Matt Lucas off to Los Angeles

As previously reported, Matt Lucas leaves Les Miserables on 10th September to pursue other projects. He is pictured here playing the innkeeper Thenardier.

And it seems these "other projects"  are not in the UK,  as he revealed to Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders on their Radio 2 show over the weekend that he is moving to America in an attempt to find success there.  It is understood he has been house-hunting in Los Angeles saying “I'll split my time and still keep a very small place here. I'll still be walking my dog in Hyde Park.” He has also tweeted that he still plans to spend at least four months in the UK every year adding "It's nowt to do with tax or even work. It's partly because the winter weather plays havoc with my asthma".

Earlier this year his Little Britain comedy partner David Walliams said the pair were splitting up after two decades of performing together saying: “We will re-group at some point.”

It is believed he wants to work on more films in the USA.

Matt Lucas leaving Les Miserables

Because of other commitments Matt Lucas has unfortunately only been able to spend four months in Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre playing the inkeeper Thenardier.  He has received great notices for his performance which he first played at the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert at the 02 Arena last October. I saw him in both shows and really feel he has brought a lot to the already very rich part and managed to make it his own.

Sadly Matt leaves the show on 10th September when the role will be taken by Cameron Blakely who has played the part several times and was last seen in Les Miserables as Bamatabois in the 25th Anniversary Concert.

Matt Lucas joining Les Miserables in June

I can now confirm that Matt Lucas will be playing Thenardier in Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre from 23^rd June until 10th September.  He  is scheduled to be on at all 8 performances.

Hadley Fraser, who played  Grantaire in the 25th Anniversary show, is taking on the  role of Javert

Alfie Boe & Matt Lucas Les Miserables News

Both Alfie and Matt tweeted last night that Cameron Mackintosh is making a special announcement outside the Queen’s Theatre (with Alfie in tow) at 09:00 this morning regarding their appearing in Les Miserables. 

Will post the news as soon as I can

Matt Lucas to play Thenardier in Les Miserables

It seems that the rumours which have been circulating in the West End are true and that Little Britain’s Matt Lucas will join the cast the Les Miserables playing the innkeeper Thenardier at the Queen’s Theatre when the cast change takes place in June and Martin Ball is due to leave the show.

Lucas has become firm friends with Alfie Boe since they met while appearing in the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert at the O2 Arena recording a duet of The Impossible Dream on Boe's new album, and  Boe lodging with Lucas while he was moving his family over from America.

Alfie Boe joins the show playing Jean Valjean at the end of June (date still to be confirmed) so it could well be that Lucas will join at that time.  Boe is with the show for six months until 3rd December, but the Lucas rumours mention a contract of either three or six months.  Lucas recently said that his perfect day would be "watching Arsenal in the afternoon and a performance of Les Mis in the evening" so it looks as though his wish has been granted.

In any case, it looks as though he will  be appearing in the West End from July-September this year.

Matt Lucas in Les Miserables Documentary

Les Mis At 25 – Matt Lucas Dreams The Dream is to be broadcast on BBC1 at 20:00 on Wednesday 29th December. It is a documentary where Matt Lucas (who played Thenardier in the 215^th Anniversary concert) goes behind the scenes of Les Misérables.

BBC cameras follow Little Britain’s Matt in rehearsals as he prepares for the concert at the 02 Arena which was beamed live via satellite to millions of people watching at cinemas around the world. The documentary is an intimate insight into Matt Lucas, both as himself and how he creates his own version of the innkeeper Thénardier.

Contributors include Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Sir Trevor Nunn, Michael Ball and Frances Ruffelle.
 
The DVD of the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert is now available from Amazon.