announced for Tour of American Idiot

English singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner will play Johnny joining the UK tour of American Idiot at the New Alexandra Theatre on May 10th, taking over the role from Matt Thorpe who will open the tour at Leicester Curve on 19th March.  The production is also hoping for  a return to the Arts Theatre this summer.

Following on from its hugely successful and critically acclaimed London run, Green Day's  Tony Award-winning Broadway musical opens at the Leicester Curve on March 19 and is currently running to July 2016.

As previously announced, four more of the show's original London cast will be returning for the UK tour alongside Amelia Lily (Whatsername). Alexis Gerred (Tunny), Llandyll Gove (Gerard), Lucas Rush (St Jimmy) and Steve Rushton (Will) all reprising their critically acclaimed roles.

Dreamgirls to open in the West End

Some great breaking news this morning, the fabulous musical Dreamgirls is finally heading to London's West End.  Glee and The Wiz Live! star Amber Riley will play Effie when the musical makes its UK debut at the Savoy Theatre with previews in November and an openging shceuled for December. Tickets will go on sale in the  spring.

Riley performed the signature tunes "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" and "I Am Changing" from Dreamgirls while playing 'Mercedes Jones' in Fox's Glee. She said working on the London stage is "a dream realized" and "I just feel like this is going to be something special!"

Producer Sonia Friedman told the Mail that when Riley auditioned she "was crying, because I was overwhelmed by the emotion and passion she put into the number. And also crying with utter excitement and pure joy, relief and happiness that this girl was going to be able to give this performance in the UK. Her voice is a gift from God!"

Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Something Rotten!) will direct and choreograph the production with award winning designers Tim Hatley & Gregg Barnes creating the sets and costumes

The London show will open more than 30 years after the original Broadway production, which was directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett and starred Jennifer Holliday as 'Effie'. It won six 1982 Tony Awards, for Best Book (Tom Eyen), Best Actor (Ben Harney), Best Actress (Holliday), Best Featured Actor (Cleavant Derricks), Best Lighting Design (Tharon Musser), and Best Choreography (Bennett & Michael Peters). Bill Condon's 2006 film adaptation featured Jennifer Hudson as 'Effie' with an all star cast including Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy

With music by Henry Krieger and book & lyrics by Tom Eyen and nspired by R&B music acts in 1960s America,  DREAMGIRLS charts the tumultuous journey of a young female singing trio, from Chicago, Illinois called 'The Dreams', as they learn the hard lesson that show business is as tough as it is fabulous and features the fabulous classic songs "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," "I Am Changing" and "One Night Only."




  
   

Graham Bickley, Mary Carewe, Alison Jiear and Emma Kershaw in the Songs of the 60's

This week's 'Friday Night Is Music Night' on BBC Radio 2 at 8:00 pm presents  The Songs of the Sixties,  hosted by Paul Gambaccini and featuring singers Graham Bickley, Mary Carewe, Alison Jiear and Emma Kershaw.

Among the song classics re-arranged for a sixty piece orchestra are: Downtown; MacArthur Park; I Only Want To Be With You; Always Something There To Remind Me; Something Stupid; It's Not Unusual; To Sir With Love and a special medley of classic TV hits including Thunderbirds, The Avengers, Mission Impossible and Star Trek.