Theatre News

Half a Sixpence to transfer to the West End

The Chichester Festival Theatre production will open in October

The Chichester Festival Theatre production of Half a Sixpence will open in the West End in October this year.

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The production, which originally began in Chichester in July, will open at the Noel Coward Theatre on 17 November, with previews from 29 October, and is initially booking until February 2017.

The show transfers with the entire cast from Chichester, with Charlie Stemp as Arthur Kipps and Devon-Elise Johnson as Ann Pornick. Ian Bartholomew plays Chitterlow and Emma Williams is Helen Walsingham.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh said: "I’m thrilled that the show is going to open in London at the Noël Coward Theatre, original home of another great iconic British musical Oliver! which premiered in 1960, three years before Sixpence opened up the street at the Cambridge Theatre. The spacious Coward stage will perfectly show off Paul Brown’s brilliant design."

Half a Sixpence tells the story of Arthur Kipps, an orphan and a draper's assistant who unexpectedly inherits a fortune.

This is a new stage version of the musical adaptation of HG Wells's semi-autobiographical novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul. This adaptation brings together Julian Fellowes with writers George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, the team behind Mary Poppins. Rachel Kavanaugh directs.

Songs included in the show are "Flash Bang Wallop" and "Half a Sixpence".

Tickets go on sale to the public from 10am on 1 September. A limited number of £20 lottery seats will be released each day from 29 October at 10am in person at the box office.

Watch our interview with Stiles and Drewe on Half a Sixpence

Read our review of Half a Sixpence here

Half a Sixpence runs at the Noel Coward Theatre from 17 November to 11 February, with previews from 29 October.