Natalie Casey to join Legally Blonde

TV and stage actress Natalie Casey is to take over as Paulette in Legally Blonde The Musical, replacing Denise Van Outen.

Comedy actress Natalie Casey, who starred in BBC sitcom Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, will join the West End cast of Legally Blonde the Musical at the Savoy Theatre in London from 26 April 2011, playing ditzy beautician Paulette Buonofonté.

She takes over from Denise Van Outen, who joined the show in October and will leave on 23 April, well before her real-life husband Lee Mead joins the cast in mid June to play Emmett Forrest.

Natalie will star alongside a cast that includes Susan McFadden as Elle Woods, Carley Stenson as Margot, Nicola Brazil as Serena, Siobhan Dillon as Vivienne and Peter Davison as Professor Callahan.

Legally Blonde The Musical, which started at the Savoy Theatre in December 2009, recently won an Olivier Award for Best New Musical.

Natalie Casey’s last London stage appearance was in The Invisible Man at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and her other theatre credits include Oklahoma for Chichester, Well at the Apollo Theatre, Fame at the Shaftesbury Theatre and Hobson’s Choice at the Watermill Theatre.

LINKS

SPECIAL OFFER: Book tickets to Legally Blonde The Musical at the Savoy Theatre in London

More News on Legally Blonde The Musical

Natalie Casey Joins The Cast Of The Olivier Award Winning Legally Blonde The Musical

From 26 April 2011 Natalie Casey will join the west end cast of the Olivier award-wining Legally Blonde The Musical to play ditzy beautician Paulette Buonofonté. She joins Susan McFadden as Elle Woods, Carley Stenson as Margot, Nicola Brazil as Serena, Siobhan Dillon as Vivienne and Peter Davison as Professor Callahan. Natalie Casey takes over the role from Denise Van Outen, whose last performance will be Saturday 23 April. From mid-June Lee Mead will join the west end cast to play Emmett Forrest.

Earlier this month Legally Blonde The Musical, which opened at the Savoy Theatre in December 2009 and is currently booking until 31 March 2012, won three 2011 Laurence Olivier Awards including Best New Musical.

College sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods doesn’t take no for an answer. So when her boyfriend Warner 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.

Natalie Casey is best known on television for playing Donna in the BBC’s Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. On stage she has been seen in The Invisible Man at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Oklahoma for Chichester Festival Theatre, Well at the Apollo Theatre, Fame at the Shaftesbury Theatre and Hobson’s Choice at the Watermill Theatre. Her other television credits include Dave Shakespeare, Missing, Hollyoaks, Head Jam, Girls Night In and Chopratown. On film she played Shirley Temple in Chicago Joe and the Showgirl.

The current full cast is Stephane Anelli (Padamadan, Nikos), Emma Bateman (Stenographer), Nicola Brazil (Serena), Thomas Camilleri (Carlos), Peter Davison (Professor Callahan) Siobhan Dillon (Vivienne Kensington), Chris Ellis-Stanton (Grandmaster Chad, Dewey, Kyle), Kimmy Edwards (Judge, Saleswoman), Alex Gaumond (Emmett), Ibinabo Jack (Pilar), Suzie McAdam (Enid), Susan McFadden (Elle Woods), Sorelle Marsh (Courtney, Mom, Whitney), Sean Mulligan (Pforzheimer), Dawn Sievewright (Kate, Chutney), Carley Stenson (Margot), Lincoln Stone (Dad, Winthrop, Reporter), Simon Thomas (Warner), Robbie Towns (Aaron), Dominic Tribuzio (Kiki), Denise Van Outen (Paulette), Tamara Wall (Brooke), Stephen Webb (Lowell) and Tara Young (District Attorney) as well as Jonathan Mawson, Jane McMurtrie, Lucy Miller, Ruthie Stephenson and Gregor Stewart as swings.

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.

Legally Blonde The Musical is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Robert G. Bartner, Ambassador Theatre Group, Bud Martin, Adam Zotovich, Jamie Hendry Productions, Matthew Byam Shaw and Act Productions.

Release issued by: Premier PR

LINKS

SPECIAL OFFER: Book tickets to Legally Blonde The Musical at the Savoy Theatre in London

Lee Mead to join Legally Blonde

West End star Lee Mead is to join the hit musical Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre in London.

Mead will take over from Alex Gaumond in the role of Emmett Forrest from 20 June 2011, joining a cast that includes Susan McFadden as Elle Woods, Siobhan Dillon as Vivienne and Peter Davison as Professor Callahan. Lee Mead’s wife Denise Van Outen is currently playing Paulette in the show, although may have left the production before Lee starts in the role.

Alex Gaumond, who was up for a best supporting Olivier Award this year, has been in the show since it started at the Savoy in 2009 and will leave on 18 June.

Legally Blonde recently scooped three 2011 Olivier Awards including Best New Musical, Best Actress in a Musical for Sheridan Smith and Best Performance is a Supporting Role in a Musical for Jill Halfpenny.

Lee was last seen in the West End as Fiyero in Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. He rose to fame after winning the BBC talent show Any Dream Will Do leading to a starring role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Adelphi Theatre. Other roles include The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre and UK tours of Miss Saigon and Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime.

Legally Blonde is directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winning Jerry Mitchell, who is currently working on big new Broadway show Catch Me If You Can.

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £26 on tickets to Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre in London

 

LEGALLY BLONDE CAST LIST

Stephane Anelli (Padamadan, Nikos), Emma Bateman (Stenographer), Nicola Brazil (Serena), Thomas Camilleri (Carlos), Peter Davison (Professor Callahan) Siobhan Dillon (Vivienne Kensington), Chris Ellis-Stanton (Grandmaster Chad, Dewey, Kyle), Kimmy Edwards (Judge, Saleswoman), Alex Gaumond (Emmett), Ibinabo Jack (Pilar), Suzie McAdam (Enid), Susan McFadden (Elle Woods), Sorelle Marsh (Courtney, Mom, Whitney), Aoife Mulholland (Brooke), Sean Mulligan (Pforzheimer), Dawn Sievewright (Kate, Chutney), Carley Stenson (Margot), Lincoln Stone (Dad, Winthrop, Reporter), Simon Thomas (Warner), Robbie Towns (Aaron), Dominic Tribuzio (Kiki), Denise Van Outen (Paulette), Tamara Wall (District Attorney) and Stephen Webb (Lowell), as well as Jonathan Mawson, Jane McMurtrie, Lucy Miller, Ruthie Stephenson and Gregor Stewart as swings.

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £26 on tickets to Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre in London

Lee Mead To Join Legally Blonde The Musical As The Show Celebrates Recent Wins At The 2011 Laurence Olivier Awards

From mid-June Lee Mead will join the west end cast of the Olivier award-wining Legally Blonde The Musical to play Emmett Forrest. He joins Susan McFadden as Elle Woods, Carley Stenson as Margot, Nicola Brazil as Serena, Siobhan Dillon as Vivienne and Peter Davison as Professor Callahan. Alex Gaumond, who has played the role of Emmett since the UK premiere of the show, has now extended his run until mid-June when Mead will take over.

Legally Blonde The Musical opened at the Savoy Theatre in December 2009 and has been playing to packed audiences ever since. In addition to winning the 2011 Laurence Olivier Awards for Best New Musical, Best Actress in a Musical (Sheridan Smith) and Best Performance is a Supporting Role in a Musical (Jill Halfpenny), Legally Blonde The Musical is now booking until 31 March 2011.

College sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods doesn’t take no for an answer. So when her boyfriend Warner 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.

The current full cast is Stephane Anelli (Padamadan, Nikos), Emma Bateman (Stenographer), Nicola Brazil (Serena), Thomas Camilleri (Carlos), Peter Davison (Professor Callahan) Siobhan Dillon (Vivienne Kensington), Chris Ellis-Stanton (Grandmaster Chad, Dewey, Kyle), Kimmy Edwards (Judge, Saleswoman), Alex Gaumond (Emmett), Ibinabo Jack (Pilar), Suzie McAdam (Enid), Susan McFadden (Elle Woods), Sorelle Marsh (Courtney, Mom, Whitney), Aoife Mulholland (Brooke), Sean Mulligan (Pforzheimer), Dawn Sievewright (Kate, Chutney), Carley Stenson (Margot), Lincoln Stone (Dad, Winthrop, Reporter), Simon Thomas (Warner), Robbie Towns (Aaron), Dominic Tribuzio (Kiki), Denise Van Outen (Paulette), Tamara Wall (District Attorney) and Stephen Webb (Lowell), as well as Jonathan Mawson, Jane McMurtrie, Lucy Miller, Ruthie Stephenson and Gregor Stewart as swings.

Lee Mead played the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Adelphi Theatre from 2007 to early 2009, after winning BBC One’s Any Dream Will Do. In 2007 he released his debut solo album, Lee Mead, followed in 2009 by Nothing Else Matters. Most recently he starred as Fiyero in the West End production of Wicked. His previous theatre credits include Lord Arthur Savile in Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime on tour in the UK; The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre; Miss Saigon on tour in the UK and Tommy.

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.

Legally Blonde The Musical is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Robert G. Bartner, Ambassador Theatre Group, Bud Martin, Adam Zotovich, Jamie Hendry Productions, Matthew Byam Shaw and Act Productions.

Release issued by: Premier PR

LINKS

Book tickets to Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre in London

In the West End This Week: Wicked, Oliviers

What’s coming up in the West End this week, including The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, Shoes, the Olivier Awards and The Children’s Hour.

Monday 7 February 2011

A new cast joins Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Lee Mead said farewell to the company on Saturday night, and a number of new cast members join the show tonight including Mark Evans as Fiyero, Zoë Rainey as Nessarose and Ben Stott as Boq, alongside current stars Rachel Tucker as Elphaba and Louise Dearman as Glinda.

The Olivier Award nominations will be announced today at 11am at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. This year’s awards – which will be presented on 13 March at Drury Lane – promise to have upped the star and glamour quotient and will be televised by the BBC.

The Wizard of Oz starts previews tonight. This mega new production at the London Palladium, rebooted by Jeremy Sams and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Bill Kenwright, sees Over The Rainbow star Danielle Hope join Michael Crawford and Hannah Waddingham.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

A big theatre day! Shoes – the hugely successful Sadler’s Wells show – opens tonight at the Peacock Theatre to give the show a much deserved West End airing.

Million Dollar Quartet, the musical that recreates the historic day when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis all made music together, starts previews at the Noel Coward Theatre on Tuesday.

Also much deserving is Clybourne Park, which gets its official opening at the Wyndhams Theatre starring Sophie Thompson and Stephen Campbell Moore. Bruce Norris’ satirical comedy, directed by Dominic Cooke for the Royal Court, has been sweeping the boards at various awards including the recent South Bank Sky Arts Awards and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.

Also on Tuesday, Showstopper the Improvised Musical begins at the Ambassadors Theatre in London with the the all-singing, all-dancing cast creating a brand new musical from scratch every night in this award-winning production. Plus, the Southwark Playhouse opens its new production of Sondheim’s Company directed by Joe Fredericks.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

The Children’s Hour gets its official opening night at the Comedy Theatre tonight, starring Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Keira Knightley and Ellen Burstyn in Lillian Hellman’s controversial play.

Friday 11 February 2011

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee starts previews as the Donmar Warehouse.

And coming up

Next week sees The Woman in Black celebrate its 23rd birthday, having opened in the West End on 15 February 1989. 2011 promises to be a big year for the show, with a brand new movie version of Susan Hill’s classic horror story opening in cinemas starring Daniel Radcliffe.

Anniversaries: Phoenix, Wicked, Stomp

A number of West End anniversaries are celebrated in London this week, including the 80th birthday of the Phoenix Theatre.

Phoenix Theatre

Today, 24 September 2010, marks the 80th anniversary of London’s Phoenix Theatre. Commissioned by Sidney Bernstein, who started Granada television, the Charing Cross Road theatre opened in 1930 with Noel Coward’s classic play Private Lives, staring Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier and Adrianne Allen.

Other notable successes for the theatre included Noel Coward again, this time with his Tonight at 8.30 one-act plays in 1936, Canterbury Tales in 1968, Night and Day in 1978 and a long list of famous players including John Gielgud, Vivien Leigh, Paul Scofield and Vanessa Redgrave. The Phoenix Theatre currently hosts Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers, which opened at the venue in November 1991.

The Phoenix theatre was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Bertie Crew and Cecil Masey with Theodore Komisarjevsky.

A number of West End venues are celebrating their 80th birthdays this year,  following a boom in theatre building in the Art Deco 1930′s, including the Prince Edward, Cambridge, Trafalgar Studios, Apollo Victoria and Adelphi theatres.

Stomp and Wicked

Long-running West End shows Stomp at the Ambassadors Theatre and Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre also celebrate birthdays this month. Stomp celebrates its 8th birthday tomorrow, having opened at the Vaudeville Theatre on 25 September 2002. The high-energy show, which combines theatre, dance, comedy and percussion, moved to its current home at the Ambassadors in 2007.

On Monday 27 September big-budget Broadway musical Wicked celebrates its 4th birthday at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London. Currently starring Lee Mead, Rachel Tucker and Louise Dearman, Wicked remains one of the most successful shows on both sides of the Atlantic. The Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman musical is based on the best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a companion novel to L. Frank Baum’s classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

PHOENIX THEATRE QUICK FACTS

Hard to now imagine but the original site had been a factory, before becoming a Music Hall called the Alcazar.

In 1969 the owners of the Phoenix, Gerald and Veronica Flint-Shipman, organised a midnight matinee for Noel Coward’s 70th birthday, attended by Princess Margaret. A few days before, he opened the Noel Coward bar in the theatre’s foyer.

In 1976 the Phoenix hosted a Hollywood season of four plays featuring particularly starry names: Rock Hudson and Juliet Prowse in I Do I Do, Glynis Johns and Louis Jordan in 13, Rue De L’Amour, Lee Remick in Bus Stop and Douglas Fairbanks Jr in The Pleasure of His Company.

On reviewing the theatre when it first opened, The Stage newspaper said that, “Each seat has sufficient body and leg room and is provided with its own hat rack”.

LINKS

News: Historic year for West End venues

ArthurLloyd.co.uk: Phoenix history

Blood Brothers – book tickets

Stomp – book tickets

Wicked – book tickets

DENISE VAN OUTEN in Legally Blonde

Denise Van Outen joins the cast of Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre

It’s good to see Denise coming back to the stage. After spending the last few years coaxing and mentoring performers-in-waiting on a number of TV talent shows, including the BBC’s I’d Do Anything and Any Dream Will Do, NBC’s Grease Is The Word and Sky’s Hairspray: The School Musical and Grease: Summer School Musical, she will join the West End cast of Legally Blonde from 25 October 2010, taking over from Jill Halfpenny as Paulette.

It will also mean that she’ll be treading the West End boards alongside her husband, Lee Mead, who is currently wowing them in Wicked at the Apollo Victoria.

Denise is no stage novice, having appeared in numerous plays and musicals including Tell Me On A Sunday, Chicago, Rent, Les Miserables, Stop The World I Want to Get Off, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Play What I Wrote.

On TV her acting credits include Hotel Babylon, Empress’ New Clothes, Where the Heart Is and Murder in Mind, and on film she has played roles in One Careful Owner, Are You Ready for Love, Manilla Envelopes and Love, Honour and Obey.

Welcome back Denise.

Special offer: Save on tickets to Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre in London

Apollo Victoria celebrates 80 years

A charity gala is being held at the Apollo Victoria this October to celebrate the West End theatre’s 80th birthday.

Opened on 15 October 1930, the Art Deco theatre was designed by E. Wamsley Lewis with W.E. Trent and originally built as a super cinema.

To celebrate its 80th birthday, a special gala concert will be held on 10 October 2010 featuring the cast of the venue’s current show, Wicked, alongside a number of musicals stars from shows including Saturday Night Fever, Bombay Dreams, Movin’ Out and Jersey Boys. Also a reunion of some of the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express, which played at the theatre from 1984 for 18 years, is also promised. Celebrities to appear include Wicked’s Lee Mead and Oliver Thompsett, Sharon D Clarke and Patina Miller from Sister Act.

All proceeds from the evening will go to Cancer Research UK, plus a raffle will be held in aid of the Entertainment Artiste’s Benevolent Fund.

The gala is being put together by Wicked’s UK Associate Director Petra Siniawski and Dance Supervisor Adam Murray. Other events at the theatre on 10 October include talks, tours and a curated display of the theatre’s history.

Tickets are on sale from tomorrow, Friday 13 August 2010, on 0844 847 2288.

Wicked tickets at the Apollo Victoria Theatre

Experience the unforgettable, award-winning musical WICKED and discover that you’ve not been told the whole story about the land of Oz…

Based on the acclaimed novel by Gregory Maguire that re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, WICKED tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Sexy, sassy and sensational – it is magnificent to see a musical that manages to be both populist and intelligent at the same time.” The Daily Telegraph.

Book tickets to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London

Legally Blonde tickets at the Savoy Theatre

Winner of Best New Musical at the 2011 Olivier Awards, Legally Blonde is the Broadway sensation based on the smash-hit movie, starring Carly Stenson, Natalie Casey, Stephen Ashfield and Ben Freeman and Peter Davison.

College sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods doesn’t take no for an answer. So when her boyfriend, Warner, dumps her for someone serious, Elle puts down the credit card, hits the books, and heads for Harvard Law School!

Legally Blonde the Musical will take you from the social whirl of California Campus life to Harvard’s Halls of Justice with the West End’s brightest new heroine (and of course, her Chihuahua, Bruiser).

The verdict? This much fun shouldn’t be legal!

Book tickets to see Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre in London

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