David Bedella in Jerry Springer
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Bedella, Shaw & Aspel Take Rocky Horror on Tour

Olivier Award-winning West End and Broadway actor David Bedella, who created the role of Satan in Jerry Springer - The Opera, will star alongside Hear’Say band member and subsequent Summer Holiday star Suzanne Shaw in a new production of the cult rock n’ roll musical The Rocky Horror Show. Chat show host Michael Aspel (Antiques Roadshow) is also starring, as the narrator for selected dates.

Richard O' Brien’s cult musical, famous for its high degree of audience participation and flamboyant fancy dress, will open at Brighton Theatre Royal on 16 March 2006, before touring to Oxford, Plymouth, Woking, Southampton, Cornwall, Wimbledon, York, Newcastle, Bromley, Manchester, Hull and Liverpool, with further dates still to be announced.

O'Brien's childhood love of schlock sci-fi films, the original Rocky Horror premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1973 and later spawned the 1975 cult film (starring Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry and Meatloaf) as well as countless revivals. The score includes "Sweet Transvestite," "Damn It Janet" and "Time Warp".

The show is directed by Christopher Luscombe, and follows squeaky-clean sweethearts Brad and Janet on an adventure they'll never forget, with the scandalous Frank N Furter, rippling Rocky and vivacious Magenta.

Bedella won the 2004 Best Actor Laurence Olivier Award for his role in Jerry Springer - The Opera. His other theatre credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, Smokey Joe’s Café and The Rocky Horror Show, alongside Meatloaf, on Broadway and in US national tours. On television he has appeared in Holby City.

Shaw made her stage debut at the age of ten playing the title role in the musical Annie at the Liverpool Empire. More recently she starred in Summer Holiday on tour and as the narrator in Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat in the West End.

The cast also includes Iain Davey (Riff Raff), Shona White (Magenta), Matthew Cole (Brad), Kay Murphy (Columbia), Sarah Boulton (Phantom), Claire Parrish (Phantom), Nathan Amzi (Eddie/Dr Scott) and Julian Essex-Spurrier (Rocky).

- by Caroline Ansdell

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