UK Roundup - Jekyll and Hyde, Simply Heavenly, Marti Pellow..

Following a string of American transfers to the UK - The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Bat Boy - another major Broadway musical announces dates and creative team. Jekyll and Hyde, the Bricusse/Wildhorn version, will tour Britain from August prior to an anticipated West End outing. Producing, and starring, is Just Good Friends star Paul Nicholas - last seen touring the country with Fiddler on the Roof. The production ran on Broadway for four years, including a stint with Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff. Jekyll and Hyde is a popular stage show, whether as a play, ballet, opera or dance piece - it tells the story of the doctor with a mysterious alterego.

After the surprise announcement last week about the Trafalgar Studios (two new studio spaces converted from the previously known Whitehall Theatre), another production long looking for a West End home has announced dates - this time it's Simply Heavenly, an acclaimed production that ran at the Young Vic Theatre last year, and was nominated for an Evening Standard award. Written by Langston Hughes, and directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo (who created the London role of Rafiki in the Lion King), Simply Heavenly is a musical set in a Harlem bar during the 50s.

Marti Pellow must love that liquor and jazz as he's returning to Chicago - again! The former Wet Wet Wet singer, who has already appeared in several stints on the UK tour, as well as in the West End, will return to the Adelphi Theatre as laywer Billy Flinn from 3rd May to 1 9th June. Following on from this, he will then head to the Ambassador Theatre on Broadway where he will take the male lead for just over a month, from 2nd August. The hit revival is known for its star casting and accompanying publicity. Melanie Griffith is supposedly in talks to reprise her role of Roxie in London.

Musical adaptations don't come much stranger than this one - TV show Bad Girls, a drama about life in a women's prison has been written for the stage, and will tour under the name Bad Girls: The Musical. The programme is popular in the ratings and should therefore do well in the provinces. Casting has not been confirmed. Queer as Folk, which has enjoyed American success too, workshopped last year - so may also find itself on stage.