More casting for Company starring Patti LuPone and Rosalie Craig

More casting news this morning for the gender swapped production  of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical comedy COMPANY which Marianne Elliott will  direct at the Gielgud Theatre from September.

Actors joining the already cast Patti LuPone as acerbic Joanne, Rosalie Craig as Bobbi and Mel Giedroyc as Sarah include  boyfriends: Andy, PJ, and Theo played respectively, by Richard Fleeshman (Guys And Dolls, Ghost The Musical, Call The Midwife and Sting's The Last Ship); George Blagden (Louis XIV in Versailles) and Matthew Seadon-Young (Billy Elliot and Beautiful). (In previous productions the male  Bobby had a trio of girlfriends: April, Marta and Kathy). 

Fleeshman's Andy is a flight attendant who Stephen Sondheim said was  like a brilliant chorus line dancer. Not a huge amount upstairs but a beautiful body. Bobbi and Andy get to duet on one of Sondheim's most famous numbers, Barcelona.Seadon-Young's Theo is the beau who's a perfect match for Bobbi but he tells her he's marrying someone else.Blagden's PJ is a posh British guy living in New York, and gets to sing another favourite: Another Hundred People.

Richard Henders plays David who in past productions was in business. Now he's a house-husband while his wife Jenny played by Jennifer Saayeng (previously a stay-at-home spouse),  has now become the breadwinner .

Other casting includes Ben Lewis as Joanne's younger trophy husband (hedge-fund manager Larry); Gavin Spokes as Harry (married to Giedroyc's Sarah); and Ashley Campbell as Peter with more casting news still to come for the last three roles: Susan (or  Peter's partner) and Amy and Paul.

A few of the newly announced cast have had Sondheim experience. Matt Seadon-Young played Anthony in the ENO production of Sweeney Todd alongside Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson, and was John Wilkes Booth in the Gate Theatre Dublin production of Assassins; Richard Henders was Olivier-nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his role as Manjiro in the Donmar's Pacific Overtures;and Ben Lewis played Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in the Sydney Opera House production of A Little Night Music and was in the 2012 Side By Side by Sondheim gala performance at the Theatre Royal, Sydney.