Catching up on the news for some forthcoming musicals: the UK tour of Singin’ in the Rain, The Love Revue in London, the Gaiety Musical Festival in Warwickshire and Broadway’s Funny Girl
Chichester Festival Theatre and Stage Entertainment’s production of Singin’ in the Rain is gearing up for major UK and Ireland 2022 tour and has just revealed its cast. Leading this glorious production are Sam Lips as Don Lockwood Charlotte Gooch as aspiring actress Kathy Selden; Ross McLaren as Don’s slapstick sidekick Cosmo Brown and Jenny Gayner as the strangulated silver-screen siren, Lina Lamont.
Across the tour, they will be reunited with their Sadler’s Wells co-stars who make special guest appearances at select dates. Faye Tozer will reprise her role as Lina Lamont in Canterbury, Woking, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh and Newcastle Kevin Clifton will reprise his role as Cosmo Brown in Bristol, Cardiff, Southampton, Liverpool and Glasgow. And Adam Cooper returns to the show with his legendary performance of Don Lockwood in Woking, Manchester, Glasgow and Plymouth.
Further casting includes Sandra Dickinson, who will appear as Dora Bailey, Michael Matus as Roscoe Dexter and Imogen Brooke as Zelda Zanders. The ensemble features Briana Craig, Alastair Crosswell, Lavinia Fitzpatrick, Alex Given, Ryan Gover, Ashleigh Graham, Thomas Inge, Robin Kent, Joshua Lovell, George Lyons, Amonik Melaco, Ashleigh Morris, Peter Nash, Dale Rapley, Molly Rees-Howe, Harriet Samuel-Gray, Heather Scott-Martin, Megan Speirs, Ben Whitnall, and Ellie May Wilson.
Olivier Award-nominee Maiya Quansah-Breed (Six, Rent) and Billy Luke Nevers (& Juliet, Jesus Christ Superstar) will star in the world premiere of Dominic Powell’s musical revue The Love Revue at London’s Phoenix Arts Club. Reworking elements of Powell’s original musical Date 1 to 10 (Landor Theatre), the musical revue is a melting pot of pop, R’n’B and musical theatre.
The Love Revue will debut at the Phoenix Arts Club with performances at 7:00pm and 9:00pm on Monday 21st February. Special guests, who will perform alongside Maiya Quansah-Breed and Billy Luke Nevers, will be announced at a later date. Tickets for the performances, from £15, are now on sale at the Phoenix Art Theatre’s website and box office.
The Gaiety Musical Theatre Festival is pleased to announce the full main stage line up for this year’s festival at Ragley Hall, Warwickshire. Britain’s Got Talent Winners Collabro, West End and Broadway star John Owen-Jones (Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera), direct from London’s West End Sophie Evans (Wicked, Wizard of Oz) and musical theatre star Lauren Samuels (Bend It Like Beckham, Grease).
They will join fellow headliners Kerry Ellis (We Will Rock You, Wicked, Oliver!), Lee Mead (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Wicked, Legally Blonde the Musical), Cassidy Janson (&Juliet, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, Avenue Q) and Marisha Wallace (Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Waitress) at Gaiety Musical Theatre Festival on Sunday 1st May 2022.
Martin Moran, Peter Francis James, Ephie Aardema, Toni DiBuono and Debra Cardona have joined the Broadway cast of Funny Girl. They join Beanie Feldstein, Ramin Karimloo, Jane Lynch and Jared Grimes in the first Broadway revival of the 1964 musical by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. Harvey Fierstein has revised the book, originally written by Isobel Lennart, for the production.
The company will also feature Amber Ardolino, Daniel Beeman, Colin Bradbury, Kurt Thomas Csolak, Leslie Donna Flesner, Afra Hines, Masumi Iwai, Aliah James, Jeremiah James, Danielle Kelsey, Stephen Mark Lukas, Alicia Hadiya Lundgren, John Thomas Manzari, Liz McCartney, Katie Mitchell, Justin Prescott, Mariah Reives and Leslie Blake Walker. Julie Benko will serve as Feldstein’s standby for the role of Fanny Brice.
