Sleep Returns to West End as Chitty Child CatcherDate: 11 June 2003
Former Royal Ballet principal Wayne Sleep - who last month was second runner-up in jungle-based reality TV show I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! - will next month return to the West End to join the cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
From 24 July 2003, Sleep will take over for a limited three-month engagement as The Child Catcher, taking over from Derek Griffiths. The role was originated on stage by Rocky Horror creator Richard O'Brien and has also been played by Paul O'Grady (aka 'Lily Savage') and Peter Polycarpou. In addition to his dance experience with the Royal Ballet and his own company DASH, Sleep has previously starred in the West End in the original productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats and Song and Dance. He received an OBE in 1998.
Others now in the cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang include: Caroline Sheen (as Truly Scrumptious), Victor Spinetti (Baron Bomburst), Sandra Dickinson (Baroness Bomburst) and Anton Rodgers (Grandpa Potts). In the lead, playing eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, original star Michael Ball is contracted to remain until 19 July 2003. His replacement has not yet been announced but is expected to be shortly.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is adapted by Jeremy Sams with original music by the Sherman brothers. It's directed by RSC artistic director Adrian Noble, choreographed by Gillian Lynne and designed by Whatsonstage.com Award winner Anthony Ward. The original children's book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, was written by Ian Fleming. The £6.2 million musical, based on the famous 1968 children's film, had its world premiere on 16 April 2002 (previews from 19 March) and is currently taking bookings up to 13 March 2004.
Meanwhile, one of Sleep's Celebrity competitors in the jungle, Toyah Willcox, also returns to the West End this summer. From tomorrow (12 June 2003, ahead of the press night on 25 June), she'll bring her touring production of Wild West musical comedy Calamity Jane to the Shaftesbury Theatre for a limited season ahead of the London premiere of Broadway hit Thoroughly Modern Millie (See News, 3 Apr 2003).
- by Terri Paddock
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