Casting been announced for the UK and Ireland tour of Motown The Musical
Edward Baruwa will play the leading role of ‘Berry Gordy’, Karis Anderson will play ‘Diana Ross’, Nathan Lewis will play ‘Smokey Robinson’ and Shak Gabbidon-Williams will play ‘Marvin Gaye’.
Edward Baruwa’s previous West End credits include Motown the Musical, Les Misérables, Five Guys Named Moe and the UK Tour of Sister Act.
Karis Anderson is best known as being one-third of pop band ‘Stooshe’ who celebrated a top five single ‘Black Heart’ in 2012 for which they received a nomination for Best British Single at the 2013 Brit Awards.
Nathan Lewis makes his stage stage debut in Motown The Musical. He was a finalist on ITV’s The X Factor in 2016 as part of boyband ‘Five After Midnight’.
Shak Gabbidon-William’s previous credits include ‘Young Simba’ in The Lion King in the West End and most recently starred as ‘Seaweed’ in the UK tour of “Hairspray”.
The large ensemble includes Dayo Adeoye, Scott Armstrong, Simeon Beckett, Natalia Brown, Ethan Davis, Andrew Dillon, Akeem Ellis-Hyman, Christopher Gopaul, Daniel Haswell, Olivia Hibbert, Karis Jack, Michael Jeremiah, Amana Jones, Abz Kareem, Kane Matthews, DeeArna McClean, Matt Mills, Cordell Mosteller, Nicole Nyarambi, Spencer O’Brien, Perry O’Dea, Alex Okoampa, Reece Richards and Emma Robotham-Hunt
The Tony nominated musical charts the rise of the legendary record label features a live orchestra playing 50 Motown tracks including Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, I’ll Be There, Dancing In The Street, Stop! In The Name Of Love, My Girl and I Heard It through the Grapevine and tells the story behind the classic hits.
Motown will open at Birmingham Alexandra Theatre on 11 October 2018 and will then tour across the UK until autumn 2019, visiting Leeds, Edinburgh, Bristol, Dublin, Manchester, Cardiff, Canterbury and Southampton.
The West End production is currently booking until 20 April 2019 at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London.
