UK / WEST END INTERVIEWS

Ashley Gilmour's previous work includes Link Larkin in Hairspray and the ensemble of the original revival cast of Miss Saigon. Now, he's graduated to playing Chris in the UK and Ireland tour of Boublil and Schonberg's legendary musical, which begins at Curve Leicester on 1 July....

Sisters Grimm, a company founded by composer Ella Spira and choreographer Pietra Mello-Pittman, is following up hit show INALA with new dance musical Voices of the Amazon. Fusing ballet, contemporary and capoeira with a Brazilian score and narration by Jeremy Irons, it premieres this July at Sadler'...

Sara Poyzer, whose previous work includes Billy Elliot, has been starring as Donna Sheridan on the Mamma Mia! tour and now takes the role in the West End production at the Novello Theatre....

Jon Brittain's Rotterdam, the 2017 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, has played at Theatre503, Trafalgar Studios and 59E59 Theaters in New York. The bittersweet comedy, which addresses gender, sexuality and identity, returns to the West End this month for a ru...

Relative newcomers Andrew Polec and Christina Bennington were thrilled to land the lead roles in Jim Steinman's musical Bat Out of Hell. Several decades in the making, the show is now playing at the London Coliseum....

Killian Donnelly's stellar musical career includes Kinky Boots, Memphis, The Commitments, Billy Elliot and The Phantom of the Opera. From tonight, he becomes the new West End Jean Valjean in Les Miserables....

Simon Lipkin's numerous credits include Avenue Q, Rock of Ages, The Lorax and Guys and Dolls. He's currently starring as Rat in a new musical version of The Wind in the Willows, which begins its West End run at the London Palladium on 16 June....

Actor Gary Trainor, whose past work includes the West End productions of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, I Can't Sing and The Shawshank Redemption, has been playing the role of alternate Dewey in School of Rock since its London premiere. He's now leading the cast as Dewey....

Actress Janique Charles was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. She moved to the UK to join the touring cast of The Lion King in 2013, and is now playing Nala in the West End production....

Director/choreographer Drew McOnie's work includes In the Heights, Strictly Ballroom, The Wild Party and Jesus Christ Superstar. He's now back at Regent's Park helming On the Town - the classic musical tale of three sailors on shore leave in search of love and adventure - which opens tonight....

Actor Alex Bourne's past musical work ranges from Kiss Me, Kate to Chicago and We Will Rock You. After playing Daddy Warbucks on tour, he's now back in the role for the West End run of Annie, which begins previews at the Piccadilly Theatre on May 23....

Following UK tours of West Side Story and Singin' in the Rain, plus several ensemble and understudying roles in shows like Wicked and Grease, Matthew Croke takes on his first West End lead when he becomes the new Aladdin on 5 June in the hit Disney production at Prince Edward Theatre....

BWW speaks to Jon Brittain and Matt Tedford about bringing their 5 star sellout show Margaret Thatcher Queen Of Gameshows to the Underbelly Festival and their return to the Edinburgh Fringe....

Edward Fox's stellar stage and screen career ranges from Hamlet and The Go-Between to The Day of the Jackal. He's currently performing one-man John Betjeman play Sand in the Sandwiches, which comes to London's Theatre Royal Haymarket on 30 May....

Lee Hall's Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of Alan Warner's novel The Sopranos, about a raucous group of teenage girls in Edinburgh for a choir competition, arrives in the West End following an acclaimed Traverse Theatre premiere and UK tour (read our review). Dawn Sievewright, who plays o...

Carrie Hope Fletcher has starred in numerous musicals, including Les Miserables, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and has also published two books. She's currently playing Wednesday Addams in the UK premiere of Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rice Elice's musical The Addams Family, whi...

Unusually, actress Kirsty Bushell comes to Juliet later in a stellar career; her work includes everything from the title role in Salisbury Playhouse's Hedda Gabler to Disgraced at Bush Theatre and Ivo van Hove's Antigone. English National Opera boss Daniel Kramer's production, co-starring Edward ...

Alongside a lauded acting career - he will reprise his Prospero when the RSC's The Tempest comes to the Barbican this summer - Simon Russell Beale has retained his passion for classical music, through projects like BBC series Sacred Music. This Wednesday, he performs as the narrator for City of Lond...

Rajiv Joseph's plays include Gruesome Playground Injuries, All This Intimacy and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. On screen, he's written for TV series Nurse Jackie and feature film Draft Day, starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner. His 2015 play Guards at the Taj, a...

Actor and musician David Hunter's previous work includes Once, Tommy and One Man, Two Guvnors. He's currently starring as Charlie in the West End production of Kinky Boots....

Michael Blakemore's stellar directing career encompasses everything from landmark productions at the National, where he was associate director, to West End and Broadway hits. He was the first director to win a Tony Award for both Best Director of a Play and a Musical in the same year (for Michael Fr...

Archie Madekwe's screen credits include Fresh Meat and films Legacy and Second Coming. He's now making his professional stage debut in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia, Edward Albee's darkly comic masterpiece about a successful family man who embarks on a shocking love affair. Ian Rickson's revival ...

Actor Tom Lister is best known for playing Carl King on Emmerdale, but he's also amassed a number of stage credits, including Legally Blonde, Calamity Jane and Water Babies. He's currently starring in the West End revival of 42nd Street, alongside Sheena Easton, Clare Halse and Stuart Neal. Th...

This week, London's Bush Theatre reopens following a £4.3 million capital project. The building's revitalisation sees it become more sustainable and entirely accessible, with a new entrance, front-of-house area and garden terrace, improved rehearsal and dressing room facilities, an expanded main au...

Hadley Fraser's work ranges from Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera to Coriolanus at the Donmar and The Winter's Tale at the Garrick. He's collaborated with pianist Will Butterworth on a show that imagines Tony Bennett and Bill Evans did a third album together; the result is a mix of jazz, Broa...