Cameron Mackintosh announces final casting for his new production of Lionel Bart’s musical masterpiece “OLIVER!” starring Rowan Atkinson as ‘Fagin’, Jodie Prenger as ‘Nancy’ and Burn Gorman as ‘Bill Sikes’ at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Performances commence on 12 December and the press night is on 14 January.
Playing the alternate ‘Nancy’ (on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, the two performances Jodie is not scheduled to play), Cameron has great pleasure in confirming that Tamsin Carroll, the award-winning Australian star of his 2002 Australian production of “OLIVER!”, has agreed to join the London production. Tamsin had an enormous personal success playing ‘Nancy’, which won her every single major Australian award for ‘Best Actress in a Musical’. Tamsin also had huge success playing the title role of ‘Dusty Springfield’ in the original Australian production of “Dusty”, as well as leading roles in “
Grease”, “Shout” and “The Rocky Horror Show”.
Director
Rupert Goold has now completed the rest of the casting, with Julius D’Silva as ‘Mr. Bumble’ and Wendy Ferguson as ‘Widow Corney’. Other supporting roles already announced include
Julian Glover as ‘Mr Brownlow’, Rosemary Leach as ‘Mrs Bedwin’ and
Julian Bleach and
Louise Gold as ‘Mr and Mrs Sowerberry’. The role of ‘Oliver’ will be shared by the winners of BBC TV’s “I’d Do Anything”, Lawrence Jeffcoate, Gwion Wyn Jones and
Harry Stott, and the ‘Artful Dodger’s will be Eric Dibb Fuller, Robert Madge and Ross McCormack.
Another popular finalist from “I’d Do Anything”,
Sarah Lark, will also join the company as one of the street sellers in Who Will Buy, and will be covering ‘Nancy’. The cast will also feature Chris Bennett, Jay Bryce, Philip Catchpole,
Matthew Clark, Mary Cormack,
Hadrian Delacey, Alison Dormer, Tom Edden, Cara Elston,
Susan Fay,
Jenny Fitzpatrick, Lyndsey Gardiner, Ian Jervis, Robert Kershaw, Tim Laurenti, Rebecca Louis, Claire Rickard,
David Roberts, Oliver Roll,
Myra Sands,
Charlotte Spencer,
Spencer Stafford,
Hollie Taylor and
Lynne Wilmot.
Rupert Goold (winner of the 2008 Olivier Award ‘Best Director’) will be directing the production, which is based on
Sam Mendes’ triumphant 1994 staging, along with Tony Award-winning co-director and choreographer
Matthew Bourne. Production design is by
Anthony Ward, lighting design by
Paule Constable and sound is by
Paul Groothuis, with orchestrations by William D Brohn.
The 1994 London Palladium production of “OLIVER!” played 1,366 performances over three years and grossed more than £40 million at the box office, breaking the then record for the longest run at that theatre.
The production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane promises to be even more spectacular than ever before, with a cast and orchestra of over one hundred. The sensational score is full of
Lionel Bart’s irresistible songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You've Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I'd Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more.
This production is produced in association with the
Southbrook Group Limited.
Performance times for “OLIVER!” at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane will be as follows evening performances are Mondays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, with Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets, priced from £17.50 - £60.00 for all performances, will be available from the Theatre Royal Drury Lane Box Office on 0844 412 2955 and online at
www.oliverthemusical.com.
