Richard Fleeshman and Summer Strallen join Isla Blair and Sally Ann Triplett in A Damsel in Distress at Chichester

Updated 13th April: Full casting has just been announced: Richard Fleeshman and Summer Strallen will lead the new musical version of George and Ira Gershwin's A Damsel in Distress at Chichester Festival Theatre.The  production will also feature Desmond Barrit (The History Boys, Wicked), Isla Blair (Made in Dagenham, The Lyons), Nicholas Farrell (South Downs, The Browning Version), Sally Ann Triplett (Follies, Anything Goes), Richard Dempsey (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and Melle Stewart (Assassins). They will be joined by Mairi Barclay, Chris Bennett, Stephanie Bron, Sam Harrison, Chloe Hart, Matthew Hawksley, Kirby Hughes, Harry Morrison, David Roberts, Jonathan Stewart, Lucie-Mae Sumner, Laura Tyrer, Alan Vicary and Matt Wilman.

Chichester have just announced their summer season today. The musicals featured include the previously announced, Mack and Mabel starring Michael Ball which will run in the refurbished Festival Theatre from 13 July to 5 September before going on a short tour.

It's preceded by another major musical; a new stage version of A Damsel in Distress (30th  May-27th  June), with a book by Jeremy Sams and Robert Hudson which will be directed and choreographed  by Rob Ashford and  based on a novel by PG Wodehouse and Ian Hay  with songs including A Foggy Day in London town and Nice Work If You Can Get It.by George and Ira Gershwin.

A Damsel in Distress  musical comedy is a tribute to English love with all its eccentricities, George is an American composer working at the Savoy Theatre in London who meets Maud (played by Sally Ann Triplett) - the thoroughly English Lady Marshmoreton, a beautiful socialite who lives in a castle with a drawbridge. She  must marry soon, and her  staff at Tottney Castle have laid bets on who she'll choose, with young Albert wagering on "Mr. X." 

But  George needs to complete his musical and Maud needs to marry most urgently, with someone totally unsuitable in mind.  Maud’s fierce aunt, Lady Caroline Byng (played by Isla Blair), has a solution – to lock her  in the tower - hence the damsel in distress.

Tickets for Chichester

Gypsy, Guys & Dolls and A Damsel in Distress musicals planned for Chichester

Chichester artistic director Jonathan Church has revealed at today's press briefing for the new season that three major musicals are currently in development

He confirmed the rumour Sweeney Todd star Imelda Staunton returning to Chichester to star in Gypsy directed  by Jonathan Kent. Dates are still being worked on but the show could be one of the first to be staged in the Festival Theatre when it reopens next year.

Other planned musicals  for the future are a new revival of Guys and Dolls and a collaboration between American choreographer/director Rob Ashford and director/composer  Jeremy Sams on new stage version of the 1937 comedy film A Damsel in Distress which starred Fred Astaire with songs by George and Ira Gershwin and a book by PG Wodehouse.