Sheridan Smith & Duncan James to Star in UK Legally Blonde; Previews Start December

Sheridan Smith is to lead the cast as college sweetheart Elle Woods in Jerry Mitchell's Legally Blonde The Musical which will preview in the West End from this December. Tickets for Legally Blonde The Musical, which has its press night at the Savoy Theatre on 12 January 2010, go on sale to the public today. Sheridan is joined by Duncan James who will play heartbreaker Warner and Alex Gaumond as Emmett, Elle's love interest. Previews are from 5 December 2009 and the show is currently booking until 23 May 2010. Legally Blonde The Musical is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Robert G Bartner, Ambassador Theatre Group and Jamie Hendry Productions. Further casting for this production will be announced shortly.

Directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winning Jerry Mitchell Legally Blonde the Musical has music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, book by Heather Hach, set design by David Rockwell, costume design by Gregg Barnes, lighting design by Kenneth Posner and Paul Miller, sound design by Acme Sound Partners and orchestrations by Christopher Jahnke.

College sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods doesn't take no for an answer. So when her boyfriend dumps her for someone serious, Elle puts down the credit card, hits the books, and heads for Harvard Law! Along the way, Elle proves that being true to yourself never goes out of style.

In its first year on Broadway Legally Blonde The Musical earned seven Tony nominations and ten Drama Desk Award nominations as well as winning an Outer Critics' Circle Award. The Broadway production of Legally Blonde The Musical concluded its run in October 2008 and is currently packing out houses across America in its hugely successful two year tour with international dates in Japan and Canada soon to be announced. In 2001 Amanda Brown's novel Legally Blonde was made into a film starring Reese Witherspoon, produced by MGM and directed by Robert Luketic.

Sheridan Smith is best known for many award-winning television roles which include eight series of Two Pints of Lager & A Packet of Crisps, two series of Grown Ups which was written specifically for her, two series of Love Soup and four series of Benidorm. She played Emma in the multi award-winning The Royle Family and played a guest lead in Gavin and Stacey. Her other television credits include Blood Strangers, Doctors, Fat Friends and The Comic Strip Presents Sex Actually as well as Lark Rise to Candleford and Jonathan Creek. Sheridan made her West End debut as Tallulah in the National Youth Music Theatre production of Bugsy Malone. Since then she has appeared in Into the Woods at the Donmar Warehouse, Ancient Lights for Hampstead Theatre, The People are Friendly for the Royal Court and Tinderbox at The Bush Theatre. Sheridan made her Shakespearian debut at Regents Park Open Air Theatre in 2006 playing Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew. She also played the lead role of Audrey in the Menier Chocolate Factory's production of Little Shop of Horrors which later transferred to the West End. As well as recording many radio plays, Sheridan played Lucie Miller, the Doctor's Assistant, in the radio version of Dr Who.

As an original member of the chart-topping band Blue, Duncan James achieved 40 number one singles worldwide. In 2007 he was a finalist in ITV's Dancing on Ice and later that year he joined the West End cast of Chicago to play Billy Flynn. He is a regular presenter on radio and TV including his own show on Capital FM, Party in the Park, Soapstar Superstar (ITV2), T4 Movie

Special: Spiderman II, Record of the Year and GMTV's Entertainment Today. He has most recently appeared as himself in Channel 4's Comedy Showcase: Plus One and made a special appearance in The Bill in January playing the role of Dan Colman. He has also recently been announced as the new host of Sky1's Summer School Musical.

Alex Gaumond is currently appearing as Galileo in the No. 1 UK Tour of We Will Rock You. His many other musical theatre credits include Desperately Seeking Susan at the Novello Theatre, the No.1 UK Tour of the Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls, Sunday in the Park with George at Wyndham's Theatre, The Full Monty at the Prince of Wales Theatre and UK tour, Kiss Me Kate for the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Miss Saigon on tour world wide, Something About You at Jermyn Street Theatre. His many recordings include Scrooge and the Sondheim Tonight Gala Concert.

Jerry Mitchell, who directed and choreographed the Broadway production of Legally Blonde The Musical, began his career as associate choreographer to Michael Bennett on Scandal and Jerome Robbins on Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Since that time his many Broadway choreography credits include the revivals of The Rocky Horror Show and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown as well as Gypsy and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Mitchell conceives, directs and choreographs Broadway Bares, a comedy burlesque performed annually for the charity Broadway Cares. As well as numerous nominations, he won the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his work on La Cage aux Folles and worked with Ann Miller on the critically acclaimed Follies. Jerry Mitchell's choreography can currently be seen in London in Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. His film credits include In and Out, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Scent of a Woman.

For more information, visit www.legallyblondethemusical.co.uk

Photos by Uli Weber