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Swan Lake Cooper & Morrissey Lead Guys Recast

As previously tipped (See The Goss, 27 Jan 2006), Sarah Lancashire will not return to her role as Miss Adelaide in Michael Grandage’s hit production of Guys and Dolls at the West End’s Piccadilly Theatre.

Lancashire, best known as a television actress for her roles in Coronation Street and Rose and Maloney, was due to finish her contract on 4 March 2006, but has been off with a chest infection since 4 January 2006 after only appearing in the show for one month. The role of Miss Adelaide, who ironically keeps coming down with a cold, will continue to be played by Lynsey Britton, who has performed more frequently than Lancashire. From 6 March 2006, Whatsonstage.com Award winner Sally Ann Triplett will take over (See News, 3 Feb 2006).

A spokesman for the production said: “Unfortunately, Sarah Lancashire will not be returning to Guys and Dolls, but she and the producers very much hope she will return to the role later in the year.”

From 6 March, Triplett will be joined in the cast by former Royal Ballet principal Adam Cooper (pictured) replacing Nigel Harman as Sky Masterson, Neil Morrissey (with whom she co-starred in Acorn Antiques) taking over from Nigel Lindsay as Nathan Detroit, and Kelly Price (who was a member of the original cast and has also starred in Mamma Mia!) taking over from Jenna Russell as Sarah Brown.

Outside of the ballet world, Cooper rose to popular prominence as the lead Swan in Matthew Bourne's male Swan Lake for Adventures in Motion Pictures, which won him the Time Out and Evening Standard Awards for Best Dance Performance. On film, he appeared briefly as the adult Billy - again playing the Swan - in 2000’s Billy Elliot. More recently, he’s had success in musical theatre in On Your Toes and Singin' in the Rain, both of which he choreographed and starred in. Last year, he starred in his own dance adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Morrissey is best known for long-running TV sitcom Men Behaving Badly. In addition to Acorn Antiques, his West End credits include David Mamet’s Speed the Plow.

Guys and Dolls opened on 1 June 2005 (previews from 19 May) and is now booking up to 2 September 2006 at the Piccadilly. Based on Damon Runyon’s short stories about New York gamblers and their girls in the 1940s, Frank Loesser’s 1950 Broadway musical was made into a 1953 Hollywood film starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra. Grandage’s revival, the first new production of Guys and Dolls in London for 23 years, is designed by Christopher Oram, with choreography by Rob Ashford, musical supervision by Jae Alexander, lighting by Howard Harrison and sound by Terry Jardine and Chris Full.

Guys and Dolls has won a total of four of this year’s Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards, including Best Actress and Actor in a Musical for the original Miss Adelaide and Sky Masterson – Jane Krakowski and Ewan McGregor– as well as Best Musical Revival and Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for Martyn Ellis’ Nicely Nicely Johnson (See News, 31 Jan 2006).

- by Caroline Ansdell & Terri Paddock

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