Wade McCollum To Star In The World Premiere Of New American Romantic Musical Comedy IT HAPPENED IN KEY WEST

Broadway actor Wade McCollum (The Wizard in Wicked) is announced today as scientist Carl, the first casting in It Happened in Key West, which will get its world premiere at London's Charing Cross Theatre in a strictly limited seven-week season from Thursday 4 July.

Wade was recently nominated for a Best Actor Lucille Lortel Award starring off-Broadway as Ernest Shackleton in Ernest Shackleton Loves Me. Previously, he starred as Tick/Mitzi in the first national tour of the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert and as Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, for which he garnered the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, Backstage's Garland Award for Best Actor and won an Ovation Award for Best Musical. In 2012 Wade was seen Off Broadway as the Velociraptor of Faith in Triassic Parq - the musical. In New York he also starred as Jeffrey in Jeffrey at the Sage Theatre and as Nestor le Fripe in Irma la Douce at Musicals Tonight.

A video is released today of him singing the ballad Undying Love from It Happened in Key West. Watch it below!

Wade McCollum is appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association. The Producers gratefully acknowledge Actors' Equity Association for its assistance of this production.

It Happened in Key West is a major new romantic comedy musical by award-winning Broadway composer Jill Santoriello (A Tale of Two Cities) novelist Jason Huza and Jeremiah James, a member of international recording group Teatro.

It Happened in Key West is inspired by shocking true events that rocked the tiny island of Key West in the 1930s. After decades of searching for his dream girl, eccentric scientist Carl finally finds Elena, only to lose the young beauty to the fatal disease of tuberculosis. But for Carl, the eternal optimist, death is only the beginning. He steals Elena's body from the graveyard and takes her home, embarking on the most ambitious "fixer upper" project in history as he tries to bring his beloved back to life...

Funny, shocking and deeply moving, this new American musical will make you re-examine what you believe about the nature of love, loyalty and commitment (either to a person or an asylum!).

It Happened in Key West, with Book, Music and Lyrics By Jill Santoriello, Book and Additional Lyrics by Jason Huza, Book and Original Concept by Jeremiah James, will be directed and choreographed by Marc Robin, who has staged almost 400 productions across the US, earning multiple awards and nominations.

Rest of the creative team: Production Designer Jamie Roderick (Bandstand, A Time To Kill). Sound Designer Andrew Johnson (The Woman in White, The Play That Goes Wrong, West End and Broadway). Costume Designer Lisa Zinni (Rent, School of Rock, Cats). Musical Director Andrew Hopkins. Orchestrations Robert Felstein (The Fantasticks). UK casting Neil Rutherford. Producers: Jeremiah James, Rashad V. Chambers, Marylou Rothfuss (Dear Evan Hansen, Spring Awakening) and Art Lab LLC. UK General Management: Guy Kitchenn and David Adkin Ltd.

Further casting to be announced.