GHOST THE MUSICAL Announces UK Tour, Beginning April 2013 in Cardiff

The smash hit West End musical GHOST the Musical, based on the Academy Award winning film, is to tour throughout the UK opening at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff in April 2013. GHOST the Musical is directed by the Tony award winning Matthew Warchus (Matilda, Art) and has music and lyrics by Grammy® award winning Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Glen Ballard and features the iconic song Unchained Melody. Set and costume designs are by Rob Howell, musical supervision and arrangements by Christopher Nightingale, illusions are by Paul Kieve, choreography is by Ashley Wallen, video and projection designs by Jon Driscoll, lighting by Hugh Vanstone and sound by Bobby Aitken. The UK tour is being produced by David Ian Productions, The Ambassador Theatre Group, Colin Ingram, and HELLO Entertainment/David Garfinkle. Full casting for the tour will be announced later this year.

Oscar® winning Bruce Joel Rubin adapted his original screenplay for the stage production. Rubin won an Oscar®for Best Original Screenplay for the movie GHOST, which starred Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Tony Goldwyn and Whoopi Goldberg.

GHOST the Musical has been seen by over 500,000 people and has been nominated for five Olivier Awards and three Tony Awards.

Based on the phenomenal Oscar® winning movie that captured the hearts and imaginations of a generation back in the 90s, GHOST the Musical is a timeless fantasy about the power of love. Sam is trapped as a ghost between this world and the next trying to communicate with girlfriend Molly through a phoney psychic in the hope of saving her from his murderer. GHOST the Musical is a rollercoaster ride of romance and comedy with dazzling state-of-the-art staging.

Dave Stewart is recognised as one of the most respected and accomplished talents in the music industry today. Stewart's career spans more than 25 years and more than 100 million album sales. With Eurythmics partner Annie Lennox, Stewart delivered pop/rock hits such as Here Comes the Rain Again, Who's That Girl, Would I Lie to You?, Missionary Man and Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). In 1999, the duo was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Brits. Together with Mick Jagger, he wrote and produced the score for Alfie, starring Jude Law, which won the pair a Golden Globe ® for Best Original Song.

Stewart has won Best British Producer four times and Best British Songwriter five times as well as numerous Grammy®, MTV and European awards. This year he released his new album The Ringmaster General.

Six-time Grammy® award winner Glen Ballard is one of popular music's most accomplished producers/songwriters and arrangers. He has sold more than 150 million records worldwide and has worked with a diverse array of the finest singers and artists in the business, from Aretha Franklin to Van Halen and Aerosmith to MichaelJackson. One of Ballard's biggest successes involved chart-topping, multi-platinum album Jagged Little Pill (33 million worldwide, four Grammys including Album of the Year) which Ballard co-wrote and produced for Alanis Morissette and was named Best Album of the Decade (1990s) by Billboard magazine.

Ballard has most recently had success writing hit songs for film including the Grammy® winning and Oscar® nominated Believe for Polar Express, Ordinary Miracle for Charlotte's Web, and A Hero Comes Home for Beowulf.

Matthew Warchus is an award-winning interNational Theatre director. He has directed musicals including the Royal Shakespeare Company's Matilda (for which he won the Olivier Award this year for Best Director), Tell Me on a Sunday, Our House (which won the Olivier Award for Best Musical) and Follies on Broadway. His opera productions include Cosi Fan Tutte, Falstaff for English National Opera and Troilus and Cressida for Opera North. Warchus has directed numerous plays including Deathtrap at the Noel Coward Theatre, La Bête at the Comedy Theatre which transferred to Broadway, Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests for the Old Vic/Broadway, God of Carnage at the Gielgud Theatre/Broadway, Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre/National Tour/Broadway (where it won a Tony for Best Revival), Endgame at the Albery Theatre, the multi award-winning Art in the West End/Broadway/Los Angeles, True West for the Donmar Warehouse, The Unexpected Man and Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Buried Child, Life x 3 and Volpone for The National Theatre.

Rob Howell won an Olivier Award in 2000 for Troilus and Cressida, Vassa and Richard III, and in 2006 another Olivier award for Best Set Design for Hedda Gabler (and was also nominated for Best Costume Design). His theatre credits include The Observer, Her Naked Skin, The Reporter, Buried Child, Chips with Everything, Troilus and Cressida, Money, Battle Royal and Howard Katz for The National Theatre, Simpatico, Hard Fruit and Real Classy Affair for the Royal Court, Tartuffe, The Government Inspector, Vassa, Conversations after a Burial, Lulu, Faith Healer, The Lady from the Sea and Hedda Gabler for the Almeida, and Habeas Corpus, The Fix, How I Learned to Drive, True West, The Glass Menagerie and Proof for the Donmar Warehouse. His West End credits include Deathtrap, Tom & Clem, Tell Me On A Sunday, The Caretaker, Our House, The Graduate, Endgame,Boeing Boeing, Lord of the Rings, Inherit The Wind and The Norman Conquests.

Paul Kieve is renowned for his illusions on stage and screen. His stage work includes Matilda at the Cambridge Theatre, The Lord of The Rings and The Witches of Eastwick at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Our House at the Cambridge Theatre, Theatre of Blood for The National Theatre, Scrooge at the London Palladium, The Invisible Man at the Theatre Royal Stratford East/West End and Improbable Theatre Company's Cinderella at the Lyric Hammersmith. Kieve's screen credits include Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese, The Dark Knight Rises, and he was magic consultant on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He is a consultant to Derren Brown and David Copperfield and is a gold star member of the Inner Magic Circle.

Ashley Wallen's credits as a choreographer include Dance X for BBC1 where he also appeared as a judge and mentor alongside Arlene Phillips, the X Factor and It's Now or Never both for ITV, Rent Remixed at the Duke of York's Theatre and The Hurly Burly Show at the Garrick Theatre. He has choreographed for many artists including Kylie Minogue, Dannii Minogue, James Morrison, Leona Lewis, Sugababes, Will Young, Lemar and Gabrielle Cilmi. His on screen dance credits include Moulin Rouge and Phantom of the Opera and on stage he performed with Mariah Carey and Kylie Minogue. Last year he was associate choreographer on Madonna's film W.E and choreographer on Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake.

David Ian is one of the UK's most prolific theatrical producers. His producing credits include The Bodyguard which is about to open at the Adelphi Theatre London, Grease, Saturday Night Fever, The King and I, West Side Story, Singin' in the Rain, Anything Goes, The Producers, Guys and Dolls, The Sound of Music, La Cage Aux Folles, Sweet Charity, Flashdance, Gypsy, The Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Chess, Rocky Horror Show, Cats, Chicago, Dr Dolittle, Starlight Express and Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Colin Ingram was lead producer on GHOST the Musical in London and Broadway and is licensing the show in US, Korea, Germany, Italy,Hungary, Sweden with other productions planned in China, Australia and Brazil. He was lead producer on Breakfast At Tiffany's in the West End and is opening the Play in February 2013 in New York. He was Executive Producer on Billy Elliot in London and consulted on the New York and Australian production. Prior to becoming an independent producer, he was Executive Producer to Kevin Spacey's Old Vic Theatre Company for the inaugural and second season, Managing Director of Disney Theatrical UK and Production Administrator for Cameron Mackintosh. He was also producer on Movin' Out in London.

David Garfinkle's Production Company, HELLO Entertainment, is the founding producer of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, with music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, currently on Broadway. He was co-lead producer of GHOST the Musical in London and Broadway and a lead producer of The Immigrant (Drama Desk nominations: Best Book and Orchestrations), and three-time Tony Award-winner Hinton Battle's live stage production Hinton Battle: Largely Live.

FOR FULL TOURING SCHEDULE AND TO BOOK TICKETS: WWW.GHOSTTHEMUSICAL.COM