One day more! (…until the weekend…) As usual, we’ve got your weekly Friday news round-up right here. Find out about new casts for your favourite West End shows, which musical you’d better go see before it closes, and other vitally important theatre tidbits.
At the end of the day… it’s time for a new Les Miz cast. Starting 11 June, new cast members Dean Chisnall (Jean Valjean), Toby Miles (Marius), Elena Skye (Eponine), Vivien Parry (Madame Thenardier), Amara Okereke (Cosette), and Samuel Edwards (Enjolras) will join continuing cast members Steven Meo and Carley Stenson. Bradley Jaden will join the cast 23 July (straight from his role as Fiyero in Wicked), playing Javert. That means you now only have until 11 June to see Killian Donelly’s Jean Valjean.
Welcome to Westerberg High! More casting is announced for Heathers – The Musical. Playing the most popular girls in school will be Jodie Steele (Chandler), Sophie Isaacs (McNamara), and T’Shan Williams (Duke). Jamie Muscato will play the mysterious rebel Jason Dean. Also in the cast will be Chris Chung (Kurt Kelly), Dominic Anderson (Ram Sweeney), Jenny O’Leary (Martha Dunnstock), Rebecca Lock (Mrs. Flemming), and, of course, Carrie Hope Fletcher playing Veronica Sawyer. You can check out a new video trailer below:
OK, we’ve got a lot of news about Young Frankenstein. Mel Brooks’ critically acclaimed musical will end its run at the Garrick Theatre on 25 August, but the production will live on. Starting in September 2019, Young Frankenstein will embark on a UK national tour. And in July of this year we’ll be getting an Original West End Cast Recording. Details and casting for the tour have yet to be announced.
Disney’s Aladdin is also getting a new cast, or, partly new, anyway. Matthew Croke will continue as the heroic street rat, alongside Jade Ewen as Jasmine and Trevor Dion Nicholas as Genie. Joining them will be Fred Johanson as Jafar and Julian Capolei as Omar. Jermaine Woods steps into the role of Iago. Aladdin will celebrate its second birthday as a West End production, so break out the baklava!
If you saw Frozen at the Royal Theatre Haymarket (the run ended 5 May) you probably know that it’s a deeply affecting play. For lead actress Suranne Jones, it may have been too much. Jones was forced to pull out of the last four performances when she became seriously ill, and she shared her apologies on Instagram. We hope she’s now getting a much needed rest before filming starts for BBC series Gentleman Jack, Jones’s next project.
Nina Raine’s new play Consent begins previews at the Harold Pinter Theatre next week (18 May) and to whet everyone’s appetite, the production team has released some intriguing new rehearsal images. Check out our gallery below.
Consent, produced by the National Theatre Sonia Friedman Productions, is a “tense, entertaining modern-day tragi-comedy” according to the Daily Telegraph. The story follows a group of friends who take opposing briefs in a controversial legal case.
If you haven’t yet seen Kneehigh’s production of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter, great news! The show has been extended due to overwhelming public demand. You can catch it at the Empire Cinema Haymarket in London’s West End until 9 September 2018, ahead of a World tour in 2019. Tickets are on sale now.
Here’s a little more about the play:
A chance meeting in a railway station café where Laura happens to get “a little piece of grit in my eye,” leads to one of the most heart-breaking love stories ever told. This award-winning production triumphed in the West End in 2008, received great critical acclaim on Broadway, and went on to tour worldwide. It was described by Ben Brantley in The New York Times as “surely the most enchanting work of stagecraft ever inspired by a movie.”
